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.