MCEI: What We Do

The Massey Center is committed to building a campus-based entrepreneurial ecosystem at Robert Morris University. The Center’s aim is to cultivate and support entrepreneurial thinking and action across the university. The Center aims to convene and showcase the  undertakings of innovative thinking and action exist across the campus in the form of respective student work, faculty work, and departmental/office initiatives. 

Collaborations with university offices such as the Career Center, Student Life, the Women Leadership and Mentorship Program, the various schools and student groups has served to highlight the reach of entrepreneurial action on RMU’s campus. 

Partnerships with, and featured speakers from, various organizations in Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurship community have also led to great learning opportunities for our students.  

New developments in the entrepreneurship curriculum is expanding as faculty have developed the university’s first curricular program devoted solely to entrepreneurial education. To support this learning,  the Massey Center will design and be custodian of the  action-learning environment, enabling experimentation, community building, networking and mentorship, and resource mobilization to further enable the entrepreneurial efforts emerging on campus.

RMU has recently approved its first undergraduate certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation - a customizable 12 credit curricular platform in which any student, from any academic discipline, can design and refine an actionable plan for their startup venture or intrapraneurial project. The Massey Center supports the entrepreneurship curriculum by creating an action-learning environment that enables collaborative work, community building, and networking and mentorship to further enable the entrepreneurial efforts emerging on campus.

We work alongside Institutional Advancement to share the RMU story of entrepreneurship with our growing base of alumni and patrons, and collaboratively explore means of further supporting student entrepreneurship. 

We are excited to work with Admissions and other Departments to share this growing list of entrepreneurial opportunities with incoming students.

Massey Center Campus Programs

The Wicked Problem Innovation Hackathon 

The Wicked Problem Innovation Hackathon was founded in the Spring of 2017 to challenge students across disciplines to work and think together towards developing new solutions for pressing regional and global issues. The purpose of the Wicked Problem Innovation Hackathon is to promote interdisciplinary innovative thinking via an experiential learning opportunity that positions students as innovators of solutions to a pressing, timely issue of urgent concern to the Western Pennsylvania region and/or the globe.

The Massey E-Labs

The Massey E-Labs are denoted by the “E”, which stands for “Experiential learning towards entrepreneurial thinking.” The purpose of the E-Labs are to bring practical innovation tools and techniques for the entrepreneurial mindset to where students are, and are led by forward-thinking and creative faculty from across disciplines. They are hands-on, skills-based session based on an approach of innovative thinking. The E-Labs of  Fall 2017 semester, for example,  exposed students from across disciplines with different and new thinking tools, they also helped to inform the campus of a perspective of the Lead Crisis. In Fall of 2018, The Massey Center will inaugurate the MAssey MAsterclass - an E-Lab led by industry leaders and entrepreneurs.In collaboration with the Political Science Department, and in lieu of the upcoming elections, our first Masterclass will feature Geoff Pope, founder of The LCR (“The Left, Center, Right)- an online political magazine that invites contributions from across the political spectrum - to facilitate a workshop on “The Innovation of Political Discourse.”

The RMU AdVenture Pitch Competition and Venture-Building Workshops

The RMU AdVenture Pitch Competition was founded in Fall of 2017 to encourage student venture creators to submit their early stage business concepts towards possibly being selected to receive continued business development support. Winners would receive a shopping opportunity on Amazon, an Executive Mentor, and a suite of business consultancy services, including legal aid, marketing, accounting, and etc. The competition will expand in this 2018-9 academic year to include submissions for the new category of workplace innovation.

The Massey Center Entrepreneur-In-Residence Program

The Massey Center’s EIR program was launched in the Fall of 2017, and extended into the Spring 2018 semester. Mr. John Lynch, retired CEO of ECSI Solutions and angel investor,  was featured as the Center’s Inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence. His tenure included office hours throughout the year, serving as executive mentor to resident student enterprises, delivering the EIR Welcome Keynote and Luncheon co-hosted by APICS and the Economics Club, and being the Guest Host of the Good to Great Symposium, celebrating student-led venture creation. The cadre of Entrepreneurs-In-Residence will also expand in the 2018-9 academic year.

RMU Entrepreneurship Week 

RMU’s Entrepreneurship Week serves as the concentrated time in the year when student groups  collaborate with the MAssey Center to design and execute diverse student-led programming.  Student organizations propose or shape the program’s content and activity for a campus-wide audience and the Massey Center supports in ideation, logistics, and evaluation. In the academic 2018-9 school year, the Massey Center is offering Entrepreneurship Week Program Grants cover the costs of programming by an interested student group. 

Massey Masterclasses

These workshops are facilitated by entrepreneurs and intrapraneurs making disruptive change with their ventures in various markets. The purpose of the MAssey Masterclass is for students to be explored to a particular tool, skill, or area of knowledge as per the facilitation of an entrepreneur, as informed by his/her story and experience.
Innovate 360 Degrees Venture-Building Workshops 
Innovate 360 Degrees are a series of venture-building workshops by which students can work with entrepreneurial thinkers on a one-on-one or small group basis to develop and think through specific features of their entrepreneurial idea. This workshops are launched a preparatory series of venture-building support for entrepreneurial and intrapraneurial students intending to participate in the RMU Adventure Pitch Competition in the Spirng Semester.

Community Initiatives

The Massey Center hosts StartUp Business Series at The Shop in Homewood.