The Department of Forest Biomaterials at NC State University has amassed significant research expertise in the conversion and valorization of biomass. Indeed, every research aspect of this topic relates in one way or another to "sustainability" and "innovation".

However, a major component yet lacking from this strong scientific and engineering core that could help our students bridge gaps between academic and industry and propose innovations for positive social impact and environmental sustainability, is, namely an entrepreneurial mindset.

Funded and supported by VentureWell, a group of 7 Faculty offered in summer 2021 a 2-week workshop series on sustainability and innovation that fostered team building and entrepreneurial mindset in graduate students from the program.

Workshop Format

7 workshops were spread over a period of two weeks to give enough time to students to conduct their primary research work. Each workshop consisted of 1 hour lecture on the topic, followed by a 2-hour case study. 

Workshop topics

The following topics were discussed:
1- Biomimicry
2- Sustainable Design
3- Introduction to Environmental Life Cycle Analysis
4- Using techno-economic and LCA to profile new ideas in the bioeconomy
5- Principles of green chemistry
6- Sustainable start-ups: tech selection to market rollout
7- Sustainable business and innovation

A last wrap-up session was scheduled at the end of the 7 workshops to get feedback on the 2 week series and prepare a summary poster on the topic(s) that inspired the team of student most.

An example of summary poster is attached to this card! Have a look!

Connection to a team-based entrepreneurial mindset

For each case study, the students were asked to team up, broaden their knowledge, draw real-life connections to the challenge of the case study, and discuss their solution(s) to it.
Some case studies asked for expanded literature search and deeper understanding of fundamental concepts in business and entrepreneurship, while others required the students to be creative, study the markets, needs and demands from the society and industry. 

Indirectly, the students combine their engineering skills to an entrepreneurial mindset -- they showed curiosity, made connection and created value.

Conclusions

This workshop series was a first test drive with several successful outcomes and feedback from the students. They enjoyed the team building activities and getting to know each other after 1 year spent interacting online. They appreciated learning core concepts on diverse topics related to sustainability and would like to pursue this route more seriously if we were able to make it "official", for instance, as a training certificate.