Launching this fall, the Purdue Hub for Innovation, Ventures and Entrepreneurship (Purdue HIVE), operated by the College of Engineering, is a new center designed to expand innovation and startup activity within Purdue University.

Innovation is fundamental to the American spirit and economy, and it bubbles up pretty much everywhere these days. That includes at Purdue, where students are launching startup ventures to capitalize on their innovative research and ideas.

Purdue Engineering is a big advocate of that entrepreneurship, and has now set up a center to better enable these students to translate their ideas and enthusiasm into real-world practice.

Launching this fall, the Purdue Hub for Innovation, Ventures and Entrepreneurship (Purdue HIVE), operated by the College of Engineering, is a new center designed to expand innovation and startup activity within Purdue University.

Purdue HIVE will serve as a dedicated entrepreneurship center and connect students with campus-wide resources and programs, including the Certificate of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Mitch Daniels School of Business and the Purdue Research Foundation’s Purdue Innovates initiative. Through these linkups, Purdue HIVE will be accessible to students across campus who are actively working on building a startup focused on tech- or engineering-driven solutions.

Purdue HIVE stems out of conversations with students; many recognize that Purdue offers a number of programs focused on entrepreneurship and innovation, but they feel fragmented from their peers. Purdue HIVE Managing Director, Jessica Jud commented, “When we share what Purdue HIVE is designed to do, students are excited about having a central space where they can consistently connect and build together to create a more unified startup community.”

The center will be approximately 10,000 square feet of space that will include co-working areas where selected student founders can work and collaborate within an active founder community; dedicated areas for pitch competitions and entrepreneurship training workshops; and incubator space for up to 10 startup companies.

The goal is to be a place where venture building truly happens — where student founders are making real progress on their companies — while also serving as a cornerstone for the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem at Purdue.

Startups A-Z

Purdue HIVE will support students at different stages of their entrepreneurship journey, with the majority focused on those students who are actively building ventures and making meaningful progress. Students can apply to be part of a center where they will have access to the dedicated workspace, resources, mentorship, and a community of other student founders building alongside them.

For many students, entrepreneurship education is the starting point of their innovation journey. Programs like Purdue’s Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation serve as a cornerstone of this experience, equipping students with the tools to evaluate opportunities, understand the venture creation process, and gain real-world entrepreneurial experience alongside their degree programs.

With more than 2,000 students supported each year across the West Lafayette and Indianapolis campuses, the certificate program provides a strong foundation for aspiring entrepreneurs. For many students, the certificate program will serve as a gateway to Purdue HIVE, where they can move from learning the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and testing early ideas to actively building, refining, and growing their ventures.

Some students may not have their own idea but are interested in contributing skills and gaining experience working with a startup; Purdue HIVE will connect them with startup teams through a matchmaking process so they can offer their expertise while helping student startups grow.

The goal is to accelerate the success of student founders across campus with a dedicated space where they can actively work on their ventures. Instead of building from dorm rooms or apartments, students will have a place to collaborate, learn from one another, and contribute to building a stronger entrepreneurship community on campus.

Partnerships across campus

In addition to providing an integrated incubator atmosphere on campus, Purdue HIVE will also be outward-facing. There will be a dedicated event space for pitch competitions, workshops, guest speakers/panels, etc. It will include state-of-the-art AV equipment to create a more connected experience with groups like SVBIG (a group of Silicon Valley senior executives and entrepreneurs dedicated to mentoring Purdue entrepreneurs from their earliest ideas to venture-scale success), connecting Purdue alumni through the Purdue Alumni Entrepreneurship Network (PAEN) back to West Lafayette and our students.

Purdue HIVE is strategically aligned with Purdue Innovates to connect student innovation and entrepreneurial learning directly to Purdue’s broader commercialization and startup ecosystem. Through this partnership, the students will engage with programs such as Moonshot Pitch and Firestarter while gaining exposure to Purdue’s larger entrepreneurial ecosystem, creating more opportunities for students to transform ideas into meaningful impact.

“Purdue HIVE will serve as a vibrant hub where students from across campus can gather, collaborate, and engage with entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities,” said Brooke Beier, senior vice president of Purdue Innovates. "Purdue Innovates is proud to partner with Purdue HIVE by connecting entrepreneurial students to our mentorship, educational programming, startup support services, investor networks, and broader commercialization ecosystem.”

A key component of this partnership will be a Purdue Innovates Accelerator designed specifically for HIVE-affiliated startups, providing student founders with structured support to advance and scale their ventures. “Together, we can increase awareness of and access to these resources, helping more Boilermakers transform innovative ideas into startups and solutions with real-world impact,” Beier said.

Venture X, a venture creation course sequence at Purdue within the John Martinson Honors College, will also be connected with Purdue HIVE. Venture X is a platform where students in interdisciplinary teams across majors work on their passions, explore problem spaces, prototype solutions, and prepare their ventures for launch. Course instructor Dr. Kostas Grigoriou is planning to host Venture X2 — the spring semester class — in Purdue HIVE to get his students plugged into the Purdue HIVE community and to work out of a space that is built for student founders, sharing, “Hosting X2 at Purdue HIVE and tapping into the Purdue HIVE network will further elevate this wonderful learning environment!”

Purdue HIVE is funded by a generous gift from the AGE Fisher Family Foundation, a vehicle created by longtime donors and Boilermakers Jeff (BS, Electrical Engineering, ‘80) and Edie (BS, Retail Management, ‘80) Fisher, and centrally located with easy access to most STEM students on Purdue’s campus in the Duncan Annex of the Max W. & Maileen Brown Family Hall.

Making connections

Purdue HIVE is designed to naturally bring people together — a place where students want to be, where energy builds from being around others who are also building and exploring ideas. That environment can spark unexpected connections and open the door to interdisciplinary collaborations across campus, where a lot of future innovation can begin.

Purdue HIVE will connect students with entrepreneurs beyond campus who are actively in the middle of building companies. They’ll be able to share the real stories of their journeys — the wins, the challenges, and everything in between — and what they’ve learned along the way. The center’s seasoned board of directors — Paul Stahura, John Moser, Richard Penington, and Mickey Swortzel, in addition to Jeff Fisher — will assist with these initiatives as well.

We hope this creates a strong network of alumni mentors around Purdue HIVE — along with people who may eventually become supporters, funders, or investors cheering these teams on and ready to help the ventures that emerge from the space.

Over time, we anticipate that HIVE will position Purdue as a national leader in supporting student founders, turning ideas coming out of universities into real companies and real impact.