Priorities:Arizona State University & ASU Poly Student Priorities

Overview: Entrepreneurship and Innovation at ASU

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 it has been 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.

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. We 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.

Tactic 1

Realizing the government/community partners were often difficult to work with and learn from, we would emphasize the connections students make with industry professionals as they offer the greatest gain to students.

Tactic 2

To incentives this on the industry professional’s side, we could offer tax breaks to their business as a means to collaborate with the university effectively.

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. 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.

Tactic 1

Within the showcase, we will separate projects based on their phase of development and the amount of money they are requesting.

Tactic 2

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.

Tactic 3

There will be mentors from local startups coaching groups of teams in each phase on how to negotiate offers and reciprocate everything from stock to equity while being informed about the decisions they are making.

Strategy #3: Digitizing and Organizing our E&I Opportunities

At ASU we have many entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities. We have curriculum that is centered around E&I, we have free online non-credit courses for students to familiarize themselves with the process, we have student organizations and events, we have faculty experienced in the process willing to help anyone, we also have a great network with the local communities in their E&I events across the city and even the state. We have so much information on E&I that it turns out, most students don’t know where to access the information about everything. Currently, 3 of our campuses have stipend student employees that work directly with ASU’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. This currently seems to be the best starting point for students with questions on entrepreneurship and innovation, as the person's role is to get each student the answers to questions they may have. However, most students may not even know this option exists. Our third prototype centers around creating an online hub that can present students with the proper information needed for their specific step. They would be able to go to the site and specify what stage they are at (i.e. just want to learn more about entrepreneurship, have an idea, prototyping, funding, etc.), then set parameters on how to get the proper information. For example, there may be a great funding event on campus next month to pitch a business idea and get funding. However this specific student has an idea to start a non-profit, and non-profit business are unable to compete in the competition. Instead, another competition taking place a month later is specifically accepting only non-profits. This would be the purpose of the parameter setting and relaying proper information. With ASU having so many E&I organizations, the online hub would allow an individual to get tailored service to suit their individual needs. The prototype is in process right now with the E&I catalysts working for the Office of E&I, except we are turning the manual process into a digital process. We would even want to keep the same name and logos of “just start”. Which is what we would truly be doing. Creating a starting point for any student, regardless of how far they are in their entrepreneurial process to get started at ASU.

Tactic 1

To work with ASU's office of E&I to collaborate on building an online portal for all things E&I associated with ASU and the community.

Tactic 2

To collect all information on entrepreneurship events at ASU and the community and separate events by keywords to be retrieved easily by the portal.

Tactic 3

Update events annually to keep students up to date on E&I events

Strategy #4: Opportunity Awareness Program

When it comes to shaping the student culture of a university from the inside, it is easiest to consult with freshman, as they are the future of the university. Additionally, there is a problem on campus with a lack of awareness of entrepreneurship and innovation programs and lectures that are designed for students. The opportunity awareness program is a program designed for underclassmen, especially freshman, and is designed to describe the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation and show them where they can find opportunities. This is program is to be facilitated by upperclassmen that lead their supposed mentees through their path to succeed at the university by revealing various opportunities for them.

Tactic 1

Setting up engagement events for Freshman students, hosted by upperclassmen to inspire the entrepreneurial and innovative culture on ASU's campuses.

Strategy #5: Student Innovation Council

The Student Innovation Council would be a student body of like minded innovators that take problems within the university and address solutions to them. We have a program similar to this called ‘Changemaker’ that is completely composed of students that aim to change the world with their social entrepreneurship. This council aims to address the problems of this university and if they can be solved by students, and further so, they would provide the solutions to teams or organizations that would then fulfill those plans and solve the solution. Another crossover to consider is that with the Fulton Student Council, which serves to answer to student problems and make the student experience better overall. The Student Innovation Council would be different in that they would provide specific solutions for problems case by case, and they solutions would emphasize entrepreneurship and innovation.

Tactic 1

Create a problems board where members of the student body can directly post problems they see on and around campus.

Tactic 2

Allow student volunteers of the student innovation council to address the problems as listed by other students through innovative thinking and present solutions to the council for vote and application.

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)