= University-Industry Collaboration<br/> =
<span id="docs-internal-guid-69774ec0-2e5d-aa25-b69b-a97fbdc0ce62"><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The University of Pittsburgh, at this point, does not have strong ties with large industry to provide students an arena in which to practice entrepreneurship. Rather, Pitt looks to build companies and fund small ventures giving students a more hands on experience. The reasoning for this is quite simple; the University of Pittsburgh has at its disposal UPMC and millions of dollars in research funding. This contributes to a gold mine of market needs and clinical deficiencies. Pitt’s major downfall is its lack of collaboration, until recently the departments did not work together to take advantage of these potential products and businesses. The new age of student-driven entrepreneurship is changing that. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;">Student organizations, like Design Hub, pair student composed design teams with physicians at UPMC to help prototype products that physicians see a need for</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 255); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;">.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students are working hands-on with clinicians and are bringing small ideas to life, which are leading to larger successes down the road. Many of these ideas start as small projects but turn into start-up companies and small businesses. The bottom line is industry collaboration is not necessary to make entrepreneurs at Pitt successful, better collaboration between departments will lead to a booming age of entrepreneurial partnership between UPMC and the Department rest of Bioengineeringthe university.</span></span><div><br/></div>
= Regional and Local Economic Development Efforts =