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Entrepreneurship Roundtable Panel Discussion
March 20, 2013
9:45-11:15 a.m.
Gallery Hall in TFDL
MINUTES
1. Introductions to fourth Roundtable:
a. Dr. Frank Maurer introduced the panelists that are all very experienced and engaged in this agenda:
Janet Ronsky, George Shimizu, Frans van der Hoorn, Robert Schulz and Cooper Langford.
b. The panel is looking to get feedback to find out what works and what doesn’t, and we have a task force
that will take these recommendations and bring forth a proposal to the university. This is a regular
series of events, next one is for July 11th from 9:45-11:15 a.m. in Gallery Hall, the topic will be
announced shortly.
2. Panelist Presentations:
a. Frans van der Hoorn (Faculty of Medicine)- Had slides
 Involved in thinking about and designing/ helping educational programs in medicine.
 80% of doc students will never have an academic career. Are the grads getting the proper
education?
 There is a common misunderstanding that this is only for Science and Engineering, that is not
the case.
 Business is a global activity. We do require this kind of education and need to try and get
students to understand something about business, which leads to educational programming.
 Time to offer an integrated MBA PHD, have it vetted by academics and industry, outcomes being
patents, licenses etc.
 What level of education does everyone need, it depends on discipline, how are we going to
measure success?
b. Cooper Langford (Chemistry, Communication and Culture and former AVPR)- Had Slides
 Has been involved in in licensing three patents and has spent over 17 years in research
administration.
 Has been seriously involved with entrepreneurship and scholarship.
 Clearly defined: Innovation- not invention novelty to practice, entrepreneur person (team)responsible for the transition to practice. These are flexible terms that have specific meaning.
Don’t want to separate innovation from entre but could separate from invention.
 The university can do this at a moderate costs.
c. Janet Ronsky (Schulich School of Engineering)
 Mechanical engineer and has worked in industry for five years in petro chemical and came back
to get PhD. and have been working in bio medical engineering for the last five years and have
been involved in leading a few initiatives.
 Worked with Innovate Calgary with bringing research technologies to have uptake and be
funded towards tech commercialization as well as through Biovantage. Also involved in
Zymetrics tech development centre here on campus. Also involved in Canadian council
academies for review.
 Must help take tech from that early stage and help partner with researchers and move along to
the point where you can partner with industries.
 Why are we asking for a definition for entre and innovation? Because we get hung up on
language. Innovation and entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker- this is a great resource and book
on this topic. It talks about how innovation plays an important part. Entrepreneurs innovate,
innovation is the pipeline and the tools; we need to shift from inventions to the products to
move them along. Knowing when is the best point so people are not turned off because they
are not a business person.
 If you look at the report from the state of the nation we are putting out the highest number of
PhD students same with scientific publications which includes the Arts, Education and Law for
example. Our IP in terms of patents is low, and what we are doing with it is terrible.
 How do we look at this innovation? Why should we be involved in entre training? It is to
mobilize, we are doing the training but we don’t’ take it to the next step. Part of what we
should be doing in terms of education is helping students to cross those barriers to learn the
same language.
d. George Shimizu (Faculty of Science, Faculty of Graduate Studies)
 Has had some experience in filing patents. Why do we need training in it, it needs to be carried
to a commercialization pathway.
 Key point is changing the mind- set. Commercialization (great to have a licensed technology),
shift in funding to more strategic ventures and liaise with industry for research funding getting
students to think about that early on is beneficial for. Transferable skills is very important for
broad grad education, tri-council has seen lots of successful students; great they can write a re
proposal but it would be nice if they could write a business plan and have the training to critic
someone else’s. Hurdles are changing faculty member’s mindset that this is something
important, this is not lateral and do not detract from what they are doing. Consolidating
everything that is happening on campus. Recognizing the efforts by formal accreditation,
minimizing redundancies.
e. Robert Schulz (Haskayne School of Business)
 Great book: Tipping Point- Malcolm Gladwell: if you want to be an entre read this book.
 On 10-15 advisory boards and students still stay connected with him.
 You must learn to connect, must be a member of digital AB or AB100 for those of you that are
willing to be connected.
 IBM has 6 billion in research, lots of other Universities that have signed up. Utah is one the top
innovative universities. Students have to do their part also.
 Mark Blackwell student social entre from UofC has done very well here by being connected, you
can do the same thing as a grad student if that is what you want to do. If you don’t have the
connecting or sales skills and you are not sure if you can trust a partner this is where the
university should offer those opportunities.
 At the end of the day it is about network and connecting. Build the infrastructure on the unit
side and on the student side you must make them happen.
AUDIENCE QUESTIONS/COMMENTS:
1. Colin Martin (VPFS Elect GSA)
 Doctoral candidate in dept of Arts- noted none of the panelists are artists which is concerning as it
doesn’t represent most grad students.
 There is no artist that is not already an entre.
 If we want to talk about interdisciplinary and training for students, start from the beginning with the
curriculum. For future generations of panels future attention to artists, writers etc.
a. Schulz noted: raincheck.com - this website connects artists.
b. Van der Hoorn agrees that representation in Arts is needed.
c. Ronsky has asked Colin as an undergrad what kind of depth of courses do you think your
colleagues would be interested in taking in terms of training for entre, what kind of level?
Hands on?
d. Martin has thought about this pillar being added by Haskayne where undergrads take a course
on innovative communication or a networking course to get mentorship and leadership.
e. There is always overlap and to recognize that interdisciplinary has that.
f. There is no equivalent for business for non-business students at Haskayne. There is some
work needed at the advisory level also.
g. Martin also mentioned that many introductory courses for English are taught by advanced
masters students, another way to put grad students to work, best way to learn is to teach it
might be a way to attract additional funding?
2. John Brown (Associate Dean EVDS)
 Professional degrees: we need to learn how to innovate.
 There is an entre course that looks at social entre. It would help to add that dimension so that law and
EVDS would be an apart of that and support building bridges into Haskayne, part of the problem is the
cost.
 Van de Hoorn noted the different offerings that could be a part of a framework would EVDS benefit
from business course, workshops, what kind of offerings would benefit each faculty the best? John
noted there are two scales perhaps credit courses that deal as an intro to all grad students and develop
a doctrine/degree, professional PhD so that it leads to business courses.
3. Ted Robertson (Academic- chemical petroleum)
 New to UofC and to Canada, has some experience in the UK with patents.
 The problem is the lack of people in this room; advisers need to encourage the process. The professors
need to be in this room. Worried the group that preaching to the converted.
 How do we encourage professors and students, what are the drivers for professors to be entre, it is
sometimes seen as a distraction, it is not about money. What can we get professors to do?
 Need to start thinking about “how can we use that”? In Manchester at the school of business- they did
via business program projects that students can work on across the univ, these have a big impact. Learn
by using actual student projects.
 They tried- service and leadership, teaching, learning and tech transfer, you needed three things; you
could do the same thing with Grad education and having as part of criteria.
4. Randy Johnston- (director in master biomedical tech program)
 Practical issue- how we can best provide this kind of training to our grad students?
 The model we are experimenting with in the MBT program which might resonate and it could possibly
work with other areas. Twelve month course master base program, providing bridge training to cross
the gap and move into that sector, experimenting this year. We may take course modules and students
could pick and choose the areas they want to specialize, business plan, clinical trials, IP etc. Trying to
make accessible to other MSC and PhD students across the faculty of medicine. In the next 3-4 years
end up with 30-40 modules and grad students can take the modules with 12 hours of lecture.
 Is anything else like this happening at the university? Could we provide to the whole univ in a wide
spectrum?
 Schulz- find the key people in this and figure out how to do it. The task force is consolidating and taking
an inventory of what is happening on campus. Would like to hear from other students on whether they
would find that attractive?
5. Tina Johnston- (PHD student)
 The only thing that was available was a minor in entre, great for people who already know they want to
go into business. Would want something that is for everyone else, make something that is specific to
the program. Get over the problem of professor wanting students to write papers.
6. No Name- (Masters)
 Took lots of business courses- agree there is a huge difference between owning a company and
understanding HR and finance. Would like to be linked and introduced to business people so they can
help him launch to the market. Have been an entre for 15 years, there is a huge gap with the university.
 Professor wanted to focus on publications and went to innovate AB they would only help with
prototype, not ideas. Couldn’t find anyone at the university to help him- had to use an outside source.
 You only need the basics of business, but then you need a link to the business world and it is not only
about knowing people.
a. Martin noted that there is a career services person with GSA that will help with exactly that,
Career counseling should be a part of a program.
7. Eng degree student- France- Strongly recommend to not only focus on courses, must network and practice.
Internship opportunities and real life experience.
8. Lisa Young- suggestions for joint degrees might be appropriate, interdisciplinary specialization i.e. Degree in
chemistry with specialization in business and entre less of an undertaking then a full MBA. If we made that
available students would be lining up. Requirements of the PHD- providing non-traditional requirements for the
PhD that still ensures the academic rigor but it just looks different.
9. Mark Unger- Vet med- take more risk and try new courses. What happens if I fail in entre, the university can
provide help via career centre, join this program and opportunities open up to you. If entre doesn’t work for the
student then they can come back and try to get them a position somewhere else.
10. Tom Maleky – engineering student working with Innovate Calgary on idea generation, team development,
mentorship and internships. Most students won’t want to add 5 more courses due to time, in engineering there
are no offerings for business courses. Need to use University of Waterloo for providing business at early stage
start- ups.
Pictures taken of Franks’ notes:
Flipchart 1
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Involve Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences
Hurdle: academic Culture aginst entrepreneurship at advisor level
Needed: Business 101 for non-business students
Entrepreneurship course in EVDS/ John Brown
Profs need to ask: how can we use that?
Connect students with other grad students, market research in grad student projects
Recognize innovation as partial replacement for program credits
Flipchart 2
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Innovate out of resource based industries
Provide training to bridge info corporate world
o Create individualized program to allow student to pick and choose
o Next 3-4 years: 30-40 modules in faculty of medicine
Important: create networking opportunities with businesses??
Create work shop presence for entrepreneurship
Gap: idea stage before prototype exists, IC not helpful
Career counseling
Flipchart 3
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France: CIF- PhD program, 70% company, 30% industry
Help linking grad students to industry
AITF plus program- one year funds for student outside of university
Inter-disciplinary specialization as program option
Post degree programs
Non-traditional PhD thesis as option
Flipchart 4
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Issue: ?? environment grades too important
Allow long breaks in program for entrepreneurship students
NDA issue: talking in student services
o Virtual wall so that this is not a release in public domain
Involve undergrads in all initiatives
Adding more courses to degree is problematic
Use Waterloo as example