Priorities:Arizona State University & ASU Poly Student Priorities

Overview

Arizona State University has one of the largest student bodies in the US. It is spread across 5 different campuses (Tempe, Downtown Phoenix, Polytechnic, ASU West, and Lake Havasu), as well as a large online presence. Arizona State University is a leader in Entrepreneurship and Innovation as rated #1 in the US by US News & World Report for Innovation in both 2016 and 2017. ASU has created many opportunities to build on ideas in any field or major through access to a number of present opportunities. Separate from the 5 campuses, ASU has an Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation that specializes in campus and community engagement.

With so much Entrepreneurial and Innovative aspects to the learning at ASU, the problem does not stem from a lack of access to opportunities. We've discovered the problem now lies in students having access to comb through everything available to find the options that best suit their needs and move forward on their own innovative entrepreneurial journey. We've discovered that our process through University Innovation Fellows was more than to create E&I opportunities, but to utilize the opportunities we currently have and better market them to the students who need them.

The segregation of campuses causes other problems we've discovered throughout the process. Often times there is not much that can be done about maker spaces or innovation labs located on specific campuses. However, many campuses are hosting their own speaker series with both local and national entrepreneurs and CEO's. Right now these live events are a great resource that has one simple mode of consumption; attending the live event itself. With the ease of live streaming video as well as video storage, these types of events should span all locations and even allow students unable to make the events the ability to pull up a recorded talk at any time that is convenient for them.

A new online portal is the solution that we believe will solve many of the issues students are having with our entrepreneur and innovation capabilities of the ASU community. By allowing a simple way to filter every E&I event and opportunity available to the community, we can provide tailored help to all individuals in need. The entrepreneurial journey can be tough enough on it's own. Finding the help to get it moving shouldn't be. Through our efforts with UIF in collaboration with ASU, we believe we can solve that issue.

Coming soon: Pitch Video (Session 5)

Strategy #1: Student Consulting Projects

In today’s America, millennials that graduate are most concerned with getting jobs, and this program aims to help with that simply by improving industry-university connections. Our University President, Dr. Michael Crow, asserts in his book, Designing the New American University, that university innovation parallels that of industry innovation where there is mutual collaboration in what he calls the ‘triple helix of university-industry-government innovation’. Student Consulting Projects is a university wide organization that connects local industry with the university through engineering projects that students consult companies with. I interviewed students that were part of a similar organization at school called Engineering Projects in Community Partners to get their perspective. Although the students found similarities between both organizations, they said that working with community partners was often difficult and they did not personally learn from them. Realizing this, I would emphasize the connections students make with industry professionals as they offer the greatest gain to students. To incentivise this on the industry professional’s side, we could offer tax breaks to their business as a means to collaborate with the university effectively. The information I received was valuable in that I could get a feel for the type of students interested in a program like this.

Strategy #2: Humanitarian Design Project Showcase and Competition

One of the best ways I’ve seen involvement encouraged for entrepreneurs and innovators is through showcases and competitions where there is potential to win prize money for their projects. Students will come in teams of 4-8 to present their pitch, project, or prototype for a humanitarian design project. This competition will be unique because the potential investors will be local businesses and companies (or angel investors) that have invested interests in the projects being presented and they will be able to bid money on the projects that they would like to fund. Projects will be divided based on their phase of development and the amount of money they are requesting. There will be a round of presentations from each project as well as a poster session where investors are able to come and ask questions directly to the team. This will foster a more collaborative environment for students to receive funding. In addition to this, there will be mentors from local startups coaching teams on how to negotiate offers and reciprocate everything from stock to equity while being informed about the decisions they are making. This is unlike any competition we’ve had at ASU before and will definitely foster the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation as well as providing the necessary resources to teams that aren’t sure how to get their start.

Related Links

Arizona State University

Spring 2017 UIF:

Kaleia Kramer

Brian Hensley

Christian Rice

Jake Gunnoe

Lisa Baer

Ryan Borneman

Stephen Annor-Wiafe

Student 4 (hyperlinked)