“We were able to expose our employees to a vast array of technology research, which will certainly impact our business and society in the future,” said Amy Hale, AOL’s director of university relations.

The AOL-CIT University Research Day is designed to give technologists from AOL an opportunity to begin dialogues with Virginia university researchers working in fields of interest to the company.  More than 100 employees in technology-related roles at AOL participated in the event, along with 40 research professors and doctoral candidates representing six universities in Virginia: GW Virginia Campus; George Mason University; James Madison University; Old Dominion University; the Virginia Commonwealth University; and Virginia Tech.  Scoring by judges from AOL was based on the level of innovation in the technology, value to AOL, ease of adoption and time to market, as well as effective delivery, organization and use of visual aids. 

CIT established Research Day for AOL in 1999 as a way to focus the company’s attention on cutting-edge research being conducted at Virginia’s colleges and universities, and to encourage AOL’s investment in university research to remain in the Commonwealth.  This year, AOL provided $20,000 in awards for outstanding presentations and poster displays.

“This is one way that CIT can work with Virginia’s technology businesses, large and small, to achieve a primary goal: helping ideas generated in Virginia’s colleges and universities reach the marketplace,” said Peter Jobse, CIT’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “Research conducted by Virginia universities that can add value to a Virginia company’s products or services results in economic benefit to the Commonwealth. AOL’s enthusiastic participation in this event demonstrates its commitment to seeking solutions in its own backyard.”

CIT is a state-chartered nonprofit corporation focused on three goals: enhancing federal research funding to Virginia’s colleges, universities and industry; commercializing intellectual property from universities and laboratories and growing entrepreneurial companies; and promoting the growth of technology-based industry by serving as the Commonwealth’s technology extension service.

Conveniently located in the Northern Virginia technology corridor near Dulles International Airport, GW’s Virginia Campus is the University’s Research and Technology Campus.  The 90-acre campus is a robust cluster of executive education and technology programs and world-class research initiatives in transportation safety and security, information technology and telecommunications.  Since opening in August 1991, the campus has experienced a tenfold increase in its student base and has grown annual research funding from $50,000 to more than $7 million.