UA Taking Part in SEC Symposium on Innovation, Entrepreneurship

February 1, 2015

The third-annual Southeastern Conference Symposium later this year will focus on the role universities play in preparing students to be entrepreneurial, innovative and creative thinkers and will explore the ways universities impact the economy, the UA Newswire reports.

The symposium is a program of SECU, the academic initiative of the SEC that was housed in Fayetteville when launched but eventually moved to join other SEC offices in Birmingham.

UA provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs Sharon Gaber of the SEC provost group. Arkansas, of course, is one of 14 SEC members. SECU is supported by the SEC but focuses on collaborative academic initiatives between member schools.

Here's more on universities and their role in sparking innovation from Judith Cone, the former Kauffman Foundation exec and current chief innovation officer at the University of North Carolina.

Cone spoke to a group of Arkansas innovation leaders earlier this month at UALR.

The 2015 SEC Symposium is scheduled for Sept. 20-22 in Atlanta.

Here's more from SECU:

Led by the University of Florida, the 2015 SEC Symposium will focus on the role universities play in preparing students to be entrepreneurial, innovative and creative thinkers and will explore the ways universities impact the economy.

“The exciting work these days is in the problems between the boundaries of disciplines, so we’re going to bring together art with engineering, for example,” said Dr. Joe Glover, University of Florida Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. “Universities are often the organizations generating new ideas – the ideas that become new products or inventions. Universities also play a vital role in building the economy, which is what entrepreneurship is really about.”

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