Innovation 2.0 Cantabs-style
Imagine you got in at one of the most prestigious universities of the world, but you still feel unable to fully get rid of you creative innovation juices. Harvard University offers the solution: the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab).
The i-lab was launched in November 2011, and offers programs to students from across Harvard - nicknamed Cantibrigians or Cantabs - interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. It accepts any student from any Harvard school with any idea, fostering cross-disciplinary, cross-university collaboration. The current student ventures span social and cultural entrepreneurship, health and sciences, technology, and consumer fields. An important part of the i-lab approach is the collaboration it fosters among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Boston communities.
What does it do exactly? Well, it offers 'Foundational learning' (courses and online video), expert resources (workshops and one-on-one appointments with lawyers and entrepreneurs, experiential learning experiences (challenges, trips, and startup weekends) and the so-called 'Venture Incubation Program' (incubation, mentoring, private workshops, community building events)
The i-lab itself consists of nearly 30,000 square feet of space, with workstations, conference rooms, a workshop/prototyping room, a classroom, video conference suite, and - important to hungry students - a stocked kitchen.
So, what has come out of this i-lab recently, you may wonder? An interesting innovation is for instance LifeGuides, a service that provides young professionals with free career guides authored by mentors who have been there, done that. The team behind it was a resident at the i-lab in 2014. The idea actually started at Harvard Business School when founder Phil Strazzulla observed that a coffee chat with the right person could change your career. He comments: “During a coffee chat, you get two main benefits. One is information. The second is a gateway to job opportunities." Strazzulla claims that by having a presence on LifeGuides, you’re getting in front of the right people in a way companies have typically struggled to do before – by creating useful and relevant content that users are searching for.
LifeGuides actually wants users to learn what a job is really like day to day, how to get that job, and what the career path is like. It also synthesizes strategies, techniques and tips from the very best people in a given field. By signing up, LifeGuides creates a career graph that keeps track of your activity on the site, and tells companies what you're interested in.
A screenshot of LifeGuides:
I would encourage you to check out this innovative approach to job searching by going to the website: http://www.lifeguides.me
For more information on the i-lab, go to: https://i-lab.harvard.edu
So, what do you think: Could Ghent University benefit from such an initiative fostering team-based and entrepreneurial activities among students? Comments below!
Astrid
This concept is as smart as it is genious!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI am convinced our university could benefit from a similar initiative. Not only does networking form, in my opinion, a huge part of finding a (good) job, it's also great for cross-pollination of ideas: I believe interaction between students with a different background can be very fruitful.
I am, however, afraid, the funding and the scale of the project would pose big problems at first, so the project would probably have to start off rather small and grow with time. (If it could be launched at all in the current context of considerable budget cuts in education.)