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From July 7-10, 2014, eight professors from SAP University Alliances program member schools in North America participated in the first SAP Student Entrepreneurship Program Faculty Workshop in North America. Held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as part of the SAP University Alliances Summer Workshops, this new topic enabled faculty to experience how through Design Thinking, business modeling, and investor pitching, students can create desirable, feasible, and viable startup concepts leveraging SAP’s innovation platform including SAP HANA and Lumira.
The workshop was led by John Baxter of SAP University Alliances. The agenda combined context on innovation and entrepreneurship with hands on activities in which faculty teamed up and combined their creativity to develop big data startup business concepts.
Day 1 started with context…“How Disruptive Technology is changing our Lives,” the “Human Face of Big Data,” and an introduction to the “SAP Startup Focus Program.” In the afternoon, faculty made short pitches on startup concepts which teams could choose, and the group reached consensus on two creative “big data” startup concepts:
The “Shop Smart” team focused on developing a startup concept in the retail space…an integrated system to transform the shopping experience.
The “edUplay” team focused on developing a startup concept in the higher education space…a concept to match families with student athletes to universities seeking student athletes.
From the afternoon of Day 1 through the Day 3, faculty used Design Thinking, business modeling, and investor pitching best practices, to develop desirable, feasible, and viable startup concepts leveraging SAP’s innovation platform. In the afternoon of Day 3, they presented to professors attending other workshops, gaining feedback on their concepts. Day 3 ended with John Baxter presenting further context…an introduction to SAP HANA and a demonstration of SAP Lumira on a sample of big data from Sam’s Club donated to the University of Arkansas for use by SAP University Alliances member professor and students.
On Day 4, the faculty worked on another Design Thinking challenge: “How to get more students interested in entrepreneurship.” New teams formed, and two design concepts were shared among the teams by the end of the day.
Team “Socrates” focused on the needs of an entrepreneurship teacher who needs administrative and community support to enhance student passion to enroll in entrepreneurial studies.
Team “Shawn” focused on the needs of an entrepreneurship faculty member trying to establish and scale an entrepreneurship program at a university.
For more coverage on the SAP Student Entrepreneurship workshop at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, see the SAP University Alliances Facebook page.
For more information on the SAP Student Entrepreneurship Program, click here or contact SAP University Alliances North America uap.na@sap.com
