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With their capstone project, four George Mason mechanical engineering students explored how to make airport travel less stressful for people with mobility challenges?

This May, startups from across the globe came to Manassas, Virginia. Along with their suitcases, they brought polished presentations, new technologies, and big plans.

Throughout Virginia, the life sciences sector is gaining momentum as major pharmaceutical companies invest billions in new facilities and operations. As a result, employers need to find people who can step into laboratory and manufacturing roles right away. 91����'s Innovation District is meeting the demand.

After participating in George Mason's Nano Boot Campus, George Mason alumnus and veteran Charles Stewart was hired by Micron Technology.

This month, a new Northern Virginia International Soft-Landing Accelerator (NISA) program, designed to help start-ups from around the globe find guidance, connections, and lab or office spaces at no cost, was launched to help develop new technologies in life sciences.

TJ Master and Elizabeth Pyle, mentors with the Virginia Small Business Development Center’s (SBDC) Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP), are advising entrepreneurs in the Innovation District.

This summer, George Mason graduate students rolled up their sleeves in busy labs, learned their way around unfamiliar equipment, and even played a part in moving clinical trials forward, working with start-ups and biotech companies in the recently established Innovation District anchored by the university’s Science and Technology Campus.

Thanks to a major investment from GO Virginia, Northern Virginia’s first Innovation District, led by 91���� and in partnership with Prince William County and the City of Manassas, is taking shape, laying the groundwork for growth in high-tech industry sectors like life sciences, aerospace, defense, and semiconductors.

Ever since InsideNoVa’s Bruce Potter coined the term “nanofab-ulous” to describe the exciting advancements in nanotechnology in the region, 91���� has embraced it in full force.

With the opening of the Nanofabrication Facility on its Science and Technology Campus, Mason stands ready to conduct state-of-the-art research and to help train the next generation of innovators.