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Instilling an Action-Oriented Entrepreneurial Mindset in engineering, science and other technical studies undergraduates
This Kettering University Business Plan Competition serves as a convergence point across the University Community. Individual undergraduate engineering and business students, graduate students, faculty, staff, alumni and business community supporters will come together to turn innovative ideas into real ventures. The Business Plan Competition provides a three month forum during which Kettering students can develop and test their business vision and plans. Students form teams, develop their business ideas, and compete for cash prizes. The competition provides a network of resources for mentorship, team creation, education, networking and possibly new venture financing for some of these aspiring entrepreneurs. In addition, all participants receive feedback from qualified judges on the business ventures and business plans they submit.
This event is founded as part of the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) Initiative, led at Kettering by two selected Kern Fellows, Dr. Massoud Tavakoli, professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Andy Borchers. Professor of Information Systems. One specific KEEN funded activity during the Kern Fellowship Period was a new course on innovation teams taught with Manufacturing Engineering and Business faculty members. This interdisciplinary effort provides a more expansive approach to the course and focus on technological and new ventures in the fuel cell field. Students in this course will select a problem space of their choosing or from a set provided by the faculty, such as fuel cells, bio-medical topics, the Flint area and developing world problems. The final projects prepared by the students will be business plans that address their chosen problem. These teams will enter their plans in the Kettering Business Plan Competition, with faculty and alumni entrepreneurs assessing all projects.
The timing of the Kern Fellowship Grant is important given the economic status of Flint and the state of Michigan in general. With unemployment hovering around the 7 percent mark for the entire state, combined with the closing of numerous automotive and manufacturing facilities over the past 20 years, the region is in dire need of reinvigoration that is only available through technical innovation and entrepreneurial activity.
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