President Keel Speaks in Entrepreneurship Classes
During two weeks this semester (April 14th and April 28th) the President of Georgia Southern University Dr. Brooks Keel has been speaking to Jim William’s (Chair of the Center’s Advisory Council) Entrepreneurship classes about the role of the University in economic development. President Keel commented, “This has been a great opportunity for me to get out from behind the desk and back into the classroom. I rarely get to do this type of thing now”. Jim Williams when introducing President Keel said, “”One of the reasons I had invited President Keel to visit with the students is because of his proven interest in different areas of study at Georgia Southern joining together to create new ventures while partnering with the private sector to commercialize opportunities. In this economic climate, the University needs to operate more entrepreneurially in the future.”
In the two sections of the class President Keel talked about how Georgia Southern can have an impact on economic development. He started his talk by pointing out the significant impact that the University has on the region via its traditional activity of teaching and learning. Explaining how investment in the local community came about because of the inward migration of students, the tuition fees they generate and the money they spend in the community.
President Keel then explored the role of research and explained how both theoretical and applied research can impact on local economic development. He explained that it was much more about developing relationships with industry than trying to protect the University’s intellectual property. Also, that it was these relationships that could lead to interesting new technologies and new businesses being created. During his talk he provided examples of his experiences from Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge), he was the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, and while there he encouraged entrepreneurial activity and broadened the University’s technology transfer operations and partnerships with businesses in support of long-term economic development and job creation. In particular he highlighted LSU’s relationship with EA Sports and how this had progressed into the development of a 9000 sq. ft. building as a collaboration with the company. As President Keel pointed out, “Bringing EA Sports quality assurance onto campus certainly helped to make the over 200 students who were employed to play video games very happy!”
Students asked a range of interesting questions about the Downtown City Campus and the Entrepreneurial Zone, the role of academic entrepreneurs and about student’s intellectual property, as well as, about the new College of Engineering.
Posted in Teaching and Learning