Boston University’s College of Engineering and School of Management Receive Grant to Teach Entrepreneurship to Engineering Undergraduates
BOSTON, MA, October 1, 2008 – Boston University is increasing collaboration across two of its 17 schools and colleges with a $50,000 grant from the Kern Family Foundation to teach entrepreneurship to all engineering undergraduates.
The grant, part of the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN), will enable the extension of an existing program that teaches entrepreneurship principles to seniors in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
The Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (ITEC), based at the School of Management and in partnership with the College of Engineering, will develop and deliver a new course for engineering juniors on the principles of technology innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization. Paul Levine, ITEC instructor at the School of Management, will design and teach the new course this spring and eventually the course will be required of all engineering students.
In their senior year, all engineering students will be required to include a tailored business plan in their Senior Design Project, a year-long course that challenges students to solve a real-world engineering problem. In addition to detailing their technical plans and creating prototypes, engineering students will need to address business issues, such as an analysis of the opportunity, the competitive environment, the intellectual property landscape, the costs and timelines for product development, and a preliminary financial forecast.
"In an increasingly interdisciplinary profession, our graduates need to be excellent engineers, but they also need to understand how innovation is commercialized," said College of Engineering Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen, principal investigator on the grant. “Boston University, with its focus on collaboration, is the ideal place for this education. For years, Biomedical Engineering students have benefited from entrepreneurship training in partnership with faculty from the School of Management, and I’m delighted that this is now part of the curriculum for all engineering undergraduates.”
The KEEN grant will help bring entrepreneurship education to engineering students, as well as serving as a prototype of a new way to deliver entrepreneurial education outside the School of Management to the other schools and colleges of Boston University. The creators of the new entrepreneurship course embody this effort. In addition to Paul Levine and Dean Lutchen, the working group includes Jonathan Rosen, ITEC Executive Director and KEEN co-PI; Peter Russo, ITEC Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, School of Management Executive-in-Residence, and KEEN program director; Solomon Eisenberg, College of Engineering Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs; and Catherine Klapperich, College of Engineering Assistant Professor.
"Sharing the entrepreneurial principles of leadership, personal contribution, and risk-benefit analysis with undergraduate engineering students is an exciting extension of our mission at ITEC," says Rosen. "The creation of sustainable new enterprises is becoming an essential component of solving the world’s problems, and enlightened engineers and scientists are key partners in that process."
The KEEN program’s mission is to foster an entrepreneurial mindset among engineering undergraduates who, upon graduation, will contribute to business success. The Boston University School of Management will offer its first elective in this program in the Spring 2009 semester.
The Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (ITEC) offers a new model for entrepreneurial research, education and commercialization. Housed at the School of Management, ITEC promotes cross campus exchange among students, faculty and alumni across all 17 schools and colleges at the university. We are dedicated to the new entrepreneur who is pursuing technologies, products, and services that meet pressing global needs in healthcare, life sciences, alternative energy, and many other sectors. We are focused on providing the resources to empower these new entrepreneurs to work collaboratively, across the university and around the world, to achieve great things and realize their dreams.
With a focus on preparing engineers for the integrated technology world of the 21st century, the Boston University College of Engineering offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in Biomedical, Mechanical, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition, the College offers interdisciplinary graduate degrees in Systems Engineering, and in Materials Science & Engineering. With a dual emphasis on education and research, the College offers one of the nation’s first study-abroad programs tailored for engineering undergraduates, and has a faculty that annually draws more than $32 million in external research support from some of the nation’s top funding sources. For more information, visit www.bu.edu/eng.
Founded as the College of Business Administration in 1913, Boston University School of Management develops builders and leaders for the networked-era, emphasizing the fusion of the art, science, and technology of business. The School’s holistic approach prepares the next generation of business leaders for a world that values management as a system of interdependent functions, decisions, people, and technologies. It is the worldwide leader in offering a unique MS•MBA program, a rigorous dual degree and next-generation MBA fusing a traditional management education with expertise in the information technologies that are transforming all businesses. The School also offers a full range of graduate and undergraduate management degree programs and executive education. For more information, visit http://management.bu.edu.
Established in 1999, The Kern Family Foundation invests in the future through support of programs that promote values, education and innovation. In keeping with the vision of its Founders, Drs. Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern, the Foundation seeks to enrich the lives of others by promoting strong pastoral leadership, educational excellence and high quality, innovative engineering talent. The Foundation aims to effect systemic change through broad-impact, long-term initiatives, including Education Reform, K-12 STEM Education, the Kern Scholars Pastoral Ministry Program, the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network and American History, Economics & Religion.
|