LSU Sustainable Venture Design Weekend

March 21 - 22, 2026

2-Day Sustainability + Design Thinking Workshop

Program Dates: Mar 21-22, 2026 (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM)

Venue: Business Education Complex, Room 1125

Solve problems for the world, build skills for your career

Spend two days collaborating in interdisciplinary teams to learn and apply design thinking to sustainability issues. You will work collaboratively to co-create impactful solutions addressing real-world challenges like climate change, clean energy, health, and inequality. Through rapid ideation, design thinking, and hands-on prototyping, participants will learn how to align their innovations with the SDGs while developing scalable solutions.

  • 9 - 9.30 am Breakfast and Registration

    9.30 - 10 am Introductions to the Human centered design concept and setting the culture

    10 - noon Problem identification using human centered design approach

    12- 1 pm Lunch

    1 - 2 pm Primary market research using Empathy

    2 - 3 pm Secondary market research

    3 - 4 pm Defining the Entrepreneurial Opportunity in response to your chosen “World Problem”

    4-5 pm Creativity and Innovation module

  • 9 - 9.30 am Breakfast and Recap from Day 1

    9.30 - 10 am Creativity and Innovation

    10 - noon Final Idea Selection and Building Prototype

    12- 1 pm Lunch

    1 - 2.30 pm Preparing Final Pitches and Presentation

    2.30 - 5.00 pm Final Pitches, Feedback, Certificates and Post Workshop Learning resources

Who Is This For

Open to LSU student community interested in solving global challenges while building personal skills for being an empathetic problem solver.

Top skills you acquire

  • Complex Problem Understanding and Breakdown

  • Cause and Effect Analysis

  • Idea to Prototyping

  • Stakeholder Mapping and Market Research

  • Human Centered Design

  • Creative Problem Solving

But, wait - What are the

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals i.e. UN SDGS?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

Flaunt your skills with a Digital Certificate on LinkedIn

Upon completing our program, Ycenter will provide participants with a verified certificate that can be showcased as a LinkedIn badge, highlighting your achievement and new skills. This badge not only enhances your professional profile but also signals to potential employers that you've gained valuable, hands-on experience in innovation, sustainability, design thinking and entrepreneurship.

Meet the LSU Expert Faculty

Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems (SDEIS)

Edward Watson III

Professor & Chairman
See their Full Bio here

Jonathan Preedom

Assistant Professor
See their Full Bio here

Fahimeh Abbasi

Instructor & Program Director See their Full Bio here

John Rogers

Instructor See their Full Bio here

Meet your Chief Program Facilitator

Dhairya Pujara, Founder, CEO at Ycenter

Started his first company at the age of 19, Dhairya has always been about using technology for humanitarian impact. He is Biomedical Engineer and has experience of living in 3 different countries across 3 different continents.

He has been a global public speaker with invitations from the United Nations, World Bank, World Economic Forum, Social Enterprise World Forum, SXSW, TEDx and top universities and organizations in 15+ countries across 4 continents. His work has been featured in magazines like Entrepreneur, INC, nominated for Forbes 30 under 30 and several other media publications like BBC radio, Huffington post, Philadelphia Business journal to name a few. He has received a visa reserved for individuals of extraordinary abilities from the US immigration services.

Partners for the Program

LSU Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship and Information Systems

The Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems (SDEIS) develops students into leaders in entrepreneurial, IT, and analytics industries. With synergistic degree offerings, co-curricular activities, and innovative minors, students receive captivating classroom and experiential learning that prepares them to succeed in any technology-based or entrepreneurial career.

About Ycenter

Ycenter is a Global Experiential learning and Innovation consulting firm. We build programs for university, innovation and incubation centers. We work with Fortune 500 companies and governmental agencies on using human-centered design thinking to solve complex social and business challenges. Ycenter programs have offerings have been benefited by participants and organizations in 30+ countries across last 12 years.