Entrepreneurial Education @ Uni Bayreuth

In the course "Introduction to Entrepreneurship", students are introduced to the basics and the development of the theory of entrepreneurship, as well as to various scientific methods and tools used in practice. In addition to the behaviour and characteristics of entrepreneurs and making good use of opportunities and possibilities, the importance of business models for the success and development of companies is also discussed. Students learn about business models as a strategic tool for shaping entrepreneurial opportunities, and gain insights into the design parameters of business models and methods in their conception. The course ends with the development and presentation of students’ own business models, enabling them to try their hand at the real practice of an entrepreneur. This semester, the Entrepreneurship & Innovation staff unit’s "Startup Day 2020" was integrated into the course, so that the nearly 150 students were able to conduct a workshop with a regional innovation laboratory. NEDGEX, the innovation laboratory of the NETZSCH Group responsible for the development of new digital business models and product innovations, was there, as were Frenzelit's Innovation Lab, and the Game Innovation Lab of the University of Bayreuth, which networks game development in Media Science and Computer Science. Students were able to gain interesting insights into the daily work of an innovation lab, and valuable experience in the practical application of methods of innovation.

The module "Innovation Management", arising from the Entrepreneurship4all@UBT project, is part of the Biofabrication master’s degree course. This international engineering course deals with the development and processing of new materials that can be incorporated into a living body. These range, for example, from implant materials for tissue reconstruction, all the way to the "Petri dish burger". In order to prepare students for a professional career in the industry, the two-semester module investigates the strategies and processes underpinning the purely experimental development and technical implementation of a product. Project management tools, such as SCRUM, are also used for the students' own student research projects. The interactive course is supported by case studies and classical lectures, currently held in digital form only. In this way, issues as diverse as start-ups in India and "green washing" are discussed. At the end of the course, participants are expected to have designed a virtual product.

As part of the course "Business Developing", students are given the opportunity to put the contents taught in lectures into practice over an intensive period spent in cooperation with "Students2Startup". Students work on the problems of real start-ups and develop practical solutions in close cooperation with these and volunteer mentors from the business world. Thanks to its practice-oriented approach, the course also offers an exciting opportunity for students outside the field of business studies to gain insights into the area of business start-ups. Thus, the course also caters to students from other disciplines in order to address the issue of company foundation in an interdisciplinary way, and thus make a long-term contribution to the expansion of entrepreneurial culture.

This summer semester, the start-up Easy Care Technology was involved in the seminar. It offers a digital care assistant designed to facilitate the daily routine of carers, and to increase quality of life for senior citizens. Students were specifically concerned with the development of a human resources strategy to prepare the young company in the best possible way for the planned recruitment and development of new staff. The project is supported by Wissensfabrik - Unternehmen für Deutschland e.V., a popular network in the German business community, in which more than 130 companies, company-related foundations, and mentors are committed, among other things, to supporting start-ups, students, and founders. A special challenge this summer semester was the coronavirus-necessitated implementation of the course without in-person training. Past semesters had shown that working in a team and with the mentors really thrived from the lively interaction on site. However, even though up to 30 people took part in the digital seminar, the online experience was exceptional.

*Easy Care Technology: Lars Jagemann (student of Philosophy & Economics at the University of Bayreuth) is co-founder of Easy Care Technology. With their location-independent care assistance system, they are seeking to revolutionize outpatient care by relatives in the home environment by digitizing rounds and organizational tasks. Relatives can now care for their loved ones at home for longer, easing stress on the aged care system.

In the 2020 summer semester, the course "Startup Praxis" kicked off at the University of Bayreuth - mostly online, as of course, digital work and teleworking have long been the norm for start-ups. Flexible and digital working will therefore also be possible in the "Startup Praxis" course over the coming semesters, in order to guarantee maximum creative freedom for both students and start-ups involved in the programme.

The special feature of this course is the tight intermeshing of teaching and practice: students have the opportunity to implement Entrepreneurship Education straight out of the lecture hall (or zoom meeting) in the reality of start-up practice. Several successful start-ups - all with Bayreuth roots – have contributed to the programme with exciting projects. The Bayreuth-based digital agency if.digital, for example, with a project to develop a digital food configurator, Monaco Duck (Munich) planning the launch of a crowdfunding campaign, and the groupXS Solutions (Bayreuth) project, aiming to develop a sales script for complex B2B solutions. By immersing themselves in the reality of start-ups, students gain insights into the start-up world, learn about the current challenges of a start-up, and work together with a start-up on creative solutions to overcome these challenges. In doing so, students apply the knowledge they have learned in other entrepreneurship courses, such as Business Development and Principles of Entrepreneurship.

This course is aimed at all students with previous knowledge of entrepreneurship - including non-business administration students. Anyone who would like to get a taste of the start-up experience, to find out whether starting a business or working in a start-up could be a career option after graduation, is most welcome.

The course "Principles of Entrepreneurship" teaches master’s students the basics of the start-up process. The course deals with the generation of innovative ideas, their evaluation, the conceptualisation of sustainable business models, and their implementation in the form of a start-up. The development of start-up projects are usually intensive group processes, and accordingly, this course thrives on lively interaction and discussion with and among students. Obviously, coronavirus measures have posed enormous difficulties for this interactive component. In order to provide greater flexibility, we have made the lecture component of the course available as "on demand" videos via Panopto. The tutorial component usually takes place in small groups as a series of presentations in a relaxed seminar atmosphere. Here, of course, some compromises have had to be made, but a mixture of idea hot-housing, review processes, and the investigation of case studies provided useful substitutes. Each team received individual feedback, and for each tutorial a separate online meeting was held for participants, in which the typical pitfalls, particularly clever ideas, and sensible approaches to solutions were presented and discussed with students.

This summer semester, the teaching project Entrepreneurship4all@UBT again offered the course "Entrepreneurial Thinking & Business Design" (ETBD) - this time in digital form. Here students of all disciplines develop an innovative business idea and compete for a final pitch - in front of an audience and a jury of representatives from business, universities, and investors. This year, more than 50 students from ten courses of study took part in the event. Partners from the field such as innovation consultant Pranjal Henning, Prof. Oliver Mayer, and Dr. Petra Blumenroth from Bayern Innovativ were also present. With the help of extensive input from non-University speakers, besides the practical approaches and theoretically sound background knowledge imparted by academic staff, the eleven teams were able to develop highly interesting and innovative business models.

The Bayreuth Hospitation took place for the 7th time this summer semester, but for the first time in a purely digital form. This course deals with the development and implementation of a feasible and efficient solution to the specific problem of a medium-sized company in the Bayreuth region. This semester, Lamilux, Schicker Mineral, and Walraven participated with exciting projects in the areas of online marketing, customer centricity, and business models for the utilization of factory seconds.