Stakeholders from academia, business, nonprofits and government can work together to accelerate the translation of science and engineering research into real-world implementations and realize the innovations so necessary for societal progress and well-being. With support from an NSF grant, Georgia Tech robotics professor Ayanna Howard developed an input device that would enable children with disabilities to operate tablet computers. She wanted to commercialize the technology to get it into the hands of the children and has started a company, Zyrobotics, to commercialize the device. With the help of NSF's Innovation Corps program, a public-private partnership, she found that the device has a much larger market than she originally imagined, extending to adults with disabilities and potentially to persons with Alzheimer's.

Credit: Maxwell Guberman, Georgia Institute of Technology