Conference Session

Successful Outcomes of Student Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jay Porter, Texas A&M University; Joseph Morgan, Texas A&M University; Richard Scruggs, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

and Industrial Distribution Department in 1989 and has served as the Program Director of the Electronics and Telecommunications Programs and as the Associate Department Head for Operations. He received his BS degree in electrical engineering (1975) from California State University, Sacramento, and his MS (1980) and DE (1983) degrees in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University. His education and research interests include project management, innovation and entrepreneurship, and embedded product/system development.Richard Scruggs, Texas A&M University Richard M. Scruggs is the director of Mays Business School's Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M

Conference Session

Course-Based Approaches to Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kelly Crittenden, Louisiana Tech University; Jon Pratt, Louisiana Tech University; James Nelson, Louisiana Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

AC 2008-1729: IMPACT: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH FOR CREATINGHIGH-TECH STARTUPSKelly Crittenden, Louisiana Tech University Dr. Kelly Crittenden received his BS and PhD in BioMedical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 1996 and 2001 respectively. He is often involved in multidisciplinary work at Louisiana Tech, either through the Integrated Engineering Curriculum or through the IMPaCT (Innovation through Multidisciplinary Projects and Collaborative Teams) program. He is also very involved in STEM education at both the pre-college and college levels.Jon Pratt, Louisiana Tech University Dr. Jon Pratt received his BA in Physics in 1976 from Centenary College. He completed his

Conference Session

Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Farris, Grand Valley State University; Hugh Jack, Grand Valley State University; Shabbir Choudhuri, Grand Valley State University; Christopher Pung, Grand Valley State University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

AC 2008-534: LEVERAGING A FLEXIBLE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYPOLICY TO BRING STUDENT INNOVATION TO MARKETJohn Farris, Grand Valley State UniversityHugh Jack, Grand Valley State UniversityShabbir Choudhuri, Grand Valley State UniversityChristopher Pung, Grand Valley State University Page 13.852.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Leveraging a Flexible Intellectual Property Policy to Bring Student Innovation to MarketAbstractAn engineering school at a primarily undergraduate, public, regional university in the Midwest uses a liberalintellectual property policy in conjunction with hands-on design and build projects in multiple

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Raviv, Florida Atlantic University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

students’ innovation-related skills as well as students’ reflections on the class. Themain idea is to develop a student-centered environment that helps students to develop a can-do,proactive, innovative mindset; an environment that will light their spark of innovation, and providethem with resources to translate their ideas from paper to prototype. We have identified four majorgroups of relevant skills, namely, problem solving, “big picture”, personal and social skills, and usedseveral different activities to try to boost them. A variety of projects and challenges, and multi-sensory activities were synthesized to create an empirical, authentic, and multi-disciplinaryexperience. This effort is in line with our college longer term goal to infuse

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Adriaens, University of Michigan; Timothy Faley, University f Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

, areanalyzed. These industries are then dissected in order to determine potential opportunities fornew business or new lines of business. Once the opportunity is identified, the question of whattechnology may be required to enable this technology is determined. The content-driven lectureson strategy, marketing, financing and innovation are illustrated using video clips and case studiesdrawn from entrepreneurial and corporate examples. The hands-on experience focuses onhomeworks, a team-based project in a technology space selected after a student competition, anda presentation to business developers. It is our observation that the main challenge for thestudents is to be able to reassess/modify their original technology-based solution to one informedby

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship Education: Unique Approaches

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul A. Nelson, Michigan Technological University; Edward Lumsdaine, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

AC 2008-1354: CREATING AN ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE IN ANENGINEERING UNIVERSITYPaul A. Nelson, Michigan Technological University Dr. Paul A. Nelson is Associate Professor of Economics and Engineering Management in the School of Business at Michigan Technological University, with a PhD in Industrial Organization Economics from the University of Wisconsin. In the 1970s and 1980, he was the Director of a graduate program in Business Administration designed for engineering students. Also, he administered a one-year second undergraduate degree program in Engineering Management for engineering students. He supervised many Master of Science projects which dealt with starting businesses and

Conference Session

Learning from Entrepreneurship Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Phil Weilerstein, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance; Angela Shartrand, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

data show that at least 30 of the student ventures funded by NCIIA havebrought at least one new product or service to the market, and an additional 15 projects areactively pursuing commercialization. In addition, NCIIA-funded projects have led to $36 millionin additional leverage ($1.6 million from awards and competitions; almost $3.7 million in privateand federal contracts; almost $9 million in grants; and $23 million in additional investment).ConclusionsNCIIA’s mission has focused on expanding opportunities for engineering students to engage inentrepreneurship by supporting curriculum, projects, and complementary activities that gearedtoward commercialization outcomes. The outcomes of the past decade provide strong evidencethat engineering

Conference Session

Course-Based Approaches to Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Donald Carpenter, Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

core competencies of creativity through in-class activities and games, as well as assignedwork. In addition, the students study and implement various methodologies of creative problemsolving through various problems and product development assignments. Teamwork isemphasized and each student is given at least two opportunities to act as a team leader during aproblem solving or product development project. All students’ leadership skills are both self-assessed and assessed by each team member.On the first day of the course, the students were surveyed on their general perceptions ofcreativity, problem solving, teamwork , leadership, the role of creativity in engineering, and theirpersonal view on their own creativity. After the course, the same

Conference Session

Learning from Entrepreneurship Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Blessing, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Kristen Mekemson, Kern Family Foundation; David Pistrui, Illinois Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

. Prior to his academic career, has worked for three Fortune 500 companies and has owned and operated two small businesses.Kristen Mekemson, Kern Family Foundation Kristen Mekemson joined the Kern Family Foundation in April 2007. She works with senior program staff to oversee, monitor, and evaluate grants and projects. She also conducts program research, site visits, and other investigative activities in support of program development, program exploration, and grant making. Kristen received a B.A. in Writing-Intensive English and French and M.A. in British and American Literature from Marquette University. She was on the development staff at Lawrence University for two years. Prior to her

Conference Session

Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harpal Dhillon, Excelsior College; Salahuddin Qazi, SUNY Institute of Technology; Sohail Anwar, Pennsylvania State University-Altoona College

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

AC 2008-1519: MITIGATION OF BARRIERS TO COMMERCIALIZATION OFNANOTECHNOLOGY: AN OVERVIEW OF TWO SUCCESSFULUNIVERSITY-BASED INITIATIVESHarpal Dhillon, Excelsior College Dr.Harpal Dhillon is currently the Dean of the School of Business and Technology at Excelsior College. In the past, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Information Systems, Software Engineering, and Project Management at University of Maryland, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, and George Washington University. Dr.Dhillon worked as owner/senior executive in three systems engineering companies over a period of 20 years. His research interests are in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction, Quality Assurance, and

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship Education: Unique Approaches

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shawn S Jordan, Purdue Univeristy; Robin Adams, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

13.1.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 “…A Good Imagination and a Pile of Junk”AbstractThe engineering workplace is placing more emphasis on teamwork in interdisciplinaryenvironments, out-of-the-box thinking, creative engineering, and brainstorming. These skills aretaught to varying degrees in standard engineering curriculums, and often the most fruitfulopportunities exist for students to learn in venues outside of the classroom.This paper will show how building Rube Goldberg machines is a fantastic way for learners fromvarious disciplines to get hands-on project experience in a team environment. Intensebrainstorming and work sessions result in inventive and unique machines that are fascinating forboth

Conference Session

Successful Outcomes of Student Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Faley, University f Michigan; Peter Adriaens, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

innovation) in the context of identifying market opportunities. Since this course immersesthe engineering students in the language and thought-processes of business, it also serves as aprerequisite for later-stage joint-enrollment courses. These courses, in the later Phases ofbusiness development continuum, include business assessment and business plan development.Modifying existing experiential entrepreneurial programsThe creation of these two new courses and their integration with the existing courses (productdesign, business assessment, and business plan writing) gives us a set of courses that cover thecontinuum of product design and new business development. While each of these individualcourses incorporates hands-on projects, we wanted to

Conference Session

Successful Outcomes of Student Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stuart Kellogg, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

issues and proposedattributes for successful engineers of 2020, these attributes and issues may almost alwaysbe couched within the following pedagogical concerns: There is a need to construct engineering curriculum so as to serve more diverse learners. There is a need to help students develop better complex thinking skills. There is a need to provide learning environments that more actively engage students on multi-disciplinary team projects. There is a need to create an opportunity for value added curriculum, particularly in the areas business, management, and leadership skills.To do this is going to require more active and engaged pedagogies that usually providesome opportunity for experiential

Conference Session

Successful Outcomes of Student Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Khanjan Mehta, Pennsylvania State University; Sven Bilen, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

with original product ideas need the resources to evaluate the practicalityof their ideas, develop their products, and perform thorough tests to realize robust marketableproducts. Researchers working in labs and research centers use lab automation tools, such asNational Instruments’ LabVIEW7, to automate experiments. Connecting different types ofinstruments to computers to control experiments and acquire/analyze data is crucial toperforming some experiments. In other cases, it speeds up the experiment significantly, resultingin increased productivity. A large number of engineering and science students involved inprofessional project-based organizations like Network of Entrepreneurs, Engineers for aSustainable World, Student Space Programs Lab

Conference Session

Opportunities for Entrepreneurship Programs and Program Assessment

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Mason, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

or Steve Jobs than the best music schools can create another Mozart. However,entrepreneurship courses and other activities can increase awareness of the opportunitiesand provide knowledge on what it takes to increase the chances for success in innovation.Like other education, we need to look at works best in doing this. It appears thatexperiential education is embraced as a most powerful way to instill entrepreneurialattributes and even Birch, the critic cited above, said learning could occur inapprenticeships, but projects and internships are not the only ways. Moreover, theexperiential approaches can be costly.Background on entrepreneurship centersAccording to the Kauffman Foundation, about two thirds of the colleges and universitiesin the

Conference Session

Course-Based Approaches to Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jonathan Weaver, University of Detroit Mercy; Nassif Rayess, University of Detroit Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

meant to be a substitute to rigorous courses onEntrepreneurship. The aim is to raise the interest level among the students, make them aware ofthis important field and give them an overview of the subject. The hope is that they wouldchoose to study Entrepreneurship either as a minor degree or as a set of elective courses. It is inthose courses that the all important hands-on training and actual project work will take place.There is a great ancillary benefit to these case studies in that they allow the student to betterappreciate the usefulness of what might be initially construed as a boring and dry technical topic.It is that mutually beneficial relationship that makes it easier for a course instructor to give up acontact hour of his/her class

Conference Session

Learning from Entrepreneurship Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karen Thornton, University of Maryland; Jacqueline Rogers, University of Maryland (Retired); Nathan Myers, University of Maryland; Monica Neukomm, University of Maryland

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

years teaching fourth grade in Baltimore as a Teach for America corps member. After her teaching commitment, she moved to the American Institutes for Research where she worked with Department of Education clients on several research and evaluation projects. Monica holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Oregon Page 13.668.2© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 HILLMAN ENTREPRENEURS PROGRAM - CHALLENGES, IMPACT ON A DIVERSE POPULATION, AND EARLY OUTCOMESAbstractThe University of Maryland (UM), Prince George’s Community