Innovation Drives Entrepreneurship

“What would you do with 10,000 dollars?”

The office of the Provost and the NDSU Research and Technology Park present Innovation week ’13, offering NDSU students the chance to showcase their innovative minds by creating new goods and services.

The purpose of Innovation Week ’13 is to:
“Encourage students to be innovative thinkers, enhance student awareness for innovation as a precursor to entrepreneurship, empower students to pursue entrepreneurship as a career choice, expand student access to resources available for innovation and entrepreneurs, and engage the current entrepreneur and business communities with students.”

This is NDSU’s fourth year of Innovation Week, and the second year of the Innovation Challenge, where students compete with their ideas for a chance to win cash prizes.

“Innovation Week is a campus-wide program that includes the Innovation Challenge, educational events and networking opportunities that culminate during the week of Feb. 25 through March 1, 2013,” said Brenda Wyland, interim executive director for the NDSU Research and Technology Park.

According to Wyland, the idea for Innovation Week came from the desire of the Research and Technology Park to help advance start-up efforts coming from NDSU.

“One way to help advance those efforts is to start by having students focus on developing new innovations,” Wyland said.

“As those innovations are vetted and mature, the park can provide the assistance they need to help move a concept to adoption in the marketplace.”

During this year’s innovation challenge, students are given the opportunity to compete in three categories or tracks: Innovations of a service, method or process; Innovations of goods and products; and a new track this year, innovations of goods or services that involve the use of corn, including stalks, grain, cobs, oil and protein. The North Dakota Corn Council is sponsoring this addition.

Wyland feels the Innovation Challenge ’13 is a great way to showcase the talent of NDSU students.

“This is an opportunity for students to think critically and creatively by developing new innovations which can assist with advancing skills needed in the workforce,” Wyland said. “As a result, Innovation Week and the Innovation Challenge are great strengths to highlight on a resume. Not to mention the chance to win 10,000 dollars.”

A $5,000 prize is awarded to the winner of each of the three tracks. Later, these three winners compete for the grand prize of $10,000.

Just as important as the prizes is the opportunities Innovation Week provides for students to learn and grow.

“As NDSU’s culture continues to move towards an entrepreneurial mindset, Innovation Week plays a vital role in the first step of making that a reality,” Wyland said. “Innovation drives entrepreneurship.”