I2 P™ International Competition: A Global Educational Forum For Technology Entrepreneurship
- Conference
- Location
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Chicago, Illinois
- Publication Date
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June 18, 2006
- Start Date
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June 18, 2006
- End Date
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June 21, 2006
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation
- Page Count
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8
- Page Numbers
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11.710.1 - 11.710.8
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--1239
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/1239
- Download Count
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335
Paper Authors
Robert Evans University of Texas-Austin
R. S. Evans, Ph.D. is a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. His current research focus is on technology commercialization and engineering education. Dr. Evans completed his doctorate in mechanical engineering at UT Austin in 2005. His dissertation covered materials and product development for rapid manufacturing. He also co-founded a company based on his doctoral research concurrently with his doctoral studies. Prior to enrolling at UT he worked as a manufacturing engineer and completed a Master’s degree in MEMS at Georgia Tech.
Jennifer Parks University of Texas-Austin
Ms. Jennifer Parks is a Research Fellow for the Chair of Free Enterprise and Coordinator of the Idea to Product® Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the University, she worked in a variety of capacities in the orthopedic implant manufacturing industry including product marketing, development, and design. Ms. Parks received her Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas and her Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Steven Nichols University of Texas-Austin
Steven P. Nichols, Ph.D., J.D., P.E., is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as the Associate Vice President for Research, the Director of the Chair of Free Enterprise, and an Endowed Fellow of the IC2 Institute. As the Director of the Clint Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise, Dr. Nichols focuses on creating and nurturing a culture of technology innovation, creativity, leadership, and entrepreneurship at the University. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
I2P® International Competition: A Global Education Forum for Technology Entrepreneurship Abstract In November of 2002, 6 student teams competed in the first Idea to Product® International Competition at the University of Texas at Austin. One of the driving ideas behind the program was to extend the student-led local I2P® competition to a broader international audience. Since that time the competition has grown to include more teams from a variety of leading universities across the country and around the world. 38 teams from 10 countries have traveled to Austin to participate. The first Asian regional competition was held in Singapore in Fall 2005 and I2P® International Europe is scheduled for the Summer 2006. Other universities in the US are preparing regional or conference-wide competitions and initial planning for national competitions has begun in several countries.
The competition engages students in the early stages of emerging technology commercialization. The competition website provides additional information and may be found at www.ideatoproduct.org. Student teams prepare a commercialization assessment addressing technical status, intellectual property, market needs and market characteristics. The teams present their assessments to a panel of faculty, business leaders and entrepreneurs. While several examples of technology licenses and the development of new companies illustrate the impact of the competition, the real value and focus of the competition lies in education. The case for the I2P® UT Austin Competition as an education program for engineers has been established in a separate paper. Starting from that and a more recent formal educational assessment of the competition a more comprehensive examination of the international competition is possible, which frames the body of this paper.
The creation of the competition was facilitated in many ways by the culture at The University of Texas at Austin. Yet, this culture was deliberately created through the tireless efforts of a core group of students, faculty and community supporters over a period of many years. Universities appropriately change slowly, but they do change. It can still be said that the local competition established an academic and community forum for examining the potential of emerging technologies while at the same time focusing on educating technical students about entrepreneurial issues. Exploring I2P® International establishes evidence that the needs and goals of international engineering education resonate with those established within the US. Further, the I2P® program is a model that is readily adapted to a variety of cultures and local educational and community environments. More importantly, the competition has evolved to support a more global perspective on entrepreneurship enriching the educational experience of the students who have participated. The paper also examines the effects of the broader cross- cultural transport of ideas in terms of technical education and provides some basic guidelines for entrepreneurship education in general.
Introduction There is, and fortunately will continue to be, an ongoing debate in the literature about the state of engineering education and how it might be better connected to engineering practice. From a small sample of the available work it is possible to gather some of the most prevalent subjects
Evans, R., & Parks, J., & Nichols, S. (2006, June), I2 P™ International Competition: A Global Educational Forum For Technology Entrepreneurship Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--1239
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