Student Incubator Called "The Garage" Opens On NC State's Centennial Campus

Sept. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- The next great business idea just might come out of converted office space for student entrepreneurs at NC State University’s Centennial Campus.

The space, called “The Garage” in honor of the many technology entrepreneurs who have started successful businesses in their own garages, combines hi-tech wizardry with comfortable surroundings in an effort to spur creativity and innovation among entrepreneurial-minded students. The students are expected to come from different departments and disciplines.

“Everybody’s got ideas,” says Tom Miller, director of the university’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, which is operating the space. “It seems creativity really happens when people with ideas get together and people from different disciplines get together”

The software company Red Hat outfitted the 2,000-square foot space.  Ten students have already signed up and are currently using the space.

The Entrepreneurship Initiative views The Garage as the first phase of a much larger “live, work, learn” environment for student entrepreneurs, where they would take classes, test our new ideas and be housed in a dorm room – all in one location.

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Centennial Campus (www.centennial.ncsu.edu) is an internationally recognized 1,314-acre research park and technology campus owned and operated by NC State. Home to more than 60 corporate, government and non-profit partners, such as Red Hat, ABB, and the USDA, collaborative research projects vary from nanofibers and secure open systems technology to serious gaming and biomedical engineering. Four university college programs also have a significant presence on campus – College of Engineering, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Textiles and the College of Education. NC State is one of the top research universities in the country, with expenditures in research approaching more than $325 million annually. The university ranks third among all public universities (without medical schools) in industry-sponsored research expenditures.