The newly established Cheng Wu Build Clinic, part of the Luddy Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program’s Shoemaker Innovation Center, ensures that the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering is well positioned to generate difference-making technological innovations.
For sophomore biotechnology major Charlie Fisher, who hopes to economically build a home safety device, it’s a game changer. He said using an outside company to provide product development was too expensive.
“The clinic provides me with a way to develop and bring my project to life without taking major financial risks,” he said. “With the help of the clinic, I have the means to pursue my project.”
“This kind of student startup support is a natural evolution of the programming provided through the Shoemaker Innovation Center,” said Travis Brown, Senior Executive Assistant Dean of Innovation, entrepreneurship and Commercialization.
“Transitioning the Shoebox incubation program to IU Innovates at the Von Lee allows us to better leverage the school’s expertise and build a program that’s truer to the strategic mission of the school.”
The clinic, with Bryce Himebaugh, Associate Clinical Professor of Engineering, as faculty director, reinforces the Luddy School’s role as a force in student innovation and entrepreneurship at Indiana University. Students will get academic credit and engage in real-world work to benefit clients.
“The Cheng Wu Build Clinic will take on projects, work with people who need the technical support, and establish an academic credit model to reinforce the role of the Shoemaker Innovation Center as an academic center,” Brown said. “We’ll complete technological innovation and product development for student inventors and startup founders. We are in dire need of that on this campus. There’s no facilitating infrastructure for it currently.”
With the Cheng Wu Build Clinic, there is now, and Fisher is taking full advantage.
“I needed a way to take a simple idea and turn it into a functional product,” he said. “The clinic gives me access to students and experts who can design and build a product for me that I otherwise could not create. It also provides the mentorship I need to adapt my product to better fit in with my target customers.”
Brown said the clinic facilitates the Luddy School's support of student startups and relationships with industry partners through multiple services.
It assists with system analysis, design, and implementation of a minimum viable prototype. The clinic also provides experiential learning opportunities through client-based work led by faculty, including supplying technical support for student-led startups and industry partners. It aids student growth in product management, product development and related technical areas by developing business and technical content.
The clinic offers concept design to help startups develop the engineering details of their ideas. That includes working from the problem statement through design ideation and developing design alternatives, resulting in a concept design report.
It also provides prototype fabrication to help develop a minimum viable prototype, workshops that assist in skill training in areas such as printed circuit board development, 3D modeling and implementation, and embedded software development, and detailed design to produce a report for a detailed cost and sourcing analysis.
Himebaugh said the clinic will enable students to work with clients on engineering design and prototype development. Students will do feasibility analysis, requirements development, concept design, detailed design, and prototype construction.
“Students working in the clinic will get experiential learning,” he said. “Clients will get engineering services at low or zero cost. These services will enable student entrepreneurs to access engineering services before their company has the funding to engage with an external design firm. Additionally, the clinic will provide continuity for student team projects in the engineering capstone class, enabling a smoother transition between student design teams from year to year.”
The clinic is part of a gift from Wu, a successful serial entrepreneur who has founded numerous businesses spanning multiple different industries. The gift also provides funds for a professorship and experiential learning activities. The Shoemaker Innovation Center and programs such as the Shoemaker Scholars are supported through an existing gift from Donna and John Shoemaker.
Brown said the clinic is reserved for the most robust projects that require computational and engineering expertise that Luddy students can supply.
“Not all students who come to the Shoemaker Innovation Center will get to the clinic. That’s reserved for the upper echelon of the program. If you have a project that’s substantial and technologically robust enough that it’s good for our students for experiential learning and that requires faculty oversight, that will go to the clinic. This is the first time we’ve had this within the school.”
Brown added that what the Kelley School has for students seeking business coaching through the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the Shoemaker Innovation Center will provide through coaching sessions on design, data science, and computer science for students who aren’t ready to work with the clinic.
“The addition of the Cheng Wu Build Clinic to the Shoemaker Innovation Center enables us to establish our own identity in the context of student innovation and entrepreneurship at Indiana University,” Brown said. “It’s oriented more toward product development and technological innovation.”
He emphasizes that good ideas are just the start.
“Students come up with an idea, and that’s great, but if you care enough to talk to me, then you’d better care enough to do something about it.
“We need students who are passionate about the problem and who are willing to invest the time to figure out the solution. That means using highly technical and complicated tools. 3D printers and laser cutters aren’t easy to use if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Himebaugh said his role is to help evaluate, select, staff and implement projects. He also will serve as a mentor and a student resource, as well as provide training and workshops on important technical topics.
“As the clinic grows and we develop student leadership,” he said, “my role will likely evolve into something similar to a chief engineer.”
The Shoemaker Innovation Center, housed within the Luddy School, is a university-wide academic center focused on innovation and entrepreneurship programming for student inventors and entrepreneurs. It offers workshops to facilitate technical skill development and aid in the successful implementation of startup concepts. Other resources are networking and educational events, a creative and collaborative work environment, co-working space and shared conference rooms.
Opportunities include:
Shoemaker Scholars, a group of students selected for their interest in and knowledge of technology innovation and product development and management. Hands-on experience comes along with financial support.
Cheng Wu Innovation Challenge, which supports students developing technological innovations without regard for immediate commercial potential. It includes new applications of existing technologies and the creation of new technologies. The competition is open to any student throughout the university as well as technological innovations developed in any course. Each team must have at least one Luddy School student.
Cheng Wu Innovation Fellowship, which provides an annual award that supports student inventors by allowing them to commit a summer to developing a technological innovation. It includes a scholarship as well as weekly mentoring by Luddy School faculty members and industry partners. Workspace in the Shoemaker Innovation Center is provided.
The Shoebox, which was the incubation program in the Shoemaker Innovation Center to support students, now exists as the Sparklab Incubation Program and is part of IU Innovates at the Von Lee.
“We’ll still do all the things people knew the Shoemaker Innovation Center for outside of the incubation program,” Brown said. “That is the only program that has been migrated.
“Now the Cheng Wu Innovation Challenge, the Cheng Wu Innovation Fellowship, the Shoemaker Scholars, the Product Management Club, and the Ideation and Creation Entrepreneurs are all part of the Shoemaker Innovation Center through the Luddy Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program. They weren’t before. The center now serves as the hub of the program, which enables us to better serve students, implement the strategic objectives of the Luddy School, and leverage the support of our donors, namely Donna and John Shoemaker, and Cheng Wu.”
Fisher vouched for the benefits.
“The clinic is new, it’s exciting, and it’s the perfect fit for me. It’s exactly what I needed for my project to take the next step. It gives me a space where I can not only learn about what I need to become a successful entrepreneur, but gives me tangible progress. Hopefully, by the time we’re finished, I will have an actual product instead of a simple idea.”
To apply for center coworking space or to become a client of the clinic, write to luddysic@iu.edu