The School of Management is replacing its entrepreneurial program with a service that will give students in Boston University’s other colleges the chance to learn alongside business students.
At a reception of more than 100 alumni and students yesterday, President Robert Brown welcomed the launching of the Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, which will replace the Entrepreneurial Management Institute and build upon its services.
“ITEC’s job is to teach entrepreneurs how to turn ideas into reality,” Brown said.
Approved in February 2007, ITEC will offer many of EMI’s features but also a range of entrepreneurial programs outside SMG, said ITEC Executive Director Jonathan Rosen.
“[ITEC] is like creating a new library,” Rosen said before the announcement. “It takes a while for people to find out the library’s there, to come in, to learn how to use it and then start to think about going there when they need information.”
Rosen, who was involved in ITEC’s five-month designing process, said the Institute expands upon existing programs and serves as a resource for students interested in entrepreneurship. It will improve existing entrepreneurial courses and possibly add new ones to the SMG curriculum, he said.
Adhering to Brown’s ideal of “one Boston University,” ITEC’s primary purpose is to bring BU’s colleges together, Rosen said. ITEC also strives to achieve connections on a local, national and international scale, he said.
Some of ITEC’s programs have already begun, including an entrepreneurial course this semester with law students, making it the first time these two groups have been evenly divided in a mixed classroom setting, Rosen said.
Another cross-college project already underway includes an entrepreneurial “boot camp” that allows students to spend a day with SMG professors to learn the basics behind creating new business endeavors, he said.
SMG also has a system allowing recently graduated SMG students to gain insight for their new businesses from professors, give guest lectures and employ students as interns, Rosen said. ITEC will expand upon these services.
ITEC, in conjunction with the Technology and Development Office, was recently granted approval for an entrepreneurial research lab that will help provide further work for the program.
“We’re adding educational opportunities to the traditional process of licensing technologies and starting companies out of the university research pool,” Rosen said.
The reception’s guest list included people who would benefit from networking opportunities and learning about the institute, said ITEC Communications Associate Director Beth Goldstein.
“The notion of doing research is important,” said 1976 graduate Ben Bernstein. “At some point, it needs to be translated into a benefit to society.”