Accel Innovation Scholars delivers a comprehensive, deep-dive experience into the world of technology entrepreneurship for Stanford Engineering PhD students. Through workshops, team projects, case studies and field experiences, Scholars build the knowledge, skills and attitude to tackle entrepreneurial challenges and discover opportunities to leverage their research background.
To support professional development, Scholars are assigned faculty coaches, as well venture capital, corporate and AIS alumni mentors, to provide feedback and to offer different perspectives and access points to the Silicon Valley ecosystem. During the autumn, winter and spring quarters, the Scholars will meet for a two-hour session each week.
Scholars will also attend workshops and retreats during each quarter of the program. The program’s schedule should be considered when applying and scheduling vacations to avoid unnecessary absences. A prospective student’s research focus does not need to have obvious commercial applications to apply to AIS. Stanford alumni are not eligible to apply at this time.
AIS applications are accepted from current PhD students in the School of Engineering who:
- have completed their qualifying examinations
- are in good standing in their programs
- are interested in exploring entrepreneurship
