ALBANY, Ga. — In recent years, housing availability and affordability have emerged as major challenges that face communities across the country, and Georgia is no exception. But one municipality has found a way to address both of those issues, while simultaneously planning for the revitalization of a distressed neighborhood.

The city of Albany teamed up with the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR), a program of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, to spearhead an initiative focused on the area surrounding Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, long characterized by vacant and overgrown lots, abandoned houses, and subpar rental options.

By employing data-driven research and community engagement, CEDR transformed the city’s concerns into an actionable plan that resulted in a $1.1 million federal grant to support the construction of up to 30 new housing units. The redevelopment effort is a public-private partnership between the city of Albany, Phoebe Putney Hospital, redevelopment agencies, and the Albany Land Bank.

CEDR Senior Project Manager Alan Durham led the team that completed Phase I and Phase II of the Albany Medical District Neighborhood Redevelopment Plan and Market Analysis. “City of Albany Commissioner Chad Warbington got in touch with me about four years ago and said, ‘Hey, we have some housing issues down here,’” Durham said. After touring nearly a dozen neighborhoods, Durham and local officials selected the hospital district area in central Albany. “We decided to focus on the medical district, because not only is Phoebe Putney one of the largest regional employers, it also has some of the largest salaries in the entire region.”

CEDR took a deliberately community-driven approach to this research. Instead of producing a top‑down study, the team conducted online surveys, one‑on‑one interviews, and focus groups with hospital employees and city staffers to understand what kind of housing would actually meet local needs.

“What we learned during the course of these interviews is that people wanted housing for everyone in this neighborhood,” Durham said. “That’s the surgeon who works at the hospital all the way down to the custodial staff or the city manager who could live in the neighborhood all the way down to an entry-level police officer.”

That feedback led to a redevelopment plan prioritizing affordability and featuring a spectrum of housing options at varying price points. CEDR recommended both owner-occupied and rental properties ranging from single‑family homes to triplexes and quadruplexes, as well as small apartment buildings and short‑term rental options for visiting doctors and trainees.

To keep Albany’s historic development pattern intact, CEDR suggested building on smaller lots and repurposing abandoned alleys to keep land costs down. “If you’re going to build affordable workforce housing, it makes sense to keep your 40, 50, or 60‑foot wide lots and utilize the alleyways for parking,” Durham said.

“Another thing we heard is employees want to go out and walk during the day and at night if they were on night shift, but they didn’t feel safe in the neighborhood, so our study focuses on safety.” To that end, CEDR recommended introducing streetlights and requiring front porches on all the new houses to encourage “eyes on the street.”

Albany faces a housing shortage despite having lost 10% of its population between 2010 and 2020. CEDR’s analysis helped the city understand why. As Albany Mayor Bo Dorough put it, “Look at the census figures: 70% of the residences in Albany were built before 1970.” He noted that the city also has problems with dilapidated properties, primarily in distressed neighborhoods with homes built in the 40s and 50s.

“The challenge we see throughout the country is, how can people today realize the American dream that they own their own home?” Dorough said. He expects the new Albany Medical District housing developments to reverse neighborhood decline and create a “halo effect that is going to benefit of the entire city.”

The $1.1 million for the initiative was allocated by U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, supported by U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and secured through the House Appropriations Committee. That money will be combined with $2 million from Albany to pay for land, roads, and infrastructure.

Said Bishop, who presented the Albany officials with the funding check, “The goals are clear: increase housing accessibility, promote social equity, stimulate economic growth, and attract and retain the workforce that keeps the hospitals, the businesses, and the downtown vibrant.”

The project is Albany’s first major single‑family home redevelopment in decades, arriving at a time when out-of-reach costs have left many first‑time buyers feeling discouraged. Between CEDR’s data-driven research and the strength of the city’s collaborative public-private partnerships, the Albany Medical District redevelopment initiative demonstrates exactly how strategic planning can be used to create affordable housing and resilient communities.

The post Georgia Tech-Led Initiative Lays Groundwork for Affordable Workforce Housing in Albany first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

GT APEX Accelerator is housed in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²), the economic development unit of Georgia Tech. Other EI² programs participating in the regional events include Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (Georgia AIM), Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and Safety, Health, and Environmental Services.

“J.L. Millan Consulting was proud to participate in the Innovate Your Opportunity for Success workshop hosted by the GT APEX Accelerator,” said Juan Millan, president and CEO of J.L. Millan. “The event convened key stakeholders creating a powerful environment where industry, government, and small business support organizations aligned around real opportunities.”

Uniting Local Businesses, Agencies and Industry Partners

The series connected local businesses with a powerhouse lineup of speakers and decision-makers from federal, state, city, and county agencies, as well as prime contractors and industry experts. Notable participants included Robins Air Force Base, Marine Corps Logistics Command, the city of Augusta, Savannah River Mission Completion, and many more government agencies, prime contractors, and partners.

A Resounding Success

With more than 325 attendees participating across Georgia, the high turnout highlights a significant demand for local, accessible programming.

Purpose-Driven Mission

These events are a core part of the GT APEX Accelerator’s mission to serve all 159 Georgia counties. By bringing resources directly into communities, GT APEX Accelerator is increasing knowledge, expanding networks, and creating clear pathways for Georgia businesses to compete and succeed in the government contracting space.

Learn more and check out upcoming training classes and events at gtapexaccelerator.org.

The post GT APEX Accelerator Spring 2026 Event Series Brings Government Contracting Opportunities Closer to Communities first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) has been hosting Flavor of Georgia in Athens since 2007 to showcase innovation and entrepreneurship statewide. In 2025, four GT.FBA participants entered the contest, three made it to the finals, and two came away with wins, one of which was the Grand Prize.

2026 Flavor of Georgia Winners from the GT.FBA

This year GT.FBA had three program alums enter the contest: Khelsey and Micheal Daniels, of Dorothy’s Desserts cheesecakes; Evan Summers, owner of Now Schmear This!, a line of premium cream cheese and butter; and Sarah Dubale, whose Culture Sweet Tea products blend flavors of the African diaspora and the American South. Sweet Potato Cheesecake from Dorothy’s Desserts won the Cakes category, and Now Schmear This! won the Dairy category with Honey Peach Pecan Cream Cheese.

Why Flavor of Georgia is a Launchpad for Food Entrepreneurs

“I was very pleased with our strong showing this year,” said Aubrey Lenyard, who co-leads Georgia Tech’s Food and Beverage programming with Brandy Nagel. Lenyard is himself a food entrepreneur, with a small-batch condiment line called AubSauce. In 2019, he took home the Flavor of Georgia People’s Choice Award for his Spicy Peach Barbecue Sauce, and in 2020, his Strawberry Balsamic and Rosemary Sauce won the Barbecue Sauce category. “That win absolutely propelled my business,” he said. “Flavor of Georgia really supports food founders, and that’s something I’ve experienced personally.”

Because he knows the value of the venue, Lenyard strongly encourages the GT.FBA community to apply to Flavor of Georgia each year. As he put it, “This is one of the best ways to launch a product in Georgia, because all the movers and shakers in the food and beverage industry are in one room.” That room includes buyers, distributors, industry partners, and statewide organizations like Georgia Grown, which provides winners with a free one-year membership.

How the Georgia Tech Food and Beverage Accelerator Prepares Founders to Compete

Taking home a prize at Flavor of Georgia is about more than just having an outstanding product. It’s also important for entrants to be strategic about messaging and positioning. Said Lenyard, “If you can’t explain to the judges why your product represents Georgia, it doesn’t matter how good it tastes. It’s not going to make it through.”

Supporting Georgia’s Food and Beverage Ecosystem

He made sure that GT. FBA entrants could do exactly that. Whether it was the peaches, pecans, and honey in Summers’ spread celebrating Georgia’s agricultural strengths, Daniels’ cheesecake that elevates the homey and familiar sweet potato, or Dubale’s creative multicultural take on Southern sweet tea, the program deliberately emphasizes not only storytelling and economic impact but also sourcing. Said Nagel, “We encourage founders to buy ingredients from Georgia growers and makers whenever possible. That’s how we support the state and grow our food and beverage ecosystem.”

She also noted that EI² colleague Wendy White, industry manager for food and beverage at the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), who attended the awards, played an early role in offering classes that predated the formal launch of GT.FBA. White continues to lead training programs, such as the Food Safety Cohort, which helps small food manufacturers — both new and established — build a food safety plan in six weeks. “Many of our founders met Wendy before we officially started the program,” said Nagle. “Getting her perspective really helped.”

Founder Perspectives: The Impact of GT.FBA

Each of the three Flavor of Georgia entrants this year experienced the results of GT. FBA’s multifaceted approach firsthand.

For Summers, it was a laser focus on messaging that made a difference. “After being a runner-up last year with our Honey Garlic Jalapeño Cream Cheese, I knew that we could uplevel our offer and wow the judges. GT.FBA gave me great insight into creating and presenting my product pitch,” he said. “I felt better prepared to be able to answer the judges’ questions with confidence.”

Khelsey Daniels, also a repeat entrant (whose desserts can be found at the Georgia Tech Community Market Fair) agreed and underscored some additional benefits of the program. “Understanding my market and price points were something else that assisted me well in the Flavor of Georgia contest,” she said. “The mentorship that we still receive even after the cohort ended is invaluable.”

For Dubale, who attended Flavor of Georgia for the first time in 2026, involvement with GT.FBA resulted in “a deeper understanding of my market and competition, bringing clarity to what makes Culture Sweet Tea truly unique and sharpening my ability to communicate that story.”

Building Momentum for Georgia’s Food Entrepreneurs

As GT.FBA continues to support entrepreneurs across the state, the program’s presence at Flavor of Georgia is demonstrating that when founders are given practical guidance, real-world connections, and an understanding of place, their chances of winning go way up.

“I’m really proud of all our founders,” said Lenyard. “Seeing them grow, return stronger, and succeed on a stage like Flavor of Georgia is exactly why we do this.”

The post Georgia Tech Food and Beverage Accelerator Alumni Win Top Honors at 2026 Flavor of Georgia first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

CEDARTOWN, Ga. ­— Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) and the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) are leading an 18‑month Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) Investments Supporting Partnerships in Recovery Ecosystems (INSPIRE) planning grant to design a structured workforce model that connects individuals in recovery from substance abuse with manufacturing careers in Northwest Georgia.

Over 18 months, CEDR and GaMEP — both programs of Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute — will use the $56,731 grant to conduct research. The teams will use findings from that research to build manufacturing workforce pipelines in Polk, Floyd, and Chattooga counties.

This is not the first time the two groups have worked together. Their collaboration spans nearly a decade and is connected to iWORKS, an employer‑led consortium created to address Northwest Georgia’s manufacturing workforce needs. iWORKS grew out of the High Demand Career Initiative regional planning effort led by CEDR in 2017, and since then CEDR and GaMEP have partnered closely with chambers of commerce, workforce boards, economic developers, educators, and community organizations to strengthen local economies by addressing employment gaps.

One result of that collaboration is Project Purpose, created to prepare high school seniors without post‑graduation plans for careers in manufacturing. CEDR and GaMEP expanded Project Purpose to serve people impacted by the justice system, with a pilot program in the Polk County jail that combined online instruction through Tooling-U with onsite feedback from GaMEP experts.

The Polk County initiative took a holistic approach to workforce development, matching real skills with open jobs while acting as a nexus for the justice system, employers, and participants.

“It really starts with manufacturers. You’ve got to have a pull,” said John Zegers, Northwest Georgia region manager for GaMEP. “There has been a lot of economic development growth in Georgia, and there are always jobs in manufacturing, especially in the parts of the state that I serve. What we do is connect people to those opportunities.”

The INSPIRE planning grant will further expand the focus of Project Purpose to include individuals with substance‑use disorders. One of the biggest challenges faced by this population is finding employment upon release from a treatment or correctional centers.

“There’s a big drug problem in Northwest Georgia, as there is across the United States,” Zegers said. “Rural counties don’t always have the resources to deal with it, which is why we’re building stronger connections among employers, the corrections system, and community support organizations.”

The grant’s planning period will chart the region’s recovery‑to‑work ecosystem, taking into account employer needs, transportation, housing, childcare, and recovery support. CEDR and GaMEP will conduct community needs and workforce assessments, employer surveys, and focus groups to determine the skills required by different manufacturers. They will also examine secondary factors that will help participants maintain steady employment.

“We’re using what the GaMEP team built in Polk County as our foundation,” said Candice McKie, senior project manager at CEDR. “The ARC grant is purely for planning, and once that is completed, we’ll be able to go in and establish Project Purpose programs in Floyd and Chattooga counties.” Ultimately, CEDR and GaMEP aim to expand the program to other counties in the region and state.

A key partner in the grant is Highland Rivers Behavioral Health, which will help employers understand how to support employees in recovery and how to connect workers with peer support and case management

Said Alexandria Sanford, grant and strategic partnership manager at Highland Rivers, “Meaningful employment is an essential part of recovery for individuals struggling with substance-use disorders. Leveraging this partnership creates a stronger regional ecosystem within our state that enables individuals and employers to better understand and work with one another.”

Zegers emphasized that maintaining trusted relationships across different sectors of a community is essential to Project Purpose. “I’ve worked with these manufacturers for years, and they feel comfortable talking to me about their needs in terms of new employees,” he said. “Through this program, those relationships have expanded to include sheriffs, corrections, and the judicial system. It’s important to get buy‑in and participation from everyone involved.”

For McKie, the partnership between CEDR and GaMEP is a symbiotic one. “John works directly with manufacturers, and we work with communities as economists, city planners, and economic development practitioners,” she said. “Those things go hand in hand. Employers thrive when communities thrive, and vice versa. Multiple people benefit from this collaboration.”

The ARC INSPIRE planning grant is shaping the future of Project Purpose programs in Floyd and Chattooga counties while strengthening ongoing work in Polk, so CEDR and GaMEP can continue to refine an alternative workforce development model that allows residents of Northwest Georgia build careers close to home.

The post Georgia Tech Programs to Develop Recovery-to-Work Pathways in Northwest Georgia first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

Some of Savannah’s many old buildings are expensive to heat and cool, especially in Georgia’s humid summers. They develop leaks. They need routine maintenance. But how does a building owner know where to begin with renovations or repairs? Enter Lamarr.AI, one of the first companies supported by the Partnership for Innovation’s (PIN) new Community Investment program.

“The Community Investment program is matching up faculty-led, faculty-spinoff startup companies that have technology that could be relevant to a community, a government, or to the civic space,” said Katie O’Connor, PIN’s community investment manager. “The company’s product is something that can help a community in a smart cities kind of way.”

Lamarr.AI fits the bill to a T. Its technology and the company grew out of research at Georgia Tech. Lamarr.AI’s technology uses drones, imaging, and artificial intelligence (AI) to assess a building’s envelope and determine the best ways to make these structures more energy efficient.

“The technology is like giving a building an MRI using drones, infrared and regular images, and our own AI,” said Tarek Rakha, Lamarr.AI’s co-founder and CEO. The drones, he explained, detect missing insulation, water intrusion, air escaping, and physical damage. AI and machine learning translate that information into 3-D models that map the defects.

Award-Winning Thomasville Heights Project

Before becoming a company, Rakha and his partners worked on a previous PIN pilot project to assess the energy use of buildings in Atlanta’s Thomasville Heights neighborhood. That project won a national Smart20 Award in 2025 for reducing energy use and improving indoor comfort in one of the city’s underserved communities. It also launched the business.

“[That project] was a really great match for us, because we’re helping with understanding the building physics of existing buildings, specifically for homeowners and underserved communities,” Rakha said. “We learned of a real impact that we were able to do, which is making people more comfortable by identifying cost-effective solutions to mitigate both thermal comfort — comfort of people — as well as energy efficiency.”

He added it was one of the most rewarding academic moments of his life, recalling, “one of the community members said, ‘we actually felt the difference in our house after the cost-effective renovations were made.’”

Making Savannah Buildings More Efficient

The city of Savannah project calls for Lamarr.AI to assess five municipal-owned buildings – three fire stations, City Hall, and the Woodville Community Center.

“PIN contributing their credibility to the project and program, saying, ‘hey, we think this is going to add value,’ is a huge recommendation,” said Josh Corning, Savannah’s clean energy program manager. “They were able to support this program with some funding as well, which really goes a long way, especially for work that is an emerging technology.”

The project is well underway, Corning said, and the city is happy with the progress.

“It was a great opportunity for us representing the public sector, to collaborate with the private sector,” Corning said. “We want to continue to explore those partnerships, and this was an awesome team to start that with.”

The Lamarr.AI data provides important information that can help the city prioritize renovations and maintenance.

“Using advanced simulations, we’re able to give our customers return on investment (ROI) analyses,” Rakha said. “Typically, we work with building owners who have campuses or multiple buildings to help them understand how their building enclosures are causing them to bleed out massive amounts of money.” That financial pain point can come from energy loss, waste, water intrusion, and structural decay. Lamarr.AI’s technology shows how customers can surgically fix issues and increase the ROI to boost energy efficiency.”

Next Stop: Augusta Colleges

Lamarr.AI will continue its collaboration with PIN with a project in Augusta to examine buildings belonging to Augusta Technical and Paine colleges.

“Building enclosures are the first line of defense against issues of the climate as well as the safety of the people inside them,” Rakha explained. “When you have a vulnerable building envelope, you are not just putting people at risk, you are also being very inefficient, wasteful, and are not prepared for what comes next with issues of sustainability and energy efficiency.”

But what does all of this have to do with an inventor and actress?

“We named the company Lamarr as a nod to the inventor and actress Hedy Lamarr,” Rakha said.

The Austrian-born Lamarr was a leading lady of Hollywood’s Golden Age in the 1930s and ’40s, and she was also an inventor.

She collaborated with composer George Antheil on an early frequency-hopping communication system during World War II — an idea that later contributed to the development of modern wireless technologies.

“She was not widely recognized for her scientific contributions until later in her life,” Rakha said. “The name reflects a broader recognition of innovators whose work was ahead of its time or underappreciated, including women like Hedy Lamarr.”

The post Ready for its Closeup: PIN-Supported Lamarr.AI Uses Technology to Make Buildings More Efficient and Occupants More Comfortable first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

SHES is now offering free 1-hour and 4-hour safety trainings at locations across Georgia. The trainings, which focus on preventing injury and illness due to workplace exposures in warehouse environments, are open to private employees and employers in small and medium-size businesses that perform or manage warehousing activities. There will also be several courses offered to the public.

Training topics will include powered industrial truck safety, chemical hazards and communication, material and package handling, electrical safety, and lockout/tagout, as well as health issues such as ergonomic lifting, respiratory protection, temperature extremes, and more.

At the end of the grant period, all training material will enter the public domain on the SHES website. Real-time courses are conducted in English, but toward the grant’s end date, SHES plans to translate the material into Spanish.

According to SHES certified industrial hygienist Sean Castillo, the topic of warehouse safety was chosen in part because of the economic role played by the greater Savannah area, where the port and its logistics and distributions centers constitute a significant part of the region’s economy. At the same time, however, warehouse safety far transcends that specific sector. “Warehousing is everywhere across the state,” said Castillo, “and we have a lot of experience in that area.”

Some of the safety trainings will be co-led by the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP). With more than 65 years serving a wide network of manufacturing partners statewide, GaMEP is an ideal partner.

“GaMEP does exemplary work in every corner of the state, and a lot of that is due to the extensive outreach of their regional managers,” said Castillo. “This synergistic partnership presents a great opportunity for us to leverage those relationships to help reinforce a culture of health and safety among Georgia’s industries.”

Both SHES and GaMEP are programs of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²), Georgia Tech’s economic development and outreach unit. As a socioeconomic development organization, EI² takes a people-centered approach to programming, focusing on the ways that families and communities across Georgia — and beyond — benefit directly from its offerings.

Said EI² Vice President David Bridges, “We are committed to translating Georgia Tech’s world-class research into real-life solutions that create jobs, save lives, and keep America safe. These warehouse safety trainings exemplify those goals exactly. Because they are being offered by two of our programs, SHES and GaMEP, they also embody the strength that comes from collaboration, which allows us to extend our reach of service even more.”

Funding for the safety training is administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and comes from the Susan Harwood Training Grants Program, named for the late Susan Harwood, who served for 17 years as the director of OSHA’s Office of Risk Assessment. One of 18 Harwood Grant recipients for 2025, SHES was chosen for its expertise, training capabilities, and existing relationships with OSHA.

SHES is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to provide a range of confidential OSHA programs to industries in the Southeast, and the authorized OSHA Training Institute Education Center at the Georgia Tech – Savannah campus has been offering OSHA training in South Georgia, South Carolina, and northern Florida for 25 years.

For more information and schedule, click here.

The post Free Warehouse Safety Trainings Offered Statewide Through Georgia Tech SHES Grant first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

The GT APEX Accelerator, housed in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²), is part of a national network of APEX Accelerators supported by the federal government through the Department of Defense’s Office of Small Business Programs. APEX Accelerator counselors coach business leaders on how to go after and succeed in the government (federal, state, and local) contracting space.

Entellimetrix is a data analytics consulting services company. Will Parker, an Atlanta-based GT APEX Accelerator counselor, has been working with Magha Devan, co-founder and partner at Entellimetrix, for a couple of years. It’s work that has proved successful for Entellimetrix in smaller ways and now has the potential to pay off for the company for 10 years or more.

The company is exactly the kind of client Parker says is best positioned for success in going after government contracts.

“Magha is one of our very senior clients. He is very strategic in how he works with us,” Parker said. “He comes to our events. He uses our bid match service. He is involved with networking groups.”

Devan credits Parker and GT APEX Accelerator with helping put his business, which has been in operation since 2015, in a position to bid as a prime contractor. It has proven its readiness for government contracting through its work with private companies, as well as working as a subcontractor with federal agencies including CDC, Department of Labor, U.S. Marine Corps, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, Parker said.

“My very first interaction with GT APEX Accelerator was an in-person meeting with my mentor, Will,” Devan said. “He got to understand who we are. He said, ‘Looking at where you are, the good part is you understand federal subcontracting work. You have past performance.’ He said, ‘What you don’t have are your proposal writing skills for large proposals as a prime and knowledge of how federal procurement works from a prime perspective.”

Growing those skills is what Devan focused on. He took classes, both webinars and in person, to learn how to write proposals, and he attended networking events to meet key government contacts. He also began using the bid match tool, which resulted in a contract to provide data analytics consulting services to the state of Arizona.

That tool allows clients to input keywords about their business offerings and get daily emails about possible matches from federal, state, and local governments.

Not only will Devan continue working with GT APEX Accelerator, he also recommends it to other small business owners.

“Being a small [business] is not easy,” he said. “These are the times we need external support.”

The post GT APEX Accelerator Client Entellimetrix Wins Federal Award first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

Industry groups are encouraging Congress to pass H.R. 5437, a bill that would shield engineered‑stone manufacturers from liability. Critics argue the measure protects companies that have long known the risks, while experts warn that existing safety practices are inadequate.
Houlroyd led a SHES research team that has been sounding the alarm about the dangers facing engineered stone workers nationwide. In the InvestigateTV report, she discussed the ways that SHES is helping engineered stone manufacturers pinpoint hazards and craft solutions to keep workers safe.
Watch the InvestigateTV report.

The post SHES Safety Expert Jenny Houlroyd Featured in InvestigateTV Report first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

In Medellín, local government, private-sector, and university resources are collaborating to deliver success. This intentional consortium of partners, which includes Ruta N, Alcaldía de Medellín, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Medellín, and Georgia Tech’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation — among others —  resulted in Medellín being named City of the Year in StartupBlink’s Innovators Business Environment Index 2026. The recognition is a global benchmark that evaluates how easily innovators can startup and operate a business across the world. The city was recognized for “its ability to build a distinctive city-level competitiveness model, actively shaping local business conditions rather than relying solely on national frameworks.”

Georgia Tech Center Strengthens Entrepreneurship in Medellín

Thanks to funding from leading corporations in Colombia and support from alumni from the country, Georgia Tech became an important part of this vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem when it opened the Georgia Tech Medellín Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (GTMC) in March 2023. Managed by Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, the center collaborates with local universities including, Universidad EAFIT, Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad Pontifica Bolivariana, Universidad EIA, and Universidad CES, among others. That alliance of universities has resulted in a curriculum of capacity‑building programs, strategic guidance on technology commercialization, and market entry to support entrepreneurs at every step of their journey.

One successful entrepreneur, who has been part of GTMC from classes to networking to now a term as an advisory board member, is Catalina Isaza Falla, founder and CEO of medical device company Innmetec. She credits GTMC, in particular, with helping her scale her business beyond Colombia.

“When we started with the first [GTMC] program we were just selling in Colombia,” she said. “Now we are selling in other Latin American countries and also in Saudi Arabia. I would recommend GTMC especially to founders who are looking to take their companies to an international standard. If a business owner is ready to challenge their own assumptions and wants to build a business that is both scalable and resilient, I think GTMC is the best partner they can have.”

Corporate, University, and Government Leaders Drive Ecosystem Growth

GTMC is just one part of this hive of entrepreneurialism, said Juli Golemi, director of Georgia Tech’s EI² Global, where GTMC is housed. “What comes to mind first about why Medellín has such a successful innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem is that they have a high participation of the corporate sector,” she said. “The corporate sector has been key in this process. They really want to see their community of entrepreneurs grow. There is also a solid number of universities that have been working to boost the ecosystem.”

Co-founder of green energy startup Erco Energy Juan Esteban Hincapié agreed with Golemi  about the ingredients of a strong innovation ecosystem. “We have a lot of options to help entrepreneurs. When we started, we didn’t have knowledge about scaling companies, about entrepreneurs. But now, 14 years later, we have a lot of successful companies we can learn from. We have really good mentors that help entrepreneurs.”

Local government is also involved in helping new businesses thrive. In its recognition of Medellín, StartupBlink called out the ways municipal leaders have been able to actively shape economic outcomes and create competitive advantage from the ground up through initiatives to integrate regulation, access to capital, digital infrastructure, and innovation hubs such as GTMC into a unified urban economic model.

Collaborative Platforms Strengthen the Future

Monthly events hosted by Comité Universidad Empresa Estado (CUEE) bring together university, corporate, and government entities to discuss ways to further strengthen innovation in the city. And Ruta N is the city’s active economic development entity.

“There has been so much in the way of coordinating activities and bringing in funding in support of building a robust, technology-based entrepreneurship ecosystem,” David Bridges, vice president of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, said about Ruta N. “All these players have come together actively to boost the ecosystem.”

The post Medellín Named Global Leader for Innovation as Georgia Tech Center Helps Power Entrepreneurial Growth first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.

“Speaking as a former career counselor, it’s not always about having a direct career path from point A to point B,” said Clarence Anthony Jr., workforce development manager at the Partnership for Innovation (PIN) and director of its PIN Fellowship program. “That’s not how careers work for most people.”

PIN, a public-private partnership housed at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, is dedicated to advancing innovation and expanding shared economic opportunity in Georgia and beyond

Barnett’s Sandy Springs internship involved research on sustainability projects for the city, work that she enjoyed, but that she knew she wouldn’t see the results of due to the often-slow pace of government. “I felt like at the end of it, ‘how am I going to create impact?’” Barnett said.

While she was in that position, her supervisor told her about PIN’s Fellowship program, a paid fellowship designed primarily for early career professionals who work for six months each in the public and private sectors of one industry to help drive innovation and promote economic mobility.

The idea resonated with Barnett. “It was a fellowship, so it was more than an internship, but it was a good way to transition into the workforce.”

Barnett was accepted into the first cohort of Fellows in 2023 in a hybrid experience within manufacturing and the logistics and supply chain vertical — not areas she expected to work in.

“The thing about supply chain is that it is so research heavy that it felt like I was doing a lot of similar work to undergrad with the political science focus,” she said. “You’re talking about workers’ rights and about efficiency. It was inherently political. I felt like I fit in really well with that.”

For the first six months she worked at the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute. “I started with Georgia Tech doing mainly research about long-haul trucks, long-haul trucker rights, and their issues,” she said. “Very big-picture long-haul logistics. It was a combination of making things more efficient but also caring about the people who were doing the work.”

From Georgia Tech, she spent six months with Freudenberg NOK Sealing Technologies, an automotive supplier in Cleveland, Georgia, where she was again doing research.

“We were trying to implement a tugger system to replace forklifts,” she said. “Again, the goal was to help people in warehouses do less labor.”

Tuggers are small electric vehicles that pull multiple carts of materials around the warehouse more efficiently and more safely than forklifts.

Despite the obvious differences between long-haul trucking and warehouse work, Barnett said that in fact, the two positions had similarities, both were focused on worker safety and efficiency.

And that’s when her passion shifted. It wasn’t the mechanics of long-haul trucking or warehouse work that called to her, but the human experience.

Following the fellowship, Barnett landed a position with City of Refuge, a nonprofit organization in Atlanta that helps families with health and wellness, housing, youth development, and job training. Barnett’s job is workforce development was to “be the liaison between employers and our graduates coming out of software engineering or cybersecurity and matching them and getting them into employment.”

She was in the nonprofit world, where she knew she wanted to be, and she was making a difference that she could see. She has since moved to Per Scholas, another nonprofit organization that offers free training to people seeking a career in high-demand tech roles and then works to match them with employers.

Barnett may not have landed in manufacturing, supply chain, or logistics work, but she credits the Fellowship with helping her learn what she wanted to do and with teaching her valuable skills that help her in her workforce development role. Because the Fellowship is so much more than job placement. The program offers professional development, career counseling, mentoring—and an opportunity for Fellows to network with and learn from PIN Summer Interns.

“[The Fellowship] gave me insight into early career versus mid-career versus late career,” she said. “When I’m dealing with learners now, I … really do try to figure out ways to cater to their needs and figure out what’s the best path for them.”

The post A Winding Path to Success: PIN Fellow Isabelle Barnett first appeared on Enterprise Innovation Institute.