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11 BizEd July/August 2014 11 BizEd July/August 2014 ENTREPRENEURS TEND to eat, breathe, and sleep their innovations—and that's exactly what student entrepreneurs will soon be able to do at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. A US$12 million donation from Pierre Lassonde, announced by the university's Lassonde Home/Garage/School/ Entrepreneurship Center rience, it also will allow the school to support its home-state market. The outcome of the MAP invest- ments—which are focused on Michigan equities—will determine whether regional bias has a positive or nega- tive effect on portfolio alpha. Alpha is a measure of performance on a risk-adjusted basis and is defined as the excess return of the fund relative to the return of the benchmark index. Two Walsh student teams, each including a portfo- lio manager and analysts, vie for the opportunity to serve as LaBrecque's financial advisor, with responsibil- ity for managing his $100,000 portfolio. Teams will be selected based on their responses to a request for proposal and judged according to the quality of their research, validity of their proposed strategies, and other factors. Students will use Walsh College's finance lab to analyze markets and make investment choices. LaBrecque sees the new portfolio as a lure to keep students at Walsh—and in state. He says, "I don't want our young talent leaving home for Chicago or New York. I want them here, where they can be great neighbors and make our state better for generations to come. I want the thousands of great companies in Michigan to have access to the best and brightest." For more information about the MAP, visit www. michiganalphaproject.org. Entrepreneur Institute, will create a 148-square-foot facility called the "Lassonde Studios: Live. Create. Launch." The building will unite 412 residences with 20,000 square feet of "garage" space where students can gather to build prototypes and launch companies. The new facility will be designed to have the versa- tility and durability of an industrial loft building. The ground floor will contain studio workshops that include 3D printers, power tools, office space, and lounge areas. Surrounding the work space will be student residences in the form of loft areas for groups and small, moveable pods for individuals. The entire building will use a "uni- versal grid" that will allow sections to be remodeled and repurposed based on student needs. "The building will be as innovative and entrepre- neurial as the activities inside," says Troy D'Ambrosio, executive director of the institute. "Students will be able to choose what type of residence they want and what type of work space they prefer, and if we don't have what they want, we might start knocking down walls. If this building is the same five years after we open the doors, we are doing something wrong. Entre- preneurship is never static." Groundbreaking for the building, which is expected to cost $45 million, is scheduled for fall 2014, with students moving in for the fall of 2016. I MAG E COU RTESY OF TH E U N IVE R SITY OF UTAH / LAWR E NCE B OYE Want More B-School News? With this issue, we're launching an expanded online version of our news section. In addition to items that appear in print, our online version of Headlines offers bonus news content and a more comprehensive Short Takes section. Visit www.bizedmagazine.com/headlines/ july-august-2014.pdf