Fayetteville State University recently launched its inaugural Innovation Pathways and Partnerships event, connecting early-stage growth businesses with wide-ranging faculty to help take each company to the next level of product innovation and revenue growth. Participants heard information about local research and development projects in the pipeline in healthcare, nanomaterials, data center technology, aerospace, AI-enabled drones, biosensors and agriculture.

"A core part of FSU's mission is serving as a catalyst for economic growth in the Sandhills region, an area rich with untapped potential. Today, we aim to unlock that potential by connecting our illustrious faculty researchers with innovators from the commercial and defense sectors to develop groundbreaking products and services," said Chancellor Darrell T. Allison in a press release.

The forum featured speakers from the NC Department of Commerce, the NC Small Business Technology Development Center Office of Technology Commercialization, NCInnovation and FSU. Attendees gained helpful information on how businesses can access state funds from the NC Department of Commerce Office of Science, Technology & Innovation and how to access federal funds through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR). Representatives from the offices of Senator Thom Tillis and Congressman Richard Hudson, the US Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) and the Airborne Innovation Lab were also in attendance.

The event was co-sponsored by the Fayetteville State University Chancellor's Office, the North Carolina Department of Commerce and NCInnovation, in close collaboration with the Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development Corp. 

Senior Director of the NCInnovation East Regional Network Derrick Welch remarked in a press release, "NCInnovation is delighted with the success of this event. Our charter legislation calls for us to build capacity between regional industries and higher education institutions, and nothing demonstrates that more clearly than the brand new projects forged at Innovation Pathways & Partnerships. This is a victory for the Fayetteville ecosystem!"

Four businesses shared their innovation concepts during a pitch competition. The first-place prize was awarded to Chris Bentley, CEO of InfraTechDC, who designed systems that cool chips in high-performance computing environments with much greater efficiency than current methods. He received $1,500 as seed money to help move their innovation forward. Bentley initiated a collaboration with FSU science faculty to improve the efficiency of the InfraTechDC device through proprietary nanomaterials developed in the university labs. FSU faculty involved in this collaboration include Dr. Daniel Autrey, Dr. Shubo Han, Dr. Bhoj Gautam and Dr. Jairo Castillo-Chara.

Receiving a $1,000 second prize to help advance their innovation was a partnership established at the event of two businesses. Fayetteville-based Geranium Geospatial Solutions , specializing in full-motion video analysis through drone technology, will be working with Asheville-based Calective, a drone manufacturer specializing in resilient RF communications technology,  to create new AI-enabled drones leveraging technology to be provided by FSU faculty member Dr. Sambit Bhattacharya.

This Innovation event is designed to be the first in a series of semi-annual innovation convenings, with the next event anticipated in October 2025.