(L-R) Linette Penney, Vedant Shukla and Mikhail Lobo
By
Jenni Bozec
A group of Translational Medicine Program (TRP) learners at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine is working to streamline and address gaps in support for innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto.
Vedant Shukla, Mikhail Lobo and Linette Penney have taken on the project as part of the University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program, which is run by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University.
The initiative empowers students to lead positive change within their universities and local communities. Participants develop design thinking, leadership, and innovation skills through training and mentorship, enabling them to identify and address unique challenges on their campuses.
Of the more than 50 international universities that take part in the program, U of T is the largest.
An entrepreneur with a background in pharmaceutical technology, Shukla was frustrated when he tried to access supports at U of T to advance start-ups using a multi-disciplinary approach.
“All three of us have been involved in pitch competitions, some of which we have won. But when we’ve gotten stuck, it’s been because we didn’t have the right skills or technological abilities as we tried to develop prototypes. We struggled to find and access support to take us to the next level,” he says.
As part of the UIF program, the team completed six weeks of stakeholder engagement training and has been mapping out the university’s innovation and entrepreneurship landscape.
“U of T is a behemoth in this area and we’ve identified over 500 supports and initiatives. It's both a blessing and a curse. The university has a lot of resources, but it can be difficult to spot repetition and understand the full scope of what's available. It can also be challenging to access cross-disciplinary resources and make connections across faculties and institutes”, explains Lobo.
Shukla, Lobo and Penney are in the final stages of mapping innovation and entrepreneurship services and resources at U of T. Their next step is consultation.
On November 20th, the held a "Meaningful Innovation, Leadership and Engagement Symposium" which attracted a diverse group of people to examine the ‘map’ and enhance it.
The team has identified strategic areas to test and discuss during the event such as fostering collaboration to enhance students' opportunities to solve global challenges; promoting more interdisciplinary collaboration and access to resources on campus; and securing more funding for early-stage innovation.
“We wanted to validate whether we're addressing the right problem areas and gaps. It was exciting to get all these brains together in one room from different fields,” says Lobo.
Penney says human-centric design underpins the TRP and Stanford approaches to put people at the heart of activities which is why mental health was also something they felt was important. “Mental health challenges and stress can significantly hinder the creativity, confidence, and resilience required for innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Engaging with people across the university has been meaningful for the team. Its next goal is to get buy-in for their ideas from the university leadership before they present their final project at the UIF conference in Amsterdam next April.
“U of T has many startups and associated projects, yet there is still room for more engagement. We’re excited to see what the impact would be if we could unite the power of U of T and its innovators to make real change globally,” says Lobo.
