Trevor Noah

Event organizers also announced the Fighting Irish Esports Invitational, the University of Notre Dame’s first official esports tournament in partnership with GamerzArena.

Noah will perform April 19 (Sunday) at Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center; Ohanian will deliver a keynote address on April 23 (Thursday) at the Renaissance District in downtown South Bend; and the esports tournament will be held on campus April 23-24 (Thursday-Friday). Idea Week will take place April 19-25 (Sunday-Saturday).��

The Grammy-nominated band OneRepublic was previously announced as the week’s major concert act. The band will perform April 25 (Saturday) at the Purcell Pavilion.

Idea Week is hosted by Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart region and more than 30 community organizations and businesses. It will be held at the University and other locations throughout South Bend and Elkhart and will be open to the public.

More than 21,000 people attended at least one part of Idea Week 2019, and nearly 18,000 people attended in 2018, its inaugural year.

The annual event seeks to highlight the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation, two elements event organizers say are foundational for robust economic growth.

“There has been a well-documented decline in entrepreneurship in the United States over the past few decades,” said , vice president and the Cathy and John Martin Associate Provost for Innovation at Notre Dame. “This should be of great concern to all of us as GDP, productivity and wage growth are all highly reliant on the development and growth of entrepreneurs. This message, which often doesn’t get the attention it should, is largely why Idea Week exists. We seek to promote entrepreneurship and innovation not because they’re popular buzzwords, but because they’re as necessary for our society and its future as a functioning government and quality education.

Alexis Ohanian

“Fun events like Trevor Noah, OneRepublic and the esports tournament are partly designed to act as magnets for students and the general public so they can hear this important message, while interesting and educational keynotes from entrepreneurs like Alexis Ohanian of Reddit are designed to amplify it.”

In addition to Noah, Ohanian, OneRepublic and the esports tournament, Idea Week will feature additional keynote speakers; the McCloskey New Venture Competition, which will offer prizes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; the 10th annual 1st Source Bank Commercialization Award Dinner; additional musical performances; meetups; workshops; technology experiences; and various social activities, all of which will be announced in greater detail over the next five months.

Noah is the host of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Comedy Central, which recently received two 2019 primetime Emmy nominations. He has written, produced and starred in eight comedy specials, including, most recently, “Son of Patricia” on Netflix. Noah’s success also includes sold-out comedy shows over five continents. He is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” and its young readers adaptation, “It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.” In April 2018, he launched The Trevor Noah Foundation, a youth development initiative that enhances youth preparedness for higher education or entry into the workforce. Noah is currently crossing North America on his first ever arena outing with the “Loud & Clear Tour 2019.”��

Tickets to see Noah range from $25 for college students to $45-$95 for the general public and go on sale at 10 a.m. Dec. 12 (Thursday) at .

Fighting Irish Invitational

Ohanian is the co-founder of Reddit, which recently surpassed Facebook in terms of number of visitors and is now the third most popular internet destination for users in the United States. Alongside Garry Tan, he also co-founded Initialized Capital, a seed-stage venture fund with more than $500 million under management. He’s also written a national bestselling book, “Without Their Permission,” and is an advocate for the open internet, STEM education and paid family leave.��

The Fighting Irish Esports Invitational tournament will offer prizes worth tens of thousands of dollars. The main prizes will be for the college bracket where student teams from many different colleges will compete against each other. There will also be a bracket just for Notre Dame students as well as one for local middle and high school teams. The featured games will be announced at a later date. The tournament is being organized by the Idea Center with support from Notre Dame Athletics and will take place in an all-in-one esports arena that folds out from a semi-truck and includes professional gaming computers, a stage, lights, TV screens, a streaming studio and a shoutcasting desk.

For more information on Idea Week, visit .

Contact: Erin Blasko, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

The first, the , will be held at a ceremony at 7 p.m. April 8 (Monday) at the Morris Performing Arts Center in downtown South Bend, Indiana. The second, the , will be held at an event at 5 p.m. April 9 (Tuesday)��at the Century Center in downtown South Bend.

Idea Week is co-hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership and more than 30 community organizations and businesses.��

The Innovation Awards team is accepting submissions for Entrepreneur of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year and��Female Entrepreneur of the Year. Additional awards, which do not require submissions, are Inventor of the Year,��South Bend-Elkhart’s Top 10 Inventors by Number of Patents Issued and South Bend-Elkhart’s Top 10 Companies by Number of Patents Issued.��

The Industry 4.0 Consortium is accepting submissions for Best Advanced Manufacturing Implementation, Best Additive Manufacturing Implementation, Best Automation Implementation, Best Robotics Implementation, Best Workforce Development Implementation and Best Artificial Intelligence Implementation.

Both awards series are open to residents of St. Joseph, Elkhart��and Marshall counties in Indiana and Berrien and Cass counties in Michigan.

To nominate an individual or company for an IdeaWeek Innovation or Industry 4.0 award, visit .

“Idea Week’s central purpose is to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of entrepreneurs and innovators,” said Regina Emberton, president and CEO of the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership and member of the Idea Week planning committee. “They are the foundation of the modern economy and will be absolutely central to diversifying the economy and driving future economic growth.” ��

“Idea Week wants to honor those entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators who are creating the future of South Bend-Elkhart.”

For the Innovation Awards, area residents who have founded at least one company operating in the region can qualify for the entrepreneur awards. Entrepreneurs must be at least 28 years old with a business that has operated for at least three years but no more than 12. Young entrepreneurs must be less than 28 years old with a business operating for at least three years but no more than eight.��

Businesses must sell their products or services across additional regions, states and/or countries. They will be evaluated on community impact, including job creation and higher-than average wages and disruptive business models with new or pioneering products.��

The winners of the inventor and patent awards will be selected based on publicly available information on file at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.��

“We’re honoring individuals and companies with a high number of patents because research shows an approved patent increases a startup’s employment growth by an average of 36 percent over five years,” said Gavin Ferlic, entrepreneur-in-residence with Elevate Ventures and member of the Idea Week planning committee. “Those firms typically have higher-skill jobs with higher wages, make innovation central to their business, attract funding for expansion and have a much higher chance of a successful exit.”��

A major keynote speaker, to be announced, will address the Innovation Awards ceremony.

For the Industry 4.0 Awards, manufacturers who have taken recent steps to implement various advanced manufacturing processes; additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing; automation; robotics; artificial intelligence; and workforce development in advanced manufacturing are encouraged to nominate themselves or other companies.

“Many of our manufacturers are incredibly innovative but they are also very humble about it. You cannot get a sense of the innovation just by driving past their steel buildings,” said David Temeles Jr., an attorney with SouthBank Legal, president of Third Coast Federal and member of the Idea Week planning committee. “The South Bend-Elkhart region has the potential to become a leader in advanced manufacturing in North America, but it will require that our manufacturers collaborate with their counterparts in industry and the research community to accelerate innovation at a pace that no company can achieve on its own. The purpose of the Industry 4.0 awards is to jumpstart collaboration in the regional manufacturing community by highlighting and rewarding the innovation occurring in our own backyard.”

Two other established award events will take place during Idea Week. The McCloskey New Venture Competition, now in its 19th year, will take place on April 12 (Friday). It provides more than $400,000 in cash and in-kind prizes to students, faculty, staff and alumni from the University of Notre Dame as well as to entrepreneurs and startups in Elkhart, Marshall and St. Joseph counties in Indiana. The key differentiating factor between it and the Idea Week Innovation Awards is that the McCloskey competition focuses on early-stage ventures less than three years old while the Idea Week Innovation Awards focus on startups that are at least three years old and are further down the commercialization pathway. The $20,000 1st Source Bank Faculty Commercialization Award, now in its ninth year, will take place on April 9. It is presented to a faculty member from Notre Dame or the Indiana University 91��Ƶ of Medicine-South Bend who has successfully transitioned their technology from the lab to the marketplace.��

The applications for the Idea Week Innovation and Industry 4.0 awards may be found at .

Idea Week is an innovation festival hosting business, technology��and entertainment events to provide members of our community with the practical knowledge, creative inspiration and social foundation they need to innovate within their own endeavors.��

As one of the largest business events in Northern Indiana, more than 7,500 people attended Idea Week’s 43 Learn and Compete informative sessions in 2018 (its first year) while another 11,500 attended its 10 Play and Meet events, for a combined total of more than 18,000 people.��

It will take place April 8-13 in venues throughout South Bend, Elkhart and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Learn more at .��

Originally published by Nick Swisher at on March 4.

Wong joins fellow Idea Week headliners including Jim Gaffigan, who will perform at the Morris on March 6 for a pre-Idea Week show; Michael Carbonaro, at the Morris on April 9; Scotty McCreery, at Elkhart’s Lerner Theatre on April 10; and Tim McGraw, at Purcell Pavilion on April 13. Idea Week is April 8-13.

Idea Week includes more than 60 sessions in the categories of Learn, Play, Meet and Compete. The concerts and shows highlight the fun side of the innovation festival, said event director Nick Swisher, director of marketing and communications at the at Innovation Park at Notre Dame.

“Part of innovation is breaking down the walls that divide life into narrow categories so we have more opportunities for creative and serendipitous connections,” Swisher said. “IDEA Week aims to unite all of these dimensions and model the energy that they can generate together.”

Wong, who has participated in Kate Spade’s “Miss Adventure” films, wrote and stars in the feature film “Always Be My Maybe” that will debut on Netflix this year. Her current “Milk and Money” tour is selling out shows across the United States.

Tickets for Wong’s performance range from $45 to $95 and go on sale at noon March 8 (Friday) at the Morris Box Office, by phone at 800-537-6415 and online at . Idea Week recommends this show for mature audiences.��

This is a strict no-cell-phones-allowed show. Patrons are encouraged to leave their phones in their cars or at home as all those entering the venue will be subject to a pat down and wanding. Anyone who brings a cell phone with them will be required to place it in a locked pouch. All those caught with a cell phone inside the venue will be immediately ejected.

Contact: Erin Blasko, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

McCreery joins fellow Idea Week headliners Jim Gaffigan at the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend on March 6, Michael Carbonaro at the Morris on April 9 and Tim McGraw at Purcell Pavilion on April 13. Idea Week is April 8-13.

“Idea Week is an innovation festival,” said event director Nick Swisher. “While world-renowned speakers like Bill Nye and Kevin Kelly represent the learning side of Idea Week, acts like Scotty McCreery and Tim McGraw represent the fun and creative side.”

Idea Week is hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership and various community organizations and businesses. The event will include more than 50 sessions in four categories: Learn, Play, Meet and Compete.

The award-winning McCreery — ��Academy of Country Music, Broadcast Music Inc., CMT, Nashville Songwriters Association International — first gained fame by winning “American Idol” in 2011. He recently released “Seasons Change,” his fourth consecutive album to debut at No. 1 on a Billboard albums chart. He published his first book, “Go Big or Go Home: The Journey Toward the Dream,” in 2016. He is also known for such hits as “See You Tonight,” “Feelin’ It,” “The Trouble with Girls,” “I Love You This Big” and “Water Tower Town.”

Tickets to see McCreery range from $40 to $70 and go on sale at noon Feb. 28 (Thursday) at the Lerner box office, by phone at 800-294-8223 and online at .

Contact: Erin Blasko, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

Carbonaro’s performance marks the second announced act to perform during Idea Week, which will take place April 8-13 (Monday through Saturday). Grammy Award-winning artist Tim McGraw will play to a sold-out audience at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center on April 13 (Saturday), while comedian Jim Gaffigan will perform to a sold-out crowd at a pre-Idea Week event on March 6 (Wednesday) at the Morris.

“Idea Week is an innovation festival,” said event director Nick Swisher. “While world-renowned speakers like Bill Nye and Kevin Kelly will represent the learning side of Idea Week, acts like Carbonaro and Tim McGraw will represent the fun and celebration side.”

Idea Week is hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership and various community organizations and businesses. The April event will include more than 50 sessions broken up into four categories: Learn, Play, Meet and Compete.

Carbonaro has performed more than 500 feats of magic on his TV series, “The Carbonaro Effect,” on truTV, currently in its fourth season.��A trickster at heart, Carbonaro performs inventive tricks on unsuspecting members of the public who are unaware that he is a magician. Jaws drop when he causes a car to disappear from under a security guard’s nose or transforms alien crabs into kittens in a science lab. Whether posing as a coffee shop barista, museum curator or seemingly unremarkable store clerk in the real world, Carbonaro’s illusions — along with his absurd, matter-of-fact explanations — leave real people bewildered and families at home laughing out loud.

Tickets to see Carbonaro range from $35 to $160 and go on sale at noon Feb. 8 (Friday) at the Morris Box Office, by phone at 800-537-6415 and online at��.

Contact: Erin Blasko, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

The show is hosted by the organizers of Idea Week as part of their new Idea Week Event Series, which will feature entertainment acts and speakers outside of the week’s annual event. This year’s Idea Week will take place April 8-13 (Monday-Saturday).

“A lot of interest was generated in Idea Week after its first successful year,” said event director Nick Swisher. “We had many speakers and entertainment acts contact us to see how they could be a part. To keep the momentum and fun going, as well as to accommodate those acts whose schedules don’t fit our April 8-13 window, we will now be hosting events like Gaffigan throughout the year.”

Idea Week is a cross between a festival and similar innovation and entrepreneurial events in cities such as Boston, Denver and Chicago. It is hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart region and various community organizations and businesses. Its April event will include more than 50 sessions broken up into four types: Learn, Play, Meet and Compete.

Gaffigan is a four-time Grammy-nominated comedian, actor, writer and producer; a two-time New York Times best-selling author; an Emmy-winning top touring performer; and a multi-platinum-selling recording artist. He is known around the world for his unique brand of humor, which largely revolves around his observations on life.

In addition to two seasons of the critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical “The Jim Gaffigan Show,” which he wrote and produced with his wife, Jeannie, and his widely popular stand-up comedy specials, Gaffigan has guest-starred on many television comedies and dramas, ranging from “Portlandia” and “Bob’s Burgers” to the HBO cult hit “Flight of the Conchords” to dramatic roles in “Law & Order.”

On the silver screen, his many credits include “Three Kings,” “Super Troopers” and “Chappaquiddick.” 2019 will be Gaffigan’s biggest year to date with an astonishing 10 films scheduled for release. Three of these films will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, including “Troupe Zero” with Viola Davis and Allison Janney. Additionally, in October Gaffigan will release his seventh stand-up special, “Quality Time,” and continue his international arena and theater tour.

Gaffigan regularly does humorous commentaries on CBS Sunday. Last year Gaffigan served as master of ceremonies at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner. In 2015, Gaffigan had the great honor of performing for Pope Francis and more than 1 million festival attendees at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia. Gaffigan and his wife live in Manhattan with their five loud and expensive children.

Gaffigan last performed in South Bend at Notre Dame in August 2013.

Tickets to see Gaffigan range from $45 to $95 and go on sale at noon Dec. 21 (Friday) at the Morris Box Office, by phone at 800-537-6415 and online at .

Contact: Erin Blasko, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

Emmy Award-winning speaker Bill Nye the Science Guy and Wired magazine co-founder Kevin Kelly were announced as the first round of keynote speakers for , an annual event that celebrates innovation, entrepreneurs and the incubation of new ideas.

Event organizers also announced plans to incorporate technology experiences into the week, including rides in driverless vehicles for registrants.

Idea Week will take place April 8-13 (Monday-Saturday) and is hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart region and various community organizations and businesses. It will be held at Notre Dame and other locations throughout South Bend and Elkhart and will be open to the public.

Nye will speak on the importance of science and innovation and Kelly will speak on the intersection of faith and technology. The dates and times of their keynotes will be announced at a later date. Details on the driverless vehicle experiences will also be announced in the coming months.

More than 18,000 people attended at least one part of Idea Week 2018, its inaugural year.

Grammy Award-winning country music artist Tim McGraw was previously announced as the week’s major concert act. He will perform April 13 (Saturday) at the Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center. Tickets to see McGraw range from $40 to $125 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday (Nov. 16) at .

Idea Week is a cross between a festival and similar innovation and entrepreneurial events in cities like Boston, Denver and Chicago. It will include more than 50 sessions broken up into four types: Learn, Play, Meet and Compete. It is geared toward everyone, including entrepreneurs, students, developers, makers, inventors, designers, investors or those who simply love science, innovation and tech. Its goal is provide attendees with the practical knowledge, creative inspiration and social foundation they need to innovate within their own careers, studies and communities. ��

In addition to McGraw, Nye, Kelly and the driverless vehicle experiences, there will be a major comedic act; additional musical performances and keynote speakers; the McCloskey New Venture Competition, which will offer prizes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; meetups; workshops; additional technology experiences; and various social activities, all of which will be announced over the next four months.

Kevin Kelly

“Bill Nye and Kevin Kelly each bring a unique and needed perspective to the topics of innovation, science and technology,” said , Notre Dame vice president and associate provost for innovation. “Bill will entertain us and make us laugh all the while evangelizing on the acute importance of science and technology, and Kevin will discuss how technology and faith can and should intersect as well as explore the ethical implications of innovation. We look forward to hearing from both of them during Idea Week 2019.”

Nye is an American science educator, engineer, comedian, television presenter, author and inventor, with a mission to help foster a scientifically literate society and to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Nye has been passionate about his entire life. Nye made a number of award-winning shows, including the show he became so well known for, “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” which won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing and producing.

Kelly is senior maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its executive editor for its first seven years. His new book for Viking/Penguin is called “The Inevitable,” which is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller. He is also founding editor and co-publisher of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily since 2003. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. His books include the best-selling “New Rules for the New Economy,” the classic book on decentralized emergent systems; “Out of Control,” a graphic novel about robots and angels; “The Silver Cord,” an oversize catalog of the best of Cool Tools, and his summary theory of technology in “What Technology Wants.”

��

For more information about Idea Week, including how to register, visit .

This award recognizes the entrepreneurship center with the strongest set of programs and initiatives that engage a broad spectrum of students, empower students to lead their own entrepreneurial endeavors and make student leadership in the center’s programs an essential part of its offerings.��

The 21-year-old Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers is the leading academic organization where established and emerging university-based centers for entrepreneurship collaborate, share best practices, develop programs and initiatives and help advance entrepreneurship education. It has more than 225 members from universities around the world.��

A committee of judges, led by past winners, selected the Idea Center as the 2018 recipient for this award.

“We’re honored to be recognized for our efforts to engage students as part of the Idea Center’s mission of innovation and entrepreneurship,” said , vice president and associate provost for innovation at Notre Dame. “Academic entrepreneurship is vitally important to a research university like Notre Dame, and this award validates our efforts to engage faculty and students in these efforts.”

The yearly conferences are hosted by member schools. DePaul University and the Illinois Institute of Technology hosted the 2018 Chicago event.��

The Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers is the premier academic organization addressing the emerging topics of importance to the nation’s university-based centers for entrepreneurship. It has become the vehicle by which the top, established entrepreneurship centers, as well as emerging centers, can work together to share best practices, develop programs and initiatives, and collaborate and assist each other in advancing, strengthening��and celebrating the role of universities in teaching the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

The Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers current membership totals more than 225 university-based entrepreneurship centers ranging from well-established and nationally ranked to new and emerging centers. Each year a global conference is held on the campus of a Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers member school.

Originally published by Nick Swisher at on Oct. 24.

McGraw will perform April 13 (Saturday) at the Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.

The announcement of McGraw’s performance marks the first announced act to perform during Idea Week, which will take place April 8-13 (Monday through Saturday).

Idea Week is hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart region and various community organizations and businesses. It will be held at Notre Dame and other locations throughout South Bend and Elkhart and will be open to the public.

More than 18,000 people attended at least one part of Idea Week 2018, its inaugural year.

In addition to McGraw, IDEA Week will feature nationally known keynote speakers; the , which will offer prizes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; a major comedic act; additional musical performances; meet-ups; workshops; technology experiences; and various social activities, all of which will be announced in greater detail over the next five months.

A primary goal of Idea Week is to introduce entrepreneurs, developers, makers, inventors, designers and investors to each other and to highlight the economic growth and innovation that is propelling Notre Dame and the South Bend-Elkhart region forward. The entertainment portion of Idea Week, such as McGraw’s concert, is designed to bring people together, according to , Notre Dame vice president and associate provost for innovation.

“Idea Week is not a conference,” he said. “We want to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship and help people come together to produce what we call ‘productive collisions.’ Someone you meet at Idea Week might be your next business partner, client or customer.”

McGraw has sold more than 50 million records and dominated the charts with 43 worldwide No. 1 singles. He has also won three Grammy Awards, 16 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards, 11 American Music Awards, three People’s Choice Awards and numerous other honors. His iconic career achievements include being named BDS Radio’s Most Played Artist of the Decade for all music genres and having the most-played song of the decade for all music genres. He is the most-played country artist since his debut in 1992, with two singles spending more than 10 weeks at No. 1. His career-long tour successes include the record-setting Soul2Soul The World Tour 2017 with his wife, Faith Hill.

McGraw also starred in and narrated the hit movie “The Shack,” and played leading roles in��the motion pictures��“Friday Night Lights” and “The Blind Side.”

He recently released two new songs, “Neon Church” and “Thought About You,” his first new solo music in two years.

Tickets to see McGraw range from $40 to $125 and will be available for purchase on a date to be announced.

For more information on the concert, Idea Week and other scheduled events, visit .

��

Contact: Nick Swisher, director, marketing and communications, The Idea Center, 574-631-2984, nswisher@nd.edu

The at the University of Notre Dame surpassed its goal of creating 16 faculty and student startup companies in its first year by launching 27 companies between July 2017 and June 2018.

That number nearly equals the total number of startups, 33, in the University’s entire 175-year history prior to 2017-18, and it exceeds by a wide margin the previous single-year record of three startups in 2016.

“The IDEA Center and its team members have done a wonderful job during their first year translating faculty, staff and student ideas into innovation success stories,” said , the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at Notre Dame. “In the process, they also worked with others at the University and throughout the South Bend-Elkhart region to create tremendous energy and enthusiasm among those with the passion and drive to see their ideas through to successful launch.”

To qualify as a startup, companies must be licensed as a business, have a business plan and management team, and have completed the IDEA Center’s “de-risking” process, which assesses innovative ideas for their market potential.

Among the 27 startups are companies involved in health care, information technology, law and media. Collectively, the companies raised more than $4 million in investments or grants, created 83 new jobs, launched 23 products and generated more than $500,000 in sales.

Thirty-one of the 55 startup company founders were Notre Dame students.

“The success of the IDEA Center’s strategy indicates that a strong focus on startups in the South Bend-Elkhart region will lead to the potential for significant economic growth, such as that seen in other technological hub cities in the country,” said , associate provost and vice president for innovation. “In time, we believe this region will retain and attract even more of tomorrow’s brightest, most innovative minds.”

The IDEA Center opened in early 2017 with a mission to find commercially viable, early-stage product ideas and innovations from Notre Dame faculty, staff and students and shepherd them to the marketplace.

“Startups are one of the main driving forces behind the U.S. economy in the 21st century,” Ritchie said. “They are responsible for nearly all net job growth in the country, experience growth rates substantially higher than other firms, help create wealth and have a profound impact on overall economic productivity in our economy.”

The IDEA Center has set a goal of creating 30 startups for fiscal year 2018-19 and plans to increase the number each year. Over time, the aim is to build an ecosystem of high-potential startups in the South Bend-Elkhart region that grow rapidly and then attract venture capital, entrepreneurs and an increasing number of startups that create more jobs, all in a virtuous cycle of economic development.

“60 to 70 percent of all startups fail,” said , associate vice president for innovation. “While not all of our startups will survive, our comprehensive de-risking and vetting process, which we call the Commercialization Engine, will likely result in a higher success rate than the average.”

“By producing startups, the IDEA Center lies at the heart of economic growth in this region,” said Ritchie. “The future of the American economy isn’t industry, it’s innovation — and we want to be at the forefront of this revolution.”

Standing for Innovation, Derisking and Enterprise Acceleration, the IDEA Center is the fundamental resource for all commercialization and entrepreneurial discoveries at the University of Notre Dame. Its goal is to translate staff and student discoveries, launch startup companies and leverage meaningful partnerships for social and commercial benefit.

For more information about each of the 27 startups and the IDEA Center’s mission and economic vision for the future, visit .

Contact: Nick Swisher, director, marketing and communications, IDEA Center, 574-631-2984, nswisher@nd.edu