Priorities:Temple University Student Priorities

Overview:

Temple University is a large urban research university within Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Temple offers more than 400 degree programs at 17 schools and colleges and five professional schools. Philadelphia is an excellent environment for entrepreneurs, and there already exists a large number of resources for those interested in entrepreneurship and innovation on Temple’s main campus. Unfortunately, the majority of these resources are concentrated within the FOX School of Business’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI). Students from all over the University can take advantage of what Temple’s IEI has to offer; however, a sense of unawareness and apathy exists in the schools outside of FOX. As University Innovation Fellows, it is our goal to change this. The following strategies will enable a university wide culture of innovation to begin to take hold at Temple and the greater Philadelphia area.

Right now, Temple’s first cohort of University Innovation Fellows, Richard Hoff, Alex Burchman, and Sean Martin will be coordinating efforts on each of these projects. They will need the help and cooperation of people throughout Temple’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Project #1: Innovation and Design Center

Temple needs a central place where any student can go to bring their innovative ideas to life. The end-goal of this project is to provide students of any major access to the technology and know-how needed to bring an idea to life. This would include machine equipment training, prototyping classes, and design thinking workshops. The ultimate goal is a student run Innovation and Design Center to serve the Temple community.

• MILESTONE 1: Obtain a space located on Temple’s Main Campus to host this lab. This is aimed to be completed by the start of the Fall 2016 semester.
  • TACTIC: This will necessitate a joint lobbying effort from many campus stakeholders. The University’s president will respond to a joint appeal from multiple schools and colleges for this space.
  • TACTIC: As a public university, we hope to obtain funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Regional and national businesses can be looked to be brought on as sponsors as the center takes shape.

• MILESTONE 2: Recruit students to take introductory design thinking workshops. This will be done by taking advantage of the abundance of design know-how in Temple’s IEI. These short sessions will exposure new students to new ways of thinking. The aim is for this to be completed by May 2016.
• MILESTONE 3: Begin allowing students outside of the Mechanical Engineering Department the ability to obtain training in machine shop equipment. This is aimed to be completed by May 2016
  • TACTIC: Certify students with the ability to instruct other students in machine shop equipment. If the end goal is a student run center, the students must be able to certify other students!

Project #2: Offer Noncredit Innovation/Entrepreneurship Courses

The first step students who have an interest in Innovation and Entrepreneurship should be able to take is to explore their newfound interest. The courses they take will be entirely voluntary, and will not affect their GPA or official transcript.

• MILESTONE 1: Professors will begin holding pop-up classes. They can be about any topic of the professor’s choosing and are not required for degree programs. The first pop-up class will be held by Dr. Brookstein of the Engineering College the Spring 2015 semester. It is entitled “Improv in Engineering.”
  • TACTIC: We hope Dr. Brookstein’s inaugural pop-up class will spur many more professors to design and hold their own pop-up classes.
  • TACTIC: Interaction with students across campus has led to the conclusion that there is a common interest in a pop-up class focused on prototyping. Meeting this student need is essential to the viability of the pop-up course system.
• MILESTONE 2: Begin offering tangible credentials students can use to track their progress. Temple University currently has a non-credit transcript system called DestinyOne. We hope to have the noncredit innovation/entrepreneurship programs we are developing onto this system by Fall of 2016.
  • TACTIC: Offer a way for students to track what machines and equipment they complete training in. At first, the focus will be on offering a way for students to master the machines in the Tyler School of Art and Engineering College.

Project #3: University Wide Innovation Network

After interactions with students, faculty, and regional investors/entrepreneurs, it was determined that there is a need for a common network where they all can interact. For instance, students want a place where they can connect with other students to find people with skills they need, advice, or opinions on projects they have in mind.

• MILESTONE 1: Establish an online network where any Temple student, alumni, or faculty can make profiles and connect with one another. The network, however, will be specifically geared towards entrepreneurial topics.    
  • TACTIC: An official student organization for UIF will be registered with the Main Campus Program Board. From there, it will be possible to utilize Temple’s OwlConnect system for this goal. This is set for completion by November 2015.
  • TACTIC: The app/website Slack will be tested for its usability for this networking purpose. This option will allow non-Temple affiliated users to join if approved by the administrator. Moreover, this platform has better mobile capabilities than OwlNetwork.
• MILESTONE 2: Establish a committee of student representatives from multiple schools and colleges throughout Temple that will discuss the current state of Temple’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The aimed for start date is December 2015.
  • TACTIC: The group will start small and slowly add students. To avoid scheduling conflicts, the in person meetings will be held only bi-weekly or monthly.

Project #4: Spotlight Temple Success Stories

The best way to get students involved in innovation and entrepreneurship at Temple will be to make them understand that they are actually capable of pursuing an entrepreneurial dream. This will be done by demonstrating how similar students at Temple succeeded in their endeavours.

• MILESTONE 1: Hold Temple’s first annual information fair for incoming students geared specifically towards spreading information about Temple’s innovation and entrepreneurship resources. This will be called “What IF” where IF is Innovation Fair. UIF will partner with Brandon Study from Temple’s IEI to make this possible. The first fair is going to be held in the Spring of 2016.
• MILESTONE 2: With cooperation from the TUTV station, produce a video series that highlights Temple student-entrepreneur success stories. The focus will be on how Temple helped make their success possible. Episodes will ideally begin being shown by May 2016.
  • TACTIC: We will draw on the experience of professor Dwight Carey’s experience working with student entrepreneurs to determine candidates for the show.
  • TACTIC: We will hope to display the program throughout the University on the various video screens on campus, from the Engineering Building to the Student Center to the big screen at football games.
• MILESTONE 3: A cross-disciplinary design competition will be held at Temple for student teams. As of now, the concept is for various Temple faculty to devise a problem and task student teams of three-four to use their design thinking, prototyping, and innovation skills to address the problem. This will hopefully become an annual event starting in Spring 2017.
  • TACTIC: The unique part of the competition will be that teams will be restricted to one member from a specific school or college. For instance, an acceptable team would be one engineering, one art student, and one business student.

Written By: Sean Martin, Alex Burchman, and Richard Hoff