BGU has initiated the creation of a unique space for students, alumni and faculty to work on their technological and socio-technological initiatives. The new space, BGU Innovation Labs, is located at the WeWork facility in the Gav Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park adjacent to the University.
BGU Innovation Labs is another outlet for the university community – students, alumni, and faculty – to pursue their ideas. The Labs are run by the Bengis Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and BGN Technologies, the University’s technology transfer company. Adi Stein is the Labs’ manager.
University administration recognized the potential for great ideas among the university community and especially the final projects of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences (to be held this year on June 30).
The new space will offer guidance and mentoring for those interested at any stage, from those with just an idea to those who are much farther down the development path.
The choice of WeWork as the home of the new Labs was deliberate. Joining the WeWork community puts these burgeoning entrepreneurs in the same space with a whole host of other professionals such as graphic designers, legal advisors, digital media marketing companies and other technology companies.
The WeWork space is also home to the Inno-Negev accelerator which had a very successful first cycle and is looking for entrepreneurs for its second cycle from among students and alumni.
BGU Innovation Labs will offer academic courses in international entrepreneurship, bi-weekly lectures, a technology services package from Amazon worth $5,000, a network of entrepreneurs and more.
An initial call for projects in April drew a lot of interest and there are already 51 students developing their ideas there. One team is working on Dress Me App, a social fashion app thought up by five women entrepreneurs: Noga Sadan, Biology and Psychology graduate, Zoe Avraham, Computer Science Student, Ariel Oren, MBA student, Dafna Nakash, Hotel and Tourism graduate and Yasmin Granot, also a Computer Science student. The five met at the BGU chapter of She Codes, which teaches women computer coding in order to increase the number of women in the computer programming marketplace. They noticed a common desire to constantly update their fashion wardrobes and proposed a social, frugal and environmentally-friendly solution based on a platform for borrowing or selling secondhand clothes.
Another initiative is Keepers started by Yoav and Anat Lerner. Partners in life as well as in business, they want to make the connection between real estate management and technology and offer a unique platform for those who have purchased apartments for investment to manage, rent and sell them by themselves, without the need for a broker or even a physical presence. They have launched their pilot in Beer-Sheva where there are 14,000 apartments for investment – most rented out to students.
