What can I do at the UC 1819 Innovation Hub?
UC students, researchers and faculty can all grow their skills, innovate and have fun at 1819
What if one place could help you build a business, develop a new skill, unleash your creativity or just have some fun?
Welcome to the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub, the community’s home for entrepreneurship, making and gaming and corporate innovation.
Whether you’re kick-starting a new hobby in the Ground Floor Makerspace, turning your idea into a startup through the Venture Lab or looking for your next opportunity to create, connect and grow, 1819’s resources and connections make it worth the trip.
Not sure where to start? You’re in the right place. Read on to discover what 1819 has in store for you.
What makes 1819 worth the trip?
For UC students, business leaders, faculty members and researchers alike, 1819’s resources make it the right place to dream big.
Want to dive into 3D printing or welding? Need a poster for your school project? 1819, located at 2900 Reading Road less than 10 minutes from Downtown Cincinnati and five minutes from UC’s Uptown campus on the Bearcats Shuttle (Innovation District route), offers all the assets and know-how to make great things happen.
Located on Floor 1
The 12,000-square-foot Ground Floor Makerspace is the ideal spot to experiment on UC’s finest making equipment or prototype products for your business. 1819 boasts Greater Cincinnati’s most advanced makerspace facility, and students, faculty, partner companies and startups all benefit from free, complete access.
On the bottom floor of the 1819 Innovation Hub, you’ll find the following:
Students working in the 1819 Ground Floor Makerspace. Photo/UC Marketing+Communications
- 3D printers and scanners
- CNC routers
- Laser cutters
- Metalshop and welding equipment
- Soldering tools
- Textiles and sewing machines
- Waterjet cutters
- Woodworking tools
- Graphics and printing resources
Curious but don’t know where to begin? The Ground Floor Makerspace hosts orientation sessions, guided tours, workshops and three separate certification programs – one for laser cutting, another for the metalshop and a last for the woodshop.
View of the 1819 Makerspace. Photo/Mary Dwyer
The 1819 Makerspace is buzzing for much of the year with both businesspeople and some of UC’s most hands-on organizations. Students can join the Aerocats to assemble and fly a working airplane, build a battlebot with UC Combat Robotics or design and construct a racecar with Bearcats Racing.
Skilled technicians are ready and willing to help newcomers get their start in the Makerspace and fabrication lab. On top of that, 1819’s making community is welcoming, kind and generous.
Located on Floor 1
Students, are you ready to level up? Head to the Esports Innovation Lab.
This is the heart of UC’s gaming community, with 40 state-of-the-art consoles and a hub where friends can become fierce competitors. Another option: Hang out in the sports community lounge, with a private competition room, a ping-pong table and cornhole.
Competition runs wild in the Esports Innovation Lab, due in no small part to the UC Esports Club’s over 2,000 members. Teams duke it out against other clubs in:
The Esports Innovation Lab is home to both casual and competitive gaming. Photo/Andrew Higley
- Call of Duty
- League of Legends
- Overwatch
- Rocket League
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Valorant
- Super Smash Bros.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- eChess
The Esports Innovation Lab is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 10 p.m., plus Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. until midnight.
Get your gaming on today!
Located on Floor 1
Ready, set, record in the 1819 Broadcast Studio.
The 1819 Broadcast Studio is open to UC students and staff, plus 1819 business partners. Photo/Friends Stock via Shutterstock
This is the perfect place to host a corporate podcast or livestream your favorite video game, broadcasting your message far beyond Cincinnati. Booking the booth comes at zero cost to UC community members and 1819 partner companies and startups, making it an easy answer if you’re looking to spread the word about a passion project or business campaign.
No experience is needed to use the 1819 Broadcast Studio. In your first session, you’ll receive a personalized training session along with a handbook on how to broadcast successfully and use the space well.
Reach out at dimonaga@ucmail.uc.edu to learn more about the 1819 Broadcast Studio or to book your first session.
Located on Floor 2
The Learning Lab serves as one of 1819’s most unique and valuable assets for business leaders. The lab empowers teams to rediscover the art and science of learning, offering them the skills and mindset to push their organizations toward greater innovation and collaboration.
Every experience guided by the Learning Lab serves one of three goals:
Group in a Learning Lab session. Photo/UC Marketing+Communications
- Develop: Engaging, multi-hour sessions are used to hone individuals’ innovation skills, helping them become better learners and more effective collaborators.
- Deepen: Immersive trainings help strengthen team trust and resiliency, allowing for stronger capabilities in navigating the innovation process.
- Deliver: Impactful sprints uncover novel ideas, produce breakthrough solutions and strengthen business strategies, bolstered by feedback from experienced innovators.
Fortune 500 companies, 1819-affiliated startups and community organizations have all taken note of the Learning Lab’s powerful impact on workers. For this reason, many firms have started flying out-of-town employees to Cincinnati to join sessions.
Looking to stimulate greater impact and innovation on your team? Contact Learning Lab director Nicholas Partridge at partrinr@ucmail.uc.edu to set up an introductory meeting.
Located on Floor 2
What if you could commercialize your research? Join the Venture Lab to find out.
The University of Cincinnati’s startup accelerator program is open to community members along with UC students, faculty and staff ready to take inventive ideas to real-world consumers. The Venture Lab’s payoff is huge: participants get mentored by experienced entrepreneurs in residence, unlock access to the region’s largest pool of nondilutive funding and move through a program that goes beyond business fundamentals.
Man presenting on Demo Day. Photo/Ravenna Rutledge
The Venture Lab, Cincinnati’s only university-driven business accelerator, offers three distinct programs to entrepreneurs and members of UC’s campus community:
- Venture Lab Digital Pre-accelerator: A free, online business accelerator for early-stage founders seeking initial knowledge of startups and venture-building.
- Venture Lab Accelerator: An eight-week, in-person program connecting established entrepreneurs with one-on-one mentors and startup resources. Participants grow their business acumen and gain market insights for evaluating growth strategies and product-market fit.
- Venture Lab NEXT: A 10-week startup accelerator helping founders achieve product-market fit through mentorship, collaboration and weekly learning sessions. Ventures receive $10,000 in nondilutive funding upon graduation from the program.
Venture Lab participants working. Photo/UC Marketing+Communications
The Venture Lab isn’t just another startup accelerator around Cincinnati. It links high-achieving founders with UC resources such as the Office of Commercialization, offers connections with the region’s top entrepreneurs in residence and gives generous funding to promising startups.
No matter where you are on your entrepreneurial path, the Venture Lab is ready to provide support. Apply to the program to see whether your research could turn into a viable business.
Located on Floor 2 in the Venture Lab
Business leaders, why not work where next happens?
A dedicated desk in the 1819 Venture Lab could be yours for just $150 per month. As a coworking partner, you’ll benefit from free parking, zero-cost meeting room reservations, a discounted rate for the Ground Floor Makerspace and a wide selection of coffees and teas.
Additional perks of coworking at 1819: immediate access to UC students and networking opportunities with entrepreneurs and leaders at partner companies such as Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Fifth Third Bank and Microsoft.
Apply for a coworking membership using 1819’s dedicated form.
Located on Floor 3
NEXT Innovation Scholars is a cohort-based, transdisciplinary education program immersing UC students into the realms of design thinking and strategic foresight. Companies from across the U.S. and beyond seek out NIS students for lucrative insights, straight from tomorrow’s leaders.
By envisioning the future with the NEXT Innovation Scholars, accepted students and forward-thinking firms working with them gain access to:
NIS students working at 1819. Photo/Aaron Bradley
- Insights and strategy: Actionable, human-centered conclusions that inform front-end innovation decisions and long-term strategy.
- Ideation: Divergent and convergent explorations of existing, proposed or speculative concepts and solutions.
- Foresight Lab: Research-driven analysis of macrotrends, signals of change and the implications of multiple possible futures.
- Innovation training: Interactive workshops, trainings and exercises that unlock innovation potential and empower new approaches.
In the last five years, NIS has completed 44 innovation projects for more than 30 partner companies in 12 industries. Businesses leveraging NIS expertise include fast-growing tech startups, global Fortune 500 companies and everything in between.
Apart from corporate partnerships, NEXT Innovation Scholars publishes thought leadership resources for organizations at large. Learn more by reading its “Horizon Shift” futures reports or by listening to the “Undisciplined by Design” podcast on either Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
As one of the country’s only undergraduate strategic foresight programs, NIS research is in high demand. Ready to apply as a student or see what’s next for your firm? Email nis@uc.edu.
Located on Floor 4
Intellectual property. Patents. Licensing. Disclosures.
Protecting your ideas and the research invested into a new technology is important. After all, it's one of the first steps toward exploring whether your innovation could become something greater.
UC researchers can take their work to the Office of Commercialization. Photo/Danny Kidd
The Office of Commercialization at 1819 helps make that happen, protecting UC IP and guiding you through the patenting process. The team then links you with companies and startups that may be interested in licensing your work and bringing it to market, generating revenue for you.
The best way to begin? Disclose your discovery, whether you believe it has commercial potential or not. The Office of Commercialization will evaluate its viability and advise you on next steps.
Disclosure is worth taking seriously because research shouldn’t always end with publication. A quick conversation with the Office of Commercialization will show you what options exist for taking your work beyond the lab.
UC's college-to-career pipeline is well known and highly regarded, with the school's co-op and internship program ranked fourth-best in the U.S. The 1819 Innovation Hub and its surrounding Cincinnati Innovation District bring top companies, entrepreneurs and industry leaders right to UC’s doorstep, helping students and businesspeople land and fill internships, co-ops and full-time roles.
UC students head to 1819 for professional and career development. Photo/Kailyn Swarts
A wide variety of opportunities attract Bearcats to 1819. Students head to the Ground Floor Makerspace for personal and capstone projects, turn to the Esports Innovation Lab for fun and competition and join Venture Lab NEXT to add traction to their startup ideas.
Many UC students head to 1819 to find business leaders, too. There’s no lack of hardworking Bearcats searching for their next positions in the workforce, whether as full-time employees, co-ops or interns.
Could you be a student’s match?
Education and inspiration often come quickest outside of the boardroom or the classroom. Some of your most valuable sources of learning might instead happen during pitch competitions, hackathons or business-focused programming at the 1819 Innovation Hub.
Here are just a few of the events you’ll see regularly occurring at 1819:
MidwestCon, an event hosted at 1819. Photo/Gregory Glevicky
- Innovation trainings: Corporate partners, startups and community members host sessions at 1819 teaching students about AI, entrepreneurship and other innovation-related topics. Examples include MidwestCon, the NEXT Mindset Professional Readiness Day and the Future Tech Forum.
- Venture Lab Demo Day: Discover how Cincinnati’s up-and-coming startups are innovating to solve pressing business challenges and get inspired to launch your own business.
- Hackathons: Join fast-paced, weekend-long events where you’ll partner with other students to brainstorm and build real-world business concepts. 1819 hosts RevolutionUC, MakeUC, UC Startup Weekend and BearcatCTF annually, among other hackathons.
- Student futures forecasts: Hear from UC’s NEXT Innovation Scholars about macrotrends changing society today that could play massive roles in shaping your reality tomorrow.
Attendees learning during the NIS Futures Forum. Photo/Ally Mescher
By hosting sessions led by top innovation experts, 1819 exposes people to ideas they might not encounter every day. Follow the 1819 Innovation Hub on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming events.
The place to innovate
The 1819 Innovation Hub and the surrounding Cincinnati Innovation District serve as UC’s Swiss army knife, offering valuable resources and engagement opportunities for almost anyone.
View facing the 1819 Innovation Hub. Photo/Gregory Glevicky
Are you a student? Launch a startup through Venture Lab NEXT, build something new in the Ground Floor Makerspace, discover your next co-op from an 1819 partner company or get your head in the game in the Esports Innovation Lab.
A faculty member or researcher? Grow your skills at an 1819 event, protect your inventions through the Office of Commercialization or consider starting a business with the Venture Lab.
A business leader ready to work with UC? Access Bearcat talent in NEXT Innovation Scholars and throughout the building, fast-track research and development by prototyping at the Makerspace, build team cohesion in the Learning Lab or let the UC Office of Commercialization identify your next product breakthrough.
Regardless of where you fit, 1819 is your on-campus portal to innovation, opportunity and fun. So, what are you waiting for?
Frequently asked questions
At 1819, UC students benefit from the largest makerspace on campus, a dedicated Esports lab and broadcast booth, the Venture Lab NEXT startup accelerator for their entrepreneurial ideas, connections to corporate partners for potential jobs or co-ops and the chance to join the NEXT Innovation Scholars program.
Businesspeople at the 1819 Innovation Hub benefit from tight connections with corporate partners, regularly scheduled innovation events, upskilling opportunities through the Learning Lab and prototyping resources in the Ground Floor Makerspace. On top of that, they receive specialized expertise from the NEXT Innovation Scholars, proximity to the Office of Commercialization for discovering UC research and easy access to a pipeline of students to recruit for jobs, co-ops and internships.
UC faculty can join innovation-focused events at 1819, fast-track their work by prototyping in the Ground Floor Makerspace or turn to the Office of Commercialization and the Venture Lab to transition their research into products.
The 1819 Innovation Hub is the University of Cincinnati's home for innovation, entrepreneurship, research and fun. It's home to Greater Cincinnati's most extensive makerspace, the Venture Lab business accelerator, workforce development resources, UC's dedicated Esports lab and a collection of startups and large-scale businesses. 1819 serves as UC's crossroads between industry and academia.
Featured image at top: Woman performing research at 1819. Photo/Andrew Higley