Officials from historically black colleges and universities around the country gathered on campus last week to share ideas about how to encourage students, especially underrepresented minorities, to pursue careers in STEM fields. Stanford President John Hennessy and Dean of Engineering Jim Plummer were among the speakers.

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Today—marking the first full week of National Entrepreneurship Month—the Department of Commerce released a new report entitled The Innovative and Entrepreneurial University, underscoring the increasingly diverse ways in which colleges and universities across America are promoting cultures of entrepreneurship on campus and encouraging students to start companies.

As hubs of learning, networking, mentorship, and creativity, colleges and universities provide particularly fertile ground for the cultivation of world-changing, entrepreneurial ideas. The report released today, which is based on more than 130 interviews with university leaders and builds on prior work by the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, highlights more than 50 of the most promising initiatives that have sprouted up on campuses across the country, including those that promote entrepreneurship among students and faculty; accelerate the transition of research innovations from the lab to the marketplace; and encourage engagement between universities, industry partners, and regional economies.

America is the world’s innovation engine. The modern world as we know it exists thanks to American innovation. From 100-plus year old inventions such as the airplane, to the internet delivering this article to the newest computer/tablet/smartphone you are reading it on, America’s contribution to global innovation tops the rest of the world put together.

A major part of America’s innovation infrastructure is its powerful patent system, which makes it possible for inventors to profit from their ideas for a fixed period of time before others can freely use the technology. According to a government study, industries that rely heavily on patents contribute $770 billion/year to the American economy and create over 7 million jobs.

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"Innovation is a strong contender for the crown of business buzzword of the decade. The term has all it takes. It is ubiquitous, mysterious and, like its acolyte 'leadership,' it works alone and pairs well with many adjectives," Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, the French business school, recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal blog.

Micheál Martin, when Irish enterprise minister, had a weakness for superlatives and buzzwords and once managed to use "cutting edge” and "state-of-the art" in the same sentence.

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One of the hardest aspects of starting a new venture is obtaining financial backing. Instead of turning to an investor or applying for a loan, many entrepreneurs are taking the alternative route of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding sites can be an appealing option for new and aspiring business owners, but such sites are not free of limitations or drawbacks.

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There's no doubt that the Internet has changed the way we do many things. I cannot remember, for instance, the last time I visited my bank teller, bought a postage stamp or walked into a book store.

While the use of the Internet has some unsavory social implications, such as IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder) to name one, it also has aspects that will forever displace the balance of power from a few at the top calling the shots, to the rest of us determining our own path.

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Hot cup of joe. Java. Go juice. Brown stuff. Sweet brown nectar from the gods.

No matter what you call it, you need coffee, and you need it every morning — at the very least.

We all know what it's like wake up for work, and already be craving that first taste of coffee. Here are 10 GIFs that show just how bad you need it.

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The University of Michigan this year enrolled its second class of Master's of Entrepreneurship students and scored the No. 1 ranking in Entrepreneur Magazine's list of top entrepreneurship schools.

Still, that wasn't enough for the school's leadership; they want students outside of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering -- where the master's program is housed -- to have access to an entrepreneurship education.

Last week, the financial world was abuzz with some interesting news: Goldman Sachs was easing up on its junior analysts. Specifically, the firm announced that it wanted its young bankers to take weekends off. As David Solomon, co-head of the investment banking division, was quoted saying, “This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

It’s probably a smart move. Goldman no doubt knows that burn-out isn’t profitable, and a lot of weekend work is unnecessary. When weekend work gets built into a culture, it’s generally because someone isn’t managing workloads properly.

An introverted entrepreneur? Yes, they exist. Not all people love selling all the time. But as a startup founder, that's usually part of the job description, at least at first.

We asked 11 successful entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) for practical advice on how to make peace with their new, unofficial role as chief salesperson. Their best advice is below:

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British ice cream wizard Charlie Francis has created a glow-in-the-dark ice cream using synthesized jellyfish proteins — the same ones that allow these marine animals to produce light inside their bodies. The only snag is, the glowing confection costs around $220 a scoop. So don't expect to find it on supermarket shelves anytime soon, if ever.

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Whether you’ve founded your own company or are simply looking for ways to expand your own territory, the combinations of methods is infinite, but there are certain things every entrepreneur must do in order to get to the next level with their company.

To find out what these critical tasks our, we connected with Robert Glazer, president of the Boston Chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), a group comprised of 100 Boston entrepreneurs who own a company with gross annual sales exceeding $1 million, enabling business owners to learn from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life. Glazer is also the founder and managing director of Acceleration Partners.

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The debate about whether or not you can teach entrepreneurship will always divide opinion. But business schools have an opportunity to create the conditions in which an entrepreneurial mindset can flourish, and provide students with the tools and the confidence to take the path toward business creation. They just might not need a classroom to do it.

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ROCKY hill >> Efforts to bolster Connecticut’s entrepreneurial culture will benefit from a $5 million investment from the state over the next year.

The money from CTNext, the state’s year-old program to build what it calls “an innovation eco-system” will go to 20 companies and organizations, including six from the New Haven area. CTNext was established by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and private sector leaders and is overseen by Connecticut Innovations (CI), which is the state’s quasi-public technology lending agency.

Criteria: Last Sunday, as you may know, Lou Reed passed away at the age of seventy-one. Reed can be considered many things in terms of a musician, but one thing you cannot deny is how innovative he was as a rock musician and how much impact he had as a songwriter and an artist. This week in honor of Reed, we're looking at the most innovative artists to influence rock music.

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A team of researchers from the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, north western Romania has developed a recipe for artificial blood and say their initial tests look encouraging.

Lead by 39-year-old professor Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu, the team’s discovery could pave the way to the crucial development of artificial blood, filling blood bank shortages and providing a reliable option for transfusions following accidents and major surgeries.

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Q: I recently launched www.speakerbook.com.au, the world's first online platform to book talented guest speakers. It's causing a real stir in an industry dominated by traditional speaking bureaux. We want to grow the site fast but would like to know what support is potentially available to us. Venture capital, angel investors, accelerator programs, where would you recommend we begin?

A: Congratulations on getting started. That's often the hardest part. The type of help available to you depends on where your start-up is at.

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Last week, my partners and I were talking about a company that has asked for our guidance on how to develop a more innovative culture. This is a frequent inquiry for us, and it’s one that increasingly concerns businesses all over the world.  So, we were talking through the business model of the company, and how we might help them build more innovative ways of thinking.  Our off-the-cuff discussion went something like this:

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The typical university research park is 119 acres (just over 48 hectares), has seven buildings open and is located in a suburban jurisdiction with a population of 500,000 or less.

But urban-style live-work-play campuses are where they’re going, typified by Centennial Campus (affiliated with North Carolina State University), Mission Bay (affiliated with the University of California San Francisco) and the Fitzsimons Life Science District in Colorado (affiliated with the University of Colorado’s academic medical center).

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It's nearly a rite of passage to endure a terrible haircut as a child. One style in particular is especially guilty — that's right, we're talking about you, bowl cut.

The bowl cut is the Comic Sans of haircuts. It's become famous for being so dreadfully awful, to the point where it's almost funny.

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