Dean dedicates EY Innovation Lab at the Robins School of Business

Keith Sheehan, '04, senior manager of assurance services at EY, joined Dean Nancy Bagranoff at the dedication. EY donated a generous gift to the Robins School to ensure future students will be able to utilize the Innovation Lab.

Dean Nancy Bagranoff dedicated the EY Innovation Lab in the Robins School of Business on March 22, 2019. 

The iLab, which opened in fall of 2017, was constructed as an environment to inspire Robins students to explore new ideas and foster innovation and collaboration.

The iLab was designed after visits to a variety of innovation spaces, including startup companies in New York City. The flexible-use space features state of the art technology, from eBeam interactive whiteboards to Soltice Pods for wireless presentations on multiple devices. 

EY donated a generous gift to the Robins School to ensure future students will have the very best opportunities to learn and collaborate in the Innovation Lab. Keith Sheehan, ’04, senior manager of assurance services at EY, is instrumental in maintaining that relationship.

“As an organization that promotes and thrives in disruption, we are focused on understanding our changing world and creating powerful ideas that challenge ourselves and others to think differently and ask better questions,” Sheehan said. “The EY Innovation Lab provides an environment for the inquisitive, engaged, and creative minds of tomorrow’s entrepreneurial leaders.

Dr. Doug Bosse, chair of the management department at the Robins School, says this space is unique in that it is open to students from all disciplines, and allows an outlet for the creative process that many students crave.

“The iLab is a space set aside for exploring and realizing student potential. This space welcomes students with a range of blank canvas technologies they can use to form, test, and refine their ideas about all kinds of new ventures and innovations,” Bosse said.

Since its opening, nearly 200 faculty, staff, and students have gained access to the space. Faculty teach courses in the space like Digital Marketing and Creative Thinking, which students say expands the idea of what a classroom environment can be.

“The EY Innovation Lab has allowed me the space to interact and engage with a diverse group of students who challenge and inspire me to innovate in an academic setting,” Rebecca Seeger, ’19, said. “As a student interested in business, law, and writing, I love that the iLab offers an environment for simultaneously creative and rigorous academic pursuits, the importance of which extends beyond the classroom.”

Every aspect of the idea lab at the Robins School of Business is intended to foster the innovation and collaboration that is already brimming inside our students’ creative minds. But above all, the EY Innovation Lab is a space for collaboration --  between business students and faculty, across schools and disciplines, and with community business leaders.

Dean Bagranoff researched multiple university spaces across the country to ensure the innovation lab at the Robins School is ahead of the curve when it comes to integrating new technology into business education.

“Many of our older business and social enterprises are being disrupted today,” Bagranoff said. “The EY Innovation Lab provides a setting where new ideas are encouraged to take root. We wanted a space that was inconsistent with our usual look and feel that would be futuristic with state-of-the-art technology.” 

For more information about how to use the technology in the EY Innovation Lab, please contact multimedia support services. Students can gain access to the lab here, and faculty and staff can gain access to the lab here.