Where do I find startups that want student UX User Experience help?

I'm a vet UX who now finds myself teaching graduate students user experience design. One of the lessons I want to provide my students is a real life application for their work.

How do I find startups who need UX help?

I'm, at the moment, stumped.

In my area the universities and schools set up a program where they reach out to local companies who can volunteer to be involved. So the students would then perform web design services for them as part of their school projects. It takes awhile to get it started and get the word out, but after a year or two people will learn about it and it's easier to find companies to help.

At my university our senior year we had to do a full project front to back for a real company. Not all projects are actually used by the companies - just depends on how good it was :]

OR you could make it an entrepreneurial project as well and have the student each find prospects and then they would have to sell the startup on allowing them to do their design. It could still be for free, but that isn't necessarily an easy sell. Give them some experience getting in touch with people, and discussing services and needs.

Try looking for a start-up networking organization. Contact the organizer and they should be able to make the connections for you. In Seattle, for instance, you have NWEN.

Ask them! I know a handful of startups who would love to work with new designers on thinking through simple UX facelifts, and these would be an appropriate amount of work for a single quarter of a University class.