Priorities:Georgia Institute of Technology Student Priorities
Contents
2016 Georgia Tech Student Priorities
The primary priorities for this year are to:
- Teach students to be more innovative, by involving the industry in all capstone projects and internships.
- Build a sustainable and accesible resource center for first time innovators and entrepreneurs.
- Create student-company partnerships that allow both parties to learn and engage with one another.
Strategy #1: Motivate students to be more innovative, by involving the industry in all capstone projects
- Validate the idea through more thorough faculty and student interviews.
- Incentivize better capstone projects and more student effort into them by introducing the industry involvement of potential employers.
- Get a system where both professors and the respective industry professionals have access to the work done by student teams.
- Get those industry professionals on campus for capstone judging.
'Strategy #2: 'Build a sustainable and accesible resource center for first time innovators and entrepreneurs.
- Tactic #1:
- Elaborate on our online guide for first time entrepreneurs, with the content provided using existing entrepreneurship education material online and through the experiences of entrepreneurs from georgia Tech.
- Popularize this resource through organizations like the startup exchange.
- Create a resource to share and access prototyping tools, such as a check-out service.
- Tactic #2:
- Introduce some sort of mentoring program/office hours with students experienced in entrepreneurshipi so that first timers can be given the right knoweldge and direction.
- Tactic #3:
- Organize a week long bootcamp with lectures in the morning and actual business and project development during the rest of the day, ending in a pitch-off with actual VCs to get feedback on the pitch and the business components.
Georgia Tech Student Vision
We believe GT students can change the world. Our campus offers many resources, and even better faculty, to help innovation and creativity on campus. We need to connect the GT community by creating an umbrella organization to help students flow toward these resources on campus, and create channels for student-faculty relationships.
2015 Fall Cohort Project Pitch
University Innovation Council
Despite the many great resources Georgia Tech currently has, the innovation and entrepreneurial movement, which is currently overtaking the nation, has been stalled on our campus due to lack of organization.
Students are unsure of, and mostly unaware of, the opportunities available to them beyond big-name resources such as the Invention Studio or the inVenture Prize competition.
Organizations are struggling to grow, hold large events, or simply stay operational, because of a lack of assisted communication and constant overlap.
Professors are additionally wasting large amounts of time trying to connect with students, due to a lack of protocol and standardized connection.
Our program will exist to foster a passion and create sustainability for innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) among all members of the Georgia Tech community.
The University Innovation Council will support three main areas: the student body, current campus organizations, and faculty/administration. This will improve the community by: eliminating overlap, bringing students of all backgrounds and ages together, and encouraging administrative involvement. This will be done in the following ways:
- For Student Members of the Georgia Tech Community
- Provide access to an umbrella calendar of I&E events
- Connect individual student interests to the I&E movement with others in the Georgia Tech community
- Formulate methods to encourage innovation at Tech
- Provide updates and other opportunities on a regular basis
- For I&E Campus Organizations
- Host Forums
- Connect I&E organizations
- Provide consulting advice, support, and membership numbers
- Provide a yearly I&E wheel featuring individual organizations
- For the Administration
- Dissolve the communication barrier between students, organisations, and the administration
- Form strategic partnerships with supporters of entrepreneurship
- Provide ‘voice’ of I&E for consulting
- Create a mentoring program for faculty to get involved in; help students develop ideas and turn them into a reality
Additionally, please refer to our Campus Landscape Canvas for both on-campus and off-campus resources, as well as local Atlanta-based resources.
This Campus Landscape Canvas illustrates all the resources on Georgia Tech’s campus for undergraduates, graduates, organizations, and faculty through perceived, potential, applied, realized, reframing, and institutional resources.Through this map, we are able to fully maximize student, faculty, undergraduate, and graduate student interactions and improve the map for the future, based on our knowledge of the current environment.
Student-Faculty Relations
Through the University Innovation Council, student-faculty interaction will be facilitated in three main ways:
- Students interested in getting involved with the I&E movement will be directly connected with a professor based on their ideas, needs, and goals. This introduction will save valuable time for the student by removing the searching process. This will also save time for the professor by introducing them to a student who is serious about their work and eager to network.
- Faculty will be able to directly interact and engage with movements on campus that organizations and students are working on. Instead of being directed by several groups of people, faculty members will know all I&E-related movements are being directed by the University Innovation Council.
- Resources for both students and faculty will be maximized due to a new lack of overlap. The process of starting an I&E movement will have the ability to become streamlined, through its implementation in our organization.
Wide Net Impact
By creating a centralized hub, the University Innovation Council will be able to run all I&E movements that Georgia Tech is starting. Our organization, the University Innovation Council, is one that will exist for the betterment of the entire university; not just one major, one club, or even one type of student.
Many undergraduate students have been inspired to create projects and invent in their classes and many graduate students have also been encouraged to turn their research and theses into entrepreneurial companies. This organization would really help graduate students network with undergraduates to easily allocate research positions, internships, and special projects, as well as vice-versa. It is a much more desirable way for them to see what undergraduate students are passionate about, instead of just going off of resumes and shallow connections.
Again, by providing an overarching umbrella, students will be able to focus on their ideas and goals, rather than spending so much time finding the necessary resources. The unique characteristic about I&E is that it's not limited to undergraduate and graduate students, it's for everyone.
Sustainable Impact
By providing a council and infrastructure for I&E to operate under, new students will not have to worry about finding resources or connections (because they will already be provided). They will be able to just focus on the movement and their ideas, goals, and design processes. It will make the entrepreneurial experience less of a trial-and-error process, and more success stories will come out of the Georgia Tech entrepreneurial landscape. In addition, it will create a foundation on campus for other I&E movements to be built upon.
Through the University Innovation Council, students and faculty will be able to grow the I&E movement on campus together, as well as facilitate other movements going forward. This means that they will become more reliant on, and trusting of, each other. If both students and faculty are invested in the same issue and working together to make change happen, Georgia Tech's campus landscape in I&E will continue to grow in the future, which will only perpetuate the success of the I&E campus.
Funds Needed
This budget is based on a $10,000 fund.
- $500 - Organize Umbrella Reaching Out
- $2,500 - Connect with Purpose
- $2,000 - I&E for Dummies
- $5,000 - GT Innovation Month
Timeline
GT Innovation Month
We hope to structure GT Innovation Month in a similar fashion to what NYU's UIF, Terrence, did for his school. We aim to showcase unique I&E entities across campus, and off-campus in the Atlanta area, by holding programs in their respective spaces. This will increase awareness of I&E, gain students for the campus movement, and allow the I&E community at GT to be strengthened and centralized.
