Home to Texas is a summer internship and workforce development program that facilitates UT undergraduates with well-paid internships and sociology research experiences designed to help them understand the underlying values of their home communities. The IC² Institute has partnered with UT Austin School of Undergraduate Studies and Texas Career Engagement for the program, matching early undergraduate students from all majors with employers in their hometowns as interns/researchers.

The Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship Certificate helps students develop skills to bring creative thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset to their goals, whether they’re interested in turning their ideas into a new venture, being part of a startup team, or bringing new ideas to established organizations. Through interdisciplinary coursework and research or internships, students gain skills including idea generation, design/prototyping, problem-solving, pitching ideas, and collaboration.

The Center for Integrated Design offers approximately 30 design-based courses each year. We offer the most cutting-edge innovation and creative practices that companies are demanding. Our courses are open for any enrolled student at UT Austin, and provide a range of offerings from Introduction to Design Thinking, skills like sketching and storytelling, and advanced coursework in partnership with Austin Design companies. Specific courses can be found on our website.

The Inventors Program (IP) engages undergraduates in applied experiences where they generate solutions to interesting questions. IP is inclusive to students who may not typically identify as entrepreneurs or innovators. Student teams are scaffolded through tiered experiences where they explore problem-scoping and ideation and develop industry and scientific skills with prototyping and project pitches. An IP industry network prepares students for internships and future careers in STEM industries.

The LaunchPad at UT Austin is a resource hub that helps all undergraduate and graduate students explore entrepreneurship at UT. We help students identify where they are in their entrepreneurial journey – Explore, Ideate, Create, or Scale – then educate and connect them to resources across campus and in Austin. LaunchPad resources include events, coworking space, funding, bootcamps, accelerators, and other programs. We are a proud member of the global Blackstone LaunchPad Network of 46+ campuses.

The Longhorn Impact Fellowship at Texas provides UT-Austin students with impact-focused consulting experience. Selected Fellows are placed with sustainable corporations, start-ups, and nonprofits to solve sustainability challenges. Projects are completed in 10-12 weeks and must be related to sustainability, corporate philanthropy, impact/ESG investing, or social and environmental innovation. Scholarships are available for students with financial need.

One of the fastest growing minors in the Moody College of Communication, the Media and Entertainment Industries minor encourages students to critically assess and analyze the media and technology sectors from industrial and entrepreneurial perspectives. Our students are trained to think like entrepreneurs—to learn from the innovative thinking of historical media magnates and digital content creators alike—as well as apply those skills in a variety of experiential learning courses and assignments.

This course explores how to solve medical device design problems using systematic design thinking and practices. Students will interpret clinical needs and define an open engineering medical device design problem, including formulating engineering requirements/specifications to address a marketable need and generate concepts in a way that promotes both creativity and usefulness.

The Moffett Family Summer Entrepreneurship Academy (SEA) is an in-person, 8-week summer program for UT Austin undergraduates. SEA participants will complete 4 of 5 required courses for the Entrepreneurship Minor. Students will develop a foundational understanding of entrepreneurship, through terminology, case-based learning, key theories, and empirical-based practices, while working with local startups, corporate sponsors, McCombs alumni, and entrepreneurial mentors.

The Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program offers $50,000 grants for Faculty and Grad Student/Postdoc researchers to reduce the time and risk associated with translating technologies from lab to market, quickly assessing the market potential of inventions developed from fundamental discoveries in science and engineering. Teams work directly with leadership from the Southwest I-Corps Node (SWICORPS) at UT Austin to gain eligibility and prepare for the NSF grant program through regional activities.