Experiential Labs

The Experiential Labs at Rice Business are for students interested in immersing themselves in specific industries. These deep-dive electives and programs let students apply what they’ve learned in the MBA program to organizations and professor-led research projects, solving real-world problems and gaining experience to advance their leadership skills.

Experiential Lab Course Descriptions

Healthcare Strategy Lab (MGMT 690)

The Healthcare sector, which includes areas such as health care delivery, payment, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, etc., is an important part of any economy and society in all countries of the world including the US. This sector presents an exciting platform for upcoming business leaders in pursuit of a promising and transformational professional career. This elective course offer students interested in this sector the opportunity to study and review core strategy concepts, analytical techniques, and frameworks relevant to developing, evaluating, and implementing value-creating strategies for organizations operating in various sectors of the healthcare space.

Technology Commercialization Lab (MGMT 734)

Ignite your inner entrepreneur. In this course, you'll translate research into business, working directly with scientists to evaluate emerging technologies and develop strategies to spin them into real-world startups. You'll gain first-hand experience in dealing with the unique challenges and pathways for translating research into a commercial product. Among other topics, the course covers opportunity evaluations, business models, capitalization and early operations. Students will apply knowledge from the New Enterprise course to commercializing a discrete technology coming out of Rice-affiliated research.

Marketing Lab (MGMT 735)

Bring marketing insights to business. In this course, student teams take on a strategic consulting project for a real-world client. You'll analyze data and engage with companies across industries to make an impact through client-focused problem-solving. Sharpen your consultative skills — from problem definition to data-driven recommendations. In addition to core marketing, students must have taken at least one marketing elective.

Supply Chain Management Lab (MGMT 752)

This supply chain management lab provides students with an opportunity to build their operations and supply chain management skills and experiences by either (1) applying their coursework to a hands-on, real-world project with a company, or (2) performing an in-depth research project on a cutting-edge topic in operations and supply chain management. This is a project-centric course with a customized schedule to the specific project. The students will work with the professor to develop a project aligned with your specific interests. In addition, the professor is looking to design 1-2 field trips during the semester to local companies to see first-hand how supply chain are managed.

Operations Lab: Health Care (MGMT 753)

There is continued increasing demand from the leaders of hospitals and healthcare organizations to realign their processes, people and systems to increase revenue and reduce costs, creating reliable and manageable operations. Managing this type of change is challenging and requires both knowledge and understanding of key change tools and methods, but also involves hands-on skills of facilitation and critical thinking. The goal of this course is to provide exposure to the needed skills, but also the experience of leading and facilitating change in a live, healthcare environment with actual processes, staff and business value on the line. Students are paired, given a real business problem in a major Houston healthcare system and guided to deliver the solution, implementation plan and control plan.

Real Estate Investments Lab (MGMT 754)

Become a practiced real estate investor who can assess, execute and add value to property. In this hands-on class, you will underwrite and evaluate actual deals across sectors. You'll work with seasoned investors to analyze markets and financials, structure partnerships, and mitigate risks. And you'll originate deals, network with industry players and present ideas to real investment committees.

Data-Driven Investments Lab (MGMT 767)

In this course, you will develop a quantitative toolkit for data-driven investing. Student teams will implement and evaluate investment strategies using Python and real datasets. Through hands-on practice, you will generate trading ideas, simulate strategy implementation and measure performance attribution. Learn by doing in this course that transforms students into informed quant investors.

Renewables and the Energy Transition Lab (MGMT 773)

This course gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge, skills and experience to exploring one of the many opportunities or challenges in the Energy Transition. For example, energy security, economic competitiveness and environmental responsibility are important considerations as the transportation, industrial, commercial and residential building sectors continue to increase their reliance on renewable energy sources. In addition, the integration of oil, natural gas and renewable power generation and consumption will increasingly leverage information and communication technologies, and advance modeling and simulation techniques in order to accelerate implementation. Students will work in 3–5-member Project Teams with a related industry, government, academic or NGO organization on an energy topic of interest to the students. The student is invited to form a Project Team and select an organization sponsored project that requires critical analysis to define the issue, analyze the impact of associated trends, and consider the potential impact of actions, investment and policies on future outcomes.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lab (MGMT 822)

This course gives students the opportunity to apply their MBA learnings to address an opportunity and/or challenge in the diversity, equity and inclusion space faced by a client organization. Clients represent a variety of industries and will challenge their student-managed teams to address a focused, high-priority DEI-related business issue. The lab is project-centric and student-driven, with regular check-in meetings with the team’s assigned coach and the full class.

Advanced Entrepreneurship Labs

Student Venture Fund: Evaluating Startup Investment Opportunities (MGMT 740)

Offered in the Spring
Students will identify, screen, and evaluate startups for investment by the Rice venture capital fund. Through this highly experiential course, students will learn tools for rigorously evaluating startup ventures for investment, valuing early-stage companies, and structuring investments. Note: This class is ideal for those interested in entrepreneurship and financing startup ventures. Prerequisite: MGMP 626: Financing the Startup Venture.

E-Lab: Venture Capital (MGMT 760)

Offered in the Fall and Spring
Students work with an early-stage angel group or venture capital firm and provide 8-10 hours a week of support in critical tasks such as due diligence and deal analysis. The course culminates in a final report at the end of the experience. An application is required and students must be available to meet off-campus. Co-requisites: MGMP 626: Financing the Startup Venture and MGMT 626: Venture Capital.

E-Lab: Enterprise Acquisition (MGMT 761)

Offered in the Spring
Students follow the processes learned in MGMT 627 to acquire an existing business or start a search fund. Students develop selection criteria, network to connect with sellers, conduct preliminary due diligence, perform a business valuation, develop potential deal structures, and have the opportunity to move forward on any potential opportunities on their own after graduation. Students attend a check-in class every other week to present updates and receive feedback from faculty, students, and alumni mentors. Prerequisite: MGMT 627: Enterprise Acquisition.

E-Lab: New Enterprise (MGMT 762)

Offered in the Fall and Spring
Students working on their own startup have the opportunity to apply the processes learned in the New Enterprise course to their venture.  Students set their own personal goals and milestones for the class. Prerequisite: MGMT 621/927 New Enterprise.

Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (MGMT 766)

Offered in the Spring
This lab is designed for healthcare entrepreneurs who want to build innovative medical device technologies. Students will work with nascent medical device startups from the MGMT 799 Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fall course. Students will work 10 hours per week on various aspects of a business plan and prepare for business plan competitions. This class is ideal for those interested in entrepreneurship and healthcare innovation.

Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (MGMT 799)

Offered in the Fall
Interested in healthcare and entrepreneurship and want a truly collaborative experience? Work together with engineering, medical, and business students to build innovative medical technologies. Together you will determine clinical needs, ideate solutions, create a business model, and navigate regulatory requirements. This course is offered in collaboration with the Rice Global Medical Innovation Master’s program and Baylor College of Medicine.