Changes

For many non-entrepreneurial students at the University of Chicago, the word "entrepreneurship" is associated with things like business and technology. While entrepreneurship is not intrinsically tied with either of these concepts, this strong association leads to many students not being interested in getting involved in entrepreneurial opportunities. A broad solution to this problem would be to expose these students to how entrepreneurship is relevant to their experiences and interests. We are currently implementing a program that is a specific variant of this solution directed towards undergraduate science majors. === Science Innovation Program === The Science Innovation Program is a two-quarter training program designed to help science and engineering undergraduates apply their knowledge and develop the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge that they need to come up with good business ideas to solve important social issues like healthcare and pollution, and create successful startup companies around these ideas. In the first quarter of the program, members of the program will attend four biweekly workshops led by professors from the Booth School of Business and entrepreneurs from Chicago-based startups where they will learn the essentials of coming up with new ideas, assessing the practicality and feasibility of their ideas, developing a business plan for their idea, and implementing their business plan. In the second quarter of the program, members will then have the opportunity to formulate their own ideas for scientific inventions, create a business plans for these ideas, and pitch these ideas to a panel of investors and professors, who will evaluate and give feedback on these proposals. The program has been designed specifically to help students who are majoring in the sciences and engineering, and have little to no background in either entrepreneurship or business. Furthermore, students are not expected to have their own business ideas prior to participating in the program.