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In October, ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ hosted its fourth annual Accelerate Investor Conference in Arlington, Virginia.

¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ is now part of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), a nationwide collaboration of 66 institutions.

On October 9, 2024, the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative’s Northern Virginia Node accelerator program (CCI+A) culminated in a final pitch competition at Mason Square. 

The Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP) is helping inventors and entrepreneurs like Jourdan Saunders, CEO of The Resource Key, bring their innovations and technologies to market.

Many students graduate from the Costello College of Business at ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ with bold plans to start their own companies. Bethany Rivera and Alex Tugbang, both undergraduate marketing students and classmates in Jiyeon Hong’s marketing course, had already launched their respective businesses Rivera’s Photography and Photuggraphy prior to enrolling.

From the fabrication floor to the incubator’s loft, the MIX demonstrates how principles of entrepreneurship and innovation aren’t so easily siloed with two new courses: BLIMP and Student Innovator Mastermind.

George Mason Systems Engineering and Operations Research students took first place in the Systems and Analytics Track of the Sage Memorial Design Competition and first place in the STEM Track of the Patriot Pitch Competition with their plan to deliver supplies to a hard-to-reach island in the Chesapeake Bay.

Led by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) within the Costello College of Business at ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ, the Patriot Pitch Competition supports early-stage business ventures and ideas from Mason students and recent alumni. On April 11, the finalists made their final pitches on the Fairfax Campus. 

The college that now bears Donald G. Costello’s name is a fitting testament to his entrepreneurial legacy. This extends not only to coursework and outreach programs, which have long stressed entrepreneurship, but also to the faculty’s research expertise. Indeed, a number of Costello College of Business professors were key contributors to Mason’s being named the #2 university for entrepreneurship research in North America by independent ratings agency EduRank.

Princess Aliyah Pandolfi, BS in Management '04, is the co-founder and executive director of Kashmir World Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of endangered species through novel technologies, such as autonomous drones and AI.