EIT Master School Master school practices what they preach – the innovation principle of continuous improvement. There’s always a next step, a new direction, and a way to make something great even better. In this spirit, Master’s in Energy for Smart Cities students joining the programme in 2023 will find exciting, newly designed modules added to the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Journey, a parallel track followed during their master’s programme. This highly successful and powerful MBA-level training includes courses and activities that take students to select European innovation hotspots – and provides them with crucial tools and skills to prepare (and inspire!) them to bring their ideas to the energy sector. And now, with UnternehmerTUM (UTUM) as a new partner, this experience is going beyond the next level!
Face-to-face with innovation
The students take a tailor-made journey during a face-to-face Winter School in a European city and a face-to-face Summer School in Munich, with an online spring seminar in between.
Alberto Gonzalez, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Education Manager, shares: “These new modules and partnership with UTUM bring students face-to-face with innovation. Guided by experienced Business Design coaches, they will learn to systematically identify entrepreneurial opportunities, design and validate technology-based business models, and test new products and services with the help of prototyping. It’s such a creative environment and a great jumping point – so that they can go on to use their new skills, knowledge, and network to advance as founders of startups or intrapreneurs in leadership roles.”
The new I u0026 E Journey design
All the newly designed modules work together to give students a comprehensive experience in both first and second year. Students will find a more individualised offering that includes coaching, online and offline learning, winter and summer school workshops, on-site activities – and the chance to exchange and increase peer learning with other EIT InnoEnergy Master School programmes, such as Energy Technologies.
The journey also gives them even more connection to the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Europe for a more well-rounded view of what it takes to go from idea to market. After completing the I & E Journey, students will be familiar with the thinking behind (design thinking approach, agile methods, etc.) and the necessary tools (investor pitching, customer discovery, prototyping, etc.) of innovation as they develop an idea into a minimum viable product.
UTUM u0026 their Academy for Innovators
During the Summer School “Innovator’s Journey” workshop in Munich, the students participate in a blended training designed by The Academy for Innovators at UnternehmerTUM, Europe’s leading center for innovation and business creation linked to the Technical University of Munich. Alberto shares his excitement regarding the new collaboration “UTUM produces over 100 projects and 50 successful start-ups every year and partners with all the big industry names – they know exactly what they are doing. So, to have access to their academy is an amazing and stimulating experience for our students. Imagine the value of connecting to their vast innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem – and being right in the mix with these entrepreneurs as they test out new ideas and launch their businesses. The atmosphere is positively infectious!”
Everything is possible
To play a critical role in creating smarter, more sustainable, and resource-efficient communities around the globe, it will take knowledge… but also a certain mindset. As Alberto shares, “Young engineers, entrepreneurs and future business leaders need a mindset that ‘everything is possible’. This mindset will keep evolving existing technologies – and creating new ideas that will shape the future of sustainable energy. The I & E Journey gives them direct exposure to this mindset and shows them all the exciting places it can take them!”
Image by Michael Siebert from Pixabay