Entrepreneurship and fundraising

Academic unit or major

Graduate major in Engineering Sciences and Design

Instructor(s)

Miki Saijo / Takumi Ohashi / Daisuke Kaneko / Keiko Ejiri

Class Format

Lecture/Exercise (Zoom)

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

5-8 Fri (Zoom)

Class

-

Course Code

ESD.E405

Number of credits

110

Course offered

2020

Offered quarter

4Q

Syllabus updated

Jul 10, 2025

Language

Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

For problems that go beyond the boundaries of the conventional social system, problems in maintaining the quality of life for the elderly, and problems such as wide-spread evacuation during a large disaster, it is not even possible to approach them without integrating interdisciplinary knowledge and entrepreneurship. The course touches on product prototypes that may lead to a solution, but have not arrived on the market yet. Students examine how to use them and what kind of services to explore, as well as what kind of business and funding is necessary to implement the services. The final output of the course is proposing a feasible service with a product together with group members. The problems and projects explored in this course are decided yearly based on discussions of instructors.

Course description and aims

For compounded problems such as maintaining the quality of life for the elderly, and wide-scale evacuations during a disaster, solutions by engineering devices are crafted, at which time it is necessary to consider the interrelationship between social systems, human skills, and device performance. In this course a new topic is created each year, and students learn through lectures and exercises the process of making an engineering device prototype into a service that solves some social problems. Students thereby acquire the skills to judge problems from multiple perspectives and the skills to simplify and solve complex problems, becoming professionals who can lead innovation.

Keywords

wicked problems, mutual relationship among the social system, human capability, and the device performance, entrepreneurship, funding ,innovation

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

It is introduced in the beginning of the course, theory, idea, prototype used in a current service system depending on a theme of the year, and students discuss about the remaining problem in current system and what kind of new business is possible, and present ideas of business as a group presentation. After that, students learn the variation of funding and make a strategy of fund development for implementation of their business plans with investor's perspective. At the last part of the course students rebuild their business plans and present them.

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

Non required.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Communication Design Miki Saijo Kuroshio Shuppan

Evaluation methods and criteria

Tasks in classes: 30 %
Group work and presentation during class and home-work: 30%
Final report: 40%

Related courses

• ESD.D406 ： Prototyping Methodology for Engineering Design
• ESD.E406 ： User Interview Theory and Practice
• ESD.H401 ： Disciplined Entrepreneurship

Prerequisites

None.