Back<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nEShip Studio: Building Ventures and People<\/h2>\n\n\n\n A co-curricular element of Harvey Mudd College\u2019s entrepreneurial curriculum is the Summer Entrepreneurship Studio program, informally known as Eship Studio. Built for aspiring student entrepreneurs as well as the entrepre-curious, Eship Studio offers a hands-on opportunity to practice venture building, from purpose to pitch. During the 10-week, full-time summer program, students define a purpose, refine solutions, conduct business development research, build prototypes and pitch their ideas to diverse audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zach Dodds, Leonhard-Johnson-Rae Professor of Computer Science and Entrepreneurship Studio Director, has led the program since it began in 2016 (under the name Summer Startup). He sees the program as a complement to Harvey Mudd\u2019s other entrepreneurship offerings (the Enterprise and Entrepreneurs seminar, other courses and incubator opportunities) and as a way for students to develop important skills, whether they become entrepreneurs or not. \u201cWe have had many alums share that the experience of building a venture in Eship Studio were crucial segments of their subsequent paths,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Typical Eship Studio projects range from software and apps to wearable tech and medical devices. One recent project is PreMan, which helps companies make their software accessible to AI agents (read more about founder Alspencer Omondi \u201926 on page 18). Omondi participated as a rising sophomore in 2023 and a rising junior in 2024, launching multiple ventures that grew in ambition and scale. Dodds notes that Omondi\u2019s story is typical, as founders often develop and outgrow many ideas before landing on one that finds broad traction. \u201cOne of the most valuable features of Eship Studio is that every participant emerges with a set of stories that only they can tell,\u201d says Dodds. \u201cNo one else has their mix of failed initial ideas, expanded perspectives, successful prototypes and lessons learned.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nEship Studio is the product of a vast support network. George Drysdale \u201976 has helped make it possible since its first iteration in 2016. Steve Hinch \u201973 made an Eship Studio spot possible for the summer of 2026 and has provided feedback and advice to the teams. Attorneys Amir Adibi \u201907 and Cameron Hajialiakbar have been generous in providing accessible onramps to essential startup legal considerations. Additionally, Enterprise and Entrepreneurs professors Josh Jones \u201998 and Benson Tsai \u201906 have helped springboard students who decide to make the startup leap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dodds says, \u201cIn 2027, HMC is deepening its commitment to entrepreneurship\u2019s role in STEM education, and Eship Studio will continue to evolve to match Mudd\u2019s vision. As it does, it will continue to serve as an engine for personal growth first and for startup-development as a means to that end.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Innovation has always been woven into the fabric of Harvey Mudd College, where a rigorous STEM foundation is paired with an understanding of global impact. In this issue, we celebrate that spirit by turning the spotlight onto our entrepreneurial alumni network. We reached out to more than 60 Mudd entrepreneurs, asking them to expose the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}