Four enterprising graduate students could finish their Masters in Applied Science with not only a degree—but their own company to boot. But a substantial part of their equity in this potential new upstart will be “sweat equity”—and they’ll have to earn every drop.

Developed by electrical engineering professor
Dr. Thomas Darcie, in collaboration with the Faculty of Business and the entrepreneurial-investment group, Wesley Clover, this partnership is a first. Wesley Clover executives approached UVic in early 2009 to brainstorm ways to involve the university in their Venture model of incubating new businesses. Darcie proposed incorporating it within a graduate program.

After the initial eight months of coursework, which is a combination of graduate-level engineering and MBA entrepreneurial studies, the students work with executives of Wesley Clover to choose a high-tech business opportunity they want to pursue. And it’s not just any opportunity, but one that’ s been identified by the market.

Wesley Clover has long been using a game-changing model of creating a new product that is the solution to a real problem identified by an end user.

“It’s a pull versus push model. A customer says, “I need this,” and the students will respond with an engineered solution that fits the need—as opposed to trying to push a product from the lab to the marketplace without a firm customer,” explains Darcie.

This model almost ensures success by leveraging Wesley Clover’s established market-channel relationships and promoting partnerships between fledgling and established companies in its portfolio. Wesley Clover, whose practice it is to take a hands-on, active investor role in working to build new companies, has successfully “hatched” numerous companies using this incubator approach.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity for students. They’re meeting weekly with Owen Matthews, executive vice president of Wesley Clover. Theyr’e connected to very successful local business leaders who are eager to coach them. Nowhere else can a newly minted undergrad access a professional network like this,” says Darcie.

And if their product doesn’t result in a viable company? Worst case scenario says Darcie: “They end up with a graduate degree, an incredible experience and an incomparable business network. Not a bad outcome.”

The students are co-supervised by Darcie and Dr. Jens Weber, Program Director, Software Engineering. Darcie is actively recruiting new student teams for September 2010. For more informationto go www.ece.uvic.ca/~eemp

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