About CFE
The Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) is a Michigan Engineering venture that empowers students, faculty and staff to pursue entrepreneurial achievements that improve people’s lives, drive the economy and help innovators bridge the gap between inventor and the business that is enabled by these breakthroughs.
The Center grew out of the College's Committee on Entrepreneurial Environment and Programs, a group of faculty that released its recommendations in the report "Empowering Entrepreneurial Students." (Read the report.) The Committee recognized that young inventors can help stimulate the state's economy. It also recognized that there were a large number of potential entrepreneurs already at the University of Michigan, but that these individuals felt isolated and generally did not feel empowered to live out their entrepreneurial dreams. The group also saw that the College – and the University – had additional resources: faculty, alumni, facilities and corporate partners. This vision needed a focal point: the Center for Entrepreneurship and its programs.
The University’s many resources includes the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, which is part of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. The Center collaborates with the Institute to include business courses in the Michigan Engineering curricula to help students bridge the gap between inventor and venture capitalist.
The Center grew out of the College's Committee on Entrepreneurial Environment and Programs, a group of faculty that released its recommendations in the report "Empowering Entrepreneurial Students." (Read the report.) The Committee recognized that young inventors can help stimulate the state's economy. It also recognized that there were a large number of potential entrepreneurs already at the University of Michigan, but that these individuals felt isolated and generally did not feel empowered to live out their entrepreneurial dreams. The group also saw that the College – and the University – had additional resources: faculty, alumni, facilities and corporate partners. This vision needed a focal point: the Center for Entrepreneurship and its programs.
The University’s many resources includes the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, which is part of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. The Center collaborates with the Institute to include business courses in the Michigan Engineering curricula to help students bridge the gap between inventor and venture capitalist.
Managing Director Doug Neal
CFE Mission Statement
The Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) is a Michigan Engineering venture that empowers students, faculty and staff to pursue entrepreneurial achievements that improve people’s lives, drives the economy and helps innovators bridge the gap between inventors and venture capitalists.
The Center provides a range of resources that enables it to:
- Empower students, faculty and staff to pursue entrepreneurial achievements that improve people’s lives, drive the economy and help innovators bridge the gap between inventor and venture capitalist
- Connect current students with Michigan Engineering alumni who work in the start-up community
- Provide grants for students to pursue their own ideas for companies and products
- Support, simplify and clarify student intellectual property transfer processes for students and the broader community
- Develop and maintain an entrepreneurship certificate program so that engineering students can take courses in innovation and business from U-M professors or members of the broader entrepreneurial community.
- Coordinate these activities with MPowered, a Michigan Engineering student organization focused on entrepreneurship
CFE, working with the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, is the latest effort to promote entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan. The Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies is part of the Ross School of Business.
