Harvard University launches the Harvard Innovation Lab

When Mark Zuckerberg visited Harvard to recruit for Facebook, there was one was stop he added to his schedule — and it wasn’t his old Kirkland House dorm. Rather, Zuckerberg made an unexpected detour to visit the new Harvard Innovation Lab, or i-lab.On November 18th Harvard University officially launched the Harvard Innovation Lab with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and remarks by President Drew Faust, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and Business School Dean Nitin Nohria. The Innovation Lab, or i-lab, is designed to foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and to deepen interactions among students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and the Boston community.The i-lab represents a promise not just to the rest of Boston, but to would-be innovators and entrepreneurs around Harvard looking to connect with like-minded collaborators, Nohria told the crowd.

The i-lab will encourage entrepreneurship and innovation across the University, bringing together many cross-curricular interests, including Harvard College, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Business School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Harvard Law School, the School for Engineering and Applied Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.Located on the first floor of Batten Hall at 125 Western Ave. on Harvard’s Allston campus, the i-lab reactivates the building that once housed WGBH-TV’s studios. The lab includes academic space such as classrooms and meeting areas designed to serve both undergraduate and graduate students. It also provides public areas and meeting rooms designed to foster project work, as well as business development resources for companies, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and other individuals in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood and Boston area.

Visit the i-lab website by clicking here.

Source and Image Courtesy: Harvard Gazette