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11/07/2023 01:31 PMDr. Mostafa Analoui of Madison has made a career connecting higher education and the communities it serves. Mostafa was just appointed as the Carlton Highsmith Chair of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Quinnipiac University and will be putting his unique skill set to use as the institution begins a new partnership with area businesses and community organizations.
Mostafa and his family have lived in Madison since 2002, coming from Indiana after he was recruited by Pfizer. He was a professor at Indiana University of the Schools of Dentistry and Medicine.
Mostafa has a long and distinguished career in higher education, having received a doctorate in engineering from Purdue University. He also holds a master’s degree in engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Shiraz University in his native Iran.
“After I finished my undergraduate study and got my B.S. degree in the field of engineering, I came to the U.S. in 1986 from Iran and came to Chicago, where I received my master’s degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I then went to Lafayette, Indiana, at Perdue and received my PhD there, all in the field of engineering,” he says.
Mostafa also says he has focused his career on fostering partnerships between higher education institutions and their communities.
“It is interesting from two perspectives and excites me because of these two components. This is a role intended to work with all students and faculty members to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the campus and the university. The second part of the role requires working with the community and helping the community and connecting the community with the university. So, the combination of internal and external work as a whole is a very, very exciting opportunity not just for me, but for both students and faculty and also for the whole community around us,” he says.
Mostafa says among his responsibilities in his new position will be creating and sustaining an effective network of collaborators to accelerate community engagement while also emphasizing economic development. Mostafa says he will work to expand innovation and entrepreneurship across the university, collaborating with current faculty and students to create new programs and expand existing ones.
“One example is Conn Corp, which is a nonprofit entity based in Hamden and New Haven, and they provide hands-on training for young entrepreneurs, small businesses, and minorities,” says Mostafa. “Quinnipiac has partnered with them to provide that kind of training so that they gain that knowledge and those skills to either expand their existing business or launch a new business. A university is not a stand-alone entity. We train students to do good for themselves and their families and also for the community. As we teach students in the class, we want them to recognize the challenges in the community around them and become engaged with it and understand it, and eventually, when they graduate, to morph into the workplace to be a contributor to their community. If you have a healthy community, everyone can enjoy the fruits of those labors.”
But there are some difficult tasks institutions confront when forging these partnerships, says Mostafa
“Obviously, the challenge is our need to develop beyond our resources and our capabilities. So, to understand that, we need to be very selective, and we need to partner with others so that we can pull together as many resources as we can to get the job done. Ultimately, this is a task that is not necessarily something that should be done alone by the university. We need wonderful players around us to foster this development,” he says.
According to Mostafa, one challenge will be keeping pace with the constantly developing and shifting field of technology. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is just one of the many technological innovations that the program will seek to integrate with the community, says Mostafa.
“This is a very unique period that we are going through. The rapid change of discovery and new science and technology has been challenging for everybody, for the educators as well as the workplace. Just think about how much AI is impacting our society. As a result of that, as an educator, I have to be very, very proactive and anticipate these changes and constantly updating the content of education to ensure students have the right tool at the right time. At the same time, this is impacting the workforce. The type of skills that companies are looking to hire, the type of talents they are looking for to retrain their workers, is part of our external collaboration to make sure that those in the workforce can have the opportunity to come back to university and get those new skills they need. Mankind has constantly been going through change, but the pace of change these days is so rapid that we require a different reaction to it.”
Many pundits have criticized America’s growing technology gap with the world and the lack of emphasis on science and tech careers. However, Mostafa says he is optimistic about the future, not only of Connecticut’s economic future but the country as a whole.
“I am absolutely optimistic about what is coming. I believe that education of science and technology is a very complicated process. There are a number of differences that exist between the U.S. and other countries. Higher education and training is not a stand-alone entity. You can train as many engineers as you want, but you have to have the proper ecosystem to properly employ them, educate them, and grow them. You have to have the social mechanisms for the community to be vibrant and moving forward as well. You need the finance to invest in the next generation. When you put all these factors collectively together, and this is why I am so optimistic about the U.S., with the brain power…I think the future is very bright.”
Mostafa says his new position is perfectly aligned with his passion for education and its ability to impact the community.
“Learning about Quinnipiac’s broad commitment to expanding the entrepreneurial ecosystem truly energized me about joining such an outstanding team,” says Mostafa. “Quinnipiac has a very strong vision for the future, and I am delighted to be part of this journey.”
Mostafa has a strong background across all angles of these partnerships, coming to Quinnipiac from Pickwick Capital Partners, where he served as managing director. Mostafa was also a research professor at the University of Connecticut, where he collaborated with the schools of engineering, medicine, and agriculture to expand innovation, entrepreneurship, and partnerships.
From 2016-’22, he served as executive director of UConn Ventures, which works to create new business start-ups using innovative technologies developed by the university’s faculty and staff.
“I am very excited and honored that the university trusted my capabilities and offered me this role, and offered the tools and resources to be successful at it,” says Mostafa.