Veterans Innovation Network

Welcome to the Veterans Innovation Network (VetIN)

VetIN is home to the Veterans Innovation Fellowship (VetIF) program and the Veteran Research Assistant (VetRA) program. These programs are dedicated to the training, mentorship, and promotion of student veterans seeking careers in research and high-tech industry. Our mission is to enhance the pool of future technology leaders through a focus on established talent with field tested experience. This is done through unprecedented support of student veterans through a 360-degree mentorship and training environment.

Our efforts are designed to provide direct, unambiguous paths to advanced degrees and careers in research so that our diverse collection of student veterans can contribute to solving the numerous challenges that exist for our nation and the world.

We invite you to explore the Veterans Innovation Network and consider partnering with our efforts to leverage the intellectual capital of student veterans towards the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Program Highlights

Personalized Mentorship: Obtain 1-1 mentorship with world leading researchers and personalized coaching sessions designed to support you as a student, a veteran, and a researcher.

Collaborative Research: Learn both basic and applied, theoretical and experimental research skills while contributing to the technical discoveries at the precipice of what is possible.

Financial Support: Comprehensive stipends and appointments designed to allow student veteran researchers to focus on attaining the most from both educational and research experiences.

Nation-wide Networking: COMPASS connects participants with best-in-class research institutions, professional organizations, and faculty to ensure that our student veterans have the strongest possible network as they advance into the next stage of their education or careers.

Professional Development: We provide formal training in project management, personal branding and brand management, application (graduate program and award) development, and writing & communication to all of our student veterans.

Inaugural 2024 VetIF Cadre of Research Fellows

**Olubukola Akinbami** is a cognitive science major at the University of Michigan and a US Army veteran. She is currently working at the interface of AI and decision making science under within the research group of Paul Bogdan (University of Southern California).

**Steven Crechiolo** is a physics major at the University of Michigan and a US Marine Corps veteran. He is currently working at the interface of mechatronics and complex composites manufacturing in the laboratory of Carlos Cesnik (University of Michigan) towards aerospace applications.

**Brandon Olson** is a neuroscience major at the University of Michigan and a US Marine Corps veteran. His research currently focuses on the use of particle systems for cancer treatment in the laboratory of Joerg Lahann (University of Michigan).

**Jebril Thaxton** is a electrical engineering student (University of Michigan) and a veteran that served as a nuclear Navy power system technologist. Working in the laboratory of Albert Liu (University of Michigan), his research focuses on nanoelectrical and photonic devices for sensing and optoelectronic applications.

Our current (2025) program statement can be found here:

Veterans Innovation Network Program – Final – 2025 Download

Please contact the Veterans Innovation Network (VetIN) Program Manager
with questions or to get involved:
Dr. Jeff Raymond – [email protected]

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2243104.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.