Tulane Entrepreneurship & Innovation Course List | Fall 2026

Tulane offers students a wide range of opportunities to explore innovation, entrepreneurship, and creative problem-solving across disciplines. Through programs and resources offered by the Tulane Innovation Institute, the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking, students can access courses, mentorship, experiential learning opportunities, and venture support. Entrepreneurship and innovation are embedded throughout the university’s academic ecosystem, encouraging students to develop ideas, address challenges, and pursue meaningful impact.

This list reflects the course catalog at the time of publication, according to the Office of the University Registrar’s Fall 2026 course list. If you are offering an entrepreneurship or innovation course at Tulane and would like to be added to this list, please email innovation(at)tulane.edu.

Tulane Innovation Institute Affiliated Courses

Innovation and Technology Development: Creating Societal Impact with Research (SCEN 6660-02)

This course provides tools to transform research and discoveries into real-world solutions. Students learn to develop products and services for commercialization using frameworks like the business model canvas. Emphasis is on translating academic research into practical innovations with societal impact. The class guides students in turning ideas into tangible solutions, considering feasibility, ethics, and potential market applications. Students gain experience in shaping research projects toward real-world outcomes.  Open to School of Medicine PhD students, School of Science and Engineering PhD students, research-based master's students, and junior/senior undergraduate students with engineering capstone projects or undergraduate research experience. Claiborne Christian; to manually enroll, email christian@tulane.edu. 

UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL COURSES

Entrepreneurial Leadership & Problem Solving (SLAM 1010)
Students learn key leadership, analytical, and managerial skills through a liberal arts lens. Students explore major forces shaping today’s global economy — including digital innovation, big data, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and the creative and cultural industries — while examining the historical and social contexts behind them. Along the way, they develop practical problem-solving abilities and reflect on how these themes connect to their academic interests and long-term career goals. The course is designed to help students strengthen their confidence, adaptability, and strategic thinking across a wide range of professional pathways. Jason Seidman

Entrepreneurial Landscape of New Orleans (TIDE 1555)
Students receive a behind-the-scenes look at New Orleans’ entrepreneurial ecosystem — from the lessons learned after Hurricane Katrina to the ongoing work required to build an equitable, accessible, and collaborative startup community. Students hear directly from local entrepreneurs, support organizations, community partners, and investors who shape the region’s innovation economy. The course also incorporates data from the Greater New Orleans Startup Report, with insights shared by the Lepage Center, offering students an in-depth understanding of the current state of early-stage business activity in the city. Evan G. Nicoll and Rob Lalka

Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship (MGMT 3200)

Students learn skills for careers in entrepreneurship, venture capital, and startup ecosystems. They will evaluate business models, conduct due diligence, and pursue funding. Classes include discussions with entrepreneurs, readings by investors, and exploration of entrepreneurship’s societal role. Emphasis is on understanding the local ecosystem and gaining tools to pursue opportunities strategically. Alissa Bilfield | Brandon Soltwisch  

Digital Entrepreneurship (SLAM 3100)

This course examines entrepreneurship in the context of new media and digital technologies. Students explore cultural transformations from digital innovation and initiate entrepreneurial projects using emerging technologies. Hands-on activities develop creative problem-solving and practical business skills.  Jason S. Seidman  

Social Entrepreneurship (SISE 3042)

Focusing on social entrepreneurship, this course explores the development of innovative solutions to social and environmental issues. Students assess business models for social impact, integrating mission with strategy, and examine skills necessary to create sustainable change in communities worldwide. Verse C. Shom  

Strategic Management (MGMT 4010 )
Students identify and diagnose strategic issues companies face in complex, competitive environments. Strategic Management encompasses a series of interrelated steps by which managers conduct analyses at the industry, business, and corporate levels; decide on strategies to enhance firm competitiveness; implement those strategies; and evaluate and modify them as needed. Students assume the role of a practicing general manager and develop the capacity to propose and implement sound, realistic, and specific solutions to the firm’s strategic problems. Matthew Higgins

Management of Technology and Innovation (MGMT 4180)
Technology, innovation and entrepreneurship are among the most frequently used terms in today's business environment. We are bombarded by products and technologies that are changing the ways we live and work, but how do we analyze the processes that bring them to market? What exactly is technology? What forces shape its evolution? What roles do strategic alliances, standards and intellectual property play in forecasting? How should we create product development teams? How should we create organizations that foster innovation? What is the role of creativity in the development of new technologies? These are some of the topics that are covered in this course. Open to Junior Standing or Above. Michael S. Wilson

Student Venture Accelerator 1 (MGMT 4200)
In this course, students will develop an understanding of the resources, strategies and management skills required to launch a new business -- and some students will have the opportunity to create viable ventures that they can pursue through Student Venture Accelerator 2 in a subsequent semester. Working out of the Lepage Center’s Student Venture Incubator, students will have the opportunity to take an idea from its earliest inception through to analysis of potential product-market fit. Throughout this course, student teams will work on their new ventures by developing a business model and business strategy; creating financial, marketing, sales and hiring analyses; developing founding documents and policies; setting up charts of accounts; and developing a new venture pitch. Robert T. Lalka

Social Venture for a Sustainable Future (MGMT 4300)
This course introduces undergraduate students to social entrepreneurship, broadly defined as the development of innovative, sustainable solutions to address persistent social problems. Drawing from a wide range of academic fields (business management, public administration, economics, psychology, political science, sociology, etc.) and through a team-based, experiential learning approach, students will learn many of the concepts and tools associated with social venturing (e.g., the impact business model canvas, theories of change, logic models, social impact measurement techniques) and actively apply them in one of the social problem domains identified by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), such as Extreme Poverty, Affordable and Clean Energy, Responsible Consumption and Production, etc. Furthermore, by actively developing a potential solution to that social problem, students will explore, discuss, and live the unique challenges and opportunities associated with social venturing. Alissa Bilfield

Management of New Ventures (MGMT 4610)
MGMT 4610 focuses on entrepreneurs who are relentless in their pursuit of opportunities in the marketplace. This highly experiential and team-based course provides students with the opportunity to practice the basic tools of business discovery and validation, both as a means of new venture formation and as a core capability for addressing challenges in competitive landscapes. It also reviews the key conceptual and theoretical antecedents that underpin opportunity recognition. By the end of this class, students should have a clear understanding of how to take an entrepreneurial idea and run a series of iterative tests to assess its potential and viability in the market. Sandeep Devanatha Pillai
 

GRADUATE LEVEL COURSES

Social Innovation Tools (SBPS 6700)

Students gain skills in systems thinking, systems-led leadership, and human-centered design to address complex societal problems like climate change, violence, and health inequities. Training includes mapping systems, identifying intervention points, reframing challenges, and collaborative problem-solving. Examples span domestic, international, and global contexts, with design thinking workshops for hands-on learning. Participation in the Fast 48 workshop incurs an additional fee.  Jylana L. Sheats  

Bioinnovation Research (SCEN 7020)

Students research to advance bioinnovation, developing new technologies with potential for commercial or societal impact. The course emphasizes rigorous methods, critical thinking, and applications of research in real-world contexts. Donald P. Gaver    

Management of Technology & Innovation (MGMT 7210)

Students explore frameworks for managing technology advancement to maintain a competitive advantage. The course examines why companies rise or fall based on innovation capability. Tools and strategies for managing process and product innovations are introduced. Alexander Sleptsov

A.I. Enabled Entrepreneurship (MGMT-7810)
Course Dates: November 7 and 14. This condensed course helps students to understand and practice the full entrepreneurial process—from opportunity identification to scaling and exit—while explicitly learning where artificial intelligence can aid execution and where human judgment remains essential. Students will learn to build ventures in an “AI-enabled” way: using AI to accelerate and broaden research, hypothesis generation, prototyping, messaging, and analytics, while maintaining rigorous standards for evidence, ethics, and strategic decision-making. A central theme is disciplined entrepreneurship amid high uncertainty and automation. Students will practice using AI tools as a partner or “co-pilot” (for drafting, synthesis, scenario testing, and iteration) but will also engage with the human elements AI cannot replace: deep customer empathy, taste and prioritization, leadership, trust-building, and accountability for risk (privacy, IP, bias, and regulatory exposure). Open to Business School, Graduate, Business. Cameron C. Verhaal