Keynote Presentation with Steve Blank
Crossing the Rubicon: Entrepreneurial education at the lean crossroads
Over the past fifty years, the science- and technology-based startup has emerged as a critical model for commercializing new ideas. But great technologies don’t automatically attract users and thrive. While business schools have for decades taught aspiring leaders how to execute known business models for large companies, startups search for and discover business models for sometimes undiscovered, emerging markets. Instead of a “b-school” approach, Steve Blank maintains that now is the time for the rise of the “e-school”: teaching a 'lean" approach to venture creation. Successful serial entrepreneur and Professor Steve Blank will delve into the Lean LaunchPad method and its implications for technology entrepreneurship education in the US.
Thursday March 22 – Morning
10:30 AM – Mason II
Bala Haridas, Chris Lindsell, Fred Beyette, Mary Beth Privitera
10:30 AM – Mason II
Jonathan Pearlman, Mary Goldberg
10:30 AM – Mason II
Darrell Kleinke, Molly McClelland
10:30 AM – Mason I
John Ochs, Robert Allen
10:30 AM – Mason I
Mark Henderson, Dan O'Neill
10:30 AM – Mason I
Brooke Envick, Jon Down, Paul Marsnik, Robin Anderson
10:30 AM – Montgomery
Jamie Cignetti, Pete Schwartz
10:30 AM – Montgomery
Pritpal Singh
10:30 AM – Montgomery
Laura Hosman
Thursday March 22 – Afternoon
2:00 PM – Montgomery
Gunjan Malekar, Khanjan Mehta, Shruthi Baskaran
2:00 PM – Montgomery
Dan O'Neill
2:00 PM – Montgomery
Anthony Marchese, Gregory Graff, Rick Turley
2:00 PM – Mason I
Alyssa Cohen Sherman, James Green
2:00 PM – Mason I
Brian Lilly
3:45 PM – Mason I
Darian Unger
3:45 PM – Mason I
Jon Down, Peter Rachor
3:45 PM – Mason I
Kenneth Phillips, Mick Jackowski
3:45 PM – Sansome
Burt Swersey, Douglas N. Arion, John Ochs, Kathy Allen, Michael Lehman, Tim Stearns
Friday March 23 – Morning
9:00 AM – Mason I
Jaclin Warner, James Green, Jay Smith
9:00 AM – Mason I
Robert Gettens
9:00 AM – Mason I
Emily J. Carter, Robyn Laur Russell
9:00 AM – Montgomery
Craig Forest
9:00 AM – Montgomery
Michael Lehman
9:00 AM – Montgomery
Kimble A. Byrd, Linda Wabschall Ross
9:00 AM – Mason II
Khanjan Mehta, Peter Butler, Rachel Dzombak
9:00 AM – Mason II
Jim Agutter
9:00 AM – Mason II
John DesJardins
11:00 AM – Mason I
Claire P. Cornell
11:00 AM – Mason I
Clifton Kussmaul
Friday March 23 – Afternoon
2:30 PM – Mason II
Darrell Kleinke, Jonathan Weaver, Terri Lynch-Caris
2:30 PM – Mason II
Jonathan Weaver, Terri Lynch-Caris
2:30 PM – Mason II
Darrell Kleinke, Jonathan Weaver, Terri Lynch-Caris
2:30 PM – Montgomery
Karen Loeb, Renee A. Botta
2:30 PM – Montgomery
Khanjan Mehta, Melanie Fedri
2:30 PM – Montgomery
Andrea Grzybowski, Blair Mathias, Khanjan Mehta
2:30 PM – Mason I
John-David Yoder, Robert Kleine
2:30 PM – Mason I
Abdullah Konak, Sadan Kulturel-Konak
2:30 PM – Mason I
Len Holmes, Michael Menefee
Saturday March 24 – Morning
9:00 AM – Mason I
Peer Sathikh
9:00 AM – Mason I
James Collins
9:00 AM – Mason I
Judd H. Michael, Mark A. Gagnon
9:00 AM – Montgomery
Pritpal Singh
9:00 AM – Montgomery
Adegboyega Babasola, Joshua Pearce, Rob Andrews
11:00 AM – Mason II
Paul M. Swamidass
11:00 AM – Mason II
Darrell Radson
11:00 AM – Mason II
Dan O'Neill
Collaborate to Create: Medical Devices (c2c:MD): Building a medical device design and innovation collaborative degree and network
Presenter(s): Bala Haridas, Chris Lindsell, Fred Beyette, Mary Beth Privitera
Medical Device Design is a major focus at the University of Cincinnati. Over the past three years, faculty from four colleges have collaborated to integrate the device design process and curriculum into graduate degree and fellowship opportunities. The process began with networking and gap analysis and has grown to support studios and other activities at which innovation routinely occurs. The open studio model promotes creative problem solving, encouraging more students, physicians and technologists to enter our network. The c2c:MD program allows teams to develop their ideas up to the level of functional feasibility, as well as to learn the requirements of clinical studies. This further enhances the student experience and provides meaningful opportunities for entrepreneurship. Students and faculty may also elect to earn an advanced degree with a heavy focus on medical device design. Although in its infancy, this collaborative already includes three hospitals, four colleges, and university regulatory and business offices.
Technology Innovations for People with Disabilities: A program to develop impactful technologies and teach students the fundamentals of entrepreneurship
Presenter(s): Jonathan Pearlman, Mary Goldberg
TIPeD, a program funded by NCIIA, serves as a model program to enhance assistive technology innovation through product development teams. The goals of TIPeD are to develop cross-disciplinary teams (engineering, business, law, rehab) to create products to improve the lives of people with disabilities, develop promising business plans, secure pilot funding to launch ventures, and improve the quality and increase the quantity of impactful technologies to support the social integration and independence of people with disabilities. The output of the projects are Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) proposals, which position teams to develop start-ups to commercialize the products. In the first year of the program, twelve students worked on four teams, resulting in four draft SBIR proposals. Student assessments reveal that the product development team mechanism is an effective way to teach students about the principles of participatory action design, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship.
Teaching Innovation Using Multidisciplinary Collaboration
Presenter(s): Darrell Kleinke, Molly McClelland
The University of Detroit Mercy Departments of Engineering and Nursing have collaborated to provide unique assistive devices to physically challenged individuals living in the Detroit metro area. A team of engineering and nursing students are paired with a physically challenged individual. The engineers design and build an assistive device identified by the client as being useful to improving the quality of their life. The nursing students evaluate the device and the client for any potential health-related issues. The interdisciplinary student team works together to provide a safe, useful and health-conscious device with the goal of improving quality of life. This paper will describe the multidisciplinary approach used to educate students while working toward meeting the needs of the physically disabled.
Sharing Best Practices in Engineering Design Education / Technical Entrepreneurship (TE) through Integrated Product Development (IPD)
Presenter(s): John Ochs, Robert Allen
Learning engineering design by experiencing it while a student--problem-based learning--is the most favored pedagogy for teaching design. And with good reason: engineering is doing and no amount of instruction can supplant the experiential knowledge gained during the process. Most BME programs satisfy ABET's design requirements by having a capstone design program in which seniors work in teams to solve an open-ended problem. Curricula and pedagogy vary from institution to institution. This session will focus on sharing best practices in undergraduate engineering design education. By doing so, we hope to disseminate pedagogy that seems to result in favorable outcomes.
Developing a Unique Technology Entrepreneurship and Management Program: Lessons Learned
Presenter(s): Mark Henderson, Dan O'Neill
The Arizona State University College of Technology Innovation (CTI) is in the process of developing and implementing a uniquely transdisciplinary, collaborative and modular degree program in Technology Entrepreneurship and Management. The program will eventually offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs, as well as minors, concentrations and certificates from CTI alone or in partnership with a variety of colleges, such as the ASU Schools of Sustainability, Design, Engineering and Business. This paper discusses the benchmarks, pedagogical philosophy, curricula approaches and collaboration strategies utilized in developing the program. Lessons learned to date and future plans for full build-out of the program are discussed, along with implications for a supporting faculty research agenda.
Building Entrepreneurship Education Programs That Link Students and Faculty Across Academic Institutions
Presenter(s): Brooke Envick, Jon Down, Paul Marsnik, Robin Anderson
The objective of this presentation is to have a lively and creative discussion about entrepreneurship programs that connect students and faculty from different academic institutions. The session will begin with a description of the Entrepreneur Scholars (E-Scholars) program that was started at the University of Portland in 1998 and expanded to include the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University and St. Mary's University. Each year, students in the program at each institution come together for the E-Scholars Student Consortium and later in the year faculty meet for the E-Scholars Faculty Consortium. Students from any major on campus may apply for the program, which consists of three courses: Creating a World-Class Venture, Global Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneur Apprenticeship. Student learning goals for the program are to be able to identify and assess viable business opportunities and to design and implement viable business plans.
Collaborative Guatemalan Summer School
Presenter(s): Jamie Cignetti, Pete Schwartz
Guateca, California Polytechnic State University and the community of San Pablo (SP), Tacana, Guatemala are collaborating in multidisciplinary classes culminating with a two-month Appropriate Technology summer school in SP, Guateca, for twenty Cal Poly students and twenty SP college students. Guateca aims to improve the quality of life for Guatemalans and North Americans by developing local sustainable businesses to strengthen the local and regional economies.
Guateca (1) Builds cross-cultural community with the needs and interests of both communities in mind, (2) Fosters technological and social development by encouraging curiosity and empowering innovation, (3) Addresses language, culture, energy, society, and innovation of sustainable enterprises, (4) Develops sustainable technologies to meet the needs of SP and generate income locally, (5) Provides a model that the industrialized world can strive toward.
Improved Health Care in Rural Nicaragua through the Use of Cell Phone Technology
Presenter(s): Pritpal Singh
We have been developing a cell phone-based approach to delivering improved health care to rural communities surrounding the town of Waslala in northern Nicaragua. Community health workers with limited health care education have been trained to take blood pressure and other vital sign measurements and text this data to a central computer located in the town. A professional health worker evaluates the data and suggests treatment options as necessary. A description of the healthcare issues being addressed, the technology being used, and implementation details to date will be presented.
Utilizing Classroom Experiences to Make an Impact in the Developing World: IIT Empowering Haiti
Presenter(s): Laura Hosman
IPRO 335 is a team of students designing an open-sourced, low-cost, replicable, DC-only, solar power solution to charging laptops for secondary schools in Haiti. The team is also developing a community development model to engage the community in the project, with lesson plans to teach the students and the community about the benefits of clean energy and how solar energy works. They are collaborating with the Ministry of Education in conjunction with students from the State University of Haiti to monitor the scaling of the project to all secondary schools in Haiti. This presentation will guide the audience through how to assess, design, and implement projects in the developing world. With firsthand experience using engineering as a tool for social impact, the presenters hope to share our lessons learned and best practices to help use what is taught in the classroom to solve real-world issues.
The Global Jugaad Commons: Cross-pollinating concepts across cultures
Presenter(s): Gunjan Malekar, Khanjan Mehta, Shruthi Baskaran
Innovation manifests itself in myriad forms in developing communities. A dialog on developmental entrepreneurship requires us to conceptualize and operationalize innovation as defined by the people. Using provisional narratives, the Global Jugaad Commons aims to understand how youth in developing communities across five countries perceive innovation, and illustrate how cultural mechanisms and communal context bias the unique circumstances that lead to innovative solutions for individual or community needs. This project aims to create a repository of innovation snapshots, which, along with the research findings, will inform and inspire innovation by cross-pollinating concepts across cultures. Our team has interviewed over 400 youths across rural and urban areas of Kenya, Tanzania, India and Nicaragua with 120 interviews planned for September 2012 in resource-constrained areas in the US. This interactive session will explore innovation and the way it is perceived and practiced in five distinct contexts.
Sustainable Community Development through Sustainability Entrepreneurship
Presenter(s): Dan O'Neill
This paper uses a case study approach to illustrate an approach to sustainable community development in Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) contexts. Most innovation and entrepreneurship processes concentrate on the development of individual product and service solutions. Arizona State University's GlobalResolve programs in the College of Technology Innovation and its partners around the world have worked to integrate sustainability entrepreneurship with the practices of sustainability science and sustainable community development into one multi-layered sustainable development process. As one example, over the past 24 months, GlobalResolve has worked with Campus Toluca of the Tec de Monterrey system to assist the community of San Antonio Buena Vista in defining a sustainability strategy that can be implemented, at least partially, through the creation of an integrated value network of mutually supporting sustainability-oriented ventures. The theory and methodological approaches are briefly discussed, along with lessons learned to date in their practical application.
A New Graduate Course in Sustainable Technology Entrepreneurship
Presenter(s): Anthony Marchese, Gregory Graff, Rick Turley
This paper describes the development of a new graduate-level course entitled Sustainable Technology Entrepreneurship for Scientists and Engineers (STESE), which was jointly developed and delivered by the Colleges of Engineering, Business and Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University. The goals of the course were to instill an entrepreneurial mindset and global/sustainable perspective among engineering and science students and to provide technical expertise and rapid product realization resources to student teams within the Global Social Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) program in the College of Business. The motivation for the first goal was to address a deficiency of adequate entrepreneurship training opportunities for graduate students within engineering and agricultural sciences at CSU. The motivation for the second goal was to address a critical shortage of engineering and agricultural science expertise within the GSSE teams engaged in sustainable enterprises in developing countries.
A Case Study in Developing and Launching a New Experiential Course in 'Marketing High-Technology Products and Innovations'
Presenter(s): Alyssa Cohen Sherman, James Green
Nationally, there are a growing number of undergraduate students from the science and technology disciplines with great product ideas, but with an insufficient understanding of the go-to-market strategies that will enable them to commercialize their concepts. With grant support from NCIIA, a new course in 'Marketing High-Technology Products and Innovations' is under development to help not only University of Maryland students navigate this challenge, but to create a replicable pedagogy for how to integrate experiential entrepreneurial learning into a technology marketing course. The goals of this initiative are to increase (1) the number E-Teams launching innovative technology-based ventures; (2) the development of students' skills to successfully commercialize innovations; and (3) student understanding of high-technology market research principles, affordable design, and technology innovation. This paper will detail the initial needs assessment and strategies, as well as interim progress in the development of the course and related transferable pedagogical materials and methods.
Roadmap to Entrepreneurship
Presenter(s): Brian Lilly
The Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC) is an interdisciplinary program in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois engaging a vast pool of faculty, students, and alumni to provide the education, experiences, and resources that students need to become innovative leaders and empower them to change the world around them. Created in 2000 to highlight the university's rich history and culture of innovation, the TEC inspires its engineering students to become the next generation of world-changing visionaries, leaders and entrepreneurs. In the area of entrepreneurship, the TEC has developed a roadmap for students to follow that greatly increases their chances for starting a successful enterprise. The goal of this talk is to explain and discuss the roadmap with other educators in the field of entrepreneurship and see how it compares to their experiences and their school programs.
Measuring What Matters in Teaching Innovation
Presenter(s): Darian Unger
Successful innovators use a range of knowledge and skills that include developing creative concepts, prototyping new products, and several effective commercialization strategies. Colleges and universities frequently offer innovation courses, but few models exist for assessing whether or not students have mastered the complex skills that lie at the heart of successful innovation. Traditional tests are best suited to measure whether or not students have mastered a limited amount of discrete factual and procedural knowledge, which is necessary but not sufficient to be a successful innovator. This research investigates how to better assess whether or not students have understood and can apply key innovation concepts and skills. It uses course plans, student performance, and student feedback from a course on innovation management to determine successful methods for measuring what matters in innovation instruction. In doing so, it suggests how we might effectively measure what matters in an innovation course.
The Index of Entrepreneurship Indicators: Tracking the fertility of a region's entrepreneurship eco-system
Presenter(s): Jon Down, Peter Rachor
This presentation summarizes research on why entrepreneurship is important for economic development and provides insight into how additional entrepreneurial activity might be stimulated in a particular region. It is based on a year-long study of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Portland metro area. Findings emphasize the need for educating entrepreneurs and investors in order to close the perception gap that exists between them and drive economic activity. Entrepreneurs see lack of capital as a major barrier, while investors see a lack of investment-quality deals. The Index of Entrepreneurship Indicators is a tool that allows for assessment and tracking of the vibrancy of a region's entrepreneurship environment.
Developing an Effective Entrepreneurship Program Assessment: Adapting a Model from the Creative Disciplines
Presenter(s): Kenneth Phillips, Mick Jackowski
The paper describes a collaborative project undertaken by the director of the Metro State Center for Innovation (CFI) and the Industrial Design (ID) Chair to develop the assessment program for the center's curriculum. The ID program assessment process has been identified as exemplary at Metro State, and directed this work.
Using the model from a creative field for the development of the CFI assessment program honors the creative nature of entrepreneurship. This linkage directed the identification of clearly articulated student learning outcomes tied to assessment instruments, striving for an objective assessment of a creative endeavor. A curriculum map linking courses with learning outcomes and identifying a level at which those outcomes are addressed was developed and explained. The process for curricular and instructional changes reflecting assessment findings for the CFI is also discussed.
A Review of Practices of Established Entrepreneurship Programs
Presenter(s): Burt Swersey, Douglas N. Arion, John Ochs, Kathy Allen, Michael Lehman, Tim Stearns
Over the fifteen years of history of the NCIIA, entrepreneurship programs have been developed and implemented at many member institutions. Some of these are long standing programs, and have experienced the trials and tribulations of startup, implementation, and being sustained on their campuses. They have also graduated many students. Together, these factors make it valuable for the community to hear about and review these programs to glean both best practices as developed by these veterans as well as the program outcomes that have been achieved. The discussion will be motivational, especially to those starting out in the discipline, as well as providing a catalog of outcomes that can be utilized by faculty to promote their programs at their own institutions.
First-year Review of a New Living-Learning Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program for Honors College Freshmen and Sophomores at the University of Maryland
Presenter(s): Jaclin Warner, James Green, Jay Smith
The presentation provides a case study of the academic year 2010-11 launch of the new Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) at the University of Maryland. Modeled on the university's award-winning Hinman CEOs Program for upper-classmen, the new two-year EIP living-learning program for Honors College freshmen and sophomores combines challenging academics, experiential learning, and a community-living environment to help foster students' entrepreneurial skills in opportunity discovery, creativity, innovation and business creation. The presentation looks back on the first year of the program and provides an interim review of the program's progress, an assessment of initial results, and discussion of lessons learned.
Teaching Entrepreneurship through Interdisciplinary Teams
Presenter(s): Robert Gettens
A course called Product Development and Innovation was developed in 2008 under a grant from the NCIIA, and first taught in fall 2009 and again in fall 2010. The course is a three-credit, semester-long, and open to all College of Business and College of Engineering undergraduate seniors. Students are organized into interdisciplinary E-Teams. The E-Teams develop product concepts, prototype their products, and develop marketing plans to sell their new product designs. Throughout the semester, the E-Teams have several design review meetings with the faculty team serving as a pseudo-management team.
Training Entrepreneurs Across Generations: Program development and implementation
Presenter(s): Emily J. Carter, Robyn Laur Russell
In the distressed rural economy of southern Illinois, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has aggressively expanded its entrepreneurial training focus to launching new ventures, ranging from small microenterprises to high-tech, knowledge-based companies. The training scope also serves a diverse audience, including academically talented fourth and fifth grade students, high school students, undergrad and graduate students, university faculty, low-to-moderate income individuals, and regional aspiring entrepreneurs. The customized training approach has been multi-faceted, incorporating experiential learning techniques, multiple Kauffman curricula, individual consultative and coaching services and wrap-around resources such as the SIUC Small Business Development Center. The ultimate goal is to illustrate how a training model and curriculum can be modified for a diverse group of partipants to complete a training/coaching mix.
An Extracurricular Undergraduate Invention Television Show and Competition at Georgia Tech
Presenter(s): Craig Forest
Georgia Tech has historically not adequately recognized the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship to its undergraduates. The InVenture Prize television show and competition was initiated to help remedy this problem by introducing a dramatically new approach to creating and establishing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among undergraduate students.
In 2011-2012, 477 undergraduate students are competing for six finalist slots and the opportunity to face a panel of four judges on stage in front of a live, 1,000-person audience and 50,000 people watching state-wide on live television. Inventors compete after months of coaching and elimination rounds for cash prizes, provisional patents and utility patents. A partnership between Georgia Tech and Georgia Public Broadcasting has enabled the competition to be professionally produced and televised. An invention studio facility enables the students to fabricate working invention prototypes. Current efforts are focused on organizing this large competition with an eye towards national expansion.
Building a Cross-campus Big Idea Competition at a Large Research University
Presenter(s): Michael Lehman
With the growing number of university-based entrepreneurship programs, there has been a concomitant increase in student-based competitions around entrepreneurship. However, the take-home prizes for the top winners in a business idea competition, which is often cash, is only a fraction of the take-away value afforded to all of the entrants. For institutions basing these competitions on the educational process, and not just the outcome, student entrepreneurs at all stages of their learning and experience-building can benefit from participation. Over the past three years, the University of Pittsburgh's Big Idea Competition has grown in breadth and depth for undergraduate and graduate students. The lessons learned, via successes and failures, as the competition has evolved will be shared. Entrepreneurial educators, either looking to launch a new competition or evolve an existing one, will be provided specific tools for implementation at their institutions.
University-based Business Plan Competitions: Does institutional environment affect participation and outcomes?
Presenter(s): Kimble A. Byrd, Linda Wabschall Ross
Universities initiated new business plan competitions (BPC) during the last decade at a 22% annual growth rate. Despite increasing popularity, even avid proponents of BPCs question their efficacy. There is sparse documentation of BPC's usefulness in 'sorting out' and elevating innovative growth-oriented business models that drive economic development. We compare competitions hosted by nationally top-ranked programs in entrepreneurship (Princeton Review/Entrepreneur.com), engineering (ABET), top-rated and second-tier general business programs (AACSB). Findings suggest that institutions with top-ranked entrepreneurship programs were less likely than top-ranked engineering programs to reward entries from high-value ventures such as energy, IT, and medical products or solutions. The study has implications for universities considering a single-institution-based BPC. It stimulates discussion among program administrators who address the mix of competitors, the way competitors are attracted, and how to enhance the quality of entrants into appropriate BPCs.
Design by Example: A Web-based tool for context-driven biomedical device design
Presenter(s): Khanjan Mehta, Peter Butler, Rachel Dzombak
The World Health Organization estimates that international donors fund nearly 80% of health care equipment in developing countries. Almost 70% of the donations are not in use because of lack of maintenance or spare parts, or because local personnel do not know how to use it, representing a tragic waste of scarce resources. This disconnect arises because of the substantial differences in resources, infrastructure, social and behavioral norms, and the healthcare environment. The typical biomedical engineer in the U.S. is unlikely to be familiar with the unique challenges of designing devices for resource-constrained environments. We have developed a structured methodology that takes into consideration pertinent anthropometric, contextual, social and economic considerations in the design of biomedical devices. This systematic approach involves a series of questions and real-world examples to aid in design exploration and ensure that every decision made in the design process can be defended by a well-informed rationale.
Empathetic Innovations in Health Care: The patient experience project
Presenter(s): Jim Agutter
This interdisciplinary project explored the medical patient experience through a multi-perspective lens. It journeyed through the issues and complexity involved in providing an exceptional patient experience within a health care setting. During this hands-on research workshop, students engaged in lectures, activities and exercises. This was accomplished within a 'design thinking' framework. The approach focused on generating innovation through observation, reflection, creativity, integration and implementation. This helped the students, who had no design background, to see design as a positive force in society and a catalyst for change. It helped bridge between the rational, quantitative and emotional, qualitative so that students could develop well-grounded and holistic responses to vexing healthcare issues that were patient-centered.
Industry Gate Reviews as a Method to Facilitate Senior Capstone Design
Presenter(s): John DesJardins
Most capstone senior biomedical design courses challenge student teams to conceive, evaluate, develop, prototype and test a biomedical device. These organizational skills are expected to follow from theoretical principles taught in the classroom, whereas it is more often the case that these skills are lacking due to the absence of a clear model from which to guide the student to a successfully developed product. We propose that the GATE method of product development, adapted from many industry standard practices, can be applied to semester-long student design projects to enable a more clearly organized and successful student design experience. Small teams present regularly to faculty mentors and industry representatives to insure timely development with professional supervision. This timeline-driven method promotes the development, management and presentation of incremental tasks that lead to a successful product development experience.
Battling 'Senior-itis': Challenging students with ideation through implementation
Presenter(s): Claire P. Cornell
The University of Tulsa, a small liberal arts school, looked to IDEO and Google as models for its development of a hands-on experience for students and a physical space. 'Studio Blue' functions as the home for an extra-curricular 'agency' where a team of students works on select projects for area companies, non-profits, and campus departments. Examples of projects including new product ideation, research, and promotions will be presented at this session and attendees will be able to participate in examples of interactive exercises used in Studio Blue. Benefits of this type of experience for students include learning an interdisciplinary approach to problem identification, the ideation process, project implementation, and teamwork.
If You Build It...: A writing-intensive cornerstone course for STEM students
Presenter(s): Clifton Kussmaul
All Muhlenberg College students take a first-year seminar (FYS) to develop critical thinking, research, and writing skills. In 2010, Muhlenberg received NSF grant DUE-0965834 for Scholarships in Math & Science (SIMS), a project to improve recruitment and retention. The SIMS students' FYS is inspired by cornerstone courses at other institutions, and is organized around multidisciplinary design projects, including musical percussion instruments and a stage-gate series of new product development proposals. The course also includes a variety of active, guided-inquiry, and team-based learning activities focused on creativity, design processes, prototyping, and entrepreneurship. We describe: relevant background; the FYS structure and activities; outcomes and implications; changes from 2010 to 2011; and directions for future work.
A Functional Taxonomy to Connect Engineering Design to Biological Solutions
Presenter(s): Darrell Kleinke, Jonathan Weaver, Terri Lynch-Caris
Engineers typically do not get formal training in biomimicry and it is not reasonable to expect that experience will eventually result in DaVinci-like knowledge of nature. A standardized approach to finding nature-based solutions may bridge the gap and encourage adoption in academic curricula.
Function-mapping offers an intuitive method to connect engineering needs to potential biological (and traditional) solutions. A standard methodology for defining engineering functions can be used to describe the capabilities offered by nature. If design engineers can express technical problems in these same functional terms, they will then be able to connect their problem/need not only to known man-made solutions, but also seamlessly explore relevant biological solutions. Several examples are illustrated in the paper and a comparison is made to the taxonomy employed by the Biomimicry Institute (www.asknature.org).
The authors believe the proposed approach can greatly facilitate the integration of biomimicry into the engineering design process.
Bio-TRIZ: An extension of TRIZ to connect engineering problems to biological solutions
Presenter(s): Jonathan Weaver, Terri Lynch-Caris
Genrich Altschuller's theory of inventive problem solving, TRIZ, is built on the vast quantities of manmade solutions available in patent databases. By defining contradictions, TRIZ leads the design engineer to principles that have been applied by inventors faced with similar contradictions. The authors propose a technique, which they are dubbing Bio-TRIZ, that extends the basic philosophy of TRIZ so that an engineer/designer faced with a contradiction who is referred to one or several of Altschuller's principles is simultaneously presented not only with manmade illustrations of the relevant principles but also biological examples of those principles.
The authors believe the proposed approach will more efficiently and routinely allow designers to employ principles of biomimicry to everyday problems.
Biomimicry Cards Demonstrate How to Connect Engineering Problems to Biological Solutions
Presenter(s): Darrell Kleinke, Jonathan Weaver, Terri Lynch-Caris
Nature provides a rich source of engineering solutions, but undergraduate engineering students often have difficulty making the conceptual leap required to apply natural solutions to open-ended design problems. It is imperative that students uncover evidence that will enable the useful application of the laws of nature. The authors developed biomimicry cards to help students apply nature's laws to design problems. The prototype biomimicry cards are designed to expose students to the fundamental mapping problem between function and form. One stack of cards presents biological principles that might be applied to design problems. Another stack of cards presents design problems to be solved. The authors developed a card-based activity in which the students explore links between biological principles and engineering problems. This activity is designed to provide a quick, fun, interactive introduction to biomimicry.
Business Planning for Sustainability of Water and Sanitation Facilities
Presenter(s): Karen Loeb, Renee A. Botta
We have found that the failure of clean water and sanitation facilities in poor urban settings is due to an overemphasis on facility technologies alone, which does not guarantee success or sustainability; instead, we hypothesized that focusing on business best practices was also a necessary condition for success. From our work in a major urban slum in Nairobi, Kenya, we learned that it is a combination of both governance and business practices that is critical to the success of such facilities.
In our case, the business practices included development with community members of standard operating procedures (SOPs), a quality management system for performance measurement against objectives, and project management oversight with respect to adoption of SOPs. Specifically, we have been examining how SOP training, adoption of SOPs, and degree of project management oversight can increase facility usage, and improve operations, ROI, and sustainability. In the area of governance, we have been examining the active engagement of the community in facilities management and oversight, water access and maintenance, and outreach.
Survey, usage and observational data, as well as financials, are being examined to determine the role of these factors and their interactions in creating a sustainable WATSAN model for subsequent replication using a social franchising model.
Undergraduate Research: Adding value and dimension to entrepreneurship education and venture creation
Presenter(s): Khanjan Mehta, Melanie Fedri
The value of engaging students in venture creation and other hands-on entrepreneurial experiences is enhanced through students' concurrent involvement in original, institution-approved, and publishable research. An underway case study traces the experiences and perceptions of students through the research process, from design to fieldwork to analysis to dissemination. The study highlights the benefits and challenges of involving students in undergraduate research connected to hands-on entrepreneurial experiences. Undergraduate research adds value and dimension to educational efforts that are already time- and resource-intensive; this value accrues to students, faculty, programs, and universities. The case provides one model for how undergraduate research may be meaningfully incorporated into entrepreneurship education. The case's curriculum sequentially involves students in venture creation and research design, field and research experience in developing country contexts, and seminar-based reflection to develop publishable papers and other research products.
When Participatory Research and Business Strategy Collide: Lessons from Base-of-Pyramid ventures
Presenter(s): Andrea Grzybowski, Blair Mathias, Khanjan Mehta
Base-of-Pyramid ventures must be designed with the intimate involvement of all stakeholders to ensure that the designs meet their needs and use preferences and contribute to a self-determined improvement of livelihoods and agency. Participatory research engages community members in identifying their problems, articulating their context and resources and developing effective, affordable, appropriate and sustainable solutions. The research aspect is crucial to developing the product, business model, implementation strategy and scale-up strategy. Participation in the research endeavor can lead to expectations and ownership, which, although desirable, have the potential to negatively impact the success of the venture and limit its scalability. Simultaneously, the information inaccuracies that owe their genesis to the expectations built by the venture can compromise the validity and integrity of the research endeavor. This paper explores the tensions and conflicts that arise on integrated research and entrepreneurship ventures in developing country contexts.
A Rubric-based Approach for Operationalizing the Entrepreneurial Mindset: An exploratory investigation
Presenter(s): John-David Yoder, Robert Kleine
A central challenge facing educators is the development and assessment of programs and activities that cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset. One approach to facilitating program development and assessment is the creation of relevant learning outcomes and construction of a rubric that operationalizes each learning outcome. Schools participating in the Kern Foundation's KEEN initiative developed seven learning outcomes that collectively characterize the entrepreneurial mindset. A rubric was developed for each learning outcome to guide development of curricular elements and assessment. This presentation will report the findings from an exploratory investigation into the application of a subset of the rubrics by faculty. Lessons learned for designing curricula to cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset will be shared.
Best Practices for Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Virtual Teamwork
Presenter(s): Abdullah Konak, Sadan Kulturel-Konak
Globalizing entrepreneurship education through innovative programs is becoming crucial. Some of the goals of the many entrepreneurship courses and programs around the country are: preparing students to be independent, world-class technology innovators; engaging students in interdisciplinary and/or international teamwork; and fostering a sense of responsibility for the environment and welfare of others, locally and internationally. Therefore, it is important for students to learn international virtual team skills. The development of international and interdisciplinary virtual teams at an undergraduate institution that bring together multicultural and multidisciplinary faculty, students and industry mentors will be introduced. We will conclude with the presentation of how a recent Course and Program grant from NCIIA has been leveraged for success in developing international and interdisciplinary virtual entrepreneurship teams at Penn State Berks, an undergraduate institution in the Penn State System.
Developing Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Southeastern North Carolina
Presenter(s): Len Holmes, Michael Menefee
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) is located in the poorest county in the state and one of the poorest regions in the nation. The Thomas Family Center for Entrepreneurship (TFCE) was created to encourage innovation and business start-up and growth in the area. TFCE has developed academic entrepreneurship programs for almost all UNCP disciplines. The interest in entrepreneurship has produced new laboratories for innovative research. The TFCE has also developed counseling programs and summits for local entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship programs aimed at community colleges and high schools have been initiated. Financial resources are also being created in the area for small business development including a newly formed angel fund. The goals of these initiatives are to provide a basis for new business development and to persuade UNCP students to create new businesses here.
Cultivating Value through Innovation
Presenter(s): Peer Sathikh
What do creativity and innovation bring to the modern enterprise, which seems to rely on connectivity and instant information? How do creativity and innovation help?
Barnett (1953) in the book titled Innovation: The Basis for Cultural Change brings in qualitative value as an indicator of innovation. Jacobs (2007) in his book Adding Values: The cultural side of innovation discusses the need for understanding the cultural side of innovation. What both these authors seem to emphasise is that while innovation, especially radical innovation, is likely to reap economic benefits to enterprises, its benefits may not be sustainable if entrepreneurs fail to understand the cultural value of innovation.
In this paper, the author shares his thoughts on the need for entrepreneurs to understand how culture and innovation are related and how they can determine the success of their business ideas.
Entrepreneurship at the End of the Road
Presenter(s): James Collins
The University of Alaska Fairbanks is the state's flagship campus. It generates approximately $200 million in research activity each year, but virtually none of the intellectual property developed at the university has found commercial applications. Two years ago, the institution initiated an effort to harness the research process as an agent of economic change. Given the university's history and Alaska's unique economic structure, this provided the basis for an expansive organizational experiment. This paper documents the university's efforts to identify, develop and commercialize IP created by faculty within the context of an organizational process paradigm. In particular, efforts aimed at stimulating organizational and faculty interest in commercialization, fostering student interest in entrepreneurship, and connecting the state's business community to the research process are examined. Successes and failures in fostering an entrepreneurial culture are described and prescriptive suggestions for the future provided.
Growing Entrepreneurship in Penn State's Ag Space
Presenter(s): Judd H. Michael, Mark A. Gagnon
How does a group of faculty infuse entrepreneurship into a large agricultural college? In this presentation, we describe our on-going journey with entrepreneurship in Penn State's Ag space. Since its inception in 2006, the College of Agricultural Science's Entrepreneurship Initiative has experienced several states of transition and has gained significant momentum. Our charge is to develop entrepreneurs across the college's students, faculty, alumni and external constituents. We will discuss our successes, failures and lessons learned during our journey over the last five years. Example themes discussed are enlisting the college's entrepreneurial hybrids across students, faculty and alumni, pollinating cross-university entrepreneurship networks, avoiding the blight of debating entrepreneurship and pressing on with the chore of cultivating entrepreneurship. These topics will be framed with the question: how do we keep entrepreneurship growing in Penn State's Ag space?
Microhydroelectric Enterprise in Ifugao, Philippines
Presenter(s): Pritpal Singh
In an NCIIA Sustainable Vision grant, we looked at setting up enterprises in the Ifugao region of the Philippines. Of the ones explored, small scale hydroelectric power generation has risen to the top for further development. Two students who worked on the sustainable vision grant are in the process of preparing to spend a year in-country to develop a detailed business plan. The development of the students' learning, particularly in entrepreneurship for the developing world, will be presented in this paper.
Open Solar Photovoltaic Systems Optimization
Presenter(s): Adegboyega Babasola, Joshua Pearce, Rob Andrews
A partnership has formed between eighteen organizations to produce the Open Solar Outdoors Test Field (OSOTF), which has been designed to provide critical data and research on solar photovoltaic (PV) systems optimization in the public domain. Unlike many other projects, the OSOTF is organized under open source principles. All data and analysis when completed will be made freely available to the entire photovoltaic community and the general public. This paper documents how the teamwork between educational institutions and industry has resulted in one of the largest systems in the world for this detailed level of analysis of PV systems performance in real-world conditions. The challenges to this approach will be addressed and appropriate models for garnering industrial team work will be discussed. Conclusions will be drawn on how to scale other opportunities for the sharing of data to assist in improved optimization of socially beneficial appropriate technologies.
A Successful Partnership Between NCIIA and Auburn University in Delivering the First Annual invention2venture Apprentice Challenge Workshop
Presenter(s): Paul M. Swamidass
Starting in August 2010, Auburn University planned and executed its first annual invention2venture Apprentice Challenge Workshop in a partnership with the NCIIA. One reason for the success was our adaptation of NCIIA's proven template for such programs. Our unique changes to the template were: (1) presenting a 72-hour challenge to teams to produce maximum possible income from a new business idea using a refundable $100 in seed money, (2) awarding a $1,000 first prize and $500 second prize to the teams with the best results, (3) using a panel of experienced entrepreneurs to speak to the teams before they launched their ventures, and (4) offering the Challenge Workshop over a popular weekend football game, when the city's population doubled with out-of-town football fans. The Auburn Student Inventors Club and the Business-Engineering-Technology program presented the workshop. This presentation will address replication by other universities.
Business Development Experience: A senior capstone project for business students using emerging technologies from engineering
Presenter(s): Darrell Radson
The School of Business and Economics at Michigan Technological University launched its Business Development Experience in 2010. The program brings together business and engineering students in a collaborative, hands-on, entrepreneurial atmosphere. Students have three tracks to complete the Business Development Experience senior-year capstone project. Two tracks require spending a full year with a College of Engineering Senior Design or Enterprise team, acting as consultants and writing a business plan. Therefore, the business curriculum integrates a senior year project in which a team of business students develop a business plan for a technology that is emerging, not imagined. This presentation will explain the curriculum, provide examples, and discuss implementation strategies leading to schools working together to provide a unique entrepreneurial teaching and learning experience.
Scalable Mentoring: Lessons learned from eighteen months
Presenter(s): Dan O'Neill
For the last 18 months, Arizona State University has been collaborating with the NCIIA to build a virtual mentoring platform to support both in-person and distance mentoring programs of a variety of types that are both local and global in nature. This paper discusses the overall platform, the different types of mentoring programs implemented and possible, mentoring philosophies used, approaches to mentoring administration, pros and cons of the system and lessons learned to date. It also discusses future evolution of the system into a national and global mentoring capability that can support the NCIIA?s network of universities, investors and other stakeholders, as well as their global collaborators.
