Panel Details 2017
Track A: Developing Entrepreneurial Universities: Culture &
Ecosystems
Entrepreneurship can be a powerful tool for improving the economic and cultural vitality of our urban communities. Katie Stebbins, Assistant Secretary for Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Massachusetts, will moderate a panel that examines how urban centers across the state engage local community members and leadership to develop innovation systems that are responsive to local needs and competencies. She will be joined on the panel by leaders/founders from three distinct regions across the state. Farid Khelfaoui of SPARK (Holyoke), Chris Rezendes (FallRiver/New Bedford) and Joshua Croke of Action Worcester will each share examples of how their community-based approach to developing entrepreneurial leadership can empower and revitalize our urban neighborhoods.
Katie Stebbins, Asst. Secretary of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Commonwealth of Massachusetts, EOHED
Joshua Croke, Executive Director, Action Worcester
Chris Rezendes, Founder/Partner, Inex Advisors
Farid Khelfaoui, Executive Director, SPARK
Measure, Tell, Engage: Strengthening the Ecosystem through the
Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Program
Forty-eight public research universities in the U.S. and Canada have
received the designation of
Innovation and Economic Prosperity University from the
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). The program
involves university economic engagement leaders and both internal and
external stakeholders in a rigorous self-study of institutional
accomplishments and gaps, and has resulted in significant outcomes for
participants. Universities have reported that participation in the program
has served as a platform for institutional and cultural change, and has
helped leaders and stakeholders advance and refine their economic
engagement ecosystem, including aspects related to innovation and
entrepreneurship. In this session’s lively interview-style format,
participants will learn about the principles and processes involved in the
IEP Universities program, and hear from designated institutions about
challenges, lessons learned and benchmark practices that have been
implemented as a result of their participation in the program. Attendees
will also have an opportunity to do some thinking about how their
institution might prepare for participation in the program, through an
interactive “economic engagement ecosystem mapping”
activity.
Jim Woodell, Vice President, Economic Development and Community
Engagement, APLU (Moderator)
Dorothy Air, Associate Vice President for Entrepreneurial Affairs and
Technology Commercialization, University of Cincinnati
Terri Helmlinger Ratcliff, Vice Provost for Outreach and Engagement and
Executive Director of Industry Expansion Solutions, North Carolina State
University
Eugene Krentsel, Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation and
Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Louisville
This six-person panel will share the experience of two similar sized major public universities in different parts of the country and with complementary missions. One is the North Carolina flagship liberal arts university with 5 health science schools and 8 other professional schools. The other is a leading public institution in the Texas system with an emphasis on science and technology, including Agriculture, Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Environment Food Sciences, and other areas of applied science, as well as a broad array of humanities and social sciences offerings.
Key to progress in culture change is the creation of an innovative
ecosystem, a network of activities, individuals, groups, and processes
that are interacting, reinforcing, self-sustaining, and growing in scope and density. This ecosystem influences many aspects of the university’s operation and fosters a supportive environment for innovation and entrepreneurial activity.
The panelists are leaders in their respective institutions in creating and sustaining that ecosystem in whole and in part. They will address questions such as: how to launch and sustain a long-term enterprise level culture change strategy; what high level structures and incentives are important; the projects and practices that can spark an innovative wave within various schools and programs; and how faculty and students at all levels can best be engaged, inspired, educated, coached, and assisted in the entrepreneurial journey. Each presenter will discuss specific programs and initiatives that have been successful on their respective campuses and that could be adapted for use by other campuses.
Judith Cone, Vice Chancellor for Commercialization and Economic Development, UNC
Robert Duncan, Senior Vice President for Research, Texas Tech University (TTU)
Buck Goldstein, Entrepreneur in Residence, UNC Chapel Hill
Kimberly Gramm, Director of the Innovation Hub, TTU
David Kiel, Senior Leadership Consultant in the Center for Faculty Excellence, UNC (Moderator)
Keith Sawyer, Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations, UNC Chapel Hill
Annette Sobel, Executive for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Health Security Strategic Initiatives, Office of the President, TTU
University Centers: Innovations on Funding, Facilities and
Purpose
Bringing together the founders, conceivers and builders of successful university centers for student opportunity. Discussing the new and successful ways of finding resources through grants and collaborative partnerships with community entities. Utilizing space that is already available and repurposing for greater student and faculty benefit and understanding how space can be effectively used. Discussing the uses of limited time and focus of these centers to engage students in the most effective programming to encourage their development and success.
Ian Schwarber, UAkron (Moderator)
Sidnee Peck, ASU
Burton Cowdin, UMass Amherst
Entrepreneurship Where You Live: Innovative Programming and
Entrepreneurial Living-Learning Communities
Presenters will talk about the Entrepreneurial Living-Learning Community model and how it works at a variety of institutions to support entrepreneurial activity in the residence halls. Presenters will also share information about unique programming that their students take part in as part of the residential experience. There will be time for questions from attendees about topics related to entrepreneurial living-learning communities (intentional entrepreneurial communities in the residence halls).
Jennifer Bechtel, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champage
(Moderator)
Krystal Geyer, Ohio State University
Thomas James, Rose-Hulman University
Sari Judge, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hanna Frei, University of Florida
Queen’s University Belfast created the William J Clinton Leadership Institute in 2012 to enhance connections with the business leaders in Northern Ireland, and to develop critical leadership capacity in order to grow the economy and continue to take advantage of the prosperity possible following the peace process. In this short period, the team have worked with over 500 leaders through both open programmes and custom-designed leadership programmes.
For the past two years, Anne and Olivia have been working with Allstate to design and deliver the Global Connect Programme, to help teams from three continents to collaborate and work across distance to deliver Allstate’s global technology strategy. The objective of this training and education programme is to equip Allstate’s Global Leaders with the tools and knowledge to become world-class Global Leaders.
QUB’s partnership with Allstate is an example of what is possible when universities and businesses work closer together. In addition to the Global Connect Leadership programme, QUB and Allstate work together on other initiatives, including: Cyber-security; Allstate is a corporate sponsor of this new master’s programme, QUB Management School; Allstate rely on skilled graduates, and Computer Science; Allstate are regularly consulted on the curriculum, ensuring it is relevant for their needs.
Allstate approached the William J Clinton Leadership Institute to help address the challenges these new global leaders face, and the resulting programme was rolled out to leaders in the US, Northern Ireland and India. In this panel discussion, Anne and Olivia would share some of the key learning points on how to lead global teams, and discuss with two of Allstate’s senior leaders this programme and the importance of working closely with a university partner.
Anne Phillipson, Programme Director, William J. Clinton Leadership
Institute, Queen’s University Belfast (Moderator)
Olivia May, Programme Director at the William J Clinton Leadership
Institute
Opal Perry, CIO and Senior Officer in Allstate and the Head of Allstate
Technology Operations
Suren Gupta, Allstate
Universities are fertile ground for entrepreneurship. They are places where ideas are nurtured, cultivated and grown. Students and faculty across campus must be given opportunities to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship. In this session, campus leaders at Arizona State, Salisbury University, The University of Ottawa, The University of Massachusetts Lowell and Queens University will provide best practices and a unique perspective on how an entrepreneurial mindset is created on their campus.
An increasing number of universities are implementing innovation and entrepreneurial activities on their campuses, reflecting an evolution in the way that universities view their roles in society. By sharing best practices on a continuing basis, this panel hopes to accelerate the pace of this evolution.
William Burke, Salisbury University (moderator)
Holly Butler, UMass Lowell
Ji Mi Choi, Arizona State University
Jim McLellan, Queen’s University
Laura Anderson & Silvana Chambers, Salisbury University
Stephen Daze, Entrepreneur in Residence at the Telfer school of business at uOttawa
Track B: Entrepreneurship in the Curriculum
The 50 Pathways institutions that comprise the Pathways network have worked, or are working on, a total of 360 projects, which include new classes, programs, makerspaces, extracurricular activities, and centers; interdisciplinary collaboration among students and faculty is at the heart of many of these projects. This panel will describe the results of a social network analysis that provides insights into how this community (1) has evolved over time, and (2) fosters the integration of I&E on Pathways campuses. Additionally, Pathways team members will share their experiences of being part of this community and the myriad projects they have worked on.
Victoria Matthew, Senior Program Officer, Faculty Development, VentureWell (Moderator)
Thema Monroe-White, Ph.D., Director of Research and Evaluation, VentureWell
Phil Weilerstein, President and CEO, VentureWell
S. Jimmy Gandhi, Ph.D., Asst. Professor, MSEM Dept., California State University, Northridge
Jose Lugo, Asst. Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
Nathaniel Stern, PhD, Assoc. Professor of Art and Design, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Patricia Sullivan, PhD, Assoc. Dean, College of Engineering, New Mexico State Univ.
We will discuss the results of PITCH U, an experiment in which we randomly assign students to different
types of training designed to enhance their performance at pitching to investors. The study was conducted in conjunction with four Northeast Ohio elevator pitch
competitions that we ran in the Fall of 2015. In addition to outlining the results of our study, we will describe the difficulties of combining entrepreneurship research with co-curricular programs, as well as our thoughts on best practices for such activities.
Denise Griggs, Burton D. Morgan Foundation (moderator)
Scott Shane, Case Western University
Julie Messing, Kent State University
Bob Chalfant, University of Akron
Entrepreneurship is being adopted into the curriculum for teaching of the arts at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Collaboratively the disciplines of Animation, Film, Creative Writing, Theater, Graphic Design, and Fine Arts will introduce the formal study of entrepreneurship into its arts training with the goal of providing experiential practice, the real-world distribution of student work, and expanding professional opportunities into arts students’ future.
We intend to expand the conventional boundaries between education in the arts and entrepreneurship.
Amid a skyrocketing growth in the technology used to exploit product, development of new means of expression in many art forms is still evolving. As a result, a great opportunity has emerged for artist-entrepreneurs, who are looking toward the future, creating a true intersection where business and technology meet art and higher education.
The digital world, with minimal barriers to entry, access to production, and a reduction in distribution costs, opens up a variety of new artistic possibilities.
This vast new territory presents unique challenges and opportunities for innovation in higher education.
A few examples from our panel follow:
Film/TV: The terms network television and film studio have largely ceased to have meaning. Content for what is usually seen as TV and feature film is now routinely being produced, and consumed, online. Companies like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon grow exponentially, changing dramatically modes of distribution.
Creative Writing: The literary arts have exploded as evolving digital technologies give access not only to new means of production, but to an open and international distribution. Small-scale projects aimed at niche markets thrive, liberated from traditional gatekeepers—that, until recently, paralyzed creativity with misplaced big-business models. For the young writer, editor, publisher, or book artist, ingenuity and ambition are now essentials determiners of success.
Theater: New venue options allow for presentation of original student work. Now, both new authors and actors can be seen using online distribution, and DIY marketing.
We are introducing courses that make entrepreneurship synonymous with arts training. These courses review the legal and financial requirements of how businesses are developed, the art of the business plan, marketing and development strategies, and understanding budgets. These courses are being developed specifically for the arts student in an innovative collaboration between the business school and the arts faculty.
Fairleigh Dickinson University is in a position to take advantage of a new cultural environment and articulate an innovative and unified vision for the entrepreneurial development of our students. Our Arts and Entrepreneurship faculty are being given the opportunity to create an infrastructure predicated on emerging technologies that embraces the challenge of educating students in the skill-sets they will need to meet the demands of a multi-media culture industry, and to prepare them for life after graduation.
Janet O’Neil – Co-Director, Graphic Design (FDU)
Minna Proctor – Editor The Literary Review, Professor Creative Writing (FDU)
Howard Libov – Chair Visual and Performing Arts, Director – Film Production (FDU)
Domenick Celentano, Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Silberman College of Business (FDU)
Moderated by Geoffrey Weinman – Dean, Becton College at FDU
Respondent: Sarah Kuhn, UMass Lowell, Professor of Psychology and Direction, Technology, Society, & Human Values Program
Global business connections and interactions continue to grow. Part of preparing students for this new work environment, it is important that they learn how to communicate with and build business partnerships with people around the world. This includes working on virtual teams with people they may never come in contact with face-to-face.
Additionally, the education teaching model has significantly evolved through different approaches: a) On-campus: The way international entrepreneurship is taught to graduate students and executives who maintain residence in the US for multiple weeks at a time b) Off-campus: Programs where we bring undergraduate and graduate students into the field to meet with startups about their business strategies or separately to study and experience entrepreneurship and innovation in international settings. c) International teaching: Programs where we teach entrepreneurship courses overseas to a set of students at other schools or companies arranged for us.
The proposed panel will discuss case studies of experiments at different universities building these global business communication courses and their experiences.
Greg Stoller, Boston University (moderator)
Rakesh Pandey, Boston University (moderator)
Bruce Kingma, Syracuse University
Saumil Shah, Ahmedabad University
Buck Goldstein, University of North Carolina
John Friar, Northeastern University
Bob Mauro, Boston College
The workshop will present the integration of entrepreneurship education across campus from three very different types of universities, students, and program resources. Specifically, we will discuss:
Texas Tech University’s integrative e-learning course that brings together business, engineering, and students with autism spectrum disorder. This course structure of this type has provided opportunities for students with ASD to engage in team-based learning exercises with students who have similar interests from across the campus.
Arizona State University’s Technology Entrepreneurship & Management (TEM) program that uses innovative methods to teach entrepreneurship online, with students in a given class located all over the nation and across the globe.
Quinnipiac University’s Entrepreneurship Degree program that integrates courses into a block system that enables maximum flexibility for student outcomes and has expanded outside the boundaries of the business school and university into other QU schools and to other higher education institutions in Connecticut.
Dale Jasinski, Quinnipiac University (Moderator)
Dr. Kevin Convey, Quinnipiac University School of Mass Communications
Mike Roer, President of the Entrepreneurship Foundation
Kelli Frias, Texas Tech University
Three educators will present and discuss how each of them has developed and/or used separate tools or methods to supercharge their students’ entrepreneurial development.
First, on the “classroom” level, Ricky Berger, Professor, UMASS Lowell Music Department, will discuss how he has structured his “Music Business Entrepreneur” class to create realistic startup companies who must work as a team (and periodically review themselves on a 360 basis) to create an investment-grade business plan in one 13-week semester.
Second, on the “institutional” level Stacie Hargis, Assistant Professor at Middlesex Community College, will describe how faculty have organized from a diverse group of departments across her college to meet on a regular basis to discuss entrepreneurship and brainstorm strategies to encourage and empower students to think more entrepreneurial. This “E3” group, Empowering Entrepreneurship Everywhere, met on a regular basis and integrated new assignments into their curriculum. Stacie will provide some specific examples of how this was achieved.
Finally, on the “community” level, Maya Durnovo, Chief Entrepreneurial Officer, Houston Community College, will discuss the many systems that her institution has put in place to offer high school and college students real access to gain practical entrepreneurial skills to start real business and to provide those students with the actual resources in their communities to make these businesses start correctly and flourish.
From the classroom to Main Street, this panel will show you many ways to show your students not only that that they can be successfully entrepreneurial but, truly, how as well. And, to quote Kurt Vonnegut “If this isn’t nice, what is?”
Stacie Hargis, Middlesex Community College (Moderator)
Maya Durnovo, Houston Community College
Richard Kent Berger, UMass Lowell
Despite the prolific growth in entrepreneurship programs and courses, institutions still struggle with launching and sustaining a campus wide entrepreneurship program, often due to limited funds. This session will provide a quick overview of successful approaches used at several different institutions including Baruch College, Northeastern and BVB (India). In addition, this session will provide a quick overview of VentureWell’s grants program and specific opportunities to enhance the campus-wide entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Romi Kher, Baruch College
Jennifer Keller Jackson, VentureWell
Shu Yang, Baruch College
Nitin Kulkarni, Bhoomreddi College of Engineering India
Cheryl Mitteness, Northeastern University
Track C: University Research Commercialization & Startups
New and young businesses are the vitality of local economies, advancing economic prosperity and strengthening resilience by creating jobs and raising the well-being of all socio-economic groups. To succeed, entrepreneurs need access to both financial and intellectual capital. Such capital includes mentoring, intensive training and technical advisory services (legal, accounting, technology); and when applied results in the creation of modern, scalable, and sustainable small businesses. Universities, Foundations, Venture Development Organizations and others play a critical role in providing this intellectual capital.
At JumpStart, Inc. we understand the power of the ecosystem. Since 2000 JumpStart and our 15 collaborative organizations have served 1,075 entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio (21 counties) and 20+ communities around the US. Since 2004 our Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs achieved: $1.85B capital raised, 9,676 total jobs created or retained, and $1.5B revenues generated. 35% of all JumpStart client companies are women and/or minority led. We know that funding, programming, and the provision of tools and services are all vehicles that help create a strong, entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The panel will include 3 presentations that exemplify the impact that is possible. The first is the establishment of a formal mentoring program. The Startup Genome Report reported long ago that startups are more than 7x more likely to raise investment money and more than 3.5x more likely to grow user numbers for their products and services if they have helpful mentors. JumpStart’s Burton D Morgan mentoring program is just one of the many mentoring initiatives made possible by the Burton D Morgan Foundation. The connections made and lessons learned through these programs are focused on accelerating Northeast Ohio’s early stage startups and improving access to networking and capital. In JumpStart’s program alone, over 100 startups have received assistance through the mentoring program over 46 months of operation. Over 100 mentors have collectively donated over 6400 hours.
The second is the use of technology and tools to accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation across the ecosystem. The Mentoring Management Platform (MMP) helps scale the operations of mentoring programs. The MMP is built to work with Salesforce, one of the world’s most popular, flexible and affordable Customer Relationship Management systems. The platform is used by all program participants – administrators, mentors, and entrepreneurs – throughout the mentoring process to manage sessions, assign tasks, and track milestones. Universities, Foundations, and Venture Development Organizations alike have shared perspectives on the benefits of the approach, which include: 1. Reduced administrative burden 2. Increased connectivity among program participants 3. Greater transparency of measurable outcomes.
Finally, we want to highlight best practices in entrepreneurial ecosystem development. Experience and pattern recognition from serving 20 communities in the US has helped JumpStart and our partners identify the concepts that drive value. The power of tools and services like mentoring and the MMP are significant. They bring the stakeholders of a community together to jointly develop a vision of what good looks like. Connections, lessons learned, and greater access to data all help the ecosystem accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation.
Deborah Hoover, President & CEO of Burton D. Morgan Foundation (Moderator)
Kara Carter, Partner, Solutions at JumpStart, Inc.
Rebecca Corbin, President & CEO National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship
Suzanne Rivera, PhD, Vice President for Research at Case Western Reserve University
The process of launching a startup, based on university IP, has
traditionally been a random process of entrepreneurs connecting with
faculty, often through the tech transfer office. When these connections
happen, they can sometimes yield a successful startup. More often than not,
the connections never happen or if they do, the chemistry between faculty
founder and entrepreneur can be poor, the founding deal is unfair or overly
complicated, or the technology is too immature and the entrepreneur passes
or loses interest over time. Recognizing these inefficiencies, a number of
universities have developed programs to launch and incubate startups at a
very early stage. By forming these “incubation vehicles”,
management can be attracted through the distribution of equity and
SBIR/STTR grants can be written or early-stage technology and product
development activities. At these early stages, the university provides some
governance oversight, often using university personnel or closely
associated advisors to act as early management. Once formed, these programs
provide the companies with support in writing SBIR/STTR grants and actively
engage outside entrepreneurs, service providers, and investors in preparing
the company for eventual graduation beyond the walls of the university.
This panel will highlight programs from UNC, Penn, and Indiana, among
others. It will review each of the programs in the context of the
university commercialization ecosystem with a strong emphasis on lessons
learned.
Don Rose, Director, Kickstart Venture Services, UNC (Moderator)
Michael Poisel, Director, Penn Center for Innovation Ventures, University of Pennsylvania
Bill Wiesler, Director, New Ventures, Yale
Jack Miner, Director, Venture Center, University of Michigan
In 2013, Johns Hopkins University formed a committee led by some of our most innovative and commercially minded faculty members to study successful innovation ecosystems around the county. The goal of this committee’s best practice research was: 1. to uncover the foundational elements of these successful ecosystems; 2. to examine which of these elements was missing at Hopkins and more broadly, in Baltimore, and; 3. to lay out a strategic roadmap for our community to adopt in order to create a sustainable ecosystem to drive commercialization of technology and economic growth.
The results from this committee were clear – thriving innovation ecosystems share many characteristics and resources, described at a high level as: space, funding, and services. Space – strong ecosystems provide flexible, affordable and well-located places where entrepreneurs and others can move their technologies forward, can collaborate with other like-minded innovators, can co-locate near industry and other partners, can learn in community setting. Funding – access to capital is one of the biggest challenges any new venture or early technology faces – from translational seed grants, to early angel capital to late stage strategic or venture capital – and strong ecosystems provide both the capital itself as well as resources to educate how to best “win” capital. Services – wrap around services are critical to help educate and ultimately sustain early ventures – accelerator programs, mentorship programs, legal and accounting services, educational programs (i-corps, bootcamps, financial, regulatory, manufacturing, marketing literacy), among others.
Since this report was issued, our group Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, has been addressing each of these recommendations. Additionally, we have reorganized our operations to reflect our various goals. Our panel will include an overall presentation from Christy Wyskiel on the innovation ecosystem buildout at Hopkins, the role we play in economic development in our region and the importance of public, private and philanthropic partners to making this happen. The panel will also include presentations from leaders of each of the business units within JHTV. Helen Montag will discuss the importance of large corporate collaborations to forward university commercialization efforts including recent deals with MedImmune and Bayer. Brian Stansky will discuss the role that FastForward, our startup support group, plays in furthering the mission of the university, in attracting and retaining entrepreneurial talent at the university,and in creating economic impact in the region. Neil Veloso will discuss how tech transfer underpins much of this and remains critical to the success of the organizations mission.
Christy Wyskiel, Senior Advisor to the President, Johns Hopkins University (Moderator)
Elizabeth Smyth, Sr. Director, Strategic Initiatives, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures
Helen Montag, Sr. Director of Corporate Partnerships, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures
Nina Urban, Associate Director of FastForward, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures
Neil Veloso, Executive Director of Technology Transfer, Johns Hopkins University
UNC Chapel Hill researchers began a comprehensive effort in April 2014
to gather and share data about our University startups. Our goal is to
apply academic rigor to accurately identify and report on startups from
1970 to present. To support this, we combine technology, research, and
partnerships. 1. We developed a robust, custom database structure using the
Salesforce.com platform. 2. Programs from across the campus I&E network
signed an MOU to actively participate in the database project. 3. A team of
information professionals from the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private
Enterprise took the lead on data research, quality control and reporting
– both historically and moving forward. 4. A relationship manager
from the Office of Commercialization and Economic Development joined the
project to actively engage the members of this network. 5. Economic Impact
metrics derived from database and therefore on validated data. 6. Database
add-ons are enabling direct project intake and surveying of startups.
Cindy Reifsnider, Director of Research Services & Knowledge Management at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC Chapel Hill (Moderator)
Ashley Brown, Research Analyst, Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC Chapel Hill
Sheryl Waddell, Relationship Manager, Office of Commercialization and Economic Development, UNC Chapel Hill
Dina Rousset, Associate Director, UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and Program Manager, Launch Chapel Hill
Nearly every university entrepreneurship center, as well as other
departments across campus has opened an accelerator or an incubator, or is
in a race to do so. The university based accelerators and incubators serve
a wide variety of constituents and are often trying to deliver both
learning and investment incomes, which makes defining success, choosing
teams to accept and figuring out how to best allocate resources all the
more challenging. A few programs recognized as being leaders in this
emerging field will share their stories and learnings in order to
facilitate a discussion to flesh out lessons learned and best
practices.
Ted Zoller, Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, UNC Chapel Hill (Moderator)
Brad Burke, Managing Director, Rice Alliance for Technology Entrepreneurship (OWL Spark)
Dina Rousset, Associate Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (Launch Chapel Hill)
Jodi Gernon, Director, Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School
You may give out proof of concept awards to good ideas that could be companies but when the student or faculty start-up has actually been incorporated then real investment capital is required. Does the University have a role in supporting the recently formed spin-off and possibly participating in investment rounds? Where does this funding come from? Who decides which companies will get an investment? Should the fund be managed inside or outside the university? Are there external funds that focus on these types of companies? What other help can you give to these companies? This panel will present several different investment vehicles that invest in university affiliated start-ups as well as the programs that support companies in this process. Topics to be addressed will include: what support services are offered to spin-offs, where they get their capital from, who manages the funds, and who decides on an investment.
Abi Barrow, UMass Investment Fund
Nancy Saucier, UMass Lowell RiverHawks
Dorn Carranza , VentureWell
John A. Blaho, Director for Industrial-Academic Research, City University of New York
A structured panel discussion format where panelists from recognized University Proof of Concept
Centers or Technology Incubation Centers across the USA present their best practices in creating
and accelerating innovation pathways for commercialization. Panelists will present learnings in
a “what went right, what went wrong” scenarios for some of their projects in engineering disciplines
e.g. Biomedical Devices, disruptive materials or processes, sensors or building software proofs
to aid agile development. The learnings from thought and practice leaders will answer questions
such as “Is it better to license a patent or build a startup?”; “What is the importance of
proof of concept – is to technically validate an idea, or is it to accurately value a
technology for commercialization?”; ” How do proofs vary depending on technology and
discipline i.e. software vs. hardware, products vs. processes etc.?” The panel will discuss
the finer points of building proofs and minimum viable prototypes, and how best to do it
with low cost and maximum effectiveness in follow-on funding and launching of viable ventures.
Gopal Nadkarni, UAkron (moderator)
Andrew Maas, LSU
Leon Sandler, MIT Deshpande Center
Lofti Belkhir, MacMaster University
Nitin Kulkarni, BVB College of Engineering, India
Jacob Johnson, Innovosource
Track D: Emerging Trends
Six research universities in Ohio came together under the sponsorship of the Ohio Department of Higher Education to create the only statewide I corps program. An MOU with the NSF provides NSF I Corps curriculum and training for Ohio I Corps teachers. Program is open to all faculty in Ohio. Support for graduating teams provided by the Ohio Entrepreneurship Signature Program across the state.
Barry Rosenbaum, Sr. Fellow, UAkron Research Foundation (Moderator)
Michael Camp, The Ohio State University Program PI
Lynn Gellerman, Ohio University Dorothy Air, University of Cincinnati
Dorothy Air, University of Cincinnati
This panel focuses on the experiences and challenges of female academic entrepreneurs in the US and UK. Our panelists are highly successful academics as well as entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds spanning Science, Engineering and Medicine as well as Arts and Humanities. The purpose of the panel is to examine the experiences of female academics in starting a new venture.
Our panelists address issues of peer and institutional support, the tensions of career progression in academia, idea discovery, developing social and professional networks, securing finance, developing markets and also issues around work-life balance. Our panel is drawn from countries which are in the top three global countries for levels of female entrepreneurship demonstrating the entrepreneurial drive and opportunities for females. Although data is not available for the USA, in the UK female involvement in founding academic spin-off companies is high in comparison to female representation on corporate boards and general entrepreneurship levels.
Almost a third of university spin-outs in the UK have a female as part of the founding team. This compares to a fifth of FTSE 100 corporate boards with female representation and an even lower rate of female directors of Fast Track 100 companies. At the same time, females are significantly less likely to be the main founder in terms of the majority shareholding of university spin-outs: accounting for only 8.3 per cent of all spin-outs. Where they are the dominant shareholder they tend to form smaller teams with a different profile of willingness to tolerate risk and attitude towards innovation and growth. Female academic entrepreneurs represent a substantial reservoir of talent and creativity and are an under-exploited source of economic growth. In this panel the best practice experiences of the panelists are showcased, in particular highlighting the support programs and initiatives provided through the host Universities: Queen’s University Belfast and University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Queen’s University Belfast has previously been awarded the UK Entrepreneurial University reflecting an impressive track-record in university spin-out and knowledge transfer. In 2015, one of its spin-outs, Kainos Software Ltd., was listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of $400m.
In addition to its commercialization activities, Queen’s is the leading UK University in addressing gender inequalities and improving the career progression of academic women in STEM subjects. This has been recognized externally through the UK-wide Athena SWAN Charter awards where it was the first university (now seven) to hold an Institutional Silver Award, with all eleven STEM Schools having had Silver Awards, with two currently holding Gold Awards. Through its reputation in this area it is regularly asked to provide advice and guidance to other UK universities. Queen’s is currently engaged on a 2.5m euro project – ‘Systematic Action for Gender Equality (SAGE)’ – alongside seven other EU universities and has also developed very strong links with UMass Lowell in this area.
Nola Hewitt-Dundas, Queen’s University Belfast (Moderator)
Su Taylor, Professor of Structural Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast
Lorraine Martin, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Molecular, Queen’s University Belfast
Abiche Dewilde, Research Scientist and Venture Founder, UMass Lowell
The deeper we move into the 21st century, the more every sector of society is realizing that the key to system health and prosperity is interdependence. Because the complex problems we face around resource depletion, climate change, job creation, and social inequity are intertwined, we can only hope to solve them through the cooperation of many different kinds of institutions and intellectual fields. This wisdom – that lies at the root of the Deshpande Symposium – has also been embraced by UMASS BOSTON (UMB), which in late 2015 created the Sustainable Solutions Lab, a transdisciplinary entity the brings together faculty from across the University. Part of the mission of the Sustainable Solutions Lab (SSL) focuses on challenges specific to particular areas of the Commonwealth, as part of the wider University’s commitment to advancing new models of collaboration. Through funding provided by the UMASS President’s Science & Technology fund, we created the Sustainable Seafood Collaboratory which is designed to support and sustain the Commonwealth’s seafood value chain. For this panel, we propose to focus on our Collaboratory’ s work in Gloucester, MA.
Gloucester’s vibrant community now lives under the threat of serious new economic challenges that cannot be met by maintaining the status quo. In partnership with the City our work supports the Gloucester Higher Education Cluster (GHEOC) which, through collaboration among public and private institutions, non-profits, and industry partners, works to refine and promote a new model for economic development. GHEOC creates value by connecting academic researchers, students, entrepreneurs, and businesses to advance and sustain the maritime economy of the city. Through on-the-ground student projects, technology and expertise transfer, educational program development, the GHEOC is supporting existing businesses, pursuing the identification and advancement of new ocean-based businesses, and working collaboratively with City leadership to build a sustainable and prosperous future for the City.
The GHEOC represents a paradigm shift in how higher education works, collectively, to support and advance the needs of local communities. GHEOC offers not only the potential for the transformation of Gloucester’s economy at a moment of stress; it also serves a valuable model for the rest of coastal Massachusetts and New England. Through the SSL and our Collaboratory, we will be able to connect Gloucester with best practices that have emerged in other countries struggling with similar problems. We will also be able to broadcast our learnings and successes to a wide circle of international academic and business institutions as part of the general dialogue on the United Nations’ bold new target Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. This will not only benefit all the communities in the interchange but will also continue to draw attention to the world-class contributions being made by UMASS.
Robyn Hannigan, Dean, School for the Environment, UMass Boston (Moderator)
Ric Upton, Founder, Gloucester Innovation
Adrian Jordaan, Director, UMASS Amherst Gloucester Marine Station
Richard Weissman, Director, Endicott College at Gloucester
Tom Gillett, Executive Director, Gloucester Economic Development and Industrial Corporation
Dave Fitzgerald, Manager, Gloucester Seafood Processing
The rallying-cry to spread entrepreneurship across boundaries in colleges and universities has largely been heeded at most institutions aware of the need to modernize the curriculum. (Welsh, 2014; Neck, et al, 2014). Best practices and lessons have started to emerge from the experiences of the faculty at the leading “entrepreneurship” campuses that are also champions for the modernization of the curriculum. That curriculum is critical as we shape the learning of students who will become the new “creative core” for businesses in the future (Brews, 2016).
University campuses and curricula cannot transform without key individuals brave enough to take on the task of motivating the need to change and improve the status quo. These individuals act as the vectors for modernizing the curriculum. They establish the connections and create key coalitions, etc., that eventually create the momentum and nurture the spread of entrepreneurship across curricular boundaries. This panel will consider the lessons learned by four individuals as they discuss their roles as boundary-spanners and academic entrepreneurs in the transformation of their campuses. Workshop participants will be engaged through mini scenarios that will form the basis of discussion about ways faculty can collaborate across college and disciplinary boundaries to build the curriculum. A key question that all faculty members have to face is what the curriculum will look like for those students now known as “the creative core”.
We will engage the audience in discussion about the structures that need to be in place to facilitate these changes and key stakeholders who have to be involved in undergirding these changes. Workshop Structure and Timings: 1 hour 1. Each of the three presenters will share a five-minute summary of the history of entrepreneurship at their schools, including key challenges and opportunities 2. Audience participation will follow for a half hour: a. Small groups will be asked to discuss the following questions: i. Who has been the boundary-spanners at their institution (title and NOT names) ii. How is the discussion around curriculum for the “creative core” being facilitated in their organizations? iii. Who are the key stakeholders in that discussion – both internal and external from whom boundary-spanners and academic entrepreneurs can draw support? 3. Small group leaders will summarize and share key lessons learned workshop participants.
Steven Tello, AVC, Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, UMass Lowell (Moderator)
Ethne Swartz, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Associate Dean of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives at the Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Frances Amatucci, Assoc. Professor of Entrepreneurship, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
Dianne H.B. Welsh, Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Founding Director of the Entrepreneurship Programs, University of North Carolina Greensboro.
American universities are enrolling unprecedented numbers of foreign students – over 974,926. Many have a passion for entrepreneurship and want to start new ventures in the United States. Imagine the gush in economic activity, mentorship and philanthropy if universities helped make the environment more appealing for the most talented international students to stay for the early portion of their careers to set up their businesses.
The University of Massachusetts and University of Colorado are doing just that. How? Current immigration laws make it difficult – if not impossible for these budding innovators to obtain a visa to remain in the country after graduation to start and grow their companies. Unlike companies, which enter a lottery for a limited number of H-1B spots each year, universities can apply for as many as they want. The University of Massachusetts and University of Colorado are using their cap-exempt status in the national immigration system to facilitate H-1B visas for those who want to remain in or move to their cities after they graduate. They are paid part-time by the universities, and spend the rest of their time launching their company. Their companies eventually sponsor visas them for the remainder of their time, also in cap-exempt status. In exchange for this assistance, the entrepreneurs serve as personalized mentors within the centers for entrepreneurship to students interested in entrepreneurship at the sponsoring university, benefitting the larger startup ecosystem.
Many other universities have expressed interest in quickly and effectively replicating the Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence Programs in Massachusetts and Colorado. The university, legal and policy leaders on the panel will discuss the core knowledge, processes, and best practices underlying the program’s methods and will provide other universities comprehensive guidance in establishing their own formal, sustainable and scalable programs. Discussion Topics 1 – Challenge: What is the experience with the all-too common phenomenon among tech entrepreneurs: immigration limbo? 2 – Risks. What is the legal structure of the program within immigration law? How does it work? What are the legal risks? What are the political risks? 3 – Rewards. How can universities capture the benefits in student recruitment and alumni philanthropy? 4 – Financing. What are the underlying economics – costs as well as revenues – of the programs? 5 – Context. What are the factors that make the context ripe for the program? A certain number or type of international student? An established local startup ecosystem? A university accelerator? A university chancellor willing to lead? Format This will be a facilitated panel discussion.
There will be no formal presentations. The moderator will ask questions related to the five topics of each panelist, and then during each topic discussion, engage the audience in asking questions. Timeline Each of the five topics is allocated 15 minutes – Panel discussion for 10 minutes, Audience interaction for 5 minutes.
William Brah, Executive Director, Venture Development Center, UMass Boston (Moderator)
Tahmina Watson, Immigration Attorney/Owner at Watson Immigration Law, Seattle
Craig Montuori, Executive Director at Global EIR Coalition, San Francisco
Paulo Melo, Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence, PhD, Bioengineering, MIT & co-founder, doDOC, Boston
Lenore Blum, Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, and Founding co-Director, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Carnegie Mellon University
William Tucker, Interim Vice President, Research and Graduate Studies University of California, Office of the President
Doug Smith, Assistant Dean for Programs and Engagement, College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Colorado
VentureWell’s ASPIRE program was developed to improve the readiness of hardware, invention-based start-ups to successfully engage with seed investment and strategic partners. The goal of the program is to help support commercialization at the earliest stage by developing and verifying a development timeline. ASPIRE’s process provides an “on-ramp” for hardware startups to mature to the stage of venture development typically supported by incubators.
Dorn Carranza, Senior Program Officer, VentureWell (moderator)
Phil Weilerstein, President & CEO, VentureWell
Julia Travaglini, Greentown Labs
Mary Ann Picard, UMass M2D2
Michael Harrington, Genoverde
Cultivating Talent to Solve Social Problems – The Power of Experiential Learning in the Context of Higher Education
Drawing on their respective experiences, the panel participants will share their work inspiring and educating college and university students to become problem solvers for humanities greatest challenges.
College for Social Innovation (CfSI) harnesses the power of credited internships, integrated with classroom learning, to build a bigger, better and more diverse talent pipeline of for the social sector. Offering credit for internships allows all students with the opportunity to participate in intensive hands-on internship experiences while staying on track for graduation. Hands-on learning is then amplified by related coursework, skill-building workshops, and support from dedicated mentors and CfSI staff. This model allows participants to more quickly build critical competencies for success in creative problem solving, working with diverse teams, data driven decision making, and written and verbal communication.
The International Social Innovation Challenge (ISIC-15) is an effort of the OP Jindal Global University to bring students from multiple countries together to solve a complex social challenge. A “collab-etition”, the ISIC-15 brought together top students from India, Pakistan, and the UK to design solutions to the pressing global social challenge of empowering women through safer communities. The 10-day event included:
- Introduction to the basic principles of social innovation and entrepreneurship
- Social design workshops including issue immersion, ideation, prototyping and delivery phases
- Orientation to the Indian social enterprise landscape
- Cultural exchanges and immersions
- Introduction to use of digital channels and the web for social innovation
Dr. Lisa Jackson, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Managing Director, College for Social Innovation (Moderator)
Eric Schwarz, Co-Founder and CEO, College for Social Innovation
Dr. Fiona Wilson, Executive Director, Center for Social Innovation and Enterprise, University of New Hampshire
Jeremy Wade, Jindal Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, OP Jindal Global University
Plenary Panel
Future Role of Higher Ed in Promoting Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Join senior leaders in higher education, non-profits and industry focused on expanding innovation and entrepreneurship activities across campuses worldwide. Discussion will focus on future opportunities associated with integrating I&E into curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular campus programs and driving increased economic and social impact regionally, nationally and internationally.
Steven Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, UMass Lowell (Moderator)
Desh Deshpande, President and Chairman, Sparta Group LLC
Jacqueline Moloney, Chancellor, UMass Lowell
Phil Weilerstein, President, VentureWell
James C. Mabry, President, Middlesex Community College