NEWSROOM
Ideate! Validate! urges students to change the world
What happens when you put science, arts, law, medicine, engineering and business students in a room together to brainstorm how to make the world a better place?
Hundreds of ideas were put on the table when nearly 40 students from across the University of Auckland came together on the Ideate! Validate! programme in June.
Co-founded by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and ATEED, the programme teaches students how to develop ideas for ventures and take them to the next level. Students are given inspiration, frameworks, mentoring, workshops, venture funding and desk space.
On day one they came up with hundreds of ideas and narrowed them down to seven, then formed multi-disciplinary teams to progress and test their ideas.
They were exposed to lean start-up, Rob Adams’ approach to market validation, Steve Blank’s method for customer discovery, and Bill Aulet’s work on disciplined entrepreneurship, and received mentoring from industry experts.
“We were super impressed by how the students went about validating ideas – conducting surveys, attending farmers markets, talking to people down Queen St and connecting with people in the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” says Darsel Keane, Associate Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “They received great feedback and pivoted their ideas when they needed to.”
Venture ideas included HealthTruck, a vehicle equipped with basic health screening tools that services remote communities; Ugly Fruit, an app connecting farmers market vendors and customers to prevent fruit and vege waste; and Superscope, a children’s magazine that discusses world problems in an easy-to-understand format.
Sahara Dhunnookchand, a Bachelor of Science student, said Ideate! Validate! was an “amazing” programme.
“My team and I had the best mentors, lectures and resources. But above all we were all given huge encouragement to go out there and change the world, and that’s what we plan to do!”
Patricia Ramos, a fourth-year Creative Arts and Industries student studying towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons), said entrepreneurship was a new concept for her.
“It was an intense and awesome challenge. Thinking of the world, my own life, what the problems are, what is still missing, and how we might find a solution was so very new to me. I struggled to think of ideas at first, but now I’ve got all these ideas in my head.”
Jacqui Burfoot, a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws conjoint student, said Ideate! Validate! was possibly the most valuable university programme she had taken.
“Not just because of the content – interacting with students from different faculties throughout the university is so valuable, and the knowledge and support of industry experts is incredibly inspiring and encouraging.”
Ideate! Validate! participants work through a problem.
Ideate! Validate! participants work through a problem.
What happens when you put science, arts, law, medicine, engineering and business students in a room together to brainstorm how to make the world a better place?
Hundreds of ideas were put on the table when nearly 40 students from across the University of Auckland came together on the Ideate! Validate! programme in June.
Co-founded by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and ATEED, the programme teaches students how to develop ideas for ventures and take them to the next level. Students are given inspiration, frameworks, mentoring, workshops, venture funding and desk space.
On day one they came up with hundreds of ideas and narrowed them down to seven, then formed multi-disciplinary teams to progress and test their ideas.
They were exposed to lean start-up, Rob Adams’ approach to market validation, Steve Blank’s method for customer discovery, and Bill Aulet’s work on disciplined entrepreneurship, and received mentoring from industry experts.
“We were super impressed by how the students went about validating ideas – conducting surveys, attending farmers markets, talking to people down Queen St and connecting with people in the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” says Darsel Keane, Associate Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “They received great feedback and pivoted their ideas when they needed to.”
Venture ideas included HealthTruck, a vehicle equipped with basic health screening tools that services remote communities; Ugly Fruit, an app connecting farmers market vendors and customers to prevent fruit and vege waste; and Superscope, a children’s magazine that discusses world problems in an easy-to-understand format.
Sahara Dhunnookchand, a Bachelor of Science student, said Ideate! Validate! was an “amazing” programme.
“My team and I had the best mentors, lectures and resources. But above all we were all given huge encouragement to go out there and change the world, and that’s what we plan to do!”
Patricia Ramos, a fourth-year Creative Arts and Industries student studying towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons), said entrepreneurship was a new concept for her.
“It was an intense and awesome challenge. Thinking of the world, my own life, what the problems are, what is still missing, and how we might find a solution was so very new to me. I struggled to think of ideas at first, but now I’ve got all these ideas in my head.”
Jacqui Burfoot, a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws conjoint student, said Ideate! Validate! was possibly the most valuable university programme she had taken.
“Not just because of the content – interacting with students from different faculties throughout the university is so valuable, and the knowledge and support of industry experts is incredibly inspiring and encouraging.”
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