Management & Entrepreneurship
Successful researchers in engineering and the life and physical sciences face daily challenges managing and leading teams, communicating with business-oriented colleagues, and surmounting the hurdles associated with the commercialization of research. But doctoral students in these fields are seldom exposed to these situations before entering academia or industry. To address this gap, The Graduate School is collaborating with the Kellogg School of Management to offer a certificate program taught by Kellogg School faculty that will equip promising doctoral students with the necessary business and leadership skills. This program is offered during the summer quarter.
These interdisciplinary courses are designed to bring together teams of students across programs, expose them to the entire innovation and entrepreneurial life cycle and help them understand how innovations can become a viable business in the real world. Currently there are NUVention courses on Energy, Nanotech, Medical, Analytics, Impact, Arts, Consumer Products, and Web+Media, and there is an option for proposing new courses as well. Classes meet one night a week, some for one quarter and some for multiple quarters. The best time to take the course is in your last year or two. If your business idea excites you, you want to be able to pursue it. There is also a large out-of-class work component which makes the course more conducive to older students. Not every course is offered every quarter.