Graduate / Professional Courses

Instructor: Charles Hallford

This is an opportunity for students to work on commercialization plans for technologies developed at Duke University, in particular in the areas of therapeutics (pharmaceuticals), diagnostics, and medical devices. They will have access to the scientist or inventor of the technology and will also work with an academic and a business mentor. Teams will be interdisciplinary, and students will gather and analyze data, develop recommendations, formulate implementation plans, and provide other capacity-building support to clients. Student teams will follow a structured process to develop a strategy and plan for the venture.

Instructor: Eric S Richardson

The course guides students through the process of human-centered design with the goal of developing a solution to a real-world, unmet need in healthcare. Students will learn to: 1) identify unmet, underserved and unarticulated needs using human-centered qualitative contextual primary research methods such as ethnographic research; 2) apply commercial business criteria in order to select viable business opportunities; 3) use creative and research-based processes to generate and/or identify potential solutions; and 4) document their design process in accordance with regulations. The course blends taught content with practical field application and team-based project execution. Instructor consent required.

Instructor: Eric S Richardson

The course requires extensive team interaction and the direct application of skills in the process of preparing a medical device technology for development and eventual commercialization. Teams assess and develop a strategy for they key areas of regulatory, reimbursement, and determining an appropriate business model. Teams will then work through a development strategy to determine what work will be required to bring their technology forward, as well as the funding requirements and timing to raise capital at key milestones. The course concludes with an investor pitch to an outside panel of seasoned CEOs, VCs, and other members of the community.

Instructor: TBD

Students will learn to communicate why others should value their ideas and innovations, using both verbal and non-verbal elements. The first weeks of the seminar series will focus on common principles of storytelling and the ways in which stories have, historically, been the cornerstone of disseminating new ideas and information as far back as Homeric epic to as recently as Instagram and TikTok. Students will spend the remainder of the time in small groups to practice communication and design by creating and workshopping a variety of narrative materials (e.g. essay, podcast, video, presentation, etc.) related to their primary work or scholarship in another discipline.

Instructor: Aaron Dinin

This course is designed to lead you to a eureka moment by teaching you how to explore the world around you for problems worth solving. Instead of jumping directly into problem solving and solution development—which can often be wasteful without a clear understanding of a given market and customer need—this course focuses on research, exploration, and discovery. It asks students to set aside pre-conceived notions, avoiding some of their own blind spots, in order to do the necessary work of collecting data about market and learning to assess it as objectively as possible. This course is ideal for anyone who wants to excel at finding white space for new innovation and entrepreneurial action.

Instructor: Max Stern

Did your idea pass muster in New Ventures Develop? Do you have early revenue or evidence of product market fit and want to continue to refine your go to market strategy? New Ventures Deliver is the ideal course for serious entrepreneurs ready to push themselves to take the leap. In this course you will continue to test core hypothesis while you develop a milestone driven plan for go-to-market, sales, staffing, and fundraising.

Instructor: Ibrahim Mohedas

This is an opportunity for students to explore the commercialization potential of early-stage research being pursued at Duke University. Students will either work to evaluate their own research or be assigned research to evaluate that is actively being pursued at Duke. Students assigned projects will also have access to the researchers who have developed the technology. Convergent teams, consisting of different disciplines and perspectives will explore potential use-cases, engage with end-user groups and stakeholders, assess the competitive landscape, develop a timeline of key milestones, identify potential funding avenues, and develop a cohesive story and pitch deck.

Judith Ledlee 

Over the two-semester Design Climate sequence, student teams use design thinking to develop triple bottom line startups that address climate challenges posed by industry professionals or faculty. In Design Climate II, student teams develop their business ideas by prototyping, gathering market validation data, and developing their business model. The semester culminates in a pitch of the startup ideas to members of the entrepreneurship community. Students cultivate capabilities in design thinking, entrepreneurship, project management, sustainable product development, climate fundamentals & business competencies. Includes local field trips. 

Gary Wedding 

This course provides an overview of business development in the rapidly growing climate tech sector. Through 'in the trenches' input from guest speakers (founders and investors across the U.S.) and assignments, students will learn about the climate tech landscape and become more fluent with certain business skills and tools, such as (1) market sizing, (2) investor databases, (3) competitor analysis, (4) productivity techniques, and (5) term sheets. 

Jon Reifschneider 

This course is designed to equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills needed to create, launch, and scale AI-driven startups. The curriculum provides a comprehensive understanding of the AI value chain, explores successful business models, and dives into the logistics of building a team and product in the AI space. Students will gain insights into differentiating their startups for sustainable competitive advantage and navigating the complex ethical, regulatory, and legal landscape of working with AI models. The class will include significant hand-on team project work where students will develop and refine AI startup ideas, applying the concepts learned throughout the course. Through practical case studies and interactive discussions, students will learn to identify market opportunities for the application of AI, develop differentiated AI-based products that address fairness, legal and ethical concerns, and build new ventures around bringing AI products to market. 

Departmental Staff 

Students will study the processes, factors, and strategic decisions involved in bringing a technology from the lab or research center to market – often described as 'technology commercialization' or 'technology translation.' We will examine how technologies are conceived and evaluated, the conditions enabling commercialization of the technology, factors to consider for a go-to-market strategy, and how markets, customers, and funding drive strategic choices in the path towards technology commercialization. Intellectual property, regulatory considerations, financing structures, factors in licensing/startup decisions, and assessing market needs and competitive landscape will also be included. 

Eric Richardson 

The Design in Healthcare 2 course is an experiential program and continuation of Design in Healthcare 1. It requires extensive team interaction and the direct application of skills in the process of preparing a medical device technology for development and eventual commercialization. Teams work through a development strategy to determine what work will be required to bring their technology forward, and the funding requirements and timing to raise capital at key milestones. The course concludes with an investor pitch to an outside panel of seasoned CEOs, VCs, and other members of the community. Prerequisite: Innovation & Entrepreneurship 720. Instructor consent required. 

Amy Wyron Robinson 

Students will learn to communicate why others should value their ideas and innovations, using both verbal and non-verbal elements. The first weeks of the seminar series will focus on common principles of storytelling and the ways in which stories have, historically, been the cornerstone of disseminating new ideas and information as far back as Homeric epic to as recently as Instagram and TikTok. Students will spend the remainder of the time in small groups to practice communication and design by creating and workshopping a variety of narrative materials (e.g. essay, podcast, video, presentation, etc.) related to their primary work or scholarship in another discipline. 

Shep Moyle 

This course is designed to lead you to a eureka moment by teaching you how to explore the world around you for problems worth solving. Instead of jumping directly into problem solving and solution development—which can often be wasteful without a clear understanding of a given market and customer need—this course focuses on research, exploration, and discovery. It asks students to set aside pre-conceived notions, avoiding some of their own blind spots, in order to do the necessary work of collecting data about market and learning to assess it as objectively as possible. This course is ideal for anyone who wants to excel at finding white space for new innovation and entrepreneurial action. 

Jamie Jones
Max Stern 

Do you want to design a business model around either your own idea or someone else's problem? In New Ventures Develop you'll learn to assess opportunities, develop and test business models, understand your financials, and build successful teams. If you've validated an idea through New Ventures Discover or through your independent customer discovery process, New Ventures Develop can facilitate idea to action. In this course, student teams will develop core elements of a strategy for a technology or business idea; detail will be suitable for a business plan document for a company seeking initial investment; strategy will serve as a foundation for a first operating plan for company. 

Jon Fjeld 

Graduate students often have expertise in particular domains, but little business experience. Attaining business experience can take years and is often hard to navigate. Using entrepreneurship as a backdrop, this course provides a broad overview of business, including practical business fundamentals and theoretical frameworks for critical thinking. The course achieves this through theoretical frameworks, experiential education, and an analysis of competing companies. Students will experience the early stages of a typical startup, examine theoretical basis for startup success, understand managing and operating within an organization, and conduct a business analysis of competing companies. 

Tso-Pang Yao 

Introduction to major issues in developing a drug to treat a disease in an interdisciplinary lecture-based and team-based learning environment. Translation of principles in biomedical sciences, biomedical engineering, and chemistry along with innovative approaches to develop a hypothetical drug for treating a disease of choice. Hypothetical development of model compounds, target analysis, and in vitro and in vivo models to test drug efficacy. Course requires one of the following (or equivalent): Pharmacology and Cancer Biology 533, Chemistry 518, or Biomedical Engineering 577.