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Since its founding, Washington
University in St. Louis has benefited from the unstinting support
of the region's leaders—many of whom have served on the Board
of Trustees, on advisory councils, and as volunteers. Many of the
University's alumni are active participants in the region's businesses.
In addition, through its educational and research programs, the
University cooperates with local business and industry in many ways.
Together with corporate, civic, and government leaders, Washington
University is particularly committed to fueling the life sciences—both
human biology and plant science—in the region.
Here are just a few of dozens
of efforts put forward by the University to support the economic
climate of the region.
Individual Involvement
Faculty members and administrators
at Washington University in St. Louis are actively engaged in community
affairs. They have served as consultants to and board members of
many of the region's important manufacturing, retail, and financial
organizations, including Belden, Inc.; A.G. Edwards, Inc.; Reinsurance
Group of America Inc.; and Stifel Financial Corp.
Monsanto and Washington University
These two St. Louis institutions
developed a new collaborative agreement in 2000 to conduct research
focused in the plant sciences, plant biotechnology, plant genetics,
nutrition, and the environment. In research extending over 10 years,
scientists will develop new technologies, products, or both with
potential commercial applications.
As a result of an earlier collaborative
agreement, Monsanto and Washington University conducted biomedical
research focused in the areas of proteins and peptides that regulate
cellular functions. Extended several times from its initiation in
1982 to its completion in 1999, the pioneering $100-million agreement
was one of the largest research contracts between a university and
an American corporation—a prototype for collaborative efforts
between higher education and industry.
Executive Education Programs
Taught by senior faculty in the
Olin Business School, the Executive MBA program offers fast-track
managers an interactive learning experience. In 21 months, without
interrupting their careers, participants complete a comprehensive
management program that culminates in the Master of Business Administration
degree. In addition, Washington University partners with Fudan
University in Shanghai on a joint EMBA program that began in April
2002.
The Olin Partners' Program offers individual managers and organizations a series of executive development seminars. Olin also offers custom programs to help leading organizations like Boeing, Bryan Cave, Emerson, FBI Laboratory, and Monsanto address specific business challenges or management development issues.
Supplier Diversity
Washington University’s Supplier Diversity Initiative continues to seek ways to impact the
St. Louis metropolitan area through the development of minority contractors and suppliers and through the creation of sustainable jobs on construction projects. The University spent a record $57.5 million with minority- and women-owned firms in fiscal year 2008.
This year, consultant Sandra Marks, and her firm, Marks and Associates, along with the University’s Supplier Diversity Advisory Council, developed a five-year strategic plan to further enhance the University’s initiative for greater economic impact. The strategic plan calls for departmental action plans to increase spending with minority owned firms and promote the hiring of minority professionals. It also includes a new initiative to increase the hiring, training, and retention of minority and female apprentices, the Washington University Apprenticeship Utilization Program or WA-UP!
Center for Security Technologies
Initiated in 2003 to help address
our country's need to protect its people, infrastructures, and information
from threats to security—whether from natural disasters or
environmental catastrophe or terrorism, Washington University's Center for Security Technologies focuses on scientific and engineering
aspects of the development of advanced security systems.
Research by this interdisciplinary
center has applicability to important problems facing individuals,
government, and industry, including object verification and recognition,
fast searching of massive text and image databases, credit-card
fraud, security of water supply facilities and other critical infrastructures,
and information systems security. The center's purpose includes
establishing new directions for industry—both users and developers
of security systems—and starting new ventures in collaboration
with industry.
Technology Gateway
Washington University in St. Louis
has joined with many community and business leaders to form the
Technology Gateway, an alliance of companies and organizations in
the St. Louis region aimed at furthering the growth of local technology-based
business ventures. A part of the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth
Association, Technology Gateway focuses on stimulating the creation
and growth of entrepreneurial technology-based ventures by improving
access to seed and venture capital, enhancing the workforce, and
providing education and mentoring to aspiring entrepreneurs.
Center for Emerging Technologies
Washington University in St. Louis
is a major participant in the Center for Emerging Technologies,
which stimulates technology-based industrial activity in the metropolitan
area by assisting in the creation and development of companies with
advanced biomedical and environmental technologies, electronics,
information systems, and other cutting-edge technologies. It also
fosters university/industry consortia in targeted technologies.
Several of the companies—including
BioSynthema—served by the center have
ongoing research and collaboration with Washington University. They
work closely with University faculty to further the development
and evaluation of their products.
Murray Weidenbaum Center on
the Economy, Government, and Public Policy
The Weidenbaum Center furthers understanding
of the economic system and tackles problems relevant to business
and government on the regional, national, and international scale.
Research and public programs sponsored by the center address such
topics as U.S. regulatory spending, the economics of moviemaking,
corporate and securities law, and trade policy.
Center for Experiential Learning
St. Louis businesses and nonprofit
organizations can call upon undergraduate and graduate students
of the Center for Experiential Learning in the Olin Business School for assistance on a wide range of
organizational problems, including marketing, operations, finance,
and organizational design. Through practicums, students work in
teams on semester-long projects that bridge the gap between classroom
theory and business application.
Through the center's Taylor
Community Consulting Program, teams of students apply their skills
and knowledge to assist nonprofit agencies with specific business
problems. Students have successfully developed marketing strategies,
analyzed business operations, and improved accounting systems for
4Sho4Kids, Catholic Charities of St. Louis, Court Appointed Special
Advocates, Employment Connection, Kids in the Middle, Life Crisis
Services, and other organizations.
Reality-based learning for students
in the center leads to comprehensive business plans for entrepreneurs
and exposure to new business ideas for potential investors. The
Hatchery, part of the center's Skandalaris Entrepreneurship Program,
brings together promising entrepreneurs and student-consultants.
Teams of business students prepare professional-quality business
plans for entrepreneurs.
Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
Providing entrepreneurial education to students through a multidisciplinary, cross-campus collaboration, the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies also reaches into the community to foster networking; support the creation of ideas; and offer opportunities for entrepreneurs to meet Washington University students, faculty, and alumni. Through social events and a Web site, IdeaBounce capitalizes on St. Louis' entrepreneurial energy by offering people across the region a place to collaborate on the development of new ideas. The Hatchery is a class where students work with outside entrepreneurs needing assistance with their new ventures and business plans. Entrepreneurs with early-stage ventures can meet potential investors, learn, and receive feedback through the Olin Cup Competition, a business formation contest, and the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition, a contest for social ventures. The Skandalaris Center also conducts academic research through the Center for Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which explores such topics as innovative change in large organizations, technology transfer, and economic development policy.
Center for the Application
of Information Technology
Companies in the St. Louis region
are helped in developing and training professional IT leaders. The
Center for the Application of Information Technology, which is part
of the School of Engineering, offers more than 400 courses each
year. A sampling of member companies includes Ameren, Anheuser-Busch
Companies, Boeing, Bryan Cave, Defense Information Systems Agency,
Electronic Data Systems, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Hewlett-Packard,
IBM, MasterCard International, Microsoft, Monsanto, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
Pulitzer, and Regional Justice Information System.
Assistance for
Social Agencies
Nonprofit organizations in the
St. Louis area can find assistance through consultations, workshops,
lectures, skill development programs, and other strategies designed
to help build organizational and professional capacity and competency.
These services are offered through the Alliance for Building Capacity program
in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.
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