Call for Panel Proposals is Open!

Dear Colleagues,

Preparations for the 2019 Deshpande Symposium are moving along nicely! Panel proposals are looking good. Workshops are in development. Sponsors are lining up. Our first keynote is locked in. And the nomination period for Deshpande Symposium Award will soon be open.

As the Spring semester fast approaches, we’re reaching out to remind you that the opportunity to lead a panel presentation or host a workshop for this year’s Symposium is still available. It’s a terrific opportunity for you and your colleagues to share your I&E program successes and best practices with higher education thought leaders from across the country and around the world. 

The submission deadline for brief panel proposal abstracts is February 1^st. All submission details are available at www.deshpandesymposium.org/call-for-proposals.

We look forward to reviewing your panel proposals. And we thank you once again for your continued support of the Deshpande Symposium!

Happy New Year!

Raj Melville

Deshpande Foundation

Symposium Co-Chair

Steve Tello

UMass Lowell

Symposium Co-Chair

Important Reminders

Panel Proposals due by February 1, 2019. Submit your proposal today!



Guest Commentary

Teaching Green: Integrating Sustainability

Principles into I&E Curriculum

Innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) will play a significant role in solving current and future global environmental issues. Yet there’s a tremendous need to prepare tomorrow’s inventors and designers for these challenges—today.

Fortunately, more and more educators and higher ed institutions are rising to the challenge. They realize that, in order to prepare tomorrow’s innovators to invent green, they must deeply embed sustainable principles into product design, STEM, or entrepreneurship courses.

In response to the growing need for models for sustainability-related coursework, we’re developing resources – in addition to grants and training – to make it easier to adopt inventing green principles into I&E curriculum. We worked closely with sustainable design strategist, Jeremy Faludi, to create Tools for Design and Sustainability, an online resource to help student inventors understand and apply sustainable design approaches in their work.

The resource includes a section outlining how the content can easily be incorporated into curriculum. Click here for a highlight of content from the Tools for Design and Sustainability that demonstrates how they can be integrated into existing courses on engineering and physics, industrial and product design, and business. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) requires engineering programs to include environmental and social sustainability as real-world design constraints in curriculum. The Tools for Design and Sustainability offers several easy drop-in options to address these requirements.

Learn more ways to incorporate sustainability principles into your curriculum. Come to OPEN 2019 from March 28-30, 2019 in Washington, D.C. View the schedule and register today.

Read the full Teaching Green article on the VentureWell blog here.

Community Announcements

VentureWell's OPEN Conference

March 28-30, 2019

Washington, DC

Plan to join us for VentureWell’s OPEN Conference, March 28-30, 2019 in Washington, DC, a vibrant city with an active startup community. The annual two-day conference gathers faculty, administrators, and institutional change makers from across the I&E spectrum to share stories, start new collaborations, and learn emerging best practices in the rapidly evolving field of technology entrepreneurship education. The conference is called OPEN to reflect both the welcoming culture of our attendees and the way the conference connects people across disciplines and geographies to grow entrepreneurship education.

OPEN 2019 will feature a wealth of informative sessions and time to network with a friendly and engaging group of colleagues committed to moving the field forward. Sessions will cover a wide range of subjects such as fostering creative thinking in the classroom, IP policy to spur innovation, and scaling innovations in resource-constrained environments.

Learn more about OPEN 2019 here.

The 2018 Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) Summit

The 2018 Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) Summit brought together entrepreneurs, thought leaders, philanthropists, and city leaders from across the country - to discuss how to build and foster entrepreneurial ecosystems.

A highlight of the event was a fireside chat Desh Deshpande had with philanthropist Bill Cummings about how he became an entrepreneur, developed a passion for giving back, and went from a 1 bedroom apartment in Medford, MA to giving away most of his fortune.

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Founding Sponsors:

Gold Sponsor:

Bronze Sponsors:

Lisa Armstrong, Newsletter Editor, [log in to unmask]

To view Newsletter Archives follow this link.