Chris Houghtaling Coaches National
I-Corps Team

November, 1 2024

Chris Houghtaling has served as an Advisor in Residence with Launch Blue for the past year, providing guidance and mentorship to program graduates. Through Launch Blue, Chris connected with the BioValor team, graduates of the UAccel Program. The team was seeking a coach for the National I-Corps Program. Read below to learn more about Chris’s experience coaching a team at the national level.

“My favorite reasons for mentoring entrepreneurs are that I am helping others achieve more than their goals and that I am refreshed by always learning something new. The past couple of months I have been an Industry Mentor, in partnership with David Etten from UK's Center for Applied Energy Research as the Technical Mentor. Serving as a mentor for a University of Kentucky team completing a National I-Corp program is an absolute honor and exhilarating experience. You are mentoring a team on the cutting edge of technology, validated by leading NSF reviewers from across the country. And you don't just pop-in for an hour once a month. Unlike most mentoring where you want to guide the entrepreneur, the National Science Foundation I-Corp program is so demanding that you can and to a degree should embed yourself with the team. In addition to helping bring UK born intellectual property to the market, you are part of a cohort of 20 plus teams from around the country, expanding your impact, network, and exposure to the latest technologies in various fields.”

“Working with Dr. Ning Wei has been a complete pleasure. He is a powerful researcher who is hungry to connect his work to real-world applications, and revenue. Ning is supported by Dr. Jian Shi, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocess Engineering. Ning is a Research Scientist at the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering & Center for Applied Energy. Ning's team name is "Sustainable Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) Technology for Critical Metal Recovery from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries."  Keep your eyes and ears open as you will be hearing more about the great work that Ning and his team is doing.”