Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/674746
16 UConn School of Business DEPARTMENTS ACCOUNTING e UConn accounting program was the first in New England to earn separate national accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Internation- al, an indicator of the kind of innovations in curriculum that students have come to expect. More recently, the department's Master of Science in Accounting program was named the No. 2 online graduate business program in the nation this year accord- ing to a study by U.S. News & World Report. "Accounting is challenging in and of itself, but it also provides insight to business operations and strategy," said George Plesko, associate professor and department head. "As a major, accounting prepares our students for a wide range of opportunities either in professional accounting or in other areas of business management.'' With experiential learning opportunities and competitions like the Deloitte Tax Challenge or PricewaterhouseCoopers xACT Challenge, accounting students gain broad practical knowledge and invaluable real-world experience. Graduates are highly sought after by prominent accounting firms. The success of the UConn School of Business rests on the shoulders of many who have worked tirelessly to innovate and deliver an exceptional learning experience to students every day. Here is a glimpse into some of the academic departments, specialties and programs that make UConn a powerful and unique leader in business education. G raduate nursing student Samantha Nesbeth wants to find a way to use genetics, instead of hair transplants, to help men and women regrow thinning hair. Meanwhile, Peter Vannorsdall, a sophomore major- ing in mechanical engineering, has created a device that helps get young children to wear their seatbelts. He has a functioning prototype but needs help taking the next step. Nesbeth and Vannorsdall are among 200 UConn stu- dents who participated in the University's 2016 Inno- vation Quest (iQ), seeking advice, encouragement and mentoring from experts in new-business development. Now in its fifth year at UConn, iQ is an innovation competition and startup incubator to help student entre- preneurs, with great ideas, build companies. iQ fosters student innovation and entrepreneurship with the mis- sion of creating jobs and companies by teaching aspiring entrepreneurs what it takes to launch a company – draw- ing attention to the value of business skills regardless of academic discipline. "Entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity are alive and well at UConn,'' said iQ director and management professor Rich Dino, noting that the number of partici- pants this year exceeded last year. "This is our fifth year and each year it gets better and better,'' said alumnus Keith Fox '80, an entrepreneur, ex- ecutive and philanthropist who brought the iQ program to UConn after seeing its success in California. Nearly 500 students have participated in iQ since its launch, said Dean John A. Elliott, and their contributions have been remarkable. Successfully launched companies include: Dashride, a provider of mobile dispatching software for taxi and lim- ousine companies; Macroscopic Solutions, which makes the Macropod, a package that includes a high-resolution digital camera, powerful optics, industry leading preci- sion hardware and novel software packages to provide customers with images that are significant in research, digitization and education; and SMPLBIO, which offers bioinformatics for everyday use in life science research and diagnostics, enabling researchers to gain insights into the nature of genes and proteins, thereby expediting new diagnostics, better drugs and superior therapeutics. iQ connects student teams with alumni mentors and other experts who have experience in building compa- nies and can help take a project from an idea to the mar- ketplace. After months of development, the top finalists present their refined ideas to an audience of angel inves- tors and venture capitalists. "I wouldn't miss it for anything,'' said mentor Larry Yakaitis '81, president of a software company. "Every year the quality of the students, the teams and the ideas are escalating to new levels, both in terms of the content and scope of what they've come up with. The connec- tions they're making in the business world are amazing.'' UConn's Innovation Quest Bringing New Ideas to Marketplace ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS, SPECIALTIES AND PROGRAMS