Join the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center Teach Fellows in an inspiring talk about James Madison University’s X-Labs from Executive Director Nick Swayne. JMU X-Labs bring a new model of collaboration for experience-based education that could revolutionize academia innovation and research.

Challenging students to collaborate, iterate ideas, and welcome meaningful failure to solve real problems.

Nick Swayne is the Executive Director of 4-Virginia and the founder of JMU X-Labs.
The 4-Virginia collaboration of eight Virginia public institutions works to leverage their combined strengths to improve higher education’s efficiency and economic impact across the Commonwealth. He created JMU X-Labs to enable co-curricular course sharing and develop the campus’s innovation ecosystem. JMU X-Labs has been recognized by the Governor for innovation in higher education and regularly holds classes that range in topics from unmanned systems to homelessness.

JMU X-Lab | JMU X-Lab Timeline

Nick serves as faculty advisor for the Stanford University Innovation Fellows and is a founding member of the Stanford Faculty University Innovation Fellows. He serves as the Executive Director of Virginia-DC robotics, co-chairs the Veteran Scholar’s Task Force, and is the Harrisonburg Regional Veterans Collaborative founder. Nick’s Ph.D. is in Postsecondary Strategic Leadership, focusing on transdisciplinary education and innovation. He began serving his fourth term on the Harrisonburg City School Board in January 2021.