Clemson’s DEN Pairs Tech With Entrepreneurship

Thomas Green Clemson baked innovation into the core of his university’s mission, saying he was creating “a high seminary of learning… affording to its youth the advantages of scientific culture.” Too often world-class technologies crafted in university research labs collect dust and never reach those they were designed for. Leaders in the Clemson University Bioengineering Department are making Thomas Clemson’s vision a reality by fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in some of the most passionate people around the university’s technologies – the students.

The DEN (Design and Entrepreneurship Network) exposes passionate undergraduate students with transformative technologies to the possibility of marketing them through entrepreneurial ventures. Students working with local and regional entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and technology transfer officers get excited about entrepreneurship as a career. Countless undergraduates who might not have seen entrepreneurship as an opportunity available to them only need The DEN’s environment to foster their passion.

The DEN is developing a makerspace combining manufacturing equipment, community and education so student teams can come together in a collaborative environment to learn, design and build ventures. The DEN’s team environment supports students with the drive for design and entrepreneurship and is transforming Clemson’s innovation landscape.

Founded in 1963, Clemson’s bioengineering program is one of the oldest in the world and is known as the international birthplace of the field of biomaterials. The program’s website notes that “today’s bioengineers are on the job in research and development labs in all areas of medicine, from investigating the physiological behavior of single cells to designing implants using living and nonliving materials for the replacement of diseased or traumatized body tissues.”

Breanne Przestrzelski is a bioengineering Ph.D. candidate and a University Innovation Fellow, which is a national program empowering engineering student leaders to increase entrepreneurial activity on their campuses. Through an innovation and entrepreneurship landscape analysis, Przestrzelski identified gaps and formulated ideas to fill them, including creating The DEN.

Although located in the bioengineering department where this passion began, multifunctional teams are key to any successful venture and all entrepreneurially minded undergraduates from a variety of disciplines are welcome in The DEN. Clemson’s Creative Inquiry Program, led by Barbara Speziale, Clemson’s associate dean of undergraduate studies, funds projects that are undergraduate team-based investigations led by faculty mentors that spark an imaginative combination of engaged learning and undergraduate research. Many undergraduates enter The DEN with innovative technologies being developed through Creative Inquiries. Some students are actively involved in senior design classes, such as BioE 4030: Applied Biomedical Design, which allows students the opportunity to interact with leading area hospitals and therapy clinics to identify critical unmet needs to be solved by enthusiastic teams of student innovators.

There are other opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship development for undergraduates. A new Clemson summer accelerator program will be led by established regional entrepreneurs and local educators. Innovation and entrepreneurship talks are hosted alongside student-led Vox Novo and soon-to-be TEDx programs. The Clemson University Research Foundation’s technology transfer office will begin to host how-to sessions and workshops about the process of bringing technology to those it was intended for. The Spiro Institute supports student entrepreneurs through its LaunchPadSC and SEED programs. The best part about this movement is that is it led by students – students who are passionate about design, innovation and entrepreneurship and eager to share their passion. Student-led teams are forming across campus with dedicated faculty who are just as eager to bring this innovation and entrepreneurship movement to Clemson.

This spring, InnoVenture is working with Larry Dooley, Clemson’s vice president of research, and the Clemson University Research Foundation to develop the Clemson.Innoventure.com network to help faculty, staff and students grow the impact of their research and entrepreneurial projects through campaigns to engage alumni and others in industry. Clemson Research Month will be held in April 2014, during which the Clemson Alumni Association, the Office of Public Affairs and InnoVenture will promote faculty and student research and entrepreneurial projects to tens of thousands of alumni and industry partners.

Projects at The DEN will be highlighted on Clemson.Innoventure.com, which will help expand the university’s network of support for entrepreneurial activity by connecting passionate student entrepreneurs and innovators on campus with outside collaborators to start building a place that can rival the entrepreneurial energy that radiates from Palo Alto. Clemson has the right ingredients and the right cooks here in South Carolina, and it’s time to bring it all together.