Working Class

The lab also conceived Applications Quest, data-mining software to help university counselors make fair yet diverse admissions decisions while still adhering to the 2003 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.

The Business of Science
But with help from Greenville, South Carolina-based businessman Rich Winley, Gilbert has plans to create a new business model to help black entrepreneurs partner with his lab. In November 2011, Winley approached Gilbert for help in building No Chains, a mobile app that travelers and foodies can use to find and experience local cuisine in non-franchise restaurants.

Traversing the tech scene can be daunting for many African Americans. “I know how to build a traditional business, but building a tech business is a totally different thing,” says Winley. “It’s a huge learning curve.”

But Winley didn’t have to teach himself how to code. Instead, he recruited Gilbert and his students to design his user interface, program his back-end software, and help populate his database.

Gilbert’s lab gave Winley the leg up he needed to qualify for and compete as one of 11 participants in The Iron Yard, a Greenville-based, 13-week tech accelerator associated with Startup America Partnership’s Global Accelerator Network.

The collaboration has helped Winley, and the students have benefited from it, too. If No Chains gets funded and becomes profitable, a percentage of the revenue will be donated back to Gilbert’s lab for research.

With the goal of replicating the No Chains model, Winley and Gilbert have launched African American Entrepreneurs in Technology Summit, a demonstration program, which lets aspiring entrepreneurs pitch Gilbert’s lab to build their proof of concept.

With fewer than 1% of venture capitalist-backed tech startups founded by African Americans and less than 1.5% of African Americans working in Silicon Valley, Gilbert’s lab and AAEIT provide an alternate pipeline for increased success for both students and entrepreneurs.

“A professor will create something, protect it, and license it. That is typical,” says Gilbert. “We are atypical because we are meeting with the individual up front to generate the idea. The students are engaged. They see it as an opportunity to help the African American community. The model in our lab is to change the world.”