Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme

The Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme aims to embed innovation and entrepreneurship in the curricula across the University of Auckland by working with and supporting academics from all faculties.

Are you excited by innovation and entrepreneurship? Do you enjoy designing creative curricula initiatives? Do you have an idea for an exciting new module, assessment or even course but need support to make it happen? We welcome you to connect with us about your curriculum development projects.

Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme

The Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme aims to embed innovation and entrepreneurship in the curricula across the University of Auckland by working with and supporting academics from all faculties.

Are you excited by innovation and entrepreneurship? Do you enjoy designing creative curricula initiatives? Do you have an idea for an exciting new module, assessment or even course but need support to make it happen? We welcome you to join our community of practice and to connect with us about your curriculum development projects.

About

The Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme is made possible through a generous philanthropic gift from the Hynds Family.

Purpose of the Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme:

• Embed the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship across all faculties and disciplines of the University of Auckland.
• Deliver innovation and entrepreneurship concepts to students in a language and context that is relevant, familiar and resonates with them and their area of study/discipline.
• Provide expertise and knowledge to support the development of curricula intiatives that introduce and integrate innovation and entrepreneurship concepts strategically across the University.
• Develop a multi-disciplinary Community of Practice of academic teaching staff who are innovative and entrepreneurial in their curricula.

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Support with embedding innovation and entrepreneurship in the curricula

Each year we will be seeking submissions for new curriculum development projects to embed innovation and entrepreneurship in the curricula in a way that has relevance for students and staff in the identified faculty or discipline. These projects can be anything from a module, new assessment or new course.

The Fellowship will provide you with the resources to make this happen, this could be consumables, curricula development costs or professional development resources. The Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme will provide an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Learning Designer who will support you in the design of the curricula offering. Hynds Fellowships are intended support activities that directly impact student experience and help to develop innovative thinking and entrepreneurial mindsets.

Participants in the Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme have appreciated the expertise and opportunities the programmes have afforded to breathe new life into a wide range of programmes. One of the participants, Associate Professor Shane Scahill says “Pharmacists often have a dual role of being business owners and health care providers. If they are in the public system as hospital pharmacists they need to be equally innovative to deliver the services expected of them. We met with Peter Rachor late in 2019 and outlined our programme and our interest in infusing these threads into our courses. From the “get go” Peter has been very proactive about supporting this. We want to thank the University and the donors (Hynds Family) for providing access to resources of this nature.”

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Hynds Innovation Education Awards

Each year a group of Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme participants are selected to receive a Hynds Innovation Education award, recognising their accomplishments in embedding Innovation and Entrepreneurship into their courses. Winners receive a trophy, fabricated in the University of Auckland’s innovation hub and maker space, Unleash Space.

2020 Hynds Innovation Education Award winners

Jane Bradley – Professional Teaching Fellow, Arts
Jane’s work with the Hynds programme led to integration of Design Thinking methodology, including significant focus on empathy mapping and entrepreneurial mindset in her course CAREER 100 Crafting Your Career. The course culminated in student deliverables and presentations around innovation challenges developed in partnership with NZME, focusing on corporate innovations around several existing problems and opportunities for change.

Dr Hilary Chung – Director of Global Studies
Hilary welcomed the opportunity to experiment with innovation and entrepreneurship in Global Studies course design, exposing high performing students to how they might be able to develop their ideas to make a tangible impact through innovation and social entrepreneurship. She helped to facilitate the opportunity for staff at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to run Design Thinking and Presentation Skills workshops for her students to support their participation in the prestigious World’s Challenge Challenge competition. Awarded posthumously

Dr Niki Harré – Associate Professor, Psychology
Niki worked to integrate an innovative game design project in SUSTAIN 200 The Sustainable Community, to drive sustainable behaviours and models through game challenges and outcomes. She further worked to consider the language and approach to innovation best practices in the Sustainability module overall.

Dr Anna Hood – Senior Lecturer, Law
Anna facilitated integration of legal innovation content into her 121G Law and Society course. Lecture content included enhanced access to the legal system through innovation and the impact of emerging technologies such as AI on the profession. Anna leads ongoing discussions to integrate this content as part of the Law curriculum going forward.

Dr Rhys Jones – Professional Teaching Fellow, Statistics
Rhys was the co-coordinator for SCISCHOL 202A Introduction to Science and Innovation. This course is part of the invitation only Science Scholars programme in which ~50 high potential Science students from all disciplines explore their future opportunity for impact through research, innovation and engagement. The course was redesigned with best practice innovation content and projects and will be continued as part of the programme in future years.

Dr Robert Kirkpatrick – Adjunct Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Rob invited Hynds Fellow Peter Rachor to co-coordinate the ENGGEN 403 Managing a Business Case course taken by all Stage 4 Engineering (Honours) students to integrate Innovation and Enterprise terminology, best practice content, and the NZ Government Four Capitals framework. Further, the Systems project representing 40% of course assessment required student teams to develop an innovative solution, taking into account economy and wellbeing, to opening Aotearoa NZ’s borders post COVID-19, and leveraging the opportunity to re-imagine the country’s economy, living standards and future.

Dr Cody Mankelow – Professional Teaching Fellow, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Cody coordinated ENGGEN 303 Managing Projects and Innovation, a course taken by all Stage 3 Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) students and provided the opportunity to fully integrate best practice Innovation and Entrepreneurship content throughout the course. Further, working together with a strong team he integrated the team-based Tutorial Group Innovation Project assignment in which teams went from ideation to business plan for a new innovation, affording teams a chance to enter Velocity competitions and creating the highest level of Engineering student participation in the history of that programme.

Dr Shane Scahill – Associate Professor, Pharmacy
Shane worked with his team to integrate best practice innovation, business model and entrepreneurship content in the language of the pharmacist, healthcare systems and DHB funding models in support of the Integrated Project for PHARM 412, Pharmacy 5, the 45 point capstone paper for all Bachelor of Pharmacy students.

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Contact

For further information and questions please contact:

Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellow Learning Designer
Peter Rachor brings a wealth of varied experience to the role as a former senior executive and an entrepreneur in his own right, with experience in mobile, web and biomedical technologies. His impressive resume includes positions such as the General Manager of Mobile Communications for British Telecom, Managing Director, Emerging Markets at Octel and founder of two successful multi-million dollar Silicon Valley start-ups, one of which was acquired by a NASDAQ-listed company. Peter also consulted for the prestigious Los Alamos National Laboratory, an innovation behemoth.

His recent academic career has included positions as the Director of Venture Development at the University of New Mexico and Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Portland.

Peter Rachor
Professional Teaching Fellow, Management and International Business
The University of Auckland
Email: peter.rachor@auckland.ac.nz
Phone: ext 87567

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