Entrepreneurial Engineering Program: Innovative Incubator Sequence (EntErPrIISe)

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9972938CrawfordIt is generally agreed that the environment for engineering practice is undergoing rapid changes, driven by many diverse factors. A significant fraction of engineering graduates will quickly find themselves in job environments very different from those that they may have been prepared for in traditional engineering programs. Much economic growth is now tied to small, high technology firms (spin-offs or start-ups) in which the role of a few professionals is critical to success. Engineers in these environments cannot afford to be narrowly compartmentalized in their knowledge or thinking. They must be as comfortable talking to potential customers and investors, be able to work closely with business professionals, and be more aware of the market, the legal and environmental constraints, to name a few.A two semester course will be developed at Brown University to introduce selected senior-level students to the entrepreneurial environment. This course would build upon this framework by assembling teams of students from different engineering disciplines to work on new product ideas developed in close cooperation with local industries. The four-to eight member teams will also involve an important additional component - the participation of students from non-engineering disciplines, who have general business interests and background. The intent is to simulate a group of diverse professionals united in working towards the goal of commercializing a new technology-based product. Teams will be supervised by a combination of in-house faculty (the PI's and other engineering and business-oriented faculty) and representatives of the companies sponsoring the problems. The students will be expected to handle issues related to marketing, costing, design, prototyping, manufacturing design, intellectual property, environmental and legal aspects of their product. They will prepare business plans, formally present them to their respective corporate sponsors, revise them, and take the product up to the point of commercial introduction. In the early portions of the course, they will be guided by seminars on entrepreneurial activity. In the end a manual to aid institutions planning such courses will be prepared at the conclusion of the experimental course offering, which will detail the experiences in interfacing the academic partners with the industrial partners.