Events

2021 UR Social Innovation Challenge

The world is an expansive place full of thoughtful, creative, and motivated humans. The inaugural UR Social Innovation Challenge invites you to take the first steps to help solve problems afflicting billions and ease demands taxing our planet – starting with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Together we'll learn several invaluable skills rooted in the entrepreneurial mindset;

  • to analyze big problems,
  • to identify and empathize with your stakeholders,
  • to generate BIG ideas using Design Thinking,
  • to build viable business models,
  • to prototype and test your ideas,
  • and finally, how to create and deliver a professional business presentation.

Your instructors are Somiah Lattimore (Director of UR's Creativity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative) and Henrik Scheel, experienced entrepreneurs and startup investors.

October 23, 2021, 9am-6pm

  • 9 am - 6 pm (full agenda below). It is also ok to come for portions of the day!
  • Alice Haynes Room in the Tyler Haynes Commons
  • Breakfast snacks, boxed lunch, and afternoon snacks are provided.
  • OPEN TO ALL UR students, faculty & staff!
  • Please email Somiah Lattimore (slattimo@richmond.edu) with questions.

8:30a

  • Registration opens and breakfast snacks are available

9:00a - 12:30pm

  • Kickoff
  • Entrepreneurial types + Painstorming exercise
  • Team Formation
  • Teams select problem + customer segment + do research
  • Design Thinking: ideation + idea selection

12:30-1:00p

  • Lunch Break (lunch is provided)

1:00-3:15p

  • Business Model Innovation intro
  • Business Model workshop
  • Customer development (customer interviewing)
  • Presentation: How to Present or Pitch Your Idea

3:20-4:20p

  • Teams prepare and practice their presentations
  • Afternoon refreshments provided

4:30p

  • Team Presentations begin

5.30p

  • Panel debriefs and winners announced
  • Final comments and next steps

6:00

  • What a day! You’re all done!
2021 Social Innovation Challenge

CIE Lecture Series

The Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) initiative has been busy planning the spring 2021 semester for our community. The virtual lecture series is open to all students, staff and faculty and will introduce us to innovative efforts underway in curbing autism, improving healthcare, healthy eating and democratizing entrepreneurship.

  • Wednesday, January 20, 5:30 p.m., Dr. Neil Hunt, Founder/CEO of Curai, a company focusing on using Artificial Intelligence to help patients better connect with medical professionals. Watch the lecture.
  • Thursday, March 11, 6 p.m., Kim Baker, '99 and '08, Founder of Kim Baker Foods, a company focusing on nourishing people, communities and the world around us by sharing healthy food and snacks. Watch the lecture.
  • Wednesday, March 31, 4:15 p.m., Ross Baird, author of The Innovation Blind Spot, and Founder of Village Capital whose mission is to reinvent the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future, in a future where business builds equity and long-term prosperity. To register, click HERE.

 

Spring 2020 CIE Lecture Series

Expand All
  • Social Entrepreneurship: In Theory and In Practice

    Tuesday, February 25, 2020
    4:30–6 p.m.
    Weinstein Hall – Brown Alley Room
    Dr. Bala Mulloth, Professor of Social Entrepreneurship, University of Virginia

    Dr. Bala Mulloth holds a PhD in Technology Management from New York University Tandon School of Engineering , He is a globally oriented educator who has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and North America. His focus areas are innovation and social entrepreneurship and he is currently an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Dr. Mulloth is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Hava, a materials science venture that creates advanced fabrics that help people breathe clean air. In addition to these roles, he is a Research Fellow at the U. S Army Research Laboratory.

    Dr. Mulloth’s previous work experience in the area of CIE includes: Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary and the Program Director of CEU’s experiential New York City MBA program; a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the National Defense University; and the Senior Manager of New York University Tandon School of Engineering’s Office of Innovation Development, Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship.

  • The Chaotic Journey from Scientist to Social Entrepreneur: The Butterfly Effect

    Tuesday, March 3, 2020
    4:30—6 p.m.
    Carole Weinstein International Center Commons
    Dr. Rana Dajani, Zuzana Simoniova Cmelikova Visiting Scholar, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond

    Rana Dajani Ph.D. molecular cell biology from U of Iowa, currently Cmalakova Fellow at the Jepson school of Leadership at the University of Richmond, Harvard Radcliff fellow, a Fulbrighter, Fulbright Foreign Student Program, Jordan to the United States, 2000; Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, Jordan to the United States, 2012. Eisenhower fellow, Associate Professor, former center of studies director, Hashemite University, Jordan, Yale and Cambridge visiting professor. World expert on genetics of Circassian and Chechan populations in Jordan. Established stem cell research ethics law in Jordan. Advocate for biological evolution and Islam, speaker at McGill University and MIT. Jordan team leader in studying refugee youth with Yale University and the epigenetics of trauma across generations. Higher education reform expert, member UN women Jordan advisory council. Writer in Science and Nature, Established a women mentor network, received Partnerships for enhanced engagement in research (PEER) award 2014. Organized the first gender summit for the Arab world 2017. Most influential women scientists in Islamic World, 12 among100 most influential Arab women 2015, women in science hall of fame 2015, King Hussein Cancer Institute for cancer and biotechnology award 2009 and 2016 Global Changemaker Award for celebrating 70 years of the Fulbright Program. President of the Society for the Advancement of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Arab World.

  • Innovation & Design Thinking

    Geofrey Hammond, Senior Consultant, Allison Partners

    Do you have an innovative idea for addressing an important problem, at any scale? Come hear consultant Geof Hammond describe the Design Thinking process that will help you convert a great idea into an effective action plan.

    Geof Hammond, Senior Consultant at Allison Partners combines his passion for business innovation with his CPG brand management experience to help clients approach their challenges in new ways. Geof began his consulting career 15 years ago as a lead consultant for Play, a creativity and innovation consultancy. More recently, he was an innovation director with Prophet Brand Management, as well as a brand manager for a Fortune 100 company.

    Geof is an adjunct professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s da Vinci Center for Innovation, where he teaches business principles of new product development. His other areas of expertise include brand strategy, product positioning, new product development, group facilitation, creative problem solving, and learning and development design.

    For those faculty who would like to workshop an idea, CIE will arrange 1:1 coaching with Geof.

Event Sponsors:

The CIE Lecture Series is sponsored by CIE, the Office of the Provost, The Center for Civic Engagement, the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, the School of Professional & Continuing Studies, the Robins School of Business, the School of Arts & Sciences, and the School of Law.