Dorm-cubator

I pushed for this at Carnegie Mellon and written about the need to enable the Michael Dell's and Bill Gate's of the world to develop their companies in their dorm rooms rather than have to drop our of school to make their dreams a reality.  The University of Waterloo has done it, by:

giving over one of its residence halls to Velocity, a new incubator where students can collaborate on Web, mobile, and digital media applications with their fellow budding tech entrepreneurs and perhaps help breathe some life back into the incubator model ...

The renovations will include Wi-Fi access, server space, increased bandwidth, and a 12-foot projection screen. Each of the three common areas will be transformed into a necessary space for the beginner businesspeople, including a mobile device lab and a corporate-style boardroom for product presentations ...

[There will be] a boot camp at the beginning of term where the students can meet with corporate and consulting entities, checking out recruitment possibilities and getting real-world feedback on their ideas. An end-of-the-term symposium allows the residents to present their offerings. During the term, there will be additional one-day training sessions with role model types as well. ...

To get into the Velocity project, students need to answer several in-depth questions about their technical and entrepreneurial savvy, and undergo a lengthy interview ... It's not just the techies who've been angling for a spot in Velocity: "Students from all sorts of backgrounds have been applying (in addition to computer science and engineering students), like from arts, environmental studies, mechanical engineering, sciences, and business" ...

Comments

[Matt]

Thinking back to my time at Waterloo, I can't actually remember any students who dropped out to chase a "big idea". In part the co-op program (six four-month internships that alternate with "study" terms throughout your undergrad degree) provides a bit of an outlet for the restless, and maybe even the Gates/Dell types can see the value of all that experience. I do worry a bit about the students who take this on -- Waterloo is already a pretty intense place -- but it will be interesting to see what they produce.

Whoever wrote/edited the line "as far away as Wilfrid Laurier University" damned the program with faint praise -- WLU is just down the street!

[john trenouth]

While CMU didn't have any official policy to accomodate entrepeneurial students, there were a few of us there who manage to connect with the right faculty (cheers R.F.) in order to make creating a new business part of the learning experience.

This ad hoc, unofficial learning was by far the most value part of my time at CMU (aside for your class Rich, of course :)

[bal]

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