| Outcome/accomplishment:
The Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center's (ERC) Industry-Academia
Day in February 2010 developed important entrepreneurial skills in students
while raising their awareness of the concerns of industry during a special
event held at Boston University (a partner institution of the ERC).
The event centerpiece was an "elevator speech" competition in which selected
students were judged on their posters and presentations.
Impact/benefits:
The event allowed students to demonstrate leadership and interact with
the ERC’s Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s
Severino School of Technological Entrepreneurship, and Boston University’s
Office of Technology Transfer. The event generated significant positive
attendee feedback, and when the competition was described at the Engineering
Education Grantees Meeting in February 2010, other ERC education and outreach
personnel suggested that it should become a model for other ERCs.
Explanation/ background:
Working with the IAB, the NSF-funded Center, which is headquartered at
Rensselaer, developed a framework for the presentation of research and
the judging criteria for the student posters and presentations. Students
rehearsed their 90-second “elevator pitches” at the Severino School.
They were provided with advice and feedback from faculty and staff, as
well as from a “resident entrepreneur.” ERC faculty advisors
helped the students to prepare their presentations and further refine them.
Students also held sessions where they delivered their pitches and critiqued
each other’s delivery. The ERC’s Student Leadership Council (SLC)
organized the poster competition, produced the poster and abstract templates,
held inter-campus meetings, decided on the timeframe for collecting the
data, produced the abstract booklet, directed the students to print the
posters in a timely fashion, and ultimately selected the elevator-pitch
finalists for the public agenda. The poster judging was done by the
IAB. |
