We’re excited to announce our Spring 2017 Faculty Grant awardees! We’ve given $254k in total to 25 university staff and faculty across the country. Our faculty grants help fund and support their innovative ideas to develop or transform courses and programs that help students develop inventions and gain the necessary skills to bring them to market.
This Spring cycle comprised three new focus grants.
Focus 1, Innovation and Invention Education for the First Year Student, focuses on helping undergraduate students get exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship education earlier in their academic career to help increase the pipeline of student inventors and innovators.
Meet one of our Focus 1 awardees:
Creation of Multi-Year Design & Innovation Curriculum (Purdue University) – An initiative to develop a core design & innovation curriculum that will be launched as a Design & Innovation Minor. The program will bring together the functional performance of engineering/technology, the human interface of design thinking, and the economic values of enterprising and global experiences to support innovation.
Focus 2, Faculty Fellowship for Student Venture Development, focuses on helping students gain support or funding beyond their local ecosystems to make them desirable to national venture development programs.
Meet one of our Focus 2 awardees:
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Curriculum Redesign and Launch (University of Central Florida) – A redesign of three graduate-level engineering courses and one undergraduate program. The goal is to provide more opportunities and incentives for student teams interested in moving forward with the entrepreneurial process as well as educate students on the mindset, motivation, and non-linear paths that define the successful launch and growth of a new venture.
Focus 3, Scale and Institutionalization for Pathways Members, focuses on scaling and institutionalizing one or more components of their campus innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems.
Meet one of our Focus 3 awardees:
The River Hawk Experience: Increasing STEM Student Success through Experiential Entrepreneurship Education (University of Massachusetts Lowell) – A new project designed to encourage STEM student success and retention. The goals of the project include increased participation of STEM students in entrepreneurship education and activities, increased student retention and graduation rates, and an improved understanding of the value STEM students place on experiential entrepreneurship education.
Meet all of our awardees here and learn more about our Faculty Grants program here.