IIT Invites Undergraduate Entrepreneurs to Get “Chased” Around the City

Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) Entrepreneurship Program and its student organization, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy, present the 2008 Chicago Innovation Chase beginning at 8:30 a.m. Friday, April 11, with breakfast at IIT Institute of Design (ID), 350 North LaSalle Blvd., Chicago. The event will close with a reception at approximately 4 p.m. at the same location.

The 2008 Chicago Innovation Chase, which consists of teams of undergraduate entrepreneurs from eight Midwestern universities, is one part scavenger hunt, one part business building and one part invention. This year’s teams come from DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Kettering University, Lawrence Technological University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Saint Louis University, University of Illinois at Chicago and Valparaiso University.

Starting with a single clue, participants will be required to complete a variety of tasks in a five hour time period, including a written opportunity assessment, a rapid prototyping exercise, an ethnographic study and an elevator pitch, each in a different downtown Chicago location.

Teams are competing for a top prize of $2500, a second prize of $1250 and a third prize of $500. The theme of this year’s Chicago Innovation Chase will be the development of a new product or service and will not be announced until the day of the event.

The 2008 Chicago Innovation Chase is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Program at IIT, The Coleman Foundation and the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network. Participants in this year’s Chase include the IIT Institute of Design, the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, Garmin International and World Business Chicago.

For more information about the Chicago Innovation Chase, please visit www.chicagoinnovationchase.com.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 6,700 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment.