Practicing entrepreneurial processes

Practice entrepreneurial processes through a hands-on approach addressing real-life societal challenges related to TU/e’s priority domains, such as health and renewable energy. In this course, you will acquire and apply the competencies needed to create value for society, while collaborating in an interdisciplinary team and through constant engagement with external stakeholders.

Work on Real-World Challenges

At the start of the course, you will meet challenge partners - representatives from businesses, governments, and societal organizations - who will present their challenges. Based on your preferences, interdisciplinary teams will be formed, ensuring a mix of perspectives and expertise. The challenges are carefully selected to be open-ended, complex, and innovative, requiring teamwork and diverse perspectives to solve. You will not just work on theoretical exercises - you will address actual problems that companies and organizations are facing right now. Your task is to explore the challenge, define the problem and develop creative and feasible solutions.

Learn by Doing: A Hands-On, Interactive Approach

Throughout the course, you will experience an interactive and dynamic learning environment. Together with your peers and a variety of experts, you will actively shape your learning journey. Your team will use a structured approach to identify and refine both the problem and possible solutions. You will experiment, validate ideas, and iterate through prototypes, and constantly improve based on feedback. To do this, you will step out of the classroom - engaging with experts, potential users, and industry professionals. Several high-energy workshops will spark creative thinking and challenge you to explore different approaches to problem-solving.

You will have the freedom to explore new technologies, business models, and strategies while being supported by coaches and experts. Whether trough rapid prototyping, design thinking, or validation techniques, you willl gain relevant knowledge, practical skills and an entrepreneurial mindset to prepare you for future projects, startups, or careers.

Teamwork, Reflection, and Feedback

Each week, you will reflect on your progress - not only on your project’s development but also on your teamwork and personal growth. Regular progress pitches allow you to share updates, receive feedback from peers and coaches, and refine your approach. Through coaching sessions, you will receive targeted support to guide your process. At the same time you will develop essential collaboration competences. Working in an interdisciplinary team involves navigating different ideas, managing responsibilities, and adapting to challenges. You will gain experience in leading discussions, understanding team dynamics, and leveraging diverse perspectives to improve your project.

Present Your Work and Make an Impact

At several points you will pitch your project to convince key stakeholders of its value. By the end of the course, your team will present its results in a professional setting. You will deliver an investor-style pitch to a jury and external stakeholders, create an engaging one-pager infographic summarizing your project, and develop a mock-up or pre-prototype. In addition to the final project deliverables, you will also reflect on your personal and professional development, providing insights into how you have grown throughout the course.

After this course the student is able to practice entrepreneurial processes, i.e. ...

• develop leadership, agile project management, and communication skills to drive team and project performance in a interdisciplinary team, while integrating diverse disciplinary perspectives;
• critically reflect on personal and team development, embrace uncertainty, and demonstrate resilience, adaptability, and an entrepreneurial mindset;
• deliver open, peer-to-peer, and co-learning processes while contributing to a safe, supportive learning community;
• interpret complex real-life challenges, taking into account customer desirability, technical feasibility, financial sustainability, and societal impact while enhancing co-creation and project relevance with external partners;
• apply appropriate tools - such as Lean Model Canvas, Validation and Prototyping Techniques - to develop innovative, science-based solutions balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability.

Final report (100%)

A Bachelors degree

A self-guided learning journey is based not only on lectures but also studio-work with a wide variety of interactive hybrid sessions including teamwork, pitching, stakeholder collaboration, expert-sessions and thematic workshops.