Lehigh University opens new 'innovation lab' to boost entrepreneurship offerings

After six months of research, Lehigh University graduate student Chris Hajjar recently completed the first prototype of the new family game he?s working to invent.

But before he can start pitching his game to potential investors and manufacturers, he?ll have to construct many more prototypes.

That?s where Lehigh?s new Creativity and Innovation Lab comes in. The university has been home to the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation for two years now but it hasn?t had one space for students to physically create their business ideas.

The 600-square-foot lab opened earlier this month. It?s being stocked with 3-D printers, power tools, routers, modeling clay and plastic parts.

Lehigh has had an entrepreneurship minor since 2005, but university officials say the new innovation lab is important to the program?s continued growth and especially Lehigh?s new master?s in technical entrepreneurship.

The university already had a metal shop, a carpentry shop and several 3-D printers, but the new innovation lab completes the facilities with anything a budding entrepreneur would need, said Marc de Vinck, a Baker professor of practice in creativity.

?The facilities at Lehigh are just amazing,? he said. ?We can do anything here.?

Matthew Fuchs is another master?s in technical entrepreneurship student that will need the lab space to create multiple prototypes for his potential invention: a system to combat the transmission of skin rashes and diseases such as ringworm on athletic equipment without using harsh chemicals.

?Having a work space actually makes a humongous difference,? Fuchs said. ?The greatest part of this program is evolving our ideas.?

Even program students such as Bryan Postelnek, who is exploring how to make live theater accessible to more people through the Internet, will have to make several physical prototypes of plans. While digital inventions are on the rise, just about every invention can benefit from having a physical prototype that can be as simple as a sketch, de Vinck said.

Since the Baker Institute ? named for the late Air Products CEO Dexter Baker ? launched in 2010, Lehigh?s entrepreneurship offerings have grown tremendously and officials see the new lab as important to continued expansion, Baker Executive Director Todd Watkins said.

Since 2010, enrollment in entrepreneurship courses has grown from 193 to 524 students. The university also is hoping to grow its master?s in technical entrepreneurship program from 15 to 30 students next year.

?We really see it as a great complement to the skill sets students develop in their classroom studies,? Watkins said.

And Lehigh pitches its entrepreneurship programs to those beyond budding inventors, Watkins said.

?We?re not na?ve enough to think that all of them are going to entrepreneurs,? he said. ?We sort of see entrepreneurial mindset as being relevant to any field. We think they?re going to be more valuable to their employers.?

Source: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2012/11/lehigh_university_opens_new_in.html

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