About the i.Lab at U.Va.
The i.Lab is a University-wide initiative that creates a nexus for entrepreneurship and innovation education. Its mission is to foster deep cross-collaboration with no boundaries, across disciplines, schools or ways of thinking. The i.Lab provides coaching, courses and incubation to students, faculty and community members innovating the future. Initiatives such as the i.Lab help create a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem within U.Va. and its surrounding community. The i.Lab is a collaborative effort of 11 schools of the University, the Provost’s Office, and U.Va. Innovation.
History
In the spring of 2010, Darden and its Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation unveiled the innovation laboratory, or "i.Lab," a state-of-the-art learning environment that inspires a new approach to teaching innovation and entrepreneurship. The i.Lab is a unique physical learning environment rooted in multidisciplinary thinking and informed by ethnographic, anthropological, and other methodologies traditionally used in the social sciences. The structure serves as a physical complement to a new academic discipline offered at Darden rooted in innovation-intensive design.
In the fall of 2011, alumnus W.L. Lyons Brown (MBA '87) championed the School's quest to create innovative, new businesses and issued a 90-day matching challenge to meet the $1 million goal to build a state-of-the-art incubator. Funds raised substantially exceeded the target within the desired timeline.
Darden began expansion of the i.Lab in the summer of 2012 to include a new cutting-edge business incubator facility. When the facility is complete and operational in the summer of 2013, the incubator will admit an expanded group of entrepreneurs. Admitted Darden students will be joined by qualified, high-potential entrepreneurs from the larger U.Va. and Charlottesville, Virginia, communities.
Virtual Tour
Enter the i.Lab, Move From Room to Room:
Move the mouse over the image freely; whenever the mouse cursor becomes an arrow, click, wait for the refresh, and you'll move into that space.
360 Degree Viewing:
Whenever the cursor shows as a circle over the image, click and hold the mouse button down, drag the cursor in the direction you would like to view while continuing to hold the mouse button down. Click-drag-hold a little, the image rotates slowly, click-drag-hold more, the image moves faster.
Map:
Use the map to move instantly to any room. Click the Map logo in the lower right corner to display the map, then click any blue dot to move to that location. The red dot indicates your current location.
For tour, click here.
i.Lab Expansion Events
i.Lab Expansion Grand Opening [11 April 2013]