Georgia Tech's Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results (TI:GER®) program recently won a prestigious award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) for its multidisciplinary approach to educating future leaders in technology commercialization.

Recognized by GCEC for Exceptional Activities in Entrepreneurship Across Disciplines, TI:GER is a collaborative program of Georgia Tech and Emory University School of Law that brings together PhD, MBA, and law students in the classroom and research lab. They work together to learn about the challenges of commercializing the research of science and engineering doctoral students.

"This award highlights the fact that TI:GER serves graduate students across not one but two universities," says College of Management Dean Steve Salbu. "The program does a stellar job of preparing the next generation of entrepreneurs for success, and it plays a vital role in our growth into the world's preeminent business school for management and technology."

Georgia Tech was among the world's best entrepreneurship centers recognized at GCEC's annual conference at Rice University. GCEC presented awards in six categories at the conference, which attracted more than 340 university entrepreneurship educators and center directors.

“The best of these centers were recognized by their peers for their outstanding work," said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which co-hosted the conference. "Their efforts have far reaching effects as these are the people who are helping entrepreneurs who themselves are responsible for the most of the job creation, economic development, and wealth creation in our world.”

Created in 2002 by strategic management professor Marie Thursby, TI:GER has continually won national recognition for its pioneering educational approach, including a 2006 Pedagogy Award from the Academy of Management's Entrepreneurship Division. "We are honored to have been selected for this prestigious award," says Thursby, who holds the Hal and John Smith Chair of Entrepreneurship. "It represents significant acclamation of the novel approach TI:GER has taken to ensure that graduate students aiming for innovation-related careers understand the critical interface of law, business, and technology.”

GCEC is the premier global organization for university-based centers of entrepreneurship. It has become the primary vehicle by which top entrepreneurship centers work together to share information, best practices, develop programs and initiatives, and collaborate and assist each other in advancing, strengthening, and celebrating the contributions and impact of university entrepreneurship programs, and celebrating the contributions and impact of university entrepreneurship programs.

© 2012 Georgia Institute of Technology