Academics

Innovation + Entrepreneurship Across Campus

At Lafayette, students can take courses with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship as well as many others that explore themes of innovation, creativity, and changemaking across a wide range of disciplines.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Focused Courses

INDS 124 – Introduction to Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Students will develop creative mindsets by mastering the habits of great innovators and learning how to turn bold ideas into action. Through teamwork and leadership opportunities, they will refine their ability to work with others and lead with creativity. The course also emphasizes confident idea pitching, helping students present concepts that address real needs. Ultimately, participants will apply these skills to develop innovative solutions with real-world impact.

INDS 192 – Introduction to Real Estate Entrepreneurship

This course introduces the terminology, concepts, analytics, and basic practices of the real estate industry. It surveys real estate law, appraisal, marketing, management, finance, investment analysis, and taxation. The topics covered will allow students to explore a variety of issues related to “ground-up” real estate development as well as rehabilitation/re-development across various property types, and also examine contemporary and future trends, including sustainability, public-private partnerships, trends in design, planning, and the public domain.

INDS 223 – Social Entrepreneurship

Course topics include a range of business models: not-for-profit groups, organizations with revenue-generating products or services in pursuit of a social goal, and socially responsible for-profit companies. Students will learn from examples that include locally-based efforts, organizations that operate around the U.S., and examples from abroad. They will also be part of a team that designs and develops strategies for a particular societal issue relevant to a community partner. 

INDS 246 – Biotechnology and Innovation

The objective of this multidisciplinary course is to provide an overview of the biotechnology commercialization process. Placing biotech innovations in a societal context, we will discuss the role of intellectual property, government policies and regulations, marketplace economics and ethical debates on the development and commercialization of new life science technologies. The approach will focus on both large enterprise models as well as smaller entrepreneurial approaches to technology commercialization and the principles needed to translate research from a lab bench to the marketplace.

INDS 292 – Real Estate Investment Feasibility Analysis Seminar

The real estate investment decisions analysis process uses an integrated systems-based approach for determining feasible real estate development alternatives in the real estate space market. The seminar will examine opportunities and systemic barriers to sustainable investment solutions, which include institutional, political, and financial constraints, uncoordinated development planning and land use policies, lack of knowledge and technical capacity, and limited engagement of stakeholders in decision-making.

The interdisciplinary requirements of real estate investment projects draw from the humanities, social science, engineering, and environmental studies disciplines to consider the dynamic interaction of the developer, the space consumer, and the public infrastructure (the social, political institutions, and community). These abstract entities interact to limit and define the possible, permissible, and profitable investment options that can be placed on a site. A project must meet the space users’ socio-cultural, functional amenity, and occupancy cost requirements, the space producer’s architectural, engineering, capital budget, equity return, risk concerns, and the public infrastructure (tax revenue and service cost balance) reflected by community concerns.

The seminar aims to use a semi-structured approach and real-world investment situations to engage students, allow students to learn from each other, and provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to debate and understand the analytical considerations for determining the feasibility of real estate investment projects.

EGRS 365 – Building The High Tech Start-Up

Many of the great technology products and services that we take for granted today were brought to the market by entrepreneurs instead of large companies. These products and services may have been invented and perfected by engineers, but without knowledge of markets, sales, finance, strategic planning, and presentation skills, even the most remarkable technologies will remain ideas rather than products. This course will provide the engineering student with a broad survey of entrepreneurship principles required to create and evaluate new technology potential and help students move these new ideas towards commercialization.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Inclusive Courses

A&S 235 – Business and Society

This course explores the impact of business upon our culture and the role of business in modern society. Of special interest are the growth and development of capitalism and business thought, the influence of the corporation, and the role of management in society. Case materials are utilized extensively.

A&S 237 – Sociology of Consumerism and Marketing

This course will introduce students to sociological perspectives on marketing and examine patterns of consumer behavior. We will analyze how consumers are influenced to buy and societal consequences of contemporary large-scale patterns of consumerism.

A&S 247 – Organizations in Action

This course is designed to give students a better understanding of today’s organizational world through the lens of organizational theory. Topics include the rise and nature of bureaucracy, the evolution of managerial ideologies, theories of leadership and decision making, organizational culture, technological and ideological determinism, and the influence of the environment. Theory is related to practice through the examination of specific case studies.

CE 204 – Designing for People, Planet, and Profit

CE 204 integrates sustainable design, user-centered research, and economic strategy. Students will assess environmental impact, recyclability, and durability, while focusing on user needs through research and usability testing. The course also covers project management, including cost calculation and budget planning, as students collaborate on real-world engineering challenges. CE 204 provides hands-on experience, blending sustainability, user research, and financial planning to prepare students for impactful design work.

ECON 300 – Industry, Strategy and Policy

This course serially examines the major sectors of the global economy using the tools of economic theory. For each sector, students analyze current market conditions and trends, financial performance, critical challenges, and relevant public policies.

ECON 320 – Corporate Finance

Analysis and practical application of corporate financial data as it relates to managerial decision making. Particular emphasis is placed on the corporate investment and financing decision, risk management, and the dividend.

ECON 322 – Financial Markets

This course is an introduction to Flow of Funds analysis and interest rate determination in the money and capital markets, the structure of interest rates, efficient market hypothesis, and major financial institutions in the United States.

ECON 331 – Industrial Organization: Market Structure

This course integrates microeconomic theory with economic application techniques in an investigation of various market structures, strategic firm interaction, antitrust issues, and economic regulation. Beginning with the standard Structure-Conduct-Performance paradigm and proceeding through some of the most recently developed theories in noncooperative games, the course content exposes students to an array of methods that facilitate the analysis of market structures, antitrust, and regulatory issues.