The MIT Portugal Program is sending 20 Portuguese entrepreneurs to the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend this year’s annual International Workshop on Innovating. From June 13-17, a group of selected graduate students and entrepreneurs will be immersed in a residential, hands-on program designed for participants from Europe and from MIT. The weeklong workshop aims to expose participants to critical elements that lead to an understanding of innovation as a highly interactive endeavor akin to real-world problem solving.
The event is organized by a group of scholars and entrepreneurs led by Douglas Hart, Joao Bigotte, and Nuno Arantes-Oliveira, and is supported by the MIT Portugal Program (MPP). One of the aims of the program is to enhance the innovation ecosystem and support novel educational approaches across Portugal by using MIT’s expertise and excellence in education, research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. According to MIT-based Program Director Bruce Tidor, “Through this workshop, the program is offering Portuguese entrepreneurs an opportunity for an early immersion into innovation and entrepreneurship that aims to maximize knowledge transfer, strategic decision making, and the translation of technology-based ideas into economic value.”
Participation in the workshop also reinforces MPP’s unique approach to the introduction of innovation into doctoral programs. Portugal-based acting Program Director Pedro Arezes noted that “16 of the Portuguese participants are students and researchers affiliated with MIT Portugal, who are planning to start entrepreneurial activities in the near future, along with young entrepreneurs who have started or are in the process of starting their businesses.”
Throughout the week, instructors and participants will jointly transform the classroom into a studio for innovating and for fusing theory and practice through interactive lectures, in-class exercises, hands-on out-of-classroom experience, and selected guest lectures.
