School:Brigham Young University

Campus Overview

Promoting Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Structured Creativity (INDES 131): A course on applying principles of structured creativity to create new ideas. This course also covers verbal and visual communication as tools to spread ideas.

Creating a Good Life Experience Design ('ExDM' 300): A class that explores life design opportunities from an experiential and recreational viewpoint. 

Do Good Better (MSB 375): Focuses on prominent approaches to social innovation and entrepreneurship. Students learn how to analyze social venture programs, conduct root cause analysis, and complete solution evaluation. 

TEDx BYU Learn

Changemaker Club: An introductory club for undergraduate students seeking involvement in social innovation. This program is hosted by the Ballard Center on BYU campus.  Entrepreneurship Club: This club helps students learn how to start a venture, build a student team, and get connected with mentors to start a business. 

BYU Developers Club: Those interested in coding, development, and UX design are a great fit for this club. This club focuses on creating change on campus through technology. They holding coding nights and hackathons. 

Venture Factory Club: 

Changemaker Film Competition: Y-Prize: Design Thinking

Y-Prize: Problem Mastery

Social Venture Challenges:

Experiment BYU Think Tank: This a space available to students in the Harold B. Lee Library. This is a space where students can innovate and create. This space has 120 square feet of whiteboard, a 3D printer, projectors, and a Science and Engineering help desk.

UX Lab: Multimedia Lab: Graphic Desing Library:  Provo Library Lynda Home Access:

BYU InVision Student Account:

Corporate Social Impact Projects:

Social Innovation Projects:

Ballard Innovation Team:

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Experiment

Encouraging Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Actively Supporting the University Technology Transfer Function

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Facilitating Universtiy-Industry Collaboration

Though BYU has focused on developing their innovation and entrepreneurial resources on campus, regional and local sources are growing and offer enormous potential for students in Provo. Product Hive and Front Utah offer training and mentoring to managers and designers and are perfect for students trying to break into the business industry. The Silicon Slopes area spans from Provo to Salt Lake City to Park City and is one of the fastest growing technological regions in the world. The Slopes are home to hundreds of startup companies, several of which have grown to be “unicorns,” valued at over a billion dollars. The proximity and growth rate of new and innovate companies make Silicon Slopes an excellent resource for BYU students looking to gain innovative and entrepreneurial experiences.

Engaging with Regional and Local Economic Development Efforts

From our research, it does not appear that BYU actively connects with any organizations seeking to develop the local economy. While the UIF program notes that many campuses have an economic development office to leverage university research and development for a positive local economic benefit, BYU has not created such a program. Connection to local economic development groups appears to be the most significant gap in our campus overview report, but perhaps a future relationship with the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development could change that and begin a new chapter at BYU.

Written by

Dallas Anderson, Rachel Merrill, Ashley Paget, Gabe Walker