Teaching, Fostering New Entrepreneurs Unites Leaders at Event

06/15/2016

Media contacts:  Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu                        

LOWELL, Mass. – Hundreds of higher education and business leaders from across North America gathered at UMass Lowell this week to discuss how colleges and universities can best teach the next generation of entrepreneurs and champion the work of inventors to fuel business and economic development in their communities. 

The Deshpande Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education brought together more than 300 university researchers, administrators and students with industry partners and leaders of venture incubators and foundations from Monday, June 13 through Wednesday, June 15 at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center. Participants in the fifth annual event – founded by UMass Lowell and the Deshpande Foundation – shared best practices, successes and challenges in implementing entrepreneurial education and action into all aspects of campus life. Individuals, colleges and universities that are at the vanguard of promoting entrepreneurship were recognized for their accomplishments with awards during the conference.

“UMass Lowell is a pioneer in these efforts as we provide the educational framework and resources for our students – regardless of their major – to respond like entrepreneurs to the challenges of an ever-changing global marketplace and society,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, a nationally recognized innovator in higher education. “The Deshpande Symposium allows like-minded educators to learn from each other, share ideas and collaborate on new initiatives that support innovative thinking and entrepreneurship across the college and university environment.”

Four themes guided programs during the conference: Developing entrepreneurship cultures and ecosystems, curriculum, research commercialization and startups, and emerging trends. Across more than 30 sessions with 100-plus panelists, participants discussed topics such as teaching students to create their own success after graduation, launching university-led incubators and ventures, and tracking the economic impact of universities’ entrepreneurial endeavors.

Katie Stebbins, Massachusetts’ assistant secretary of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, led a panel on how the state’s gateway cities engage their residents to answer local needs and spur regional economic development. Chris Rezendes, founder and partner of INEX Advisors in New Bedford, spoke about the path entrepreneurial growth should take in these communities.

“We’re going to make money and meaning, profit and sustainability,” Rezendes said. “We have all of the tools to do both.”

John Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels’ keynote address struck a chord that would resonate throughout other presentations: that the health of a city is tied to residents’ self-worth and that creating jobs is essential to promoting vibrant communities.

“Bringing economic vitality back brings back independence and dignity,” Daniels said.

Capping the event was a session on the future of teaching entrepreneurship skills to college students that featured Moloney, who established UMass Lowell’s highly successful DifferenceMaker entrepreneurship program; Prof. Steven Tello, UMass Lowell’s associate vice chancellor of entrepreneurship and economic development; and entrepreneur Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, who has founded and grown several companies. He is president and chairman of the Sparta Group LLC and trustee of the foundation that bears his name.

“The Deshpande Foundation supports entrepreneurship and innovation around the world and sees this symposium as an opportunity to bring together leaders in higher education to share their approaches in these areas,” Deshpande said. “We are pleased with the extreme interest in the symposium as evidenced by its growth, the strong attendance and the active peer-to-peer knowledge sharing happening at the event.”

Individuals, colleges and universities that are leading the drive to incorporate entrepreneurship into the fabric of campus life and their communities were honored for their contributions in five categories during an awards presentation on Tuesday, June 14. Recipients were selected by a committee of representatives of peer universities from across the U.S. and the Deshpande Foundation. The winners were: 

• Excellence in Curriculum Innovation in Entrepreneurship – Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Silberman College of Business and Rothman Institute of Innovation, for their approach to developing and offering courses and programs that foster entrepreneurship education across the campus for all students, not only business majors. 
• Excellence in Student Engagement in Entrepreneurship – University of Massachusetts Lowell, for its DifferenceMaker Program. An estimated 20,000 UMass Lowell students and young alumni over the last four years have been introduced to this program, which teaches them to think and act like entrepreneurs to solve challenges in business, industry and the community. 
• Exemplary Practice in Technology Commercialization – Ohio University’s Technology Transfer Office programs, for their collaborative approach to commercialization that has accelerated the path from idea to implementation across the university, resulting in more than 110 new patents and 200 companies. 
• Outstanding Achievement as an Entrepreneurial University – Arizona State University, for its diverse approach to encouraging entrepreneurial thinking that imbeds innovation across campus, reaches faculty across academic disciplines and involves more than 20,000 students. 
• Outstanding Contributions to Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education
  • VentureWell President and CEO Phil Weilerstein, for his leadership in encouraging hundreds of students and faculty at more than 160 campuses nationwide to experiment and innovate. VentureWell is a nonprofit alliance that promotes the education and work of student entrepreneurs.
  • Burton D. Morgan Foundation President and CEO Deborah Hoover, for fostering entrepreneurship across northeastern Ohio’s higher education institutions, exemplifying the role foundations can play in strengthening regional ecosystems. 

“UMass Lowell is deeply honored that our colleagues in higher education selected our student DifferenceMaker Program as the winner of the Excellence in Student Engagement in Entrepreneurship Award. This recognition reflects the UMass Lowell’s commitment to ensuring each of our students has an opportunity to make a difference in the world through innovation and entrepreneurship,” Tello said.

UMass Lowell’s engagement in entrepreneurial endeavors spans a variety of initiatives. In addition to the DifferenceMaker Program, the university offers its College of Engineering Makerspace for hands-on prototyping and experimentation, worker training programs and community efforts. UMass Lowell also operates the Innovation Hub (iHub) in Lowell, which hosted a reception for symposium participants as part of the three-day event. The iHub offers lab and office space for startups, including those working with the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) business incubator, a joint venture of the University of Massachusetts’ Lowell and Worcester campuses. 

UMass Lowell’s partnership with the Deshpande Foundation also includes the establishment of the community program the Merrimack Valley Sandbox, which began in 2010 to grow business and nonprofit enterprises in Lowell and Lawrence through entrepreneurship education and support for the community. The initiative is now known as Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) and has evolved to assist entrepreneurs in mid-size cities throughout Massachusetts.

Given its commitment to entrepreneurial engagement through these and other efforts, UMass Lowell has been designated as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities.

For more about UMass Lowell’s entrepreneurship programs, visit www.uml.edu/Innovation-Entrepreneurship/.

UMass Lowell is a national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community. The university offers its 17,500 students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs, vigorous hands-on learning and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be ready for work, for life and for all the world offers. www.uml.edu