EnterpriseWorks sponsors a portion of space for student entrepreneurs with free space each semester. This space is assigned based on competitive proposals that are submitted by students. The student companies receive counsel from an Advisory Group of entrepreneurs that meets with them regularly. Space allocations are made twice per year.
Application for Student Startup Initiative
Student Startup Initiative Advisory Board
The SSI Advisory Board consists of individuals who help the Student Start Up Initiative with mentoring and other business activities based on their knowledge and expertise.
Govind Kabra, Chief Technology Officer, Cazoodle, Inc.
Govind received a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Govind’s thesis work focuses on “Large Scale Information Integration on the Web: Finding, Understanding and Querying Web Databases”, in the context of the MetaQuerier Project, which spun off into Cazoodle. He has published several papers in premier conferences such as SIGMOD and ICDE in the areas of information integration, Web search, and databases.
Brian Jurcyzk, President & CEO, Starfire Industries
Dr. Jurczyk is president of Starfire Industries, a research and development firm specializing in plasma-based innovations for defense, nuclear, industrial and semiconductor applications. Starfire’s vision is to apply small business flexibility to challenging engineering problems with a definitive market need, e.g. fusion neutron generation, space propulsion and semiconductor processing. Since 2004, Starfire has had three Phase II SBIR awards from the Department of Defense and has taken its advanced neutron generator technology to the commercialization stage with Fortune500 investment.
Brian received a dual PhD and MBA degree from the University of Illinois in 2001, specializing in plasma engineering with a concentration in technology commercialization. Since co-founding Starfire Industries, the company has grown to 10 full-time engineers plus part-time interns. Brian serves as an adjunct research professor with the Department of Nuclear, Radiological and Plasma Engineering at the University of Illinois, providing mentorship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Engineering. Brian serves on the advisory board of Ionized Magnetron Flux, an SBIR company specializing in plasma semiconductor processing, and the NPRE Industry Advisory Board. Dr. Jurczyk has had affiliation with IEEE, AIAA, APS, AVS, SPIE, and ANS.
Gerald Wilson, Technology Platform Manager, Autonomic Materials
Dr. Gerald Wilson is currently the Technology Platform Manager for Autonomic Materials (AMI). He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. During his graduate work, Dr. Wilson developed new chemistries for application in self-healing materials for composite, coatings and biomedical applications. Dr. Wilson joined AMI shortly after finishing his graduate work in 2007.
