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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.
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.
CMU engineers dive into the impact of anaerobic digestion on health and environment
by
Robert Wang
Researchers in the School of Engineering and Technology at CMU are embarking on an important mission to understand how certain methods used to treat sewage affect our environment and health. Environmental Engineering faculty member Maggie Williams, School of Engineering and Technology Director Goksel Demirer, and graduate student Yasna Mortezaei are studying a process called anaerobic digestion, which is like a big composting system for waste. They want to see how things like temperature and time impact two key things: antibiotic resistance (which makes infections harder to treat) and the production of biogas, a type of renewable energy.
To do this, they're collecting samples of sludge from different places where sewage is treated. Then, in their lab, they're running experiments to see how changing conditions affect the way bacteria, antibiotic resistance, and biogas behave during anaerobic digestion.
Using advanced tools like DNA testing and gas analysis, they're keeping a close eye on how these tiny organisms and gases change under different conditions. This is crucial because antibiotics used in industries like farming and medicine end up in our sewage, where they can cause problems like antibiotic resistance.
This research matters a lot because antibiotic resistance is becoming a big problem worldwide. If we don't do something about it, it could lead to millions of deaths each year by 2050. Wastewater treatment plants, where sewage gets cleaned, are key spots where these resistant genes can hang around.
Anaerobic digestion, which is part of sewage treatment, can be a good thing because it helps manage waste and produces renewable energy. But if we don't manage it well, these antibiotic-resistant genes could end up back in our food, making things worse.
The CMU team hopes their work will not only help us understand how anaerobic digestion affects antibiotic resistance and biogas, but also give us practical tips on how to do it better. By finding ways to tackle antibiotic resistance while improving biogas production, they're aiming to make our waste treatment more sustainable and keep us healthier in the long run.
Signature Programs
Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship
Explore special opportunities to learn new skills and travel the world.
Compete & Win
New Venture Challenge 2025
Present your venture and win BIG at the New Venture Challenge.
Build your skills
Workshops and events
Boost your entrepreneurial skills through our workshops, mentor meetups and pitch competitions.
Develop your ideas
IDEA Den
Learn about the entrepreneurship makerspace on campus in Grawn Hall.
Ready, Set, Pitch!
Make-A-Pitch 2024
Present a 2-minute pitch at the Make-A-Pitch Competition and you could win prizes and bragging rights!
Meet Mentors
Mentorship and support
Connect with mentors and faculty who are here to support the next generation of CMU entrepreneurs.
Support students
Make an impact
Are you a CMU alum looking to support CMU student entrepreneurs? Learn how you can support or donate to the Entrepreneurship Institute.
View our programming newsletter
Alumni give back to students through mentorship, real-world experiences
The Wakeling Gendron Entrepreneurial Scholars program wrapped its first cohort this academic year.
Students compete to win cash prizes at the New Venture Challenge
Pitched 40 ventures at NMV Challenge, Friday, April 19, CMU. Judges awarded $100,000 in cash prizes.
Wakeling Gendron Scholars make a life-changing trip to Texas
Wakeling and Gendron Scholars attended SXSW in Texas, meeting industry leaders and gaining entrepreneurial insights.
Business barriers lead CMU students to a new venture
Justin Ashman and Philip Mundt won Central Michigan University's New Venture Competition with their 3-D printing operation, Form Further.
