2020 Cohort, 2021 uiguides
24
edits
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Student innovation and entrepreneurship is encouraged to a certain extent and mainly focuses on engineering and science areas. The number and variety of innovation and entrepreneurship related courses and the courses which are not directly related to these concepts but still inspire students are not much. The inspirational events and workshops are usually held by student organisations and clubs such as Entrepreneurship Club, IEEE, ASME and IES rather than the faculties and administration. The school has Global Leadership and Learning Program is a certificate program that trains students to live and create 21<sup>st</sup> century campus experience and be active global citizens. The campus houses Koç University Arçelik Research Center for Creative Industries (KUAR) which does not engage a large number students in the creative processes but still creates opportunities for a selected group of students.
'''Courses related to Innovation and Entrepreneurship:'''
Courses (theory, case and/or discussion-based) conveying I&E concepts:
- MGMT 411 Entrepreneurship and New Venture Development
- MGMT 360 Social Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship Track
Experiential courses (senior design, Lean LaunchPad, and/or course requiring applied skills development):
- MGMT 310: Creating Social Impact Through Collaborative Project Management Experiential Learning
- MGMT 210: Changemaking in Action
- ASIU 118: Design Thinking
Non-I&E courses imparting the importance of I&E in the context of a larger subject area:
- MGMT 335: Strategy in a Global Environment
- ALIS 350: Transition to Professional Life
- ALIS 360: Next Generation Leadership & Transformation
- MKTG 432: Corporate Social Responsibility
- ENGR 400: Corporate Dynamics for Engineers
- MGMT 351: Organizational Theory
Incubator, venture accelerator, Bootcamp, or startup venture space:
- KWORKS Pre-Accelerator
- KWORKS Accelarator
- BOOST-UNDP NGO Technology Accelerator
The faculty members are highly encouraged on being innovative since the main focus of the university is being a leader in research field in Turkey and in the world. The research labs are funded generously and the best academicians of the country are invited to the university. Many of these labs, especially engineering and science labs, get patents for the new concepts and products that they produce. In terms of encouraging entrepreneurship in the faculty level, KUAR and KWORKS Entrepreneurship Research Center (former Koc University Incubation Center) are available for application and support.
Infrastructure (ie. maker, prototyping, or innovation space; engineering lab offering access outside of class, etc.):
- KU Makerspace - TunnelX
- OML(Optical Microsystems Laboratory)
- Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory
- Design Lab
- KARMA LAB
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Koc University Research, Project Development and Technology Transfer Directorate (RPDTTD), which was founded in 2009, provides university-industry collaboration opportunities, research support services, technology transfer and research center and laboratories. They provide legal advice and project managementfor granted projects. They offer help in patent and licence application processes, direct the entrepreneurs to the KWORKS Incubation Center. The directorate has connections with the 17 research centers, 5 research forums and 1 support center of Koc University and they ensure the connection and communication between them and researchers in Koc University.
<span style="font-size:larger;">'''FACILITATING UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION''' </span>
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The Koc University Research, Project Development and Technology Transfer Directorate helps the project owners develop business plans. The research infrastructure of the university is open to applications of industrial organisations’ use. The coordinator of this kind of use of university’s resources is RPDTTD and the available research centers for this purpose are: Koc University TÜPRAŞ Energy Center and Koc University Surface Technologies Research Center. On KWORKS plays an important role in forming university-industry bonds. Many of our faculty mostly in the other side, engineering department also have companies where they can use their academic activity to be a part of the school is quite insufficient in bringing students’ and faculty members’ entrepreneurial ideas together with industry. The only channel for this purpose is, again, KWORKS.
<span style="font-size:larger;">'''ENGAGING WITH REGIONAL AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS'''</span>
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Koc University university does not have an a seperate economic development office. The efforts Still KUAR and KWORKS fill the gap. Especially KWORKS provide mentorship, financial consultancy, business and product development support, technical consultancy, legal consultancy and government grants consultancy. Programs KWORKS have to engage students with regional and local economic development : KWORKS'20 Pre-Accelerator Program:KWORKS’20 Pre-Accelerator Program is designed for early stage entrepreneurs who are deficient“checking it out”, looking to explore their idea a bit further but not ready to start a business yet. The only departments KWORKS’20 Accelerator Program:KWORKS’20 Accelerator Program is created with promising early stage startups in mind, helping them explore the leap toward scaling their own startups. KWORKS BiGG:KWORKS BiGG is Personal Youth Entrepreneurship program of KWORKS with the support of TÜBİTAK. TÜPRAŞ ile INOWHATIF:TÜPRAŞ ile INOWHATIF is energy, industry and innovation focused corporate acceleration program of TÜPRAŞ. KWORKS FINTECH:KWORKS FINTECH is Financial Technologies Acceleration Program of KWORKS that can be related to these matters are runs with the support of ISTKA. KWORKS IoT:KWORKS IoT is Internet of Things Acceleration Program of KWORKS and KUARthat runs with the support of ISTKA.