South Ural State University has hosted the official opening of the new season of the SUSU Accelerator, a big-scale program to support student entrepreneurship and innovative ideas. This year, the project has brought together students from universities from the Chelyabinsk Region and Kurgan: young people ready to try their hand at business and startup development.
Minister of Education and Science of the Chelyabinsk Region Vitaly Litke welcomed the project participants:
"The Accelerator allows students to reveal their talents, implement their ideas and realize them in terms of commercial potential. This is not only a unique exchange of experience, but also an opportunity for the technological development of entire industries: students learn to integrate their projects into the existing infrastructure and offer innovative solutions. The Accelerator plays a key role in the development of entrepreneurship in our region, and primarily of technological entrepreneurship. This project provides opportunities to implement ideas in real production. SUSU unites our region's universities so that students have an opportunity to reveal their potential. I wish all the participants success. This is not an easy path − to prove the effectiveness of your solution and test it on the market. Overcome difficulties and you will succeed! Do not be afraid and believe in yourself!"
The SUSU Accelerator is a three-month business intensive course, within the framework of which students, postgraduates, university employees and alumni, who graduated from the university no more than 3 years ago, can try themselves in the development and implementation of innovative startup projects.
The Skolkovo Foundation has been a partner of the program for many years now, providing its experts, trackers and comprehensive support in the development of student startups. The Head of the Department of Regional Development of the Skolkovo Foundation Yuriy Sibirskiy emphasized:
"The best indicator of the effectiveness of our work is that the number of participants increases every year. More and more young people are showing interest in technological entrepreneurship and want to try themselves in this field. It is important to understand that technological entrepreneurship is a complex and routine process that does not always bring quick results. But those, who decide to take this path, get a chance to achieve real success."
The new season features two tracks. The first track is designed for those who are just starting out and do not have a specific idea yet. The second one is for participants who already have ideas, a team, and the first version of their product.
"The first track is for participants who came without their own idea or team, and during the business intensive they will be able to generate their business hypothesis, gather a team and try to implement their project. The second track is for advanced participants, and the acceleration program and mentors will help them refine their product in laboratories, present its first versions to potential consumers and present it to investors," said Irina Solovieva, Head of the Department of Economics and Finance at the SUSU School of Economics and Management.
Within 3 months, the participants will propose a project idea, analyse the market, calculate an economic model for implementation, and develop an MVP of the product. To do this, the participants will be assisted by trackers, business mentors, SUSU teachers, and more than 40 industrial partners.
"Any successful business starts with an incredible idea and a couple of dreamers. And this is what our Accelerator is about. We gather around us dreamers who have absolutely incredible ideas, and we help to bring them to life. The Accelerator is a way to speed up the process: we help an idea to develop into a marketable product within a short period of time," said Marina Litke, Associate Professor of the Department of Industrial Economics and Project Management at the SUSU School of Economics and Management.
During the program, the participants will have 34 events of the educational block, 12 meetings with trackers and mentors, 4 pitch sessions, discussions, as well as practical classes and master classes from entrepreneurs and experts.
The opening of the season was accompanied by a panel discussion on how to turn a student idea into a successful project with representatives of business, technology startups, and creative industries. The discussion was attended by the Minister of Education and Science of the Chelyabinsk Region Vitaly Litke, Head of the Department of Regional Development of the Skolkovo Foundation Yuriy Sibirskiy, Head of the “Innovations for Kids” IT company Dmitry Andreev, founder of Adesk company Stepan Rodionov, and Director of INTEC company Yaroslav Golub. The Director of School 21 Dmitry Kozlenkov acted as the moderator.
According to the Director of the SUSU School of Economics and Management Anzhelika Karpushkina, the project has become a good tradition for our university:
"The SUSU School of Economics and Management traditionally acts as the operator of this project. We are glad to see that more and more participants are eager to join the Accelerator year after year. I am sure that, as in the previous years, this season will be successful."
Artem Agafonov shared a story of his participation in the SUSU Accelerator. He had reached the finals twice with the projects "Smart Mirror" for managing the "Smart Home" system and ERP system for construction. This year, Artem has become a curator for new teams.
"If you combine the knowledge gained at the university with the experience of participating in the acceleration program, you get a unique combination that is highly valued by companies both in our region and throughout our country. The Accelerator is not only practical experience, but also an opportunity to master something new, expand horizons and prove yourself. I’d like to wish students not to be afraid and to confidently speak at defences and presentations of their projects," shared Artem.
To wrap up the event, the participants were given tasks by the industrial partners and our university: relevant problems that need to be solved during the program.
Registration for the Accelerator is open till September 22nd. Join us by filling out the Participation Form.
The SUSU Accelerator is implemented with the support from ANO “Platforma NTI” (“National Technology Initiative Platform”) under the Technologies federal project, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.