OPEN 2014 TOOK PLACE MARCH 21-22, 2014

Download the attendee list
Open 2014 program book

To view the schedule, click on the PRECONFERENCE, FRIDAY or SATURDAY tabs below. Click on the title of each presentation to download PPT slides and/or papers (if available).

 

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Presentations

March 2014

Saturday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Registration

Saturday 8:30 am - 9:30 am

Breakfast with Ignite-style presentations from University Innovation Fellows

Jennifer Mayo, Oklahoma State University
Karuna Relwani, University of Pittsburgh
Jack Goodwin, University of California, San Diego
Jared Karp, University of California Berkeley
Sharang Phadke, Cooper Union
Humera Fasihuddin, NCIIA

Secret Agents of Change

Five students. Thirty minutes. Thousands reached. Hear the story of five University Innovation Fellows, each of whom is leading a movement on their campus. This group of ‘Ignite style’ presentations will live up to Ignite’s motto… “enlighten us, but make it quick.”

Saturday 9:30 am - 10:30 am

University Innovation Fellows Answer the President’s Call for Information Accessibility

Humera Fasihuddin, NCIIA
Mary Wilcox, Arizona State University
Nolan Nicholson, University of Nevada, Reno
Breanne Przestrzelski, Clemson University
John DesJardins, Clemson University
Tom Byers, Stanford University
Doug Rand, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Last year the President outlined an ambitious plan to make a college education accessible for everyone. Part of the plan promotes innovation in providing information, tools and resources that help students make the most of their educational experience. At Epicenter, we believe the entrepreneurial mindset is a fundamentally important skill that must be a part of every student’s college experience. That’s why the University Innovation Fellows, students hand-picked by their institutions and trained to enhance the Innovation & Entrepreneurship ecosystem, rose to the call. Students created a wiki (universityinnovation.org) that ‘open sources’ a rich trove of information about courses, programs, tools and resources on their own campuses. This allows peers access to information about curricular and extracurricular opportunities that cut across a university’s schools, departments and centers. Students are able to navigate all available resources to cultivate their creative potential, nurture their innovative abilities and adopt an entrepreneurial mindset. In addition, Fellows and Faculty identify student-perceived gaps that can be bridged using new and creative methods. Panelists will describe strategies campuses can use to gather landscape information, ways to share the information and opportunities to engage students as part of the solution. Interactive discussion follows brief panel remarks allowing participants at campuses of different size and ecosystem maturity to discuss student engagement on their own campus.

Saturday 9:30 am - 10:30 am

To MOOC or Not to MOOC: Let’s talk about online ed

Cindy Gilbert, Minneapolis College of Art and Design

MOOCs are hot. Online education is the future (probably). But what’s the best way to use online education to advance innovation and entrepreneurship? What’s being done now, and what more can we do?

Come to this Open Meetup to talk about the future of online ed!

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Open Meetups are 60-minute, facilitated, participant-driven sessions centered on a particular theme or purpose. There is a track of Open Meetups running throughout the conference program on Saturday, four in total.

Instead of passive listening while one person delivers prepared remarks in front of a PowerPoint presentation, Open Meetups encourage active participation by all attendees. Discussion leaders will provide moderation and structure. They will set the stage and then allow discussion to flourish.

Saturday 9:30 am - 10:30 am

Making Space for the Unknown Future

Helen Chen, Stanford University
Robert Smith, Stanford University

How can a space lead faculty to think entrepreneurially about what takes place in their classroom? What kinds of classrooms and environments excite faculty to create new learning experiences that are engaging and relevant for their students and themselves? Case studies from Stanford University illustrate how the in-person classroom is evolving beyond the lecture to engage external partners in projects, realize experiential learning, and leverage the flipped classroom, social media and mobile devices. We’ll explore how the physical space is more than just a backdrop for classroom activities; the room plays a number of roles to help the faculty move the experience, curriculum and the learning forward. This interactive workshop will challenge participants to grapple with how learning environments are evolving to create novel and optimized experiences for both teachers and learners.

Saturday 9:30 am - 10:30 am

Encouraging Emerging Inventors: A new look at intellectual property and students

Phil Weilerstein, NCIIA
Phyl Speser, Foresight Science & Technology
Abigail Barrow, Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center
Nathalie Duval-Couetil, Purdue University
Marc Sedam, University of New Hampshire

Students at the undergraduate and graduate level are becoming increasingly involved in the development of new technologies and the creation of intellectual property. Whether through the increase in hands-on, experiential innovation in the curriculum, the expansion of research experiences that put undergraduates in the research laboratory environment or the emergence of the dorm room inventor the need for new policies, practices and support systems for student originated intellectual property is an urgent priority for many campuses.

NCIIA, working together with the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) has developed a set of practices to provide a roadmap and guidance for university TTOs to establish effective policy for encouraging student inventors and promoting an environment of innovation in the sciences and engineering and arts. The panelists representing AUTM, and institutions large and small will discuss the changing nature of student invention and describe best practices for creating a successful culture of innovation that promotes entrepreneurial action while protecting the institution and the inventor.

Participants will take away a framework for improving the environment at your institution and an understanding of some emerging models for supporting student-driven invention and entrepreneurship.

Download Paper

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Saturday 9:30 am - 10:30 am

PAPERS – Almaden 9:30-10:30 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 9:30 am - 10:30 am

PAPERS – Guadalupe 9:30-10:30 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 10:30 am - 11:00 am

Break

Saturday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

The Maker & Hacker Culture: Who are they, and why you need to know

Marc de Vinck, Lehigh University
John Ochs, Lehigh University
Christopher Kauzmann, Lehigh University
Lisa Getzler-Linn, Lehigh University

All too often in higher education the idea of Makers & Hackers has a negative connotation. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We are all makers, and many of us are hackers. The Maker movement grew out of the DIY culture, specifically from the halls of MAKE magazine and other thriving communities. Innovation is happening in Maker & Hacker spaces across America. The business model is based on open-source hardware and software. It’s not a typical plan to say the least, but that’s exactly why it works. We are redefining the financing and banking industry by crowdfunding our projects on Kickstarter. We are creating the third industrial revolution, and it’s not always happening at corporate headquarters–it’s happening in your neighbor’s garage.

Saturday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Engaging Community and Campus to Support an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Steven Tello, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Thomas O’Donnell, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Joseph Hartman, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

The University of Massachusetts Lowell and the Merrimack Valley Sandbox are working together to support the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the industrial mill cities of Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts. Each partner brings a different perspective to the collaboration. The university’’s economic development efforts have traditionally focused on research, technology incubation and service learning, while the Sandbox is committed to encouraging community entrepreneurship across the Merrimack Valley. When the Sandbox first introduced its Campus Catalyst pitch contests to the region, it was unclear how these rapid-fire events and incentive awards would contribute to the development of an entrepreneurial culture. However, three years later, these two partners and several other key organizations have committed to the development of a continuum of services and activities that are now growing the region’’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. This panel will examine this process, the challenges and the success of the effort.

Download PPT

Saturday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Open Meetup: Open Educational Resources to Meet Grand Challenges for Development

Charina Choi, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Imagine a world without hunger, thirst, disease, illiteracy, or climate change. Realizing this better world requires talent to solve the many global challenges around us. Open educational resources (OER) provide a powerful tool to inspire and empower a multitude of diverse students. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) believe it would be worthwhile to fund multidisciplinary OER pilots, focused on global development challenges, to inspire and empower students to embrace grand challenges at home and abroad.

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Open Meetups are 60-minute, facilitated, participant-driven sessions centered on a particular theme or purpose. There is a track of Open Meetups running throughout the conference program on Saturday, four in total.

Instead of passive listening while one person delivers prepared remarks in front of a PowerPoint presentation, Open Meetups encourage active participation by all attendees. Discussion leaders will provide moderation and structure. They will set the stage and then allow discussion to flourish.

Saturday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

PAPERS – Guadalupe 11:00-12:00 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

PAPERS – Almaden 11:00-12:00 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

PAPERS – San Carlos 11:00-12:00 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

NCIIA alumni panel moderated by NPR science correspondent Joe Palca

Joe Palca, NPR
Richael Young, Mammoth Trading
T. Patrick Walsh, Greenlight Planet
Evan Edwards, Kaleo

A panel of some of our most successful student inventors telling their stories, sharing experiences and lessons learned. The panel will be moderated by award-winning NPR science correspondent Joe Palca.

Don Millard PPT

Saturday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Roundtable Discussion with NCIIA Alumni

Eric Phelps, NCIIA
Richael Young, Mammoth Trading
T. Patrick Walsh, Greenlight Planet
Evan Edwards, Kaleo

Join an informal conversation with the NCIIA Alumni who presented on their ventures at lunch. This continuation of the Alumni Panel is an opportunity to get a deeper level of understanding of how these founders developed their innovations and launched their companies. The entire session will engage participants in Q&A with the panelists; expect to learn more about their mistakes and successes as well as how their educational experiences prepared them to be entrepreneurs.

Saturday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Founding Stories of Engineering Education Entrepreneurship Programs: Research to inform practice

Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University
Carolyn Estrada, Stanford University
Angela Shartrand, NCIIA
Helen Chen, Stanford University

This session is devoted to understanding the “founding stories” of entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate engineers. Which conditions facilitate program creation and growth? What is the mindset of the founders? How do programs adapt to changing conditions? How do programs evolve and thrive? These and other questions will be addressed in a two-part format. In the first part of the session, top findings from our recent Epicenter research study of entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. will be reviewed. In the second part of the session, moderators will facilitate a lively panel with entrepreneurship program directors, in order to learn first-hand how programs go from idea to reality. This session is designed to inform entrepreneurship innovators at campuses that wish to build up programming for engineers, as well as entrepreneurship researchers who are interested in mixed-methods studies of programs and organizations. Questions from attendees will be welcome and encouraged.

Download PPT

Saturday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Mobilizing the Regional Epicenter Model

Michael Lehman, Lehigh University
Elizabeth C. Kisenwether, Pennsylvania State University - Main Campus

Epicenter’’s goal is to unleash “the entrepreneurial potential of undergraduate engineering students across the United States to create bold innovators with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to contribute to economic and societal prosperity.” In May 2013, fifteen Pennsylvania colleges and universities gathered for a two-day meeting to network, collaborate, and determine definitive projects that had value for the institutions and their faculty to make the Epicenter mission happen on a regional scale. Nine ‘affinity groups’ were formed based on faculty interests and needs to help engineering students become innovation leaders. This workshop has two goals: 1) bring together Epicenter-PA faculty to share how the regional approach has been modeled and is working and 2) support other regional Epicenters in setting goals and establishing and monitoring metrics for success. This workshop will help guide future Epicenter-PA work, as well as bolster the nationwide Epicenter ecosystem.

Saturday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

PAPERS – Almaden 2:00-3:00 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

PAPERS – Guadalupe 2:00-3:00 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Break

Saturday 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Exploring How Engineering Entrepreneurship Competencies Align with ABET Criterion 3a-k

Elizabeth C. Kisenwether, Pennsylvania State University - Main Campus
Nathalie Duval-Couetil, Purdue University
Joe Tranquillo, Bucknell University

The Epicenter program goal is to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of undergraduate engineering students across the United States to create bold innovators with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to contribute to economic and societal prosperity. However, meeting ABET standards is the most significant driving force in engineering curriculum and programs. Since fall 2012, work has been underway to tackle two objectives: 1) determine at set of entrepreneurship education outcomes that align with ABET Criterion 3a-k, and 2) find field-tested engineering entrepreneurship and innovation activities that support meeting ABET Criterion 3a-k. The goal of this session is to review the engineering entrepreneurship competencies selected for study, get feedback from engineering entrepreneurship faculty on the ABET 3a-k mapping, and have discussions on the challenges to implementing Epicenter-based changes in core curriculum.

Download PDF

Saturday 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Assessment Methodologies for Entrepreneurship Education

John “Jack” Lesko, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Oscar Ybarra, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Angela Shartrand, NCIIA
Scott Walker, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

As entrepreneurial skill development becomes increasingly important among undergraduates, graduate students and faculty, institutions and agencies are considering how to implement initiatives such as courses and workshops that can facilitate development of these skills. While the information that is taught during these courses is a primary concern, similar attention needs to be given to the assessment of those courses and workshops. This presentation discusses various assessment methodologies that are currently being used and proposes one methodology that can be used to specifically assess changes in mindset among participants. Other institutions may use this information to consider how best to assess current initiatives underway on their campus and share information collected to improve course design.

Download Handout

Download PDF

Saturday 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Lean Launchpad Masterclass with Jerry Engel

Jerry Engel, University of California Berkeley
Todd Warren, Northwestern University
Marc Sedam, University of New Hampshire
John Blaho, City College of New York (CUNY)

The Lean Launchpad (LLP) approach has recently swept into broad adoption as an effective, experiential approach to teaching entrepreneurship. Students learn by doing: proposing and immediately testing hypotheses. They get out of the classroom, talk to customers, partners and competitors and encounter the chaos and uncertainty of commercializing innovations and creating new ventures. In this masterclass session led by Jerry Engel, NSF I-Corps National Faculty Director and co-instructor with Steve Blank of the LLP Educators Seminar program, best practices will be presented and discussed with a panel of seasoned instructors who have deployed the LLP approach in different disciplinary environments. The session is designed for experienced LLP instructors and those who are new to it. The session will be highly interactive, drawing on the experiences of panelists and attendees alike. Participants will take away new perspectives on effectively engaging students, overcoming barriers and deploying new learning and teaching tools.

Saturday 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

PAPERS – San Carlos 3:30-4:30 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

PAPERS – Guadalupe 3:30-4:30 Saturday 3/22/14

Saturday 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Open Meetup: Failures! Flops! Successes!

Michael Lehman, Lehigh University
Rhett Weiss, Cornell University

As technical entrepreneurship educators, we are fortunate to work with bright and innovative students, forward-thinking colleagues and institutions that support programs that respond to market and economic demand. Despite all of these attractive ingredients, we undoubtedly encounter challenges on a regular basis.  Often the more new things we try, the greater the probability of experiencing failures, flops and a multitude of frustrations: new courses that aren’t as subscribed as we had hoped, cross-campus programs that don’t produce the interest to justify the investment of time and money, and underutilized creative spaces of innovation. At the same time, plenty of initiatives go on to become great successes.

Come to this Open Meetup to talk about them all: the failures, flops and successes. This discussion will inspire participants to learn from our collective ‘bumps in the road,’ creating stronger programs for NCIIA-member institutions.

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Open Meetups are 60-minute, facilitated, participant-driven sessions centered on a particular theme or purpose. There is a track of Open Meetups running throughout the conference program on Saturday, four in total.

Instead of passive listening while one person delivers prepared remarks in front of a PowerPoint presentation, Open Meetups encourage active participation by all attendees. Discussion leaders will provide moderation and structure. They will set the stage and then allow discussion to flourish.

Saturday 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Open Minds: Showcasing NCIIA’s best student E-Teams

The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 South Market Street, San Jose, CA
Free to all conference attendees

MEET THE TEAMS

Cap off the conference in style by attending Open Minds, a favorite event of NCIIA conference attendees. Open Minds is an exhibition of cutting-edge innovation from our best student teams. It’s a great opportunity to see entrepreneurship education in action. Seventeen teams will be on hand to demonstrate their products, showcase their ventures and practice their pitches to conference attendees, VIPs and guests.

Open_Minds_72dpi_RGB

Sunday 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Spaces of Invention Workshop

Leticia Britos Cavagnaro, Stanford University
Jeanne Narum, Learning Spaces Collaboratory

This event has SOLD OUT!

Join us at Stanford’s d.school on Sunday, one day after the conference, for Spaces of Invention, a workshop dedicated to innovative environments.

A particular kind of learning environment–intellectual, social, and physical–is required to nurture inventive, innovative, entrepreneurial agents of change among STEM students and faculty. As described by neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen (The Creating Brain: The Science of Genius), the environment that was shaped and embraced by inventor Leonardo Da Vinci shares key characteristics with creative environments of today: they require a critical mass of creative people with a sense of being at the edge, open to freedom, novelty, and within a competitive atmosphere.

Join your peers for this action-oriented workshop where you will experience first-hand the creative environment and collectively explore and produce models to take back to your campus.

For questions, contact Kate Tobin at ktobin@nciia.org or call 413-587-2172 ext. 127.

Transportation is included.

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