Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 3654

Turning Engineers into Entrepreneurs – And Transforming a Region

Carmo D’Cruz, Tom O’Neal University of Central Florida

Abstract

Engineers are excellent sources of high-growth potential entrepreneurial ventures with their creative product and technology ideas, in various disciplines. However, academia in general has not effectively developed this resource.

This paper reviews contemporary literature on teaching of entrepreneurship and describes an innovative, holistic Engineering Entrepreneurship program backed by the resources and activities of a technology incubator. This program is designed to provide engineering students and researchers with tools and opportunities for entrepreneurial success, establish deeper and more meaningful community ties, and facilitate the incubation of technology-based start-ups.

Packaging the “incubator concept” into a series of graduate, undergraduate and continuing education short courses is a unique aspect of UCF’s entrepreneurship program. This program has received very favorable reviews from local, state and national organizations. The entrepreneurship initiatives at UCF have had a positive impact on other universities and in making the Central Florida area a hub of high tech entrepreneurial activity.

Introduction Engineers are excellent sources of high growth potential entrepreneurial ventures with their creative product and technology ideas, in multiple disciplines. However, academia in general has not effectively developed this resource. This paper reviews the contemporary literature on the teaching of entrepreneurship and describes an innovative holistic Engineering Entrepreneurship program backed by the resources and activities of a technology incubator. The impact of university entrepreneurship initiatives on other local universities and in making the Central Florida area a hub of high tech entrepreneurial activity is also discussed.

Contemporary Models of Entrepreneurship There have been a number of contemporary models of entrepreneurship. In one of the first efforts to explain what makes up an entrepreneur, Blake and Saleh1 combine personality factors,

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

O'Neal, T., & D'Cruz, C. (2004, June), Turning Engineers Into Entrepreneurs And Transforming A Region Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13131