Who We Are

The RevUp Innovation website is a response to the book Engines of Innovation written by the University of North Carolina’s chancellor, Holden Thorp, and entrepreneur in residence, Buck Goldstein. The site is managed each year by a group of students in Goldstein’s first year seminar on entrepreneurship and innovation. Students are encouraged to tackle innovative projects that have an impact, one of which is managing this website. If you have any questions or want to know more about us or the site, feel free to e-mail innovation.unc@gmail.com.

What We Do

As a team we’re dedicated to promoting and encouraging innovation, especially on college campuses. We’ve tried to make this website a hub of resources for students in addition to entrepreneurs and the greater university community. We encourage you to explore the website to learn about entrepreneurship, see examples of cool innovations, and find ways to get connected with similar efforts on your campus or through social entrepreneurship.

How to Get Involved

We believe that an important part of innovation is multidisciplinary connection, and we would love to interact with you regardless of your background. If you know of any groups or organizations that you would like to see on the website, please let us know! In addition, if you’d like to see your university featured on the website we would love to work with you to make that connection happen. We welcome your suggestions, so please contact us at innovation.unc@gmail.com.

The Inspiration for It All

Engines of Innovation is a website inspired by the book Engines of Innovation.  The book was written by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp and Professor Buck Goldstein and published by UNC Press in the summer of 2010.

In Engines of Innovation, Holden Thorp and Buck Goldstein make the case for the pivotal role of research universities as agents of societal change. They argue that universities must use their vast intellectual and financial resources to confront global challenges such as climate change, extreme poverty, childhood diseases, and an impending worldwide shortage of clean water.

Combining their own experiences cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset within one of the nation’s elite public universities with detailed descriptions of the approaches taken by other educational leaders, Thorp and Goldstein provide not only an urgent call to action but also a practical guide for our nation’s leading institutions to make the most of the opportunities available to be major players in solving the world’s biggest problems. The result is a provocative and thoughtful beginning to an important conversation among educators, their supporters and trustees, policymakers, and the public at large as to how the American research university can best meet its societal responsibilities.

Engines of Innovation is now for sale. Check it out here!

In short, Engines of Innovation is a collaborative project, uniting students, professors, administration and business people, working to encourage the entrepreneurial mindset within the culture of the modern University, in order to solve the issues that we, as humanity, face today.