School:University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Contents

Introduction

The University of Minnesotais a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. It is the oldest and largest campus within the University of Minnesota System and has the sixth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 51,853 students in 2012-2013, and is broadly organized into 19 colleges and schools.

Student Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Centers

The Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship is the deparment home of the Entrepreneurship Major and Minor. It houses a faculty-led, student-driven, business hatchery and hosts/sponsors numerous clubs, events, and programs within the Carlson School of Management. It has supported the development of dozens of student start-ups in the last few years.

Courses

Science & Engineering: The University of Minnesota is home to some of the most profound science and engineering research professors in the country and the vast majority incorperate opportunities for student research into upper-level and graduate-level engineering and science coursework. Although these may not have a direct relation to entrepreneurship, they foster an innovative mindset amongst the students that participate, and this may eventually lead to entrepreneurial or intrepreneurial ventures in the future.

Entrepreneurial Management: While the Carlson School of Management is largely focused on preparing students to work in corporate environments, many successful start-ups have come out of the program. In turn, the school has invested in a centralized Entrepreneurship curriculum that exposes students to innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) thinking in addition to their traditional business-related courswork. This curriculum covers the breadth of I&E theory with an emphasis on applicability in the upper level classes. The capstone course, Entrepreneurship In Action, provides students with capital to test and start their own venture. At the end of the course, students pitch their fledgling businesses to community investors.

Management of Technology: The Technological Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota has developed both a graduate program, and an undergraduate minor program called MOT or Management of Technology. This course curriculum focus on the escence of entrepreneurship in vastly technical industries, and the managerial skills needed to bring an invention to market. Coursework such as Financial Management for Technology-Based Organizations, Developing New Technology-Products, and Technology Foresight and Forecasting put a highly technical spin on the classic business and entrepreneurship couses offered throught the Carlson School of Management.

Social Applied Entrepreneurship (ACARA):  As Minnesota's sole Land-grant University, the University of Minnesota is called to focus resources toward the solving some of society's pressing problems. ACARA is a unique way to create venture solutions for these issues both in the US and abroad. Housed in the Institute for the Environment, the program is structured around a full series of classes accross a variety of subjects including science, business, and design. The program's objective is to develop solutions that are innovative, scalable, and impactful. The work of students culminates in at the ACARA Challenge, where the most promising venture solutions compete for recongnition and support to carry their venture forward.