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School:University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

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= Overview =

[[File:UWM-CEAS-logo.jpg|thumb|UWM-CEAS-logo.jpg]][[File:UWM-lubar-logo.jpg|thumb|UWM-lubar-logo.jpg]]

At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee there has been a steady build in what we call the “Innovation Engine”. In 2012, senior leadership at UWM set a plan in motion to ignite this innovation engine and since then it has been steadily burning while gaining momentum and attracting the masses. This movement began when the past Chancellor of UWM, Dr. Michael Lovell, then the Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS), who began forging industry partnerships with such local companies as Ansys, General Electric Healthcare, Rockwell Automation, and Johnson Controls. As a result of these partnerships, new research opportunities began to flourish and the engineering faculty as a whole acted as first followers as they began collaborating in redesigned laboratories, state-of-the-art technical facilities, and through revolutionary classroom instruction. This garnered much interest and support throughout the school and the effects reverberate through the senior leadership and the then Dean of CEAS, later became the Chancellor of the university. Since Chancellor Lovell has left, a new Chancellor has been named, Dr. Mark Mone. Dr. Mone also serves as the former Chancellor's Designee for Strategic Planning and Campus Climate.  In his cabinet-level role as chancellor’s designee, Dr. Mone ~~works~~ worked with the campus’ senior leadership, governance groups, and all stakeholders to develop UWM’s 2020 strategic plan, and develop and implement campus-level programs to improve the organizational climate.

To further grow the innovation engine, individual faculty sprouted up throughout various departments, first through the business school, Dr. Kanti Prasad, then the Peck School of the Art with Dr. Kim Beckman, and the CEAS/ UWM Research Foundation through Brian Thompson. Dr. Prasad created through outside investments the Sheldon B Lubar, New Venture Business Plan Competition, where teams of students could develop business plans in competition to winning initial seed funds to start their companies. Dr. Beckman, developed an artistic showcase through multiple artistry-centric courses where students can develop ideas to showcase in a public “maker space” that the University owns. Lastly, Thompson organized, taught, and runs the Innovation and Commercialization class. It was at this time, the Innovation Engine began to appeal to a new market...students.

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As participation in these innovative activities sky-rocketed, the need for more activities came apparent. The next was the Scheinfeld Entrepreneur Fund, which was another business plan competition out of the school of business. Additionally, momentum in the engineering and art schools began to rise and Dr. Ilya Avdeev and Dr. Nathaniel Stern professors from each school respectively, created a course, Product Realization, where students focus less on the business plans and more on developing their business prototypes by working with real industry partners. By this time, it has been about 2 or 3 years, and in 2012, the various groups on campus along with the University senior leadership initiated a movement to ensure success. They all came together under the faculty support of Brian Thompson, Ilya Avdeev, Nathaniel Stern, and Michael Hostad to create the campus wide inclusive Student Startup Challenge. This is the universities premiere student accelerator that focuses on developing student businesses while utilizing the lean startup methodologies and focuses on developing products and talking with customers. This competition not only solidified the innovation engine on campus but it also poured more gas on a pervading flame by allowing the entire university, students, and faculty alike to take some sort of ownership or affiliation with the Student Startup Challenge through candidates that work to develop prototypes, quick pitches, and develop business models from research or individuals’ ideas from all departments of the university. ~~'''Today, the student startup challenge has grown from funding 3 teams to 8 teams and still more in this following year.'''~~

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There are new classes each semester catering towards entrepreneurship and student participation is at an all time high with three widely active student organizations Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization (CEO), American Marketing Association (AMA), and Prototyping Club, the on-campus makerspace club. Additionally, there are many smaller more niche student organizations that are entrepreneurially focused such as the video game design organization or Society of American Engineers (SAE). The UWM Research Foundation has expanded its entrepreneurial initiatives by hiring their first ever Entrepreneur-in-Residence and UWM has been named as a Pathway School ~~with three Innovation Fellow candidates~~. The innovation engine does not stop here, UWM is determined to ensure ever lasting change by committing to collaboration and innovation by opening a brand new innovation campus about 15 miles west of the main campus that focuses on developing a world-class, public-private research park that spurs strong and enduring partnerships between academia and industry leading to new products, spin off businesses, workforce development and jobs in the fields of healthcare informatics, biomedical engineering, and advanced manufacturing & energy.

In 2018, the construction of the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center began.  This center was started from a lead gift from Marianne and Sheldon Lubar.  This 24,000-square-foot facility was a space designed for co-working/collaboration, flexible instruction, innovation labs, makerspaces, and launch space.  This will allow students and entrepreneurs to meet informally to share ideas along with providing resources for prototyping and learning.  The building will complete its construction in Spring 2019 and will be open to the public.  The center  will help to transform UWM's entrepreneurial role in the Milwaukee region by expanding the entrepreneurship programs in the Lubar School of Business.

Jpdavis14

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