New McCombs Course Aims to Spur Energy Entrepreneurship
Collaboration between UT and MIT will catalyze Texas energy startups.
In a new course at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, graduate students from across the university will develop startup plans to bring promising, Texas-based energy technologies and services from concept to deployment.
Faculty members from McCombs’ Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will co-teach the TVL Energy Ventures Practicum starting in spring 2023. The startup-incubator course is modeled after a class at MIT that has spun out more than 30 companies during the past decade.
“UT has always attracted entrepreneurial thinkers, and student demand for startup guidance and opportunity has never been stronger,” said Mellie Price, an eight-time entrepreneur, executive director of McCombs’ Texas Venture Labs, and co-teacher for the new course. “This multidisciplinary practicum is a solid answer to that demand.”
At the start of the course, students will listen to researchers, other students, and members of the community presenting their energy technology or business ideas, then form cross-disciplinary teams to develop a business plan for one of the ideas. By the end of the semester, each team will have a viable plan for commercialization.
Price will co-teach with Frank O’Sullivan, director of research and analysis at the MIT Energy Initiative and senior lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, and Tod Hynes, senior lecturer in the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.
The course is a joint effort of McCombs’ Texas Venture Labs and the KBH Center for Energy, Law and Business; the Cockrell School of Engineering; and the UT Energy Institute. The institute brought the course to UT through its participation in the Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy (TEX-E), a collaborative initiative launched during the summer in Houston in support of student-driven entrepreneurship.
Bringing this unique curriculum to UT promises to strengthen the relationship between entrepreneurs and the energy ecosystem in Houston and Central Texas, said McCombs Dean Lillian Mills.
“For 38 years, Texas Venture Labs has provided student innovators with the mentorship to commercialize ideas that help shape industries,” said Mills.
“We are so excited to collaborate with MIT in opening these rich resources to students from all over campus willing to put their creative efforts toward energy solutions.”
These solutions will require the kind of collaboration the practicum engenders, said Roger Bonnecaze, dean of the Cockrell School.
“Meeting energy demands is a multifaceted challenge,” he said. “So, this practicum puts innovative ideas circulating in Austin’s robust startup culture into the hands of talented students from engineering, policy, law, science, and business.”
Over time, ideas developed in the TVL Energy Ventures Practicum will take shape in the Greentown Labs Houston incubator — a community of energy entrepreneurs who share ideas, lend tech know-how, and support one another.
Course organizers are looking for ideas for new energy technologies, services, and business models to commercialize. Faculty members, researchers, students, and local labs are welcome to submit ideas using this form, or reach out to Brian Korgel, UT Energy Institute director. The deadline to submit ideas is Jan. 5, 2023. The practicum will meet Mondays, 6–9 p.m., and graduate students in law, policy, business, engineering, and sciences are encouraged to apply to take the class before registering for spring courses.
