It is estimated that 65 percent of students entering primary school today will ultimately work in jobs types that don’t currently exist and will hold 15 different jobs during their career. Georgia Tech is preparing students for the future through curricula and student competitions designed to instill entrepreneurial confidence. We prepare students to not only be critical thinkers, but also hands-on doers.

K-12 STEM: Georgia Tech encourages STEM education and an innovation culture in schools all over the state through the K-12 InVenture Challenge, which reaches about 2,000 students annually and is held in conjunction with the Institute’s InVenture Prize undergraduate competition. Eighty teams participated from more than 40 Georgia elementary, middle, and high schools.

CREATE-X: More than 1,000 students are participating this year in CREATE-X, a program designed to give students tools to establish startups or to think innovatively within a corporation. Its three signature programs are Startup Lab, Idea to Prototype, and Startup Summer. Since its 2014 launch, CREATE-X has helped 49 student-founded startups. Of those, 32 are still going in Atlanta and have raised significant follow-up funding.

Innovation Competition: Georgia Tech students also test their creative ingenuity in other competitions such as the Capstone Design Expo, Ideas to Serve (I2S), and Convergence Innovation Competition (CIC), along with innovation programs such as VentureLab and TI:GER®, and living-learning communities such as Startup House and Grand Challenges. Some provide classroom instruction and credit toward graduation, but all give students the opportunity to work collaboratively to create products and services that can find a market niche.