School:Washington State University

Campus Overview

The presentation below gives an overview of the Washington State University's Entrepreneurial and Innovation opportunities. Below are some of the programs in more detail that are available at WSU Pullman's campus that focuses on the development of students' business skills. 

Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship

At Washington State University, we highly encourage and promote innovation and entrepreneurship through various mediums on both the entrepreneurial perspective of the Carson College of Business and also the innovation Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture. From the WSU Center for Entrepreneurshial Studies, an entrepreneurship major is offered along with a entrepreneurship minor for students not in the Carson College of Business here at Washington State University. The department also offeres up various programming opportunities for entrepreneurship throughout the school year like the Business Plan Competition as coordinated by various student organizations such as ENACTUS and the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies director, Marie Mayes. From the innovation perspective, the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture provides students with maker spaces, research facilities, and studnet organizations to encourage innovation that matters to the world. These facilities and opportunities provide our students with the ability to create these innovative ideas. Our campus is working hard to continually integrate and combine both aspects of innovaiton and entrepreneurship throgh programs such as the Harold Frank Fellows and the Boeing Scholars Program. These are the types of promotional events that encourage students to collaborate to come up with entrepreneurial and innovative ideas that will change the world. 

Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship

The WSU Center for Entrepreneurshial Studies has an incredible program to promote various faculty members and their venture ideas. Not only does this further the innovaiton and entrepreneurship idea throughout the faculty members, but this will also help in changing the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem here at WSU by encouraging students to also participate and further their ideas towards these goals as well. Through the WSU Center for Entrepreneurshial Studies, faculty members who have created start-ups are able to mentor and provide guidance to students who are interested in pursuing their own start-up idea and having an impact to innovation and entrepreneurship here at WSU.

Actively supporting the university technology transfer function

At Washington State University, we have several incredible resources to pursue venture ideas for students and faculty. The Office of Commercialization provides students and faculty to ensure that innovations and discoveries by WSU researchers are evaluated, protected where possible, and prepared for licensing by third parties. the office supports the goal of translating research discoveries into innovations into the marketplace. Not only do we have that office, but we also have several funding sources such as the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture Seed Funding program and also the Spokane Angel Alliance. These funding sources and support truly assist in the pursue of innovaiton and entrepreneurship here at Washington State University.

Facilitating University-Industry collaboration

Various technology spaces, regional sources of capital, and advisory efforts exist at Washington State University to facilitate the university and industry collaboration for the innovation and entrepreneurial ideas. Research labs such as the Engineering and Teaching Research Labs and the WSU Research Park provide students and faculty spaces to perform their research and find these innovative ideas. The MME Cougar Shop also provides a manufacturing space to create prototypes and test the innovation ideas that come about here at Washington State University. Sources such as the Washington Research Foundationa nd the Office of Commercialization assist in providing funding and capital investments to fund and further the ideas that originate from the research labs. Mentoring and advising as offered byt he Harold Frank Office and the Development Office for the Voiland College of Engineering Architecutre assist in pursuing those ideas and futher the process in commercializaiton. 

Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts

There are a couple different ways in which Washington State University can be more involved with local economic development efforts. First, there are two incubators in the region which help foster high-tech startups. Many of the companies in these incubators have graduates from Washington State University. Second, there are large economic development efforts from Spokane, Washington. Getting involved with the Spokane Angel alliance with be a productive way of engaging with the local economy.

University Innovation Fellow Spring 2013: Viviana Tran

University Innovation Fellow Spring 2014: Amber Graviat

University Innovation Fellow Spring 2016: Mitchell Scott, Ryan Pitzer, Victor Charoonsophonsak

Programs offered at WSU:

Business Plan Competition 

The WSU College of Business hosts the Business Plan competition. The competition exists to give student entrepreneurs the opportunity to practice business in a real-world setting. The Business Plan Competition is key to rounding out academic and outreach efforts—bridging theory and application for students who participate.

</div>

The business competition has expanded and reaches out past WSU. Competitiors from different schools and around the world come to Pullman to present their ideas for the future.. 

Learn more about the competition by contacting Marie Mayes at mmayes@wsu.edu  information can also be found at http://www.business.wsu.edu/businessplancompetition2014/Pages/bpc_home.aspx

---

WSU Harold Frank Entrepreunership Program

The Harold Frank Engineering Entrepreneurship Institute conssits of engineering and business students who are interested in technological entrepreneurship. The program refines the business skills of WSU students ad promotes innovation whem designing business plans. 

More information can be found at http://www.cea.wsu.edu/entrepreneurship

---

Innovation Assesment Center (IAC)

The Washington State Innovation Assessment Center (IAC) has provided evaluation services to individuals and small businesses throughout the world. An IAC early stage market assessment will help one to make changes to their product for a brighter innovated future.

More information can be found at http://www.business.wsu.edu/organizations/iac/Pages/index.aspx

Student Priorities

Overview

Washington State University is a college that focuses on programs and opportunities in innovation for the student body. All the programs offered on the campus are focused around specific disciplines and give each student the opportunity to network within their field of interest. Even though Washington State University has limited connections due to its location, there is a strong alumni base that offers various opportunities to students.


 

Strategic Plan #1: Increasing Awarness in Inovation and Entrepreneurship

These opportunities already exist on campus and have the potential to shift the way WSU teaches I&E in the classroom.

Resource Nights:

Resource Nights are part of a 6-week program that offers students the chance to talk to alumni who have created start-ups. They are held in the Spring and run the first 6 weeks into the Spring semester. The speakers' backgrounds are varied and they offer valuable insight on various topics. This program is limited to students who are taking specific courses at WSU. The goal would be to open this up to all disciplines on the campus and give students within STEM programs the opportunities to gain the same knowledge. 

Plan of action:

• Work with the College of Business and Engineering to gain speakers and to network
• Find local businesses that will support the events

Harold Frank Entreprenuership Program: 

The Harold Frank Engineering Entrepreneurship Institute is made up of junior-level engineering and business students who are interested in technological entrepreneurship. The program aims to give students the tools and experiences they need to pursue their ideas. This program also promotes students to be involved on-campus and apply for the business competition offered in the spring. It focuses on creating cohesion between the college of engineering and the college of business. This program gives the students a real experience of the process of working with others with different backgrounds while getting the experience of starting a business from scratch. To be a part of this particular program, there is an application process; however, a majority of the classes in this program are offered to all students. The goal is to make students more aware of the courses within this program that available to them. 

Frank Innovtion Zone:

The Frank Innovation Zone (FIZ) is the first WSU maker space intended for multidisciplinary groups. Existing in the WSU engineering building, the FIZ has several tools to help bring student ideass to life:

• Collaberative tables with TV monitors
  • ​ The walls of the FIZ have large TV screens on them which allows students to hook up their labtops for group projects. This makes doing homework and other projects easier as all memebers can view what is being worked on.
• ​Laser cutter
  • ​The laser cutter can take CAD models and use the specified dimensions to cut out either plastic or wood to help bring student ideas to life.
• ​Wood/Metal fabrication shop
  • ​The wood and metal fabrication shop has many wood working tools to help shape or cut designs of various materials.
• ​3D printing shop
  • ​The 3D printing lab has several variations of 3D printers for plastic design
• Electrical circuits shop
  • The electrical circuits shop has various tools to help bring electronic designs to life. Soldering machines is one of the tools they have avaliable

Strategic Plan #2: Becoming more innovated

These plans focus on what can happen within the next year at WSU. 

Pitch Workshop and Resource Awareness:

Many students at WSU have great ideas for engineering designs, potential bussineses, or interesting projects to work on. The problem, however, is that many of these students do not know how to refine their ideas or access some of the resource's we have on capmus. Our plan is to create the first WSU pitch workshop where students will have the ability to work with like minded individuals on an idea while also getting coaching fom experts in various fields. At the ptich work shops, there will be a special focus on promoting awarness for WSU resources. 

TEDx:

WSU has now hosted two consecutvie TEDx's, and plan's for a third is being discussed.TEDx offers WSU the opportunity to create a community on our campus and share thoughts on innovation to inspire the next generation. The hardest part of planning a TEDx at our campus is finding speakers and sponsors, due to our campus's location. The WSU TEDx has been very successful in recruiting professors on campus to give talks about their research or ideas. However, it has lacked in bringing outside talent to talk about projects they have been working on. As the WSU TEDx moves forward, we plan to bring in people from other regions to give an additional prespective to our campus. 

Related Links

Mitchell Scott

Victor Charoonsophonsak

Ryan Pitzer 

Amber Graviet

Washington State University

Related Links

Washington_State_University_Student_Priorities

Amber_Graviet