Florida Tech Faculty Member Earns NSF Grant for New Center

– Dr. Ken Ports, Florida Tech visiting professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and associate dean of the College of Engineering, has been
awarded a $61,514 grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization.

The center will be a multidisciplinary, multi-university consortium, which will establish a “distributed” innovation incubator across Florida. This type of
incubator pools its knowledge and networking base across the state. For example, a local Melbourne entrepreneur may be paired with an “angel” investing
group in Tampa with similar interests while pursuing a small business innovative research grant with Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.

“This is expected to better facilitate technology innovation, commercialization and transfer,” said Ports.

Florida Tech’s partners in this venture are the University of Central Florida, the University of South Florida and Florida A&M University. The program
is funded for two years.

Florida Tech offers bachelor’s master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering.