StartupWeekend offers students chance to start own company
Students across ASU will soon be working together to form software startup communities at the Polytechnic campus thanks to a Pathways to Entrepreneurship grant that professors Kevin Gary, Harry Koehnemann, and Adrian Sannier from the College of Technology and Innovation, and Al Kagan from the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness received in July of 2008.
The proposal titled “Agile Methods to Entrepreneurship” includes transferring student projects from the classroom to commercial ventures, as well as co-curricular program development between the College of Technology and Innovation and the Morrison School students, while promoting entrepreneurship.
“The students work together on capstone projects in the Software Enterprise, which is one way to introduce students to the state of practice and expose them to real-world contextual concerns,” says Gary, engineering professor.
Another way to expose students to entrepreneurship is to hold a boot camp of sorts.
So as part of the grant, this team is hosting the first-ever StartupWeekend@ASU, April 24 & 25, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at ASU’s Polytechnic campus Student Union. It’s a camp where the goal is to start a technology or other company in one weekend.
“StartupWeekend dynamically forms communities around new ideas,” says Gary. “Any student with a business idea or a desire to participate in a startup formation is welcome to attend the two-day intensive camp to prepare to develop their idea and business plan, receive mentoring from those in industry, and work with real-world entrepreneurs.”
Students from across all ASU’s campuses in any major are invited to participate in this free event. Transportation from all ASU campuses will be available and food will be provided.
Interested students should register at http://startupweekend.asu.edu.
For more information, contact Kevin Gary at kgary@asu.edu or (480) 727-1373.
Chris Lambrakis, lambrakis@asu.edu
(480) 727-1173
Public Affairs at ASU Polytechnic campus