ºÚÁÏÍø

The Marty Erbaugh (i3) Lab

I3: IDEATE • INNOVATE • INCUBATE  

THE MARTY ERBAUGH (i3) LAB 

The i3 Lab houses student teams that ideate, innovate and incubate their ventures through a product accelerator program led by LaunchNET and Design Innovation. The product accelerator is designed to help teams advance to the next stage in their startup journey through customer discovery, business development and prototyping.   

The entrepreneurial work space features resources, co-working areas and private offices within the Design Innovation Hub at Kent State.

SPRING 2023

The i3 Lab is currently recruiting teams for Spring 2023. This multi-week program will include workshop opportunities, regular advisory meetings, and mandatory group sessions on the following dates:

  • Friday, January 27 | 11:30am - 1:30pm
  • Friday, February 17 | 11:30am - 1:30pm
  • Friday, March 10 | 11:30am-1:30pm
  • Friday, April 21 | 11:30am - 1:30pm

Interested teams should 


The Marty Erbaugh (i3) Lab supports a "hack to hatch" concept and series of small spaces in the DI HUB managed by Kent State’s NEO LaunchNET and the Design Innovation Team. The I3 Lab program will host student teams with access to mini-grant funding, short-term dedicated space (typically a maximum of 9 weeks) and support from the LaunchNET team, to assist teams in due diligence activities to determine if they should bring their ideas into a formal incubation environment (i.e. launch a venture).

The i3 Lab spaces enable an entrepreneurship and innovation accelerator program environment in which student projects that result from DI courses, hackathons and other challenge-based competitions could lead to potentially-marketable concepts or products.

Marty Erbaugh was a longtime advisor to LaunchNET ºÚÁÏÍø. He believed in supporting entrepreneurs of all ages. The Marty Erbaugh I3 Lab will be abuzz with the frenetic entrepreneurial spirit key to any aspiring business founder's success. Student projects that result from Design Innovation courses, hackathons, and other challenge-based competitions will be grown here with intentional programming and supports so that these ideas can be developed into potentially marketable concepts or products.

More information about Kent State’s NEO LaunchNET can be found here: /launchnet.

Responses to frequently asked questions about the I3 Lab program are below: