INNOVATION ALLIANCE
A Partnership Between The University of Akron
and Lorain County Community College
 

Current Projects

Major initiatives of the Innovation Alliance include pursuing shared mechanisms to drive down costs; assisting existing industries to grow stronger and new industries to take root; and working with K-12 education and industry partners to create the next generation of highly trained scientists, mathematicians, engineers and technicians. Planned projects include:

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1. Educational Efficiency: Increasing Efficiency – Enhancing Operational Excellence

  • Business Processes - Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
    UA and LCCC have entered an agreement for UA to act as a service provider for LCCC enterprise business applications utilizing PeopleSoft Campus Solutions software. Creating this relationship will enable both institutions to co-develop a collaborative back-office operation that could eventually grow into a shared service model.
  • Driving Down Costs
    UA and LCCC will apply basic business systems within their own institutions. Both institutions have trained Six Sigma black belts and LCCC will take the lead in applying Six Sigma principles across LCCC and UA operations.

2. Job Growth: Discovery to Application

  • Accelerating Growth
    By combining the resources of LCCC’s Glide and UA’s Office of Technology Transfer, the Alliance will engage and accelerate the growth of small- to medium-sized technology-dependent companies and entrepreneurs by providing wrap-around business support services, incubation, access to technology transfer, intellectual property resources, and creation of educational pathways aligned with industry engagement.
  • The Innovation Fund
    This pre-seed capital fund established through the LCCC Foundation provides entrepreneurs throughout the Corridor with awards that can range from $10,000 to $100,000. LCCC and UA students will engage in work-based learning opportunities for an experience of working directly with the entrepreneur as a business develops or technology is commercialized and introduced to market.

3. Talent Growth: Growing Talent - Growing Jobs

  • Efficient Degrees – Lower Cost and Less Time
    UA and LCCC will create and deliver joint applied baccalaureate degrees in the high-growth areas of advanced manufacturing, health care and entrepreneurship in order to expand higher education’s impact on the adult workforce. 
  • STEM Education and Career Pathways
    UA and LCCC will jointly develop STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) strategies that link UA and LCCC with PK-12 districts throughout the Innovation Corridor to create a PK-16 STEM initiative that will be designed to inspire, attract, and begin training the next generation of innovators.