Innovation

Center for Technology and Innovation Development

The University’s Innovation Center was inaugurated in 2018, coinciding with Research Week, on a 500-square-meter space within the university’s welfare complex, with plans to host over 10 technology cores/companies. The Imam Reza International University’s Innovation Center is a hub for turning ideas and projects into products, distinguishing itself from other research centers by not focusing solely on academic research. Here, presenting fully developed ideas is not required. Instead, student teams can propose initial concepts that, through mentorship by experts, evolve into mature ideas and eventually into final products.
In the first phase, out of 17 student teams who submitted innovative, problem-solving ideas, 8 teams were selected after evaluation to be stationed at the center.
Since 2023, with a change in management, the center has been renamed the Center for Technology and Innovation Development, shifting focus to designing infrastructure and creating pathways for ideation and innovation in both technical and engineering fields, as well as the humanities.
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Imam Reza International University is an ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship. By developing and implementing a value chain for wealth creation, it supports idea owners, talented individuals, ambitious professionals, and knowledge-based businesses. The center helps them transform identified problems and submitted ideas into tech-driven businesses, fostering growth and development, which in turn leads to value creation and wealth generation.

Vision:

• Identifying talented individuals, researchers, and capable scholars, forming research teams, and supporting them.
• Commercializing final products and introducing them to the market with the help of partner companies.
• Encouraging individuals to establish knowledge-based companies and supporting them.
• Identifying partner companies and forming industrial teams or collaborations.
• Meeting needs, monitoring progress, and tracking developments.
• Establishing a link between research teams and partner companies.

Objectives:

• Expanding technology and creating a platform for commercialization across various fields (moving beyond a single-focused culture of production).
• Creating an environment for creativity and fostering the growth of knowledge-based innovative ideas.
• Bridging the gap between academia, industry, and government, while securing financial and intellectual capital.
• Encouraging innovation across various disciplines, including both existing and emerging fields of science.
• Supporting projects by researchers, scholars, students, and even school students.
• Creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurship, employment, and product commercialization.
• Assisting in the formation and sustainability of knowledge-based companies.
• Fostering technology production and moving away from mere assembly work.

Currently, various student teams and technology cores are based in the center, working alongside faculty mentors and Science and Technology Park teams. The center also organizes a range of skill-based programs related to entrepreneurship, business, and marketing, including industry visits, brainstorming workshops, problem-solving events, and student-oriented boot camps.

Core Activities:

Organizing various skill-based courses in entrepreneurship, business, and marketing.
Industry visits and hosting ideation workshops.
Hosting issue-oriented events and student-focused boot camps.

Other Activities:

• Cybersecurity Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions
• Summer school at the Innovation Center
• Internship opportunities
• Technology assistant program
• Memorandum of understanding with the Science and Technology Park
• Collaboration with relevant organizations and institutions
  
  
  

Management: