BUild Lab Awarded Top Emerging Entrepreneurship Center by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers
On Friday, October 30, at the annual Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC), Boston University’s BUild Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center received the Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Center award. This year’s GCEC conference was held virtually by the Toesh Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at University of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The annual award honors entrepreneurship centers that are five years old or less and have demonstrated success in a variety of areas including student participation, establishing and achieving its goals and objectives, and engagement from faculty, alumni, donors, and the local entrepreneurship community.
The BUild Lab is one of four emerging centers to receive this award along with Furman University, Eastern Washington University, and Smith College.
“Since the day that the BUild Lab opened almost three years ago, I have been so proud of the work done by everyone, including faculty, staff, student interns, and all of the student teams working so hard to convert their ideas into impact. I am gratified that the global entrepreneurship center community has recognized the unique programming offered at the BUild Lab, the enthusiastic embrace given by the student community, and the skill and talent of the staff, who work so hard every day,” said Gerry Fine, executive director of Innovate@BU.
The Innovate@BU initiative and the BUild Lab opened its doors to the BU community in February 2017 after a one-year benchmarking study was led by Siobhan O’Mahony, Questrom School of Business professor of strategy and innovation and Innovate@BU’s academic director of curriculum and research, and Ian Mashiter, Questrom senior lecturer of strategy and innovation and Innovate@BU’s director of curriculum.
Since then, the BUild Lab team has established a variety of experiential learning programs that seek to instill a keen understanding of social entrepreneurship, business innovation, and cultural engagement so that no matter their field of study, students graduate knowing what it takes to convert an idea into something concrete and impactful–and become drivers of innovation in their own lives, careers, and communities. These programs include competitions, workshops, classes, an annual innovation conference, and its signature program–the Innovation Pathway, a self-paced accelerator that helps students transform venture and project ideas into something real.
“This award is a great testament to the strategic planning that went into creating this center, to the continuous hard work of our team, and to the students who are taking actions to learn and create impact,” said Li Liang, managing director of the BUild Lab.
Every year since opening, participation in BUild Lab programming has grown. During the 2019-2020 academic year alone: 3,096 students and community members participated in 197 programs; 230 teams joined the Innovation Pathway; 97 teams competed in the New Venture Competition; and $216,000 was awarded to student and recent alumni ventures and projects.
“This award is a reiteration that we have great student innovators and entrepreneurs at BU. Our students are engaged, motivated and eager to change the world. It’s also a reflection of our partners throughout the University. This would not have happened without the contributions from both the Technology and Start-Up Law Clinics, BU Spark!, the Engineering Product Innovation Center, BU Sustainability, and innumerable other groups. We did not do this alone–it is a great credit to the entire BU community,” said Fine.
Since March, the BUild Lab has delivered all of its programs virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has experimented with a variety of new platforms and engagement methods. Despite the challenges of virtual programs, students continue to show interest in developing new and meaningful ideas; since September 1, 59 new teams have joined the Innovation Pathway.
“This is an incredible milestone, but we have only just begun. Our team will continue to lead with passion and our shared values, and we look forward to growing our reach and impact,” said Liang.
