Michael D’Eredita, an assistant professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool), will be a panelist in the “Reinventing Upstate NY: Entrepreneurship as a Driver of a New Economy,” presentation hosted by Cornell University’s Johnson School on Thursday, April 29. Event attendance is by invitation only.

D’Eredita, who initiated the Syracuse Student Start-Up Accelerator and advises the iVenture Upstate student organization, will serve on the panel with S. Nasir Ali, co-founder and CEO of Upstate Venture Connect, and Donald Ross, an associate lawyer who counsels clients on accessing state and federal tax credits. The panel moderator is Zachary Shulman, a managing partner of the Cayuga Venture Fund and director of entrepreneurship at the Johnson School.

D’Eredita has co-founded numerous companies, including D’Eredita D’Sign & D’velopment Ltd, a development company for web-based technologies, and True North Group LLC, an executive coaching firm that helps individuals and organizations in Upstate New York establish high performing leading practices.

Through the Student Start-Up Accelerator—a joint project between SU and the Syracuse Technology Garden, D’Eredita is working to establish programs aimed at promoting entrepreneurship across Upstate campuses. He is also involved in the creation of iVenture Upstate, a social entrepreneurial effort aimed at helping young entrepreneurs build stronger teams and develop working relationships with experienced mentors, and the Orange Tree Fund, which offers funding for students at the business model and proof-of-concept development stages.

Through the Start-Up Accelerator project, D’Eredita also created three entrepreneurial courses:

  • What’s the Big Idea—a fall semester course open to everyone (undergrad and grad, all schools/colleges) in the University that focuses on idea exploration and discovering what constitutes a good business idea
  • Idea2Start-Up—a spring semester course that carries forth a few ideas from fall into the next more in-depth phase of development, prototype business plan
  • Big Idea2Start-Up—an intensive summer course that combines elements of both courses

All of these courses bring together students and faculty from across campus to guide students through the business development process. For more information on the Student Start-Up Accelerator, visit http://accelerate.syr.edu.

D’Eredita’s research focuses on skill acquisition, expertise, “virtual apprenticeship,” and “collective expertise.” He studies the ways in which information technology enables the traditionally face-to-face relationships of mentor-apprentice, coach-athlete, or teacher-student to exist within distributed environments. He teaches in the area of entrepreneurship and developed the Kauffman Foundation-supported and Chancellor’s Leadership grant-winner, Syracuse Student Start-Up Accelerator. He holds a Ph.D. in experimental/cognitive psychology from Syracuse University.