Background: The second-ever "Demo Day" will bring together Austin's entrepreneurial community on Thursday, April 26, for a showcasing of 10 undergraduate student startups from The University of Texas at Austin. Each startup will present a six-minute investor pitch. The startups are part of the spring 2012 1 Semester Startup (1SS) class, an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship practicum for undergraduates.

The class, which has 35 enrolled students among the 10 startups, allows undergraduates who already have startups to experience entrepreneurship first-hand while learning from some of the most successful entrepreneurs in Austin. The startups range from database and server management services to mobile applications and social networks.

The event is open to the public. Interested attendees should RSVP online.

The evening will commence with an interview of National Instruments' President and CEO James Truchard, sponsored by the Technology Entrepreneurship Society. Bob Metcalfe, one of the three instructors for 1SS and professor of innovation at the Cockrell School of Engineering, will lead the interview.

Truchard, who co-founded NI in 1976 while working at The University of Texas at Austin, has helped grow the company from a three-man team to a multinational organization with more than 6,100 employees. Before co-founding NI, Truchard worked as managing director of the acoustical measurements division at the university’s Applied Research Laboratories.

1SS is taught by Metcalfe — inventor of Ethernet, founder of 3Com and the Cockrell School's Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise — along with Joshua Baer of Capital Factory and the Department of Computer Science, and Johnny Butler of the IC² Institute and the McCombs School of Business.

Recently, the startups in 1SS were provided space at the Longhorn Startup Camp, a temporary space on campus that encourages student entrepreneurship and collaboration among startups at the university. Executive Vice President and Provost Steven Leslie agreed to loan the camp the space through the end of the spring semester.

"The space, thanks to Provost Leslie, has attracted 27 student startups including the 10 in 1SS," Metcalfe said. "Now we have to measure if critical mass has been achieved and how much good the space has done in community building and startup advancement."

Program (subject to change):

• Reception with drinks and light food
• Opening remarks
• Interview with co-founder and CEO of National Instruments Dr. James Truchard by 1SS instructor Bob Metcalfe
• Break
• Introduction to "Demo Day" by 1SS instructor Joshua Baer
• First half of 1SS company presentations
• Break
• Second half of 1SS company presentations
• Closing remarks
• Meet the spring 2012 companies of 1SS

For more information, contact: Marjorie Smith, Cockrell School of Engineering, 512 471 7541.