School:Purdue University

Overview

Purdue University is a land-grant institution founded by John Purdue in 1869. From its inaguaration, Purdue offers over 211 different majors for undergraduate students and over 70 majors for graduate students through it's various colleges including College of Agriculuture, Education, Engineering, Health and Human Sciences, Liberal Arts, Management, Pharmacy, Polytechnic Institute, Science, and Veterinary Medicine. Purdue Engineering has been ranked as the 9th best for undergraduates as well as ranked 3rd for largest international student population. Purdue Polytechnic Institute is one of the largest technology schools in the United States and currently tied for first place in rankings. The Technology Education program, offered jointly with the College of Education, ranks first in the nation. The Polytechnic Institute is unique at Purdue in that its programs are offered at nine different locations throughout the state of Indiana, including several locations that are not satellite campuses of the Purdue University system. 

Innovation Resources

Purdue University has several resources at various phases associated with Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Resources are included but limited to the list below.

Academic Programs

• Lean Launchpad Course
• Certificate in Entrepreneurship program
• Technology Realization Course
• Senior Design Classes
• PREPP Fellowship
• DIFF (Deliberate Innovation For Faculty)
• BioMedship

School Resources

• Office of Technology Commercialization
• Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship
• Krach Leadership Center
• Kurtz Technology Center
• Purdue Research Park
• Startup Weekend
• TEDx
• BoilerMake Hackathon
• Discovery Park
• Discovery Learning Research Center Design Lab
• Anvil
• Foundry
• Birck Nanotechnology Center
• Business Plan Competitions
• Elevator Pitch Competition
• BoilerMaker Lab
• AFL Lab
• Innovation and Seed Funds

Student Organizations

The following students organizations are focused on various phases associated in the innovation process with many of them primarily focusing in the ideation and prototyping stages. 

• Purdue Mechatronics Club
• Makers Club
• AMET Club
• IEEE Club
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club
• Science and Engineering Business Club
• 3D Printing Club
• Graphic Design
• Hackers Club
• Industrial Design
• Purdue Student Government

Successful Startups

Purdue University is the birthplace for a wide range of startups focusing on various applications and platforms. Purdue Research Parks of West Lafayette are home to the largest cluster (100+) of technology-based companies collaborating with industries across the state. As Indiana's first designated certified technology park, the research park and its business acceleration model have received state and national recognition.

The 725-acre park boasts more than 50 buildings; more than 3,200 employees; 327,000 square feet of business incubation space; and an average wage for startup companies in excess of $63K. Companies that have space at the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette include 3M, Boeing, General Electric, Rolls Royce, Cook Biotech, Delphi, Dow Agro, and HP Entreprises. Some of the recent and popular ones are 

• Symic Biomedical Inc.
• SpeechVive Inc.
• Spero Energy Inc.
• DATTUS
• Vibronix Inc.
• Drug Free Therapeutix
• SpeakMODlities
• ZeroUI
• GeniPhys LLC
• AniDyn Inc.

The success of a startup depends on several factors such as

• Team
• Timing
• Execution
• Funding
• Mentorship
• Innovation

Exigencies

According to several student innovators and student organizations at Purdue, we found that there is a disconnection between the Innovation and Commercialization resources and student Innovators. These exigencies are aimed at the success factors associated with a startup in mind. The exigencies are as follows:

• There is currently no mainstream way to connect student innovators across West Lafayette and other campuses of the Purdue System
• Currently, there are no primary platform for intellectual or relational connections between students from different departments or student-led organizations
• There is little to no collaboration between graduates and undergraduates for innovative projects in non-academic projects.
• There is no university-wide system at Purdue that allows students, faculty and staff to find people with similar and complementary skill-set or interests for short-term as well as long-term projects. 
• There is no workspace with state-of-the-art technology platforms dedicated for student innovations and project collaborations, which is aimed for freedom in thinking and execution. 
• There is currently no simple way to reach-out and publicize student innovations to the massive population of 37,000 people across the Purdue Campus. 

Our Proposed Solution 

After several months of brainstorming, interacting and interviewing with several students across campus, we propose the BoilerDriver initiative. The BoilerDriver is an initiative to connect BoilerMakers across different departments to enhance the Purdue Community and provide a mainstream method for student innovators to gain input from experts and share their output with the world. More details about our solution can be found at our Purdue Strategic Priorities page and on our BoilerDriver website. 

For Innovators

To learn more about the BoilerDriver Initiative, please visit BoilerDriver. If you are a Purdue student, you can help make Purdue an even better place for student entrepreneurship! To find out how, get in touch with the current University Innovation Fellows at Purdue and consider joining the team: Dominick Lee, DominickLee@purdue.edu and Vignesha Bhamidi, CB@purdue.edu. You can also contact former University Innovation Fellows Ian Hamilton (ihamilt@purdue.edu) and Jeff Ackerman (ackermaj@purdue.edu) to gain insights about the University Innovation Fellowship program and their entrepreneurial experiences! 

Reference links

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Certificate for Entrepreneurship

Center for Entrepreneurship

Discovery Park Innovation

Purdue Foundry

Purdue Strategic Priorities

Purdue Landscape Canvas by Jeff Ackerman and Ian Hamilton

Purdue Slidedeck by Jeff Ackerman and Ian Hamilton