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Engineering SATURDAY, APRIL 20 |
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Background:
For the 2013-2014 academic year,
the College of Engineering is initiating an experimental pilot program in which
we will allow selected groups of engineering students to develop a prototype
product, process, or system for their own entrepreneurial venture while earning
academic credit for this work (e.g. as their Senior Design project), ideally in
partnership with students from non-engineering departments, such as the FSU
College of Business’s Entrepreneurship program, the FSU Computer Science
Department, the FSU Communication & Information Department, or other
departments that express interest in participating. (Participating non-engineering departments
would generally be expected to set up a suitable course heading for this
purpose in their home department, such as Directed Individual Study or Special
Topics, so that their students can earn credit for participating.)
Purpose
of the Spring Kickoff Event:
In order for the entrepreneurial Senior Design teams to be able to “hit
the ground running” and be ready to dive into their projects at the start of
the Fall 2013 semester, and keep up with the tight schedule of Senior Design
deliverables, these teams really must already have been formed, and have
already identified at least the rough outlines of their project goal by the end
of the current (Spring) semester, so that they can spend some time over the
summer applying for funding, obtaining necessary company registrations with the
State of Florida, etc. Thus, the primary purpose of the Kickoff
event is to provide an opportunity for interested students to meet each other,
share/hear ideas, and hopefully group themselves into an (aspirational) ~2-3
teams of ~6-7 students each, wherein each team is focused on the execution of a
fairly definite project idea, and wherein the team members have relevant
interests and expertise to support their project. In addition, we hope to also be able to have
guest speakers offer some helpful advice on various aspects of entrepreneurship
to the students.
After
the Workshop:
After the entrepreneurial project teams have formed at the kickoff event,
we anticipate that they will then proceed to raise their own funds to support
the prototype development efforts by, for example, applying to grant programs
such as the Genivia Student Business Grant program, or the DuPont Minority
Student Venture Fund Grant, both of which can be applied for through the Jim
Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship’s InNOLEvation Accelerator, http://ta.gd/InNOLEvation. Contacts with individual private investors
may potentially also be made at the workshop, or separately.
(Please note: All team members must be prepared to pitch in
as needed to help raise funding for their project over the summer! Projects that have not obtained significant funding
commitments by Sep. 1, 2013 will be dissolved, in the sense that their student team members will no
longer be allowed to earn academic credit for working on that particular
project; Senior Design students on such teams will be reassigned to other projects.)
Who Is Invited to Register:
·
Interested students from relevant schools
(Engineering, Business, Arts & Sciences, Communications, etc.) – both FSU and FAMU. (Limited to ~25 students this year.) Each attending student should be willing to
join a suitable project team and to enroll to earn academic credit for their
project in 2013-14.
o Engineering students should
be prepared to enroll in their department’s Senior Design Project course for
the 2013-14 academic year.
·
A limited number of non-seniors and/or graduate students may
be allowed to participate in certain cases (e.g.
if the student already has a venture idea, or useful skills that are in
demand).
o Non-engineering students
should be prepared to enroll in an individual study / special-topics course set
up for this purpose in their home department, in both the Fall 2013 and Spring
2014 semesters.
·
Local experts who can advise students in relevant
areas such as technology transfer, intellectual property, corporate law, etc.
·
Engineering faculty / research staff who have
commercializable ideas that they would like to recruit students to spin off a
startup to develop.
·
Industry representatives who have ideas and would like
to partner with students to spin off a new venture to develop them.
·
Angel investors / venture capitalists who may
potentially be interested in funding the projects that emerge from this
workshop.
Preliminary
Workshop Agenda: (subject
to possible revision)
A more
detailed schedule is available in this PDF document.
·
9:00 – 9:30 am –
Continental breakfast/coffee, meet & mingle with other participants.
·
9:30 – 10:00 am –
Welcome / introduction to workshop; overview of program/plan for
workshop/desired outcomes.
o
Confirmed
Speakers: Dr. M. Frank (ECE), Prof. S. Foo (ECE chair), Prof. E. Collins (ME
chair), Mr. R. Frazier (COB)
·
10:00 – 10:40 am –
Short presentations giving “Advice for Entrepreneurs” by local experts.
o
Confirmed
Speakers: Mr. R. Frazier (COB), Dr. M. Devine (IME), Prof. J. Adams (Coll. of
Communications), Mr. B. Hollimon, J.D., Esq.; Dr. Thom Park, Ph.D. (Prescient
Consulting Group)
·
10:40 am – 12:12 pm –
Short presentations by participants on their venture ideas, to recruit
partners.
o
Confirmed
Speakers: Mr. P. Ponder (7 Hills Eng. LLC), Prof. E. Collins (ME), Prof. C.
Shih (ME), Prof. J. Zheng (ECE), P. Bresland (ECE/CAPS), D. Brutus (ECE), J.-F.
Ganishuri (EE), N. Gross & A. York (ME), D. Hausman (COB), S. Leon (COB),
C. Oladimeji (ECE).
·
12:15 – 1:00 pm –
Box lunch; opportunity for participants to gather and discuss how they may want
to work together.
·
1:00 – 1:30 pm –
Breakout session; groups sit down and sketch out their venture idea/team
composition/initial plan.
·
1:30 – 2:00 pm –
Wrap-up; new teams announce themselves to the group.
How
to Register:
Fill out the form at http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~mpf/kickoff-reg-form.doc
and email it to mpf@eng.fsu.edu with the
subject line “REGISTRATION FOR KICKOFF EVENT.”
NOTE: All registrations should be submitted by
Friday, Apr. 5th, and will be confirmed by Fri., Apr. 12th.
Post-Meeting:
Thanks to everyone for making the 2013 Engineering
Entrepreneurship Kickoff a successful event!
Some things to follow up:
·
Team Tracking Form –
For ventures that would like guidance over the summer towards becoming Senior
Design projects, please fill out this form and send it to mpf@eng.fsu.edu, and I will touch base with
you periodically throughout the summer.
·
Here are some photos taken
at the workshop.