EnterpriseTECH Undergraduate

Our EnterpriseTECH Undergraduate programme runs alongside the postgraduate programme in December. It offers a real-world learning experience at the interface of research and the startup world. It is designed to inspire individuals to explore and develop their own entrepreneurial potential. The programme offers opportunities to develop entrepreneurship and business-related skills with a blend of intensive lectures and practical application of the new knowledge to a project. Projects are typically from the physical, life and medical sciences, and the engineering and technology fields. These are areas well suited to the interests of our cohorts.

We invite applications from undergraduates whether you are at the University of Cambridge or another UK or international university. Please make sure you have the permission of your course or programme director to attend. The compulsory lecture intensive will fall just outside of term time for many students. Still, the extracurricular format of the remainder of the programme, such as evening supervisions and extra research work, will require an additional time commitment. You need to be confident this will not impede your degree studies.

At the core of EnterpriseTECH is effective teamwork. You will learn about:

• ideas and opportunities – how to spot opportunities, develop new ways to feed creativity and vision, learn how to value ideas, and approaches for ethical and sustainable thinking
• resources – understanding how to mobilise resources and others around you, financial and economic literacy, self-awareness and self-efficacy, motivation and perseverance
• action – experiential learning, working with others, planning and management, leadership growth, coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risk.

You can read more about the projects, lectures and supervisions in the programme overview and see photographs in our gallery.

Programme dates for 2021-22

EnterpriseTECH Undergraduate: 7 December 2021-11 March 2022

What will I do as a student?

Launch Night brings together the student cohort, around 60 people, plus the inventors and team supervisors. We hear short presentations from the inventors about the technology they are bringing to EnterpriseTECH and what they would like to get out of their experience working with a student team. We also introduce the business supervisors who will be helping their teams through the 12-week journey by offering supervisions. Our supervisors range from Cambridge Judge Business School faculty to experienced industry professionals and seasoned entrepreneurs. 

For students, a compulsory lecture intensive follows for the next four full days, concluding with a networking party. Students are assigned to teams and projects and go on to evaluate the commercial feasibility of the project with their team under the guidance of their supervisor for the remainder of the 12-weeks. The challenge for mixed-discipline student teams is to determine whether their new technology has commercial potential and, if so, what that route to market might be.

As the end of the programme draws closer, there are workshops for teams on video production, story-telling and crafting narratives, and pitching workshops and clinics. The big day is Pitch Night, where student teams get on stage and pitch to a panel of judges in front of the entire cohort. Two days later, the remaining assessments are due.

The three pieces of teamwork that form the assessment are:

• 3,000-word commercial feasibility report.
• 2-minute video infomercial.
• 5-minute team pitch to a live audience.

Teams receive detailed written feedback from their inventors, supervisors and assessors. A Certificate of Completion is awarded to students who complete the whole programme, including attending the entire lecture series, attending all supervisions and pitch night.

Time commitment

The programme runs for about 12 weeks and requires a minimum of 100-hours of personal time commitment.

• Launch night (five hours).
• Lecture intensive and team-building workshops (45 hours).
• Three evening supervisions (10 hours).
• Team meeting, online research and assessment preparation (40 hours at least).

COVID-19

We aim to run as much of EnterpriseTECH as possible in a hybrid online and in-person form. As our students’ wellbeing is important to us, we will comply with the recommended social distancing measures in adherence to the University of Cambridge’s policies. 

“

EnterpriseTECH was without doubt one of the most diverse and interesting modules I’ve taken over the course of my Cambridge degree. While the MML Tripos has provided me with wonderful opportunities to learn languages, travel and study different cultures, I found myself wanting for an academic module that would provide me with more vocation skills that could be used in a professional setting and bolster my CV. If there was some initial apprehension going into EnterpriseTECH, this quickly dissipated and the programme was very well-organised, the lectures were insightful, and we had access to countless resources provided by Cambridge Judge Business School. As an MML student, the novelty of the programme was what struck me most of all: the content is unlike anything covered in a languages degree, the projects are team-based and the means of assessment (video, report and pitch) are unique. Being part of both CJBS and Cambridge tech startup ecosystem allowed me to meet so many different people and has provided me with a fantastic network of contacts going forward; while the skills I’ve gained from EnterpriseTECH—commercial acumen, presenting skills and more—will be invaluable in my career. ”

Rafael Bertoli-Mitchell, Modern and Medieval Languages, EnterpriseTECH UG 2020

“

EnterpriseTECH has been a fantastic opportunity to delve into how scientific ideas can be applied in the real world. Before doing the programme, I knew next to nothing about the commercialisation process, but having done EnterpriseTECH I would now feel reasonably confident in setting up a company. It has been the most useful programme of my entire time at Cambridge and will be enormously useful in my career. In addition to the skills gained, the programme had introduced me to a very useful network of people for my future career. A very enjoyable programme. ”

Will Drake, Department of Physics, EnterpriseTECH 2019