Academics
Opportunities abound for students to learn everything they need to know to succeed as entrepreneurs, at the foundational, advanced, and experiential levels. Dive into academic courses, majors and minors, and co-curricular activities relating to entrepreneurship here!
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UNIV 1820: First Year Seminars
- Using Your Entrepreneurial Skills to Get a Job or Start a Business with Kathy Rocha
- Conversations with Entrepreneurial Leaders with Julie Gehring and David Noble
- Name, Image, and Likeness: An Exploration of the NCAA’s NIL Policy with Bryan Roberts
BADM/MENT 2234: The Entrepreneurial Journey
This introductory, interdisciplinary course nurtures interest and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, raises awareness on the topic of entrepreneurship along with its benefits and risks, builds basic capabilities in assessing entrepreneurial opportunities, and helps students assess whether entrepreneurship might be part of their academics/career.
Study Entrepreneurship
Majors
Management - Entrepreneurship Concentration
Offered by the School of Business.
Develop the necessary skills to lead others, work well in teams, think entrepreneurially, and develop a strategic vision. Management majors are prepared to understand the “big picture” rather than focus on highly specialized, often rapidly changing, areas of study. Think and act with the confidence that only comes from an ability to see and appreciate what most highly focused specialists cannot.
Individualized Major
An individualized major (IMJR) is a self-designed, interdisciplinary major that allows you to create a program of study to fit your interests if they cross disciplinary boundaries and are not met by an existing major at the University of Connecticut. Recent student-designed majors include:
- Sports & Entrepreneurship
- Adaptive Programming and Design
- Product Design
Minors
Entrepreneurship
Offered by the School of Business
This minor creates an opportunity for undergraduate students to develop essential skills in entrepreneurial thinking and new venture creation. This minor is not available to Management majors.
Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation
Offered jointly by the School of Business and School of Engineering
This minor exposes students to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and technology innovation, with a focus on the product design process, business principals required for viable startups, and physical prototyping.
With introductory content intended for first-year and second-year students of any major, this minor offers students an introduction to the entrepreneurial, personal finance, legal, and marketing aspects of a person-as-brand business, including name-image-likeness and media-content based industries.
Graduate Degrees
Certificates
Healthcare Innovation Online Graduate Certificate Program
Offered by the School of Nursing
Open to healthcare and non-healthcare students
Courses, Programs, and Resources
Innovation House
Innovation House brings undergraduates from across disciplines together, fueling creativity towards the creation of new problem-solving products and technologies. Innovation House offers students multiple in-roads to mentorship and exposes students to a myriad of on-campus programs that support entrepreneurship including: IDEA Grants, Get Seeded, Accelerate UConn and more.
Experiential Training
HealthWerx
HealthWerx is a launching point designed to train and educate health-oriented students through an individualized stakeholder-involved approach, equipping them with the skills and knowledge necessary to address the continually evolving needs of the healthcare field.
ClimateWerx
Supporting participants in transforming their passions in sustainability and climate change into action, ClimateWerx equips UConn students of today with the skills necessary to shape the future of tomorrow, becoming catalysts for positive change in their communities.
Undergraduate Courses
Business
BADM 2234/MENT 2234 - The Entrepreneurial Journey
BADM 2236/MENT 2236 - Content Entrepreneurship
BADM 3234/MENT 3234 - Opportunity Generation, Assessment, and Promotion
BADM 3235/MENT 3235 - Venture Planning
BADM 3741 - Foundations of Venture Capital
BADM 3742 - Venture Investment Sourcing and Analysis
BADM 3882 - Professional Practice in Management or Entrepreneurial Consulting
BADM 4741 - Advanced Venture Investing
BADM 4742 - Leading a Venture Fund
BADM 4895/MENT 5894 - BUILD Hartford
BADM 5894 - InsurTech Venturing (Honors)
BADM 5894 - InsurTech Experiential Learning
FNCE 4319 - Entrepreneurial Finance
MENT 3500 - Technology Innovation (cross-listed in Engineering as ENG 3500)
MENT 3500 - Technology Innovation (cross-listed in Engineering as ENG 3500)
MENT 4895 - Finance for Entrepreneurs
MENT 4899 - Student Venture Fund
OPIM 3403 - UX/UI Design (formerly OPIM 3805 Gamification in Business)
Note: Special seminars in entrepreneurship topics may be offered under BADM/MENT 4895 and/or BADM 5894.
Engineering
ENGR 3500 - Technology Innovation I (cross-listed in Business as MENT 3500)
ENGR 3501 - Technology Innovation II (cross-listed in Business as MENT 3501)
ENGR 3915 - Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Defense
ENGR 3915 - Startup Consulting
Note: Special seminars in entrepreneurship topics may be offered under BME 6086.
Fine Arts
DMD 2020 - Design Thinking
DMD 2710 - Social Media Business Applications
DMD 3420 - Wearable Electronics and Interactive Objects
DMD 3720 - Digital Media Analytics
Interdisciplinary
UNIV 1820 - Intro to Making
UNIV 1820 - Intro to Emerging Technologies
UNIV 1820 - Develop Your Entrepreneurial Skillset
UNIV 1820 - Using Your Entrepreneurial Skills to get a Job or Start a Business
UNIV 1820 - Conversations in Entrepreneurial Leadership
UNIV 1820 - Name, Image, and Likeness: An Exploration of the NCAA's NIL Policy
UNIV 3088 - Exploring the Entrepreneurial Perspective (Pop-Up Course)
Graduate Courses
Business
BADM 4895/MGMT 5894 - Build Hartford
BADM 5311 - Experiential Learning Collaborative Advanced Project
BADM 5320 - Innovation Accelerator I: Evaluation of New Ventures
BADM 5321 - Innovation Accelerator II: New Venture Analytics
BADM 5330 - SCOPE I: Social Entrepreneurship Processes
BADM 5331 - SCOPE II: Social Innovation Processes
BADM 5892 - Intro to Smart Contracts
BADM 5894 - InsurTech Venturing
BADM 5894 - InsurTech Experiential Learning
Note: Special seminars in entrepreneurship topics may be offered under BADM 5310, BADM 5894, EMBA 5901, or MENT 5895.
Law
LAW 7798 - Clinic: Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship, Advanced Fieldwork
LAW 7877 - Clinic: Intellectual Property
LAW 7898 - Clinic: Transactional
Engineering
ENGR 5300 - Industry 4.0
Note: Special seminars inentrepreneurship topics may be offered under BME 6086 or ENGR 5300.
Nursing
NURS 5111 - Healthcare Innovation Theory and Application
First Year Programs, Learning Communities, and the Academic Achievement Center
First Year Programs, Learning Communities, and the Academic Achievement Center’s holistic programs celebrate entrepreneurial mindset and innovation through a continued emphasis on discovery, inquiry, and risk-taking during students’ first year and beyond. We help students connect their passions with resources to build a pipeline of innovation which extends to other opportunities, both within our programs and with our extensive collaborative networks, empowering them to become learners and leaders with purpose. FYP&LC continually promotes student-driven projects and initiatives that weave entrepreneurship into the culture of the University.
Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Law Clinic
Available to undergraduate and graduate students, UConn Law's Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Law Clinic provides pro bono intellectual property legal services including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Perform patentability and trademark registrability searches; prepare and file U.S. patent, trademark, and copyright applications; and prepare non-disclosure agreements. Protect the innovations connected with your new business, including products and processes. Gain brand protection through the use of trademarks. Obtain free legal advice from experienced lawyers and law students.
Engineering Senior Design Project
Each year, more than 100 leading manufacturing companies, pharmaceutical and medical firms, consulting practices, and utilities, as well as local, state, and federal government agencies, partner with the UConn School of Engineering through Senior Design Projects. All UConn Engineering seniors participate in the two-semester Senior Design course, solving technical problems for sponsors in a real-world company or organization. Each team of 2-4 seniors is mentored through the project by an Engineering professor working within the sponsor organization.
Honors Program
The UConn Honors Program supports more than 2,200 academically talented and intellectually curious undergraduates at all campuses. Through participation in the program, students enrich their educational experiences by exploring Honors courses within their major and across the curriculum; creating cutting-edge research and creative projects alongside expert faculty members; and leading within and beyond the UConn Honors community.
UConn Libraries Entrepreneurship and Business Plan Guide
Student entrepreneurs can use the UConn Libraries' online Entrepreneurship and Business Plan guide to walk through the process of business plans, market research, and the fundamentals of launching a business, and navigating the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Need specific research advice? Schedule one-on-one sessions with the Business and Entrepreneurship Librarian, whether you’re just beginning or a serial student entrepreneur.
Centers & Institutes
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is dedicated to the support and advancement of best practices in teaching and learning at the University of Connecticut. The staff of CETL work with individual faculty, teaching assistants, students, departments and the academic administration to create a culture which values teaching and learning, supports and rewards faculty for innovation in teaching, encourages respect for differences in learners and provides an environment where faculty, staff, and students work together to accomplish learning objectives. The connections that CETL has developed provides unparalleled support for faculty seeking connections for scholarship, relationship, and project development.
Center for Open Research Resources and Equipment
The Center for Open Research Resources and Equipment (COR²E) promotes and supports the growth of research at UConn by serving the University’s world-class research faculty, as well as the rest of the UConn community and UConn partners.
Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
The Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation helps UConn students and faculty develop the skills needed to become successful entrepreneurs. CCEI offers entrepreneurial training and new venture support programs for faculty, staff and students across the University. Programs such as Accelerate UConn, Verge Consulting, the CCEI Summer Fellowship program, and the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Initiative help aspiring entrepreneurs identify and analyze the market opportunity for new products and technology, and once proven, build scalable and sustainable business models that help bring game-changing new products, services, and technologies to market.
CCEI also works in partnership with and supports several other entrepreneurial initiatives within the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, including the TIP Summer Internship Program, the Nursing Shark Tank event, HackUConn, reSET Summer Internship Program, the Forum on Healthcare Innovation, and the xCITE women’s entrepreneurship conference.
CSI CyberSEED
Hosted by the Comcast Center of Excellence for Security Innovation at the University of Connecticut (CSI), the CyberSEED conference brings together top information security professionals and business leaders to discuss emerging cybersecurity trends and formulate best strategies for tackling current and future threats. In the same academic setting, dozens of universities and colleges compete in unique cybersecurity challenges for prizes.
Greenhouse Studios
Greenhouse Studios forges diverse and democratic collaborations that build humanities scholarship in new formats to engage new audiences. The design-thinking philosophy of Greenhouse Studios encourages non-hierarchical collaboration between librarians, faculty, students, designers, and university press partners. Greenhouse Studios projects are led through a five-stage process — Understand, Identify, Build, Review, and Release — designed to encourage collaboration and make all team members equal stakeholders in the project.
Krenicki Arts and Engineering Institute
The Krenicki Arts and Engineering Institute is an innovative and interdisciplinary partnership between the School of Engineering and School of Fine Arts focused on offering groundbreaking classes in entertainment engineering and industrial design. This unique approach gives students from both schools the opportunity to cultivate their latent creative and technical potential through innovative and dynamic explorations. whether the focus is on developing unique industrial designs or gaining technical skills and artistic approaches in the field of entertainment.
Nursing and Engineering Innovation Center
The Nursing and Engineering Innovation Center fosters and advances healthcare, workforce, and economic development through interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships between nursing and engineering to promote the ideation, creation, and commercialization of new evidence-based healthcare technologies that address clinical unmet needs for the betterment of healthcare quality (e.g., safe, effective, efficient, equitable, timely, and patient-centered).
