The $8 million initiative is good news for undergraduate students in the university's rapidly growing aerospace concentration in the mechanical engineering program.

Other items include a Johnson City start-up being selected for the "gBeta Indiana Energy and Sustainability Accelerator" and a new name for a long-standing program operated by the UT Center for Industrial Services.

This program is another outcome of the partnership that Alex Miller and Barry Goss forged more than a decade ago.

There's a new Managing Director of the "Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator," while a North Carolina venture firm is raising a new $125 million fund targeting blockchain start-ups.

Selected start-ups will receive collaboration, mentorship, coaching, and networking opportunities with the health system’s internal stakeholders and external partners.  

Several other opportunities for established or would be entrepreneurs are available including free co-working space in the Upper Cumberland area and the annual "iBUCS Student Venture Pitch Competition" at ETSU.

The seventh of seven pitches took home the $10,000 prize in this annual pitch competition from the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center.

Thursday night's event officially kicked off the first-ever combined "Scipreneur Challenge" and "Smart Mobility Challenge" for college students, postdocs, and others. The focus was on helping find the best pathway to commercialization.