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The IC² Institute’s mission is to identify and research important unstructured problems leading to knowledge for accelerated regional economic development and prosperity sharing worldwide.
In 1977, Dr. George Kozmetsky (1917-2003) founded the IC² Institute at The University of Texas at Austin while he was Dean of the College of Business Administration and the Graduate School of Business. A lifelong educator, Dr. Kozmetsky was a co-founder and former Executive Vice President of Teledyne, Inc., Kozmetsky was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1993 as an acknowledgment of his decades of exceptional contributions as a mentor and champion of high technology entrepreneurs including Michael Dell, DELL Corporation, and Jim Truchard, National Instruments.
The IC² Institute was created to test the hypothesis that science and technology are resources for economic development and enterprise growth: a vision to be pursued by research and education on the enterprise system. In 1988, “Creating the Technopolis” was published – a paper by George Kozmetsky, Raymond Smilor and David Gibson that described economic development synergies caused by cooperation between regional government, business, and academia. This concept articulated a key touchstone for IC²'s research (for both previous activities, and the research activities that have followed since). Austin has provided a definitive case model for Technopolis research. In 1988, when the city was chosen for the semiconductor industry’s new research consortium (Sematech), both Austin and Texas were outbid by several other contending cities and states in terms of financial incentives. However, Sematech officials chose Austin because of the rare community effort put forth by Austin’s public and private sector that exhibited coordinated vision for a high-tech future. This community effort was not merely a parade of events prepared for the sake of securing Sematech’s interest. Instead, it was a concentrated effort on the part of regional champions to collectively promote a high-tech future for the City of Austin. The Institute’s founder, George Kozmetsky, was one of these regional champions, and IC² was his chosen tool. Throughout its history, the IC² Institute has “catalyzed contact” between Austin’s government, business, and academic interests in order to accelerate the region’s technology and economic development. Over the years, the Institute has provided: - Articulation of the Austin Model and similar studies across the spectrum of economic development: from technology transfer and the many facets of entrepreneurship to technology policy and best practices for regional technology acceleration
- Industry reports to assist in determining appropriate technology investments for the region: beginning with the 1984 Software Report, and continuing in recent years with reports on clean energy, biotechnology, wireless technologies, digital media & gaming, and more
- The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) to provide strategic assistance to technology entrepreneurs and ultimately provide the community with an ongoing generator of high value technology jobs
- The Digital Media Collaboratory (DMC) to explore the creation of new types of media and media applications.
- The Master of Science in Science and Technology Commercialization (MSSTC) degree program to train new entrepreneurs into the local workforce
- Global connections through the IC² Institute Global Fellows program, the Visiting Scholar program, international research projects, and Global Commercialization
- Publications on unstructured problems
This "Austin Model" has provided the knowledge-base for the Institute's ongoing resarch. IC² continues to move forward with this research, both in the State of Texas and abroad, to increase technology transfer, entrepreneurship education, business incubation, and more. The end goal of all IC² Insitute research is to improve the quality of life for the regions it is able to serve -- through technologies applied to solve human needs, and through the availability of high quality jobs that result. IC² = Innovation, Creativity & Capital
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