Entrepreneurial Engineering Program: Innovative Incubator Sequence (EntErPrIISe)

9972938克劳福德人们普遍认为，在许多不同因素的推动下，工程实践环境正在经历快速变化。相当一部分工科毕业生很快就会发现自己的工作环境与他们在传统工程项目中所准备的工作环境截然不同。现在，许多经济增长都与小型高科技公司(衍生产品或初创公司)捆绑在一起，在这些公司中，少数专业人士的作用对成功至关重要。这些环境中的工程师不能被狭隘地划分在他们的知识或思想上。他们必须与潜在客户和投资者畅所欲言，能够与商业专业人士密切合作，并更了解市场、法律和环境限制等。布朗大学将开设一门为期两学期的课程，向精选的高年级学生介绍创业环境。本课程将在这一框架的基础上，通过召集来自不同工程学科的学生团队，与当地行业密切合作，开发新的产品想法。由4至8名成员组成的团队还将涉及一个重要的额外组成部分--来自非工程学科的学生的参与，他们具有一般的商业兴趣和背景。其目的是模拟一群不同的专业人士联合起来，朝着将一种基于技术的新产品商业化的目标努力。团队将由内部教员(PI和其他以工程和商业为导向的教员)和赞助问题的公司的代表共同监督。这些学生将被期望处理与其产品的营销、成本计算、设计、原型、制造设计、知识产权、环境和法律方面相关的问题。他们将准备商业计划，正式提交给各自的企业赞助商，修改它们，并将产品带到商业推介的地步。在课程的早期阶段，他们将通过有关创业活动的研讨会进行指导。最后，将在试验性课程提供结束时编写一本手册，以帮助各机构规划这类课程，其中将详细介绍学术伙伴与工业伙伴的接口经验。

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.