Engineering Newsletter

When Interim Dean Gerald A. Navratil inaugurated the SEAS entrepreneurship initiative last year, few could have predicted how quickly this theme would take root as an essential element of the School’s culture. As a first step, an interdisciplinary minor in entrepreneurship was created, which drew immediate support from students. This fall, SEAS has hired a new director to lead its entrepreneurship program, launched a new Student Venture Competition to help students turn their ideas into enterprises and appointed an entrepreneur in residence to help Columbia entrepreneurs get off the ground.

Rebecca Rodriguez, the former associate director for experiential education and student enterprises at the University’s Center for Career Education, is now the School’s senior associate director for entrepreneurship. In her previous post, she worked with students, faculty and alumni to support entrepreneurship education, supervising Columbia Student Enterprises, which employs more than 600 University students annually in student-run businesses. She also served as an advisor to the Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs (CORE) and participated in the Career Center’s EDGE (Encouraging Dynamic Global Entrepreneurs) program in Guatemala.

Rodriguez jumped at the opportunity to run the School’s entrepreneurship program because of the chance to build something new. “We’re actually creating opportunities that weren’t prev iously available at Columbia,” she says. “We’re trying to create a culture of entrepreneurship.” She also wants to “capitalize on New York’s status as a major entrepreneurial center and the Engineering School’s unique vision of promoting engineering as a liberal art.”

In her new role, Rodriguez will work with students, faculty, and administrators, develop co-curricular programs for students and administer the entrepreneur-in-residence program. She also will work closely with the alumni Entrepreneurship Advisory Board and the Faculty Advisory Committee, both of which support the entrepreneurship program.

The entrepreneurship program is being administered through the School’s Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement (CTICE), which already has an infrastructure that supports student, faculty, alumni and community programming. “We’re excited that Rebecca has joined our team,” says SEAS Associate Dean Jack McGourty, CTICE executive director. “She has the perfect experience for this new position, and is full of innovative ideas on how to move our entrepre n e u rship progr a m forward.”

Student Venture Competition
Rodriguez has reached out to student groups interested in entrepreneurship, arranging for CTICE to co-sponsor an October event with the Society for Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation, a graduate student group, and a November event with the Columbia Venture Community, a University wide group. She’s developed an engaged entrepreneurship Facebook page, where CTICE can advertise events and raise the program’s digital profile among students, alumni and faculty. She’s also established an entrepreneurship listserv and is working on a Web-based marketing campaign.

But the big goal for this year is to hold the first Student Venture Competition in April 2009. With support from the Dean’s Office, students will be able to compete for $25,000 in prize money that they can use to turn their ideas into entrepreneurial ventures. CTICE will offer programming between now and April that will help students prepare for the competition. A newly-established mentoring program for aspiring entrepreneurs will enable alumni involvement in the lead-up to the competition. Through this sponsored mentoring, students will be able to learn from alumni face- to- face with specific projects in mind. Rodriguez believes that alumni participation in the entrepreneurship program increases the potential for students to write high-caliber business plans.“ Judging from the quality ideas that I have seen so far, I think there’s an excellent chance that some can succeed with more work and mentoring,” she says.

In late January, the School will host a “PitchFest” for all University students. “We’re making a conscious effort to make this a real Columbia University venture competition,” says Rodriguez. “We think it will be real draw to the School’s entrepreneurship programs.” The event, co-sponsored with student groups, will give students a chance to pitch their venture ideas to faculty, alumni and each other. The concept is to create an environment where students can forge business partnerships and enjoy a freeflowing exchange of ideas. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Samuel Sia, a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee, is acting as faculty advisor for the pitch-fest.

In March, CTICE will hold a technology and business concept demonstration forum, where students can receive additional peer and expert evaluations of their venture ideas. In many ways, this will be a dress rehearsal for the final competition, giving students the chance to shake out any kinks in their concepts and business plans. At the Student Venture Competition in April, students will submit completed business plans to a panel of judges.The prizes will include not only cash awards to turn the winning ideas into real ventures, but also in-kind legal, accounting and strategy services needed for venture formation. Rodriguez is working with alumni who will help supply these inkind services. A panel of entrepre n e u rs and alumni will judge the submissions.

Entrepreneur in Residence
One of the key features of the School’s entrepreneurship program is creating the new position of an entrepreneur in residence, who will serve as an advisor to students, faculty, alumni and community members on business ideas and new ventures. The entrepreneur in residence will help ensure that students interested in entrepreneurship have access to a dive rse array of resources, including outside experts. For this academic year, Bruce Lincoln has agreed to fill this important role, becoming the School’s first entrepreneur in residence. A Princeton graduate, Lincoln is the founder and chief design scientist of the Urban Cyberspace Company, a design consulting and marketing company specializing in next generation Internet technologies for sustainable development in urban and rural markets. Previously, Lincoln was the first Ford Fellow in Educational Technology at the Center for Children and Technology and the National Center for Technology in Education at Bank Street College of Education.

Lincoln sees Columbia students not simply as potential entrepreneurs, but as leaders in the new economy. “My vision turns on the idea to prepare engi n e e rs to take advantage of the entrepreneurial opportunities that will arise with the oncoming innovation economy,” he says. “These opportunities will drive the second decade of the 21st century.” As entrepreneur in residence, Lincoln not only will help match student entrepreneurs with alumni mentors and entrepreneurial resources but also will perform the first review of student entrepreneurship proposals for the program. He will work with McGourty, Rodriguez, alumni and faculty on future entrepreneurship efforts, including an entrepreneurship speaker series, plans for a venture incubator, collaborations with other colleges and universities and additional courses and programs.

Dean Navratil sees these as important steps in creating a worldclass entrepreneurship program. “When our program is fully established, I believe that Columbia SEAS will be recognized as one of the premier incubators of entrepreneurship in the United States,” he says.