Innovation & Entrepreneurship Minor

Kelly Delaney, Advisor
kellydel@andrew.cmu.edu
https://ideate.cmu.edu 

Overview

Innovation & Entrepreneurship is for thinkers, dreamers, problem solvers, and realists. Students quickly learn the myth of the lone creative genius is just that—a myth—and that the most transformative ideas and viable businesses come from creativity and repeatable innovation processes, business strategies and models, focused work, and a commitment to tackling real-world problems to bring value to people and the market. Through multidisciplinary coursework and a diverse cadre of faculty experts in business, technology, engineering, and design you will learn how to research, ideate, visualize, and strategize taking an idea or venture forward from multiple perspectives and collaborations. You can expect to expand as a critical thinker while adding hard and soft skills in your toolkit through hands-on learning experiences.

Courses emphasize:

• Experiential learning through real-world problems, scenarios, case studies, etc.
• Critical thinking skills to understand problems, analyze strategies, determine approaches
• Multidisciplinary teamwork and collaboration
• Innovation processes, business models, strategies, and approaches
• 2D and 3D prototyping and visualizing of concepts and solutions

The minor in Innovation & Entrepreneurship is offered by the Tepper School of Business as part of the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology network.

Curriculum

Innovation & Entrepreneurship MinorMinimum 54 units

Prerequisite Course

		Units
73-102	Principles of Microeconomics (prerequisite for 70-438 Commercialization and Innovation)	9
or 73-104	Principles of Microeconomics Accelerated

Innovation & Entrepreneurial Mindset Course

70-246

Innovation & Entrepreneurial Mindset

6

One Portal Course

For students without prior design or product design experience:
15-294	Rapid Prototyping Technologies	5
15-394	Intermediate Rapid Prototyping	5
51-236	Information Design	9
62-478	IDeATe: digiTOOL	9
For students without prior programming or computer science experience:
15-104	Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice	10

One Entrepreneurship Course

70-415

Introduction to Entrepreneurship

9

One Venture Creation or Finance Course

70-395	Funding Entrepreneurial Ventures	9
70-416	New Venture Creation	9

One Innovation Process Course

70-438

Commercialization and Innovation (73-102 Principles of Microeconomics is a prereq)

9

One Product Development Course

49-300

Integrated Product Conceptualization

12

One Practice/Experience Component

• 70-416 New Venture Creation (if you did not take it as your Venture Creation option)
• The Swartz Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Innovation Scholars Program (for sophomores and highly selective)
• Swartz Center Customer Discovery Kickstart Program
• Students may also, with prior approval of Meredith Grelli, fulfill this requirement through an internship with a qualifying startup or product design firm (12 weeks, full-time). If interested in this option, students should email Meredith Grelli  during their own internship search to arrange a discussion on this option.

Double-Counting

No more than two minor courses may double-count toward a student's major core requirements or an additional minor's core requirements.