BROOKINGS — After 15 years of studying about and working with the autistic population, Lacy Knutson believed she had discovered a gap in the products offered for this clientele.
She envisioned a wearable product that would protect children with developmental disabilities and autism and also have technology that would transmit data to parents, therapists and analysts. The South Dakota State University faculty member also envisioned a “cap” that would be as stylish and personalized as possible.
Sounds like a wonderful idea, but the 2007 SDSU pschology graduate is a board-certified behavior analyst, not an engineer or an entrepreneur.
So how does Knutson’s idea become a product — and a product that will find success in the marketplace?
To turn the idea into a product, Knutson turned to the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering. To make the product viable in the marketplace, Knutson turned to Great Plains I-Corps.
I-Corps program develops entrepreneurship
Innovation Corps, commonly known as I-Corps, is a program of the National Science Foundation. There are regional I-Corps throughout the nation, with South Dakota in the Great Plains region, which includes partner universities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming and Montana. SDSU is among them.
Each university has a culture of cultivating entrepreneurship, with North Dakota State University the lead institution.
But Knutson didn’t need to travel to Fargo or anywhere else to find out what she needed to know. Knutson and two undergraduate students participated in a five-week, intensive customer discovery program that was completely done remotely. Participants were tasked with conducting a minimum of 20 interviews with potential customers.
For Knutson, the interviews included designers of protective equipment and regulators. Her team also was paired by with an industry mentor. She was asked what her business plan would be and if Knutson would create her own company to make the product or if she would contract it out to someone else.
“That business/entrepreneurial viewpoint was not a lens I was used to,” said Knutson, who is the Lucas P. Wintrode Assistant Professor of Special Education in Autism Studies.
Senior design teams advance product
As part of their senior design project, a team of mechanical engineering students worked on the design of the “cap” in 2024-25, and a team electrical engineering and computer science students worked on refining sensor data collection in 2025-26.
Great Plains I-Corps officials were impressed enough with Knutson’s proposal that it was recommended she take it to the national discovery program, where 100 interviews will be conducted. She was awarded grant funding to do some of the interviews in person this summer. Knutson will be assisted by a graduate student who also worked with her in initial interviews in 2023.
“I really had my eyes opened when I started to talk to people who had more practice in this field on what steps must be taken for a medical device,” she said.
The concept of knowing what the customer wants before plunging headfirst into a business venture can be applied to any industry, including agriculture. In fact, Great Plains I-Corps is beginning an eight-session program in August for teams that are developing agriculture or ag-related technologies.
I-Corps: Ag45 starts in August
It is dubbed Great Plains I-Corps: Ag45 because teams will conduct 45 customer discovery interviews, engaging directly with stakeholders across the agriculture ecosystem to test and refine their assumptions.
Six of the eight sessions are virtual with two sessions and two conferences in Fargo. Orientation (Aug. 13) and the next four three-hour sessions are virtual. In-person sessions are Sept. 15 and Sept. 18, sandwiching the Big Iron Farm and Construction Show on Sept. 16 and the Autonomous Nation conference on Sept. 17. The last session is Sept. 24.
The program is free, but participants must apply by July 13 at https://gp-icorps.org/events/ag45/.
Each team is also eligible to receive $3,000 in participant support funding to support their time and customer discovery efforts.
For more information, contact Brenna Johansen, innovation outreach specialist with Great Plains I-Corps, at [email protected].
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