School:University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Contents
Campus Overview
Promoting Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Innovation and Entrepreneurship are a core focus at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). This is demonstrated through the unique Bachelor of InnovationTM (BI) degree. There are currently 12 BI degrees, spanning across the College of Business, College of Engineering and Applied Science, College of Education, and the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. This degree combines an emphasis (a major), the innovation core, and a cross-discipline core (students can choose between business, globalization, creative communication, or engineering technology). The innovation core, the heart of the BI, provides students with an experiential education in innovation and entrepreneurship.
In addition to the BI degree, our campus, through the El Pomar Institute for Innovation and Commercialization (EPIIC), regularly hosts events focused on innovation and entrepreneurship such as TEDxUCCS, Lion's Den Pitch Night, Global Game Jam, and EPIIC Nights Speaker Series. Each of these events are meant to encourage students to get involved in an innovative and entrepreneurial space, attempting to reach both students who have ideas and students who just want to get involved. If a startup comes out of one of these events, or if students create a startup independently, The Garage is available as an entrepreneurial workspace for students who are developing companies.
Encouraging Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Faculty at UCCS are responsible for the innovative BI degree, but also for creating an atmosphere and curriculum that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship on campus. The curriculum developed for the Innovation Core is designed to facilitate both the mindset shift that is required for students to utilize their innate innovative abilities and the experiential learning that allows students to explore this ability with the purpose of transforming ideas into impact through the projects they work on for class.
Outside of the BI, there are few classes that are focued on innovation or entrepreneurship that are widely available. The majority of entrepreneurship classes are focused in the College of Business.
In addition to these classes, UCCS is home to both El Pomar Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship, Dr. Tom Duenning, and El Pomar Endowed Chair in Innovation, Dr. Terrance Boult, who help facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship on campus.
Actively Supporting the University Technology Transfer Function
Within the Bachelor of Innovation™ we have two courses that teach our students about intellectual property and support our university technology transfer function. The first is Business and Intellectual Property Law. In this class, students dive into what intellectual property means and how they can protect their ideas. Students learn how to develop a patent and work together to understand how these skills fit into their futures. The second class, Technical Writing, teaches students how to research, find, and write grants, culminating in writing a real grant proposal for a real client. Both of these classes provide students with hands on experience and skills that they will be able to apply in their future careers. After taking these two classes students have a realistic grasp on what intellectual property is and how they can protect, and leverage it in their future.
In addition to the BI courses, the University of Colorado, as a system, has a Tech Transfer office which has the ability to license patents out to students to facilitate the development of a product or company around intellectual property that the University owns. This gives students the valuable opportunity to create innovations and protecting their intellectual property out of the box.
Facilitating University-Industry Collaboration
Colorado Springs itself contains several opportunities to connect our university to the entrepreneurial industry:
- Pikes Peak Makerspace, a makerspace in downtown Colorado Springs, partners with UCCS to provide a certain number of free memberships to students every semester.
- Epicentral Coworking is a coworking space that can be rented out in downtown Colorado Springs.
- Peak Startup is a non-profit organization in Colorado Springs that supports entrepreneurial efforts by working with founders, hosting pitch nights and startup weekends, and facilittating education, networking and mentoring.
- QUAD Innovation Partnership is an organization collaborating with the four major colleges in Colorado Springs (UCCS, Colorado College, United States Air Force Academy, and Pikes Peak Community College) to help students transfer into the working world by offering internship opportunities to work on projects important to Colorado Springs.
These resources can provide great value to students interested in innovation and entrepreneurship at UCCS.
The community of Colorado Springs is very entrepreneurially focused and our university is dedicated to teaching innovation and entrepreneurship to students in business, engineering and the arts and sciences. Colorado Springs has makerspaces, coworking spaces, incubators, accelerators and other resources to facilitate the development of startups. With all of these entrepreneurial resources, it is key that the university has substantial relationships with each outlet. Through various programs currently being implemented in conjunction with the university, students have access to internships such as Startup Summer or educational resources such as Startup Weekend.
Engaging with Regional and Local Economic Development Efforts
The university is not well connected with regional and economic development efforts. For instance, we have a facility in downtown Colorado Springs called Catalyst Campus. This campus provides coworking space for developers and small companies to innovate together and create a more colorful and developed economic ecosystem in downtown Colorado Springs. The potential to have a relationship with Catalyst Campus and send future programmers there for internship options and possible employment is an opportunity we must capitalize on. Colorado Springs is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation and it is crucial that our university is well connected with other organizations around the city.