SLULaunch

SLULaunch is a student-driven incubator at the Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship at Saint Louis University, dedicated to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the geospatial and biomedical fields. This program is a collaborative effort involving multiple schools at SLU, including the Chaifetz School of Business, the School of Science and Engineering, the Taylor Geospatial Institute, the SLU School of Medicine, the School of Law, and the College for Public Health and Social Justice.

Participants in SLULaunch work in interdisciplinary teams, guided by mentors from various fields, to develop creative solutions to critical challenges. SLULaunch addresses a broad range of issues, including applying geospatial insights to tackle food and water security, climate change, economic development, and inequity, as well as driving innovations in healthcare, such as surgical devices, health information technology, and medical diagnostics. SLULaunch maintains its mission to improve industry standards through the engineering and design of creative solutions while also fostering a community of entrepreneurship and collaboration at Saint Louis University and other organizations in the greater St. Louis area.

Problem Bank

The industry problem bank for SLULaunch helps identify issues affecting both the healthcare and geospatial industries. After receiving a problem and/or research opportunity, the SLULaunch executive team and CCE staff will evaluate the problem based on criteria including, but not limited to, solution feasibility, development timeline, potential legal complications, affected population size and marketability. Based on the results of this evaluation, the problem may be made available for selection by SLULaunch teams that express interest in developing a solution.

Submit a Problem

Teams

SLULaunch is rooted in an innovative, student-led, interdisciplinary approach to solving problems in both the health care and geospatial industries. Team leads are selected based on their leadership, teamwork, management, time management and interpersonal communication skills. Successful teams include students from all University campuses, encouraging collaboration between STEM and non-STEM students on a wide range of impactful projects.

SLU eMentors

SLULaunch eMentors are the heart of the program. eMentors are SLU faculty, researchers, stakeholders and industry professionals keen to mentor teams to navigate the program year. By leveraging their unique experiences, skill sets and networks, successful advisors have helped many teams overcome individual obstacles. Our mentors are dedicated to supporting great ideas and solutions.

Some responsibilities of eMentors include:

• Participating in monthly design reviews to provide feedback to team leads on their project updates
• Attending SLULaunch events, such as Launch Day and Demo Day
• Host workshops on specific topics such as engineering and prototyping, how to develop a pitch deck and business forecasting

Become an eMentor

For more information, please contact us at ecenter@slu.edu.