The Final Year Project (FYP) Accelerator is the Entrepreneurship Track's flagship program that allows graduating MSFEA students to take their Final Year Project beyond the MSFEA and university setting and think of it as a potential viable business. Interested students can join this program through an application-based selection process which checks the business potential of the proposed project and the commitment of the team to go the extra mile. The participating students enroll in FEAA 501 (0 cr.) during the Fall term and FEAA 502 (3 cr.) during the Spring term where they are exposed to hands-on workshops, coaching from seasoned mentors, talks from guest entrepreneurs, and intensive business sessions, in order to seriously deal with their FYP as an entrepreneurial endeavor. At the end of the Spring term, the teams pitch their projects in a demo-day event during the Annual MSFEA IDEAS conference and winners are awarded significant cash prizes to seed-fund their startups.
Objectives of FYP Accelerator
- Assist students in transforming their technical innovative project into a viable business
- Teach lean, agile, and design thinking methodologies
- Provide access to seasoned mentors and regular feedback to guide the team in testing, iterating, and launching its product
- Enhance pitching skills
- Guide team on legal aspects of business, including intellectual property rights
- Integrate team in the wider startup ecosystem
- Teach team members on how and when to raise capital
- Hand-over graduating startups to other support entities when necessary