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Session 2354

The Engineer as Entrepreneur: Education for the 21st Century at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Thomas W. Mason, Arthur B. Western Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Abstract

Over the past five years, Rose-Hulman has invested over $40M dollars creating an environment to encourage entrepreneurship in its graduates. Components of the educational, organizational, and physical infrastructure are described. These components include a course in entrepreneurship, internships with entrepreneurial companies, the Technology and Entrepreneurship Development (TED) program, Rose-Hulman Ventures (RHV), and the John T. Myers Center for Technological Research with Industry. Case studies of recent successes are presented.

I. Introduction – Educating the 21st Century Engineer

For almost two decades, Rose-Hulman has been searching for ways to prepare its graduates for the rapidly changing competitive environment facing those who contribute to advancing technology. The scale of this effort has been steadily increasing so that during the past five years over $40 million has been invested in buildings, equipment, and people to implement this effort.

The fundamental problem addressed by all of the activities described below is the fact that engineers and scientists need more and broader knowledge to innovate successfully in the 21st Century. There is abundant evidence that producing the technically best product is no guarantee of commercial success, and the timing, cost, manufacturability, distribution and other factors related to an innovation may be more important than its functionality. This means that lots of disciplines must be brought to bear on design and implementation. Yet, engineering students must already absorb large volumes of technical information in crowded curricula, and the real need is for effective cross- functional integration. Therefore, there is a need to give engineers awareness of these other aspects of the product and increase their ability to effectively communicate with the other professionals with whom they must work. Moreover, this must be done within a realistic context of speed and complexity.

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Mason, T., & Western, A. (2001, June), The Engineer As Entrepreneur: Education For The 21st Century At Rose Hulman Institute Of Technology Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9182