UMD Kicks Off Semester with Expanded Innovation Fridays

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kicking off the fall semester, the University of Maryland is giving the thousands of innovative minds across campus new ways to share and explore their fearless ideas. Starting today, the university is expanding its popular "Innovation Fridays," which give students the opportunity to meet with experienced innovators and entrepreneurs, get free and impartial advice, brainstorm strategies, and learn about available resources and funding.

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"We are committed to cultivating a community of innovators on campus," says Dean Chang, UMD's associate vice president for innovation and entrepreneurship. "Similar to Google's 20 percent time, which gave the world innovations like Gmail by encouraging employees to spend one day a week pursuing bold projects that were not necessarily related to their job description, we want to encourage students to take one day a week—Fridays—to pursue their own fearless ideas. The expansion of Innovation Fridays will allow more students across all disciplines to do just that."

Originating last year as a partnership between the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) and the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation Fridays now includes two new collaborators—the Center for Philanthropy and Non Profit Leadership (CPNPL), and Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC).

Innovation Fridays will run every Friday from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the following locations:

• McKeldin Library Room 2113
• Van Munching Hall, Dingman Center Suite, Room 2518
• Engineering Library Conference Room A, Room 1403

Driven by the university's Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Innovation Fridays align with UMD's ongoing commitment to creating a university-wide culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, providing a collection of signature resources now available across the entire campus for all students.

UMD is a pioneer in educating the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, ranked as one of the nation's top schools for entrepreneurship and innovation. In 2012, the University of Maryland ranked No. 14 and No. 24 in The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 50 Entrepreneurship Colleges and Business Schools" for its undergraduate and graduate programs, respectively.  In addition, the university celebrates an annual "30 Days of EnTERPreneurship," awarding more than a quarter million dollars for the best ideas and innovations in technology, business, healthcare, social value, and clean energy.

For more information on the university's resources for innovators across campus, visit innovation.umd.edu.

About the University of Maryland
The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, Maryland is ranked No. 19 among public universities by U.S. News & World Report and No. 14 among public universities by Forbes. The Institute of Higher Education, which ranks the world's top universities based on research, puts Maryland at No. 38 in the world, No. 29 nationally and No. 13 among U.S. public research institutions. The university is also one of the top 10 highest-rated D.C.-area employers, according to Glassdoor.com. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, two Pulitzer Prize winners, 49 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The university is recognized for its diversity, with underrepresented students comprising one-third of the student population.

SOURCE University of Maryland