Subject addresses the architecting of air transportation systems. Focuses on the conceptual phase of product definition include technical, economic, market, environmental, regulatory, legal, manufacturing, and societal factors. Subject centers on a realistic system case study and includes a number of lectures from industry and government. Past examples included the Very Large Transport Aircraft, a Supersonic Business Jet and a Next Generation Cargo System. Subject identifies the critical system level issues and analyzes them in depth via student team projects and individual assignments. The overall goal of the semester is to produce a business plan and a system specifications document that can be used to assess candidate systems.

The Business Plan Laboratory has been created for non-business students who are either competing in the Syracuse Business Plan Competition, or have an idea for a venture but do not know how to put together a professional business plan. It will meet one night per week during the Spring Semester. The Lab will have a very "hands-on" focus, where we work with student business concepts in discussing how to put together a great plan, including the mechanics of such challenges as defining a market and estimating market size, constructing a workable model for making money, assessing the industry, designing an operating system, putting together financials, and much more.

This course concentrates on the study of entrepreneurship, preparation of business plans, methods for evaluating new venture ideas, formulation and implementation of business strategies for new ventures, and the financing of new ventures. The course utilizes lecture, discussion, exercise, videotape, and case study as methods of learning. It integrates knowledge gained from the prior core business courses to sharpen the student's ability to "think entrepreneurially" and form new ventures.

This course is about developing analytical and conceptual skills required to test the feasibility of a business concept. In broad terms, the focus of a feasibility study involves undertaking activities that may help determine whether one should go forward with an opportunity. The process of feasibility analysis involves identifying, evaluating and determining whether to exploit an opportunity. (It should be noted that a business plan would be developed after a feasibility analysis has determined that the business concept can be successfully exploited. The business plan provides the details of how the entrepreneur will successfully execute the business concept.) In the feasibility analysis class students learn a number of practical skills and techniques that are applied to opportunities that teams of students explore. The creation of a feasibility study is the primary activity of the class. The course involves a significant amount of outside work that is time consuming, ambiguous, complex, and multi-functional, in nature. Feasibility analysis forces students to: undertake a significant amount of field research; develop and think critically about business concepts; answer fundamental questions about strategic, marketing, financial, operational, and human resource issues about business concepts; and then reach a decision about going forward to start the businesses that are proposed.

Upon completion of this programme, you will be able to: Understand the concepts of business and entrepreneurship; compare the potential of different business ideas; know the basic legal requirements for launching a small business; perform SWOT analyses and applying them to your competitors, your own business and even yourself; analyse the environment for designing the marketing mix and marketing strategies; develop good book-keeping practices; acquire appropriate resources for your business needs; anticipate and relate to your customers needs more accurately; develop sharp skills to compile your business plan to your advantage.

The Venture Development courses (I & II) are the capstone courses of the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program. It is the core of your program-wide studies, and it is within the context of these two courses that students conceive and develop an investment quality comprehensive business plan. You will participate in a wide variety of learning activities and complete a number of specific assignments, all designed to support this goal. Throughout these activities and assignments, your key deliverable is the actual business plan, of which the first full draft will be due on December 12th. It is the responsibility of your team, with the support of your assigned mentor and other program faculty, to bring together all the relevant information, identify the gaps, research and seek additional information, identify relevant resources, resolve issues, and ultimately create the plan. The business plan outline is included in the student handbook and posted on Blackboard; please become completely familiar with the format and required elements so that you can work, learn, and apply your efforts within that framework.

The purpose of this class is to send you away with a business plan that is almost ready to use to shop for investment money.

By the time you complete this course, you should: be able to adapt critical thinking involving in entrepreneurial activities relating to agriculture and resources in a professional manner; understand the necessity of sound planning before embarking on a business venture relating to agriculture and resources; have acquired specific skills and experience in gathering and analyzing data from primary and secondary sources as an independent entrepreneur; be able to use the computer packages to help you analyze data; be able to write and assemble a well designed business plan containing the principle elements needed by a banker or venture capitalist to evaluate the potential success; be confident to explain and defend your business ideas in front of a diverse audience throughout the semester.

This class will give students the chance to better the lives of others by improving wheelchairs and tricycles made in the developing world. According to the United States Agency for International Development, 20 million people in developing countries require wheelchairs, and the United Nations Development Programme estimates below 1% of the need in Africa is being met by local production. Lectures will focus on understanding local factors, such as operating environments, social stigmas against the disabled, and manufacturing constraints, then applying sound scientific/engineering knowledge to develop appropriate technical solutions. Multidisciplinary student teams will conduct term-long projects on topics such as hardware design, manufacturing optimization, biomechanics modeling, and business plan development. Theory will further be connected to real-world implementation during guest lectures by MIT faculty, Third World community partners, and U.S. wheelchair organizations. Funded summer fellowships to implement class projects into African wheelchair workshops will be offered to at least six students.