Priorities:University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Priorities

Overview

At the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, we have what is known as the “Innovation Engine” this is the sum of the widespread opportunities for students to get involved in academic research, pursue business ideas, participate in entrepreneurial courses, enter business competitions, or simply get involved with an innovative student organization. This Innovation Engine is the ambitious goal of our campus Leadership who are creating an Innovation Campus and building new spaces for interdisciplinary collaborative research with many partners in the Milwaukee area. When looking at our landscape canvas, it seems that there are a great deal of opportunities that currently exist for students. However, in the past weeks to months, we have been able to really take a pulse of the campus and examine whether the students are really being engaged. This seems to be the case for a few, but far more students do not know about the resources available to them, and far more students do not execute their ideas. There is a sense of close-mindedness, fear, and a perceived lack of support that needs to be addressed. Students need to be excited and given a chance to truly let their creative juices and passions pour into an idea free of judgement, where they can take on the risks and pursue new opportunities. We want students to dare to be different and think not about simply getting a job, but creating a job. We need to ignite a new, fresh, more exciting and exhilarating innovation engine that does not focus exclusively on the academic research but also in the personal pursuits of students. We need to inspire students and make them believe that they too can change the world. For these reasons, the following six strategies are designed to maximize the hidden potential that lies within the student body and the faculty and administrators who teach students each and everyday. The resources on campus are there but they need to be reorganized and they need to be given a context, for those who are outside the compartmentalized and easily-isolated groups and colleges. There are 14 schools and colleges at UWM, with nearly 30,000 students and over 1,600 faculty, so it is easy for resources and programs to get lost in the shuffle. As a result of the scale of UWM, our current I&E ecosystem is quite fragmentd, with no clear pathways for progress. These six strategies aim to solve many of these problems that plague the campus and ultimately deter some students from pursuing their ideas. Our goal is that with these strategies in place, our university can have a centralized I&E ecosystem that has a low barrier to entry, easily-identifiable and transparent pathways for resource-sharing, and the ability to cultivate, nurture and expose ideas. We want to reward students for their participation in the I&E ecosystem and we want other students to feel like they want to be a part of the I&E ecosystem.

Strategy #1: Introduce I&E on Campus

Tactic #1: TEDx UW - Milwaukee

• Description:

Theme: Generation Why Not?
Scheduled for Oct. 4, 2014

The TEDx UW - Milwaukee event will introduce students and faculty to the growing ecosystem of I&E on our campus promoting ideals of “moonshot thinking.” We hope to promote the vision and presence of the University Innovation Fellows candidates on our campus as well as the stories of innovative individuals or groups from our area. The goal is to plant the seed for a new way of thinking on our campus, as well as prove our physical presence throughout the world with a quality broadcast and recorded program of the event.

• Team Leaders: Jon Edquist, Aaron Davis, Carlton Reeves, Alex Francis, Rob Salamon, et al.

• Milestones:
  • Find an influential headlining speaker: April 22nd, 2014
  • Compile a list of potential speakers: April 22nd, 2014
  • Finalize the speaker line-up: May 22nd, 2014
  • Setup and dry-run the logistics: starting Sept. 22nd, 2014

Tactic #2: 3 Day Startup

• Description:

3DS Springboard event details
Scheduled for April 13-19, 2014

UW - Milwaukee is very excited to participate in the first 3 Day Startup Springboard event. This event will promote student ideas and quickly guide them to a finalized pitch. We see the 3DS Springboard event as a learning experience to sponsor future events with the same mission: Provide students with "moonshot ideas," allow them to quickly form a team; work as a team to solve real problems.

• Team Leaders: Alex Francis

• Milestones:
  • With little time to market the event, we will need to think of creative ways to get students involved: April 6th, 2014
  • Market, Market, Market - conduct marketing campaign: April 6th-13th, 2014
  • Reserve space for the event: April 7th, 2014
  • Furnish space for innovative thinking: April 13th, 2014
  • Plan annual idea hackathon events: May 1st, 2014
  • Announce the next event!: August 1st, 2014 (Prior to the Fall semester starting)

Tactic #3: Show Off Current and Past Student Accomplishments

• Description:

What better way to raise the confidence of our students than by showing them success from peers? Highlights of current and past students who have been involved with I&E events, or even who have been successful with ventures of their own, will be published.

• Team Leaders: Tyra Mcfarland with support from the UWM Research Foundation

• Milestones:
  • Create an I&E showcase section in the school paper.
  • Develop a UW - Milwaukee I&E website focused on aggregating information from all colleges about I&E events, competitions and successes.

Strategy #2: Engagement: Fun, Collaborative Idea-Creation Sessions

University Innovation Fellows candidates will lead UWM Student Startup Challenge 2013-2014 winners through a weekend booster event inspired by the activities at the UIF meet-up in California. Teams in California were challenged to think big and demonstrate their ideas through low-resolution prototypes made from popsicle sticks, paper, pipe cleaners, Play Doh, and other arts and crafts materials. A session filled with excitement, creativity and most of all: fun.

Tactic #1: Brainstorming Sessions

• Description: Hold weekly sessions where students can work on brainstorming ideas, flushing out ideas, improving ideas, or simply molding ideas. These sessions will have themes but they will change with demand; they can range from prototype creation to market research techniques. This is an extension of the current Entrepreneur Meetup Sessions which occur twice a week, except now we will focus on idea creation and low-resolution prototyping for one session each week. The sessions will be designed for collaboration, high engagement, and a lot of activity.
• Team Leader: Carlton Reeves
• Milestones:
  • Reserve a space.
  • Send weekly announcements.

Tactic #2: Entrepreneur Mashup Sessions

• Description: Entrepreneur Mashup Sessions, where student entrepreneurs can meet, share their experiences, ideas, problems, and insights with others. Students teaching students how to be more effective in their pursuits.
• Team Leaders: CEO, SESO and collaborating student organizations.
• Milestones:
  • Reserve a space.
  • Send weekly announcements.

Tactic #3: Entrepreneur Socials

• Description: A network-building event where student entrepreneurs can meet each other and learn from each other's experiences.
• Team Leaders: CEO student organization
• Milestones:
  • Discuss with CEO president the location and logistics of such an event.

Strategy #3: UWM Creative Commons: A Place to Inspire, Create, and Manifest Dreams

This maker-space-type common area is for students to work on their own ideas or collaborate with others. As University Innovation Fellows candidates, we will play a key role in finding a space, furnishing the space with creative furniture and materials, and leading workshops that are designed to help students with their ideas.

Tactic #1: Design the UWM Creative Commons

• Description: The Creative Commons will be for all students, and we will include all students in the design as an exercise in spreading innovative ideas. A student survey will provide us with feedback from students to determine what is most desired in an innovative location open to all students.
• Team Leaders: Alex Francis, Carlton Reeves, Rob Salamon; SESO
• Milestones:
  • Send survey
  • Space designed, according to survey results, by student volunteers who would like the experience of finalizing a floor plan

Tactic #2: Market the Location to Promote Involvement

• Description: We want all students to know about this new and awesome space so campus-wide marketing will be required.
• Team Leaders: Alex Francis, Carlton Reeves, Rob Salamon, SESO; CEO
• Milestones:
  • E-mail blasts
  • Print flyers
  • In-class announcements

Tactic #3: Workshops for Innovation

• Description: Innovation workshops, held by volunteers, will help students strengthen their ideas and products.
• Team Leaders: TBD
• Milestones:
  • Determine workshop leaders
  • Publish schedule of workshop series

Strategy #4: Create a Pipeline for I&E

Tactic #1: Coordinate All the Faculty and Staff

• Description: This will be done by meeting with all the faculty who host I&E-focused classes or programs and let them know about each other so they know where to send students for more resources. To begin, we will look at our Potential Value and Applied Value resources listed in our Landscape Canvas. This is going to be the basis for our attempt to coordinate the faculty and strengthen our I&E Network.
• Team Leaders: Carlton Reeves
• Milestones:
  • Generate email list from current and expanded network
  • Schedule meetings with faculty

Tactic #2: University Innovation Fellows Feeder Program

• Description: Our current University Innovation Fellows candidates believe that more students should be engaged and have the same experiences we have had. The UIF program has been a way to jump-start our thinking, our ideas, and our belief that we could accomplish anything and leave a lasting impact on our community.
• Team Leaders:
• Milestones:

Tactic #3: UW - Creative Commons Newsletter

• Description: Our campus has a lot of resources and a lot of people doing truly exciting work; however, there is no centralized, informational bulletin board for I&E things. This will be our attempt to coordinate this and create a weekly digital Newsletter that goes out to all students on our mailing list, as well as being disseminated through our Leadership Circle and other faculty and administrators who support our cause.
• Team Leaders:
• Milestones:

Strategy #5: I&E Certificate Program and Curriculum

Tactic #1: Innovator and Entrepreneur Certificate

• Description: This is an incentive program where students can be rewarded for participation in I&E activities on campus, and also use it as a resume-builder. We want students to think outside the box, but sometimes a little nudge is needed and this might be just the incentive to get students to participate in both the extracurricular programs as well as the courses offered in the various schools. This certificate can be awarded by the UWM Research Foundation so it is not truly an academic certificate but it is still supported by a reputable segment of our campus.
• Team Leaders: UIF Candidates and Faculty
• Milestones:
  • Develop program guidelines and requirements
  • Start certificate program
  • Award first cohort of certificate winners

Tactic #2: Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship

• Description: Create an official Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship. Many of our graduate students are participating in research which sometimes spurs into new ventures that transpire through our Technology Transfer Office or Research Foundation, while other graduate students are pursuing ventures of their own. These ambitions should be rewarded and acknowledged. In a similar manner to our Undergraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship, the graduate certificate would require students to take select courses that provide them the basic skills they would need, such courses could include:

• Product Realization
• Lean Launch Pad
• Innovation and Commercialization
• Entrepreneurship
• Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Small Business Formation
• Venture Finance
• Marketing Research
• Business to Business Sales and Marketing
• Business Modeling of New Venture
• Entrepreneurship Internship through Research Commercialization (New idea)

The Entrepreneurship Internship through Research Commercialization could be a course where students who are working with a faculty member or by themselves and they are trying to commercialize an idea and pursue a new venture or business could receive academic credit, due to experiential learning by doing.

• Team Leaders: UIF Candidates and Faculty
• Milestones:
  • Develop program guidelines and requirements
  • Start certificate program
  • Award first cohort of certificate winners

Tactic #3: Inventor, Innovator; Entrepreneur Awards

• Description: This year semester at UWM, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization created the Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Well, instead of just honoring one person, I felt we could take this from a single-participant award to honoring many of the students based on their progress and achievements as they pusue their own ventures. For example, we would honor a student when they:
  • participate in 5 campus sessions
  • create their minimum viable product
  • launch their business
  • recieve their first customer sale
  • become cash-flow positive
  • get an investment
  • grow to 2 employees
  • grow to 5 employees
  • grow to 10 employees 
• Team Leaders: TBD
• Milestones:
  • Get some strategic partners, such as CEO and the UWM Research Foundation
  • Determine awards and honors
  • Figure out how to track the information
  • Create an event for showcasing these awards
  • Make sure this is more of a celebration than a contest
  • Get student involvement and gain acceptance

Strategy #6: UWM Innovation Center

The UWM Innovation Center is our largest and most ambitious strategy yet. It will ultimately be the summation of all our previous strategies, but in one location. This center will not only allow students to create, but also allow them to work and meet side-by-side key members in the business world. We want this to be a place where students can meet with investors, entrepreneurs, businesses, students, faculty, clients, customers, and anyone else that they may need to meet with. This space will not only be a workshop, but it will have a professional business lounge, offices, house actual businesses, have a restaurant or two, a few hotel rooms for students, and maybe even a living-learning community dorm.

Tactic #1: Design the Center

• Description: Begin by getting input from faculty, staff, administrators, and most importantly, students. Determine what would be in the center, what would it be used for, what the mission is, how it can help the campus, and get everyone to agree on what form this center should take.

Tactic #2: Determine Logistics

• Description: Once the idea is formulated with a clear understanding of what the UWM Innovation Center will be, then the next step is to handle all of the logistics. We need to figure out where we can build this center, how we get it approved by the university, and how can we can put it into the university campus plan. Another thing to consider is: Looking for investments.

Tactic #3: Build the Center

• Description: The UWM Innovation Center is for future students, so they can have a permanent space on campus to create, build, and manifest their dreams.

Impact

To be detemrined after we show some of our campus leaders our goals. Then we will build metrics to measure our impact.

Related Links

Alex Francis
Carlton Reeves
Rob Salamon
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee