Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship

We are a dedicated institute for student entrepreneurs across campus and beyond. We aim to maximize your success by fostering your entrepreneurial mindset, promote inter-disciplinary collaboration and provide support for the creation and development of your new ventures. Jumpstart your ideas and get involved today!

Tune in for excitement!

Passion. Potential. Pitches. Don't miss any of the 2025 New Venture Challenge excitement.

Tune in Friday, April 11 at 1 p.m. for great ideas and fierce competition. Then, join the judges, mentors, spectators and teams as they see who is going home with thousands of dollars in venture financing. The awards broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. and one team will walk away as the overall best venture.

2025 NVC Competition Live Stream

2025 NVC Awards Live Stream

Start your entrepreneurial journey

Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration is the home of the Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship and the first Department of Entrepreneurship in the state of Michigan. We are a student-centric hub where experiential, curricular, and external entrepreneurial opportunities intersect.

Our mission is to maximize student success by fostering a campus-wide entrepreneurial mindset that promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration and the creation of new ventures.

We aim to create innovative programming, boost cross-campus and ecosystem collaboration and provide a comprehensive mentoring program.

Our institute provides extracurricular opportunities and is open to all undergraduate and graduate CMU students.

Student opportunities

Meet experienced alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and other business and political leaders.
Learn practical skills, innovative thinking, and connect with mentors and entrepreneurial resources.
Attend skill-building workshops and compete in pitch competitions and Hackathons.
Take part in special scholarship programs and travel experiences.
Pitch your venture at our signature New Venture Challenge event and compete for up to $20,000 in cash awards.

Find your path

Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.

A student standing with a faculty member holding big winning checks from the New Venture Challenge 2024.

Start up

Build up your venture idea.

Learn more

A student smiling and standing in front of his venture display at the 2024 New Venture Challenge.

Family business

Explore the Alternative Entrepreneurial Pathways category at NVC.

Learn more

A close-up of the Prusa i3 MK3 printer in the entrepreneurship makerspace, the IDEA Den in Grawn Hall 166.

Product and prototype design

Create and patent your ideas.

Learn more

Innovation

Explore your ideas and build your skills.

Learn more

CMU physics students and faculty gather in Anaheim for global physics summit

by Robert Wang

Past and present members of Central Michigan University’s Physics Department recently gathered in Anaheim, California, for the APS Global Physics Summit, an event that brought together over 14,000 members of the scientific community. Held from March 16–21, 2025, this special summit combined the APS March and April Meetings, covering a broad spectrum of cutting-edge research, from condensed matter science to nuclear physics and astrophysics.

“It was exciting to see the progress in these fields, especially around the development of quantum technologies and our understanding of quantum science,” said Matt Redshaw, Chair of the Department of Physics at CMU. “But it was even more exciting to see first-hand the success of our current and former physics students and know that CMU has played a part in their journey.”

Two men are shaking hands and smiling at the camera.

CMU faculty played key roles in the conference, with physics faculty member Alan Jackson serving as Chair of the APS Division of Computational Physics. In this role, Jackson was responsible for organizing all sessions related to computational physics and had the honor of presenting the prestigious 2025 Metropolis Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the field.

The summit was held in celebration of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology and featured a wide range of research presentations. Among the attendees were four CMU Physics faculty members—Professors Alan Jackson, Juan Peralta, Valeri Petkov, and Matt Redshaw, along with two current Ph.D. students, Dilanka Perera and Irin Sultana.

CMU’s influence extended beyond its current faculty and students, as several alumni returned to the summit, representing their new institutions and continued academic achievements:

Dakota Keblbeck (former undergraduate, now a PhD student at Colorado School of Mines)
Kushantha Withanage (former PhD student, now a postdoc at the University of Texas, El Paso)
Trivanni Yadev (former MS student, now a graduate student at the University of Tulsa)
Fhokrul Islam (former faculty, now a faculty member at the University of Texas, El Paso)
Rahul Sahay (former undergraduate/high school student, now a graduate student at Harvard)
Elise Novitski (former undergraduate/high school student, now a faculty member at the University of Washington)

A student a faculty member sitting outside a conference hall smiling at the camera.

The event served not only as a platform for scientific discussion but also as a reunion of CMU physicists past and present, showcasing the department’s impact on the broader physics community.

“It’s always rewarding to see how our students and colleagues continue to thrive,” Redshaw added. “Events like this really drive home the connections we’ve built over the years.”

Visit the Physics Department at CMU to learn more.