Innovation

We assist emerging entrepreneurs – students and community members alike – to help them transform great ideas into marketable products, start-up companies, and potentially transformative new industries.

This city and this university have fostered generations of inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs, yielding new ideas that have changed the face of the world.

Today, we are building on our past successes through programs that extend the ideas of creative and talented people throughout our communities and that support collaborations to help them pursue innovative ideas.

By joining our educational excellence with high-impact services and expert mentorship, we are helping to incubate and accelerate important new ventures. We also offer community members affordable access to work spaces and technological support that will foster innovation, enable translation of innovative ideas into prototype products, and help them establish strong, sustainable new businesses.

03/02/2023

UChicago to partner on new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative biomedical research hub

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced March 2 the launch of a new biomedical research hub in Chicago that will bring together the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

02/28/2023

"Speak up and speak out": John Rogers Jr., LAB'76, discusses socially responsible investing

To cap its celebration of Black History Month, the Harris School of Public Policy featured investor John W. Rogers Jr., LAB’76, in a fireside chat with Dean Katherine Baicker that revisited Chicago’s history as a “mecca for African American entrepreneurs”.

02/23/2023

Rustandy Center: 19 Teams Advance in the 2023 John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge

This week 19 mission-driven UChicago teams advanced to the next round of the 2023 John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC). The selected teams will work on a range of innovative solutions.

Upcoming event

May 10th, 2023 | 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Argonne National Laboratory Open House 2023

Join Argonne National Laboratory at the Lab for a free day-long event. Meet researchers, see huge science machines, and participate in hands-on activities.

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Ashlyn Sparrow
Education Partnerships, Weston Game Lab

Ashlyn Sparrow wants young people from Chicago’s South Side to take her job someday. As the Assistant Director of the Weston Game Lab at the University of Chicago, Sparrow is a game designer who is always eager to show young people that they too can turn their personal interests into fulfilling careers.