Though IT is his bailiwick, “Woz” looks to spur innovation beyond the technology realm. Just ask High Point University pharmacy students.

Apple Computer co-founder, inventor and entrepreneur Steve Wozniak met with students and faculty from the North Carolina university on Tuesday in a series of micro sessions, starting with students from the HPU Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy.

Teams of pharmacy students took turns discussing ideas — including software and applications that streamline patient care — and got some advice from Wozniak on the creative process, from concept to implementation.

Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy dean Ron Ragan (left) and Steve Wozniak

“One thing I would say when you’re going forward with a new idea, a startup idea, is you need different talents,” commented Wozniak, who is High Point University’s Innovator in Residence. “You want people who want to be in business, who want to be there for a reason. Just make sure your personalities are alike.”

Wozniak talked with pharmacy students in a session led by Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy dean Ron Ragan. At the session, students and faculty also gave Wozniak with a white pharmacist’s coat, which he donned for a photo with them.

“It doesn’t matter if your values are the same, or if you have the same political leanings, if your personalities are different and you approach things in different ways. So you’ve got to find a good team,” Wozniak told pharmacy students. “When starting something up, you have to ask yourself, ‘How happy are you with what you’re doing?’, and it almost always boils down to how much you like the people you’re with.”

Wozniak also held sessions with HPU exercise science and computer science students, who he started mentoring last spring in their project to build an autonomous, self-driving vehicle.

“Always keep your end goal in mind,” Wozniak said at the “Growth Mindset Forum,” held in the afternoon. “When Steve Jobs and I started Apple, we had a goal to make people’s lives easier. Ask yourself what is HPU about and what will help HPU be more of that? Your end goal is the most important thing.”