How Poly/Tandon position entrepreneurship over time - i2e
In the physical archive of the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, I found two physical brochures that can represent how the school promoted and positioned entrepreneurship at that time. Unfortunately, I can't find exactly when these brochures were published, but I can tell you roughly by looking at the names of the schools on the covers. Both of them are from the periods of NYU-Poly, which is between 2008-2013, the time before Poly completely merged with NYU.
The term ‘i2e’ appears frequently in both brochures. According to the brochure, ‘I2e’ stands for Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, which is the short way of saying what has long been part of the culture of NYU-Poly. I2e is NYU Poly’s educational philosophy and a spirit that infuses every factor of NYU Poly’s academics and research.
I2e permeates the curriculum
Joining Two First-year Engineering Courses, EG-UY 1001 Engineering and Technology Forum & EG-UY 1003 Introduction to Engineering and Design, to educate the next generation of global innovators.
I2e permeates the laboratories
Undergraduates get hands-on research experience in programs like the Summer Research Program and in events like the Inno/Vention Competition, which is funded with generous support. InnoVention gives NYU-Poly’s budding scientists a preview of what it takes to develop and refine their ideas into marketable products and services. Participants brainstorm about their ideas, attend workshops on topics such as patent searches and market research, and get one-on-one business coaching from the director of NYU-Poly's business incubators.
i2e permeates faculties
NYU-Poly’s faculties are more than educators. They are inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs. NYU-Poly faculty-scientists were working on hot topics, from cyber security encryption, to bioplastics, and biosensors, to lifesaving wireless technologies. Professor Elza Erkip and Professor Richard Gross are representatives.
i2e permeates alumnus
Ursula Burns, the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 100 corporation and Paul Soros, a Hungarian-born American mechanical engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist, are representatives for distinguished alumni in leadership.
i2e Campus Transformation
In 2010, NYU-Poly’s President Jerry M. Hultin announced a $50 million (and more in the future) plan to renovate campus, somewhat mysteriously and nerdily titled “i2e Campus Transformation.” The goal is to turn this into a campus that exudes innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship. Wander around today's Tandon campus and you can see the results of this plan: fancy green and “form meets function” designs, such as “data and electrical ports suspended from the ceiling, enabling students, faculty, and researchers to easily move wheeled stations as needed.
Institute for Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (IIIE@Tandon)
The Institute for Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (IIIE@Tandon) is the focal point for all research, educational, and service activities in support of Tandon’s goal to integrate Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship into its academic culture and to advance student and faculty appreciation of and skills in inventiveness, innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial and design thinking.
The IIIE draws its strengths from the contributions of faculty from multiple departments, a structure that facilitates the integration of inventions and innovations emerging from the departmental faculty and students and linking them to entrepreneurship, i.e. the proactive consideration and realization of open source and commercialization opportunities through various institutional pathways such as Tandon’s Tech Transfer and Future Labs, which facilitate licensing, joint development agreements with industrial partners, and startup incubation.
- Serving as a one-stop shop for all school-wide activities that promote invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship
- Generating a nurturing environment for the translation of science and engineering breakthroughs into new technologies, products, and processes in service to society
- Exploring new learning opportunities that will provide every student with the basic knowledge and experience of entrepreneurial thinking
- Connecting faculty and students with the NYU Tandon Future Labs, the Convergence of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), the NexusLabs, PowerbridgeNY, NYCRIN, the VR/AR Lab as well as with innovation- and entrepreneurship-related activities across all of NYU such as the Leslie eLab, the Entrepreneurial Institute, the Berkely Innovation Lab, and the Creative Destruction Lab
- Promoting student participation in NYU Tandon and other NYU competitions such as InnoVention, the Summer Launchpad Program, and the $300k Entrepreneurs Challenge
- Linking the NYU Tandon community to the broader NYC technology scene through hackathons, workshops, competitions, guest lectures and tech talks
- Creating the infrastructure for faculty and students to turn their ideas into successful ventures (“NYU Tandon |IIIE @ Tandon”)