Pitt's Big Idea Center names new director

As an entrepreneur in residence at the University of Pittsburgh Big Idea Center, Rhonda Schuldt has mentored Pitt students through the process of innovation and entrepreneurship, helping them to take the seed of a discovery or an idea and nurture it into a new product, service or process.

With the center’s founding director Babs Carryer retiring, Schuldt has been chosen to take the reins and lead it through its next chapter.

Established in 2018 as part of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Big Idea Center is an on-campus, inclusive hub that develops the innovative and entrepreneurial skills of the Pitt student community.

Open to all students, from first year to postdoctoral fellows, the center provides a suite of programs, resources and competitions that allow Pitt students to practice the skills of innovation and entrepreneurship, including critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork.

“The growth of student innovation and entrepreneurship at Pitt over the past seven years has been remarkable,” Schuldt said. “The focus now is how to take the foundation that has been created and build on it to support the pockets of student innovation occurring across campus and drive awareness of and access to the Big Idea Center’s offerings for students who are interested in making an impact on their lives and on the world through innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Schuldt’s background includes leading an incubator for family and children service organizations to meet unmet community needs, directing public-private regional economic revitalization initiatives to strengthen Southwestern Pennsylvania’s economy, founding several businesses and holding executive leadership positions in technology startups.

For two decades Schuldt has brought her problem-solving experience to early stage and evolving organizations across multiple industries and sectors through her firm, The Synergos Group LLC.

She has also served as an entrepreneur in residence at the University of Pittsburgh and as innovation coordinator at The Corner LaunchBox, a Pennsylvania State University innovation hub.

“We are excited to welcome Rhonda Schuldt as the second director of the Big Idea Center,” said Evan Facher, vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship and director of the Innovation Institute, which together with the Big Idea Center, the Office of Industry and Economic Partnerships and the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence comprises the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

“Rhonda has demonstrated during her time with us as an entrepreneur in residence the ability to connect with students and direct them to the resources available through the University’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and we are confident in her ability to continue raising the bar for the Big Idea Center’s success without missing a beat,” Facher said.

Facher added, “As for Babs Carryer, the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and a legion of Pitt student innovators who have benefited from her tireless mentorship and advocacy are grateful for all she has done to bring the Big Idea Center to life. We wish her the best as she literally sails off into retirement with her husband Tim on their sailboat.”

Carryer took over management of the Randall Family Big Idea Competition in 2013. The campus-wide innovation competition, funded by Pitt trustee Bob Randall and his family, expanded significantly under her guidance, often with more than 100 student innovator teams entering each year.

She integrated other programming and resources around the competition, including weekend innovation hackathons and an idea accelerator called the Blast Furnace, while also establishing a stable of entrepreneurs in residence to consult with students interested in bringing their ideas to life.

In 2018, the Randall family made a $2 million commitment to establish the Big Idea Center as an independent entity. In 2019, the Forge incubator program was established to provide additional coaching and other resources to students taking that final step to create a company or nonprofit entity around their idea.

In late 2020, a group of Pitt alumni stepped forward to establish the Big Idea Advantage Fund to provide investments for student innovations in the critical period between the initial idea and having a prototype or beta version of the product or service to begin acquiring initial customers or clients.

Schuldt is quick to emphasize that the Big Idea Center is not intended only for students who want to create the next “unicorn” startup, but rather as a place to learn the nuts and bolts of the innovation process, which is applicable to careers at startups or Fortune 500 companies, and to nonprofits and volunteer opportunities, as well as other personal endeavors.

“College is a time to stretch yourself beyond what you think your limits are. The innovation and entrepreneurship experiences you can have at the Big Idea Center will help you build skills you can apply to all facets of your life,” Schuldt said.

“I look forward to working with our Big Idea Center staff, with partners in the schools and departments across the University and with our external partners to create a space for students who are looking to do creative and impactful things and find kindred spirits from diverse backgrounds with whom to collaborate.”