Mostafa Peysokhan, a Ph.D. student with Dr. Arash Mafi’s research group, has been selected to participate in the Lobo Rainforest I-Corps. STC and UNM Innovation Academy were awarded an NSF I-Crops site grant in 2017. The I-Corps is the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Innovation Corps program which aims to prepare scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond university research to accelerate economic and societal benefits of other NSF-funded, basic research projects that are ready for the move toward commercialization. NSF grantees in the I-Corps program learn to identify product opportunities that can and do emerge from academic research, gain skills in entrepreneurship through training and guidance from established entrepreneurs.

 

Because Mostafa has been selected to participate, he will receive $3,000 to support activities in the program. He will attend a 10-week course, and with additional guidance from Dr. Mafi, he will develop his presentation for advancing his provisional patent. He and Dr. Mafi have developed a non-destructive method for accurately measuring the absorption coefficient of doped fibers without the current disadvantages of the cutting back method.