REE, 26 October 2005, 2:15pm, Session B Notes Unique Entrepreneurship Courses

Transcription

1 REE, 26 October 2005, 2:15pm, Session B Notes Unique Entrepreneurship Courses Discussion Ground Rules o Use entrepreneurship in most general way o Use unique in most general way not something that is different from everything else but something of interest to everyone else o Rough Discussion Agenda Examples Unique Goals or Implementation Ideas and dreams for future courses Formal Examples o Maryland Technology and Enterprise Institute (MTECH) Out of engineering school. Two programs MTECH Ventures Input ideas and technologies and hopeful output is sustainable ventures Kick off academic year with entrepreneurship boot camp and wind up year with business plan competition Focus on helping people understand process and skills of entrepreneurship as well as connect them to resources on campus (incubator, product development program, venture accelerator) Courses Introduction to Entrepreneurship ENES 460 (Engineering wide course) o Large growth due to wide popularity o Underlying philosophy (in context of MTECH ventures process) Engineering students are quick to understand So focus on practical, hands-on, experiential course o Class dynamics students Mix of graduate and undergraduate, engineering, nonengineering o Goals Instruct how to evaluate commercial feasibility of an innovation and assess its potential o Format 2 nd week form groups of 2-4 students and each group comes with an idea or innovation (or assigned one by getting some IP from

2 office of tech commercialization). Throughout course plan a venture and then make investor presentations at end of course Teams encouraged to enter business plan competition and seek grants or investments Several viable companies have moved along Planning a similar graduate course (so grad students feel they get the proper credit for the course) Demand generally higher than that available to serve students Questions What percentage of students served by course per year? 10% (150) and typically take junior or senior year. Not integrated into a larger course design because engineering students too time constrained to fit in a series of courses How is the cost of operating the center / course? All of our work very strongly encouraged by Dean and Provost and so they provide the money. Some of our sections are taught by adjuncts in region (VCs or entrepreneurs). We bring in a lot of guest lecturers, for example, issues around IP o Peter Reid, CTES Programme Course details: not for credit but they own the students full time for nine months. They typically already have a PhD. They typically want to move out of research into industry and need hands on experience. Very important because they are not bound by accreditation and administrative issues. Course Setup: Pick best students from anywhere in world. Then pick best projects from anywhere in Britain. Has to be about technology embeddedness, feasible economic impact within 1 yr, student has to have a role which exploits their deep understanding and business expertise Complicated matching process between projects and students Training Start by giving them 5 weeks of intensive training taking students through the innovation life-cycle Students Support: Students supported through a technology department in another university Profile of Activity from / Projects o Majority exploiting university research o Maybe professor without time or lack of expertise to assess market potential or launch second project

3 Students o More than 150 with 70% PhDs Departments o 45 departments involving 20 universities Start-ups o 17 start-ups with external funding, 33M pounds in funding Young companies o 15 engaged, 24 new product lines, many product enhancements Corporate adoptions of tech o Ford motor company saved 1M What do students get Great CV Experience transitioning them from research to practice o 3 criteria of success / output Technology entrepreneurship Get employed by large corps to manage technology Get employed in technology transfer o If go to VC don t count it. Looking to development innovation development cadre Project owners Want to accelerate their projects Loyalties Students then project owners then government Underlying logic is to break all the rules Questions How do you recruit students? o Went to all professors who said they had projects they would like worked on and so asked professors to find reputable universities who might have students interested. Just use the network. Don t use a clever process. Network and the processes will emerge o Students don t pay fees and receive 6.5k pounds for nine months. How do you get projects? o Went to heads of departments and asked for projects. Made a very strong cut on requests for research. If the project is a company then they support by paying 35K pounds a year. o Looking to get program self-funded over time although take no financial interests in the project o Kicking it off was government funding but transitioning to parallel streams of funding (a great

4 shame if program was only for mega-corps). So will get funding from lots of potential start-ups from universities, various levels of government, etc. Want to keep a mixed stream of revenue. Training students together o Get to see each others project areas and what like to work on big projects and start-ups Is the process sustainable? o For next year have 20 guarantees from companies as well as from government o Took a large amount of money to start the process Did students come from outside Europe? o Yes, students came from outside Europe but in future won t need to restrict in this manner o Example: English company developed magnesium alloy testing and looped in Chinese student and biggest market is China What was the political motivation? o Don t care. Money came from multiple offices which couldn t agree whether it was about keeping the best in Britain or engendering a love of Britain and sending them away, and another about project acceleration in Britain. o However biggest priority to students What motivates Peter? o Really like technology o Want to be entrepreneurial in what you do. A statement that you can do major innovations in programs that create big outputs Is there any IP issues o Students don t get IP ownership. o Don t use students ideas because they are generally crap but they do have passion about ideas Stanford Creativity and Innovation Course (Tina Seelig) o Outline Creativity and individuals Creativity and teams Creativity and organizations o Core problems Students are engineering students and used to one right solution and this shakes them up Throw problem after problem at them and teach them that problems are opportunities. o Course Link to STVP website at Stanford for course website Other Course Examples

5 o SBR & SBIR Grant Course. Boise State University Description Pulled together engineers and business students to go out and write small business and innovation research grants. Gave entrepreneurial training on an as needed basis. Have had 7 or 8 submitted. Amazing to see students with multiple ideas begin to understand funding mechanisms and how to evaluate opportunities and funding sources Students can do a great deal if empower them to do it and has led to some political debates What level are the students? MBAs and various levels of engineering graduate students. Next phase may be with engineering undergrads. Opponents thought it would be difficult to get MBAs to sign up. Ended with up with 15 students. Given the low cost of the program, could it be done not for credit? Could free up program to pursue other opportunities o Technical Entrepreneurship, University of Rochester Professor of Engineering, ran into significant roadblocks from both Engineering and Business schools because not considered in either department. Had to double list to avoid issues of tuition transfer. Have equal numbers of engineering students and MBAs. Form into groups with an end-goal of business plan competition. Helps engineers see the way MBAs are thinking. Taught course in late 80s, and started teaching again in 2003 with great institutional support. Trick is to keep MBAs and Engineers balanced. Regional business plan contest. $300,000 purse. Eight preliminary rounds. Finals will be turned into a reality TV show. Have an undergraduate and graduate class of competition Intention is that they have already been incorporated and that it is a seed round of funding General Questions o For each of these two programs, if redid today, which landmines would you not step on? CTES Financial sustainability. Got government funding for two years and they placed certain requirements on number of students, etc but it takes time to start the process and for stakeholders to believe your data and then for them to negotiate internally what that data means Do not require NDAs MTECH Grossly underestimated the effort to get students to be objective about market feasibility. They have their own ideas about their projects and don t see objectively

6 Similar UCLA program Have 70 companies a year and it is hard to vet 70 projects and CEOs to ensure that they are all high quality Also have problems with NDAs (require NDAs from students) Have problems with Visa issues because taking companies from around the world o Additional CTES questions Where do the students go from CTES? 90% make transition out of research into interesting commercial roles. Those who haven t made that change (students from China & Iraq) had to go back to their university and going to provide entrepreneurship training back at their university How did you establish social integration Training spread out over September, December, and June. Have to do project work with students in other universities. Students then peer review each other.