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Teaching Entrepreneurship to Engineering Students
January 12-16, 2003 - Monterey, Ca, USA
| Editors: |
Eleanor Baum, Cooper Union, USA
Carl McHargue, University of Tennessee, USA |
The articles for these proceedings are not peer-reviewed.
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Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture at a Startup Engineering Program
Anthony J. Marchese, Rowan University
John L. Schmalzel, Rowan University
John C. Chen, Rowan University
K. Mark Weaver, Rowan University
ABSTRACT:
In 1992, the College of Engineering at Rowan University was created as the direct result of a
$100 million gift from entrepreneur Henry M. Rowan. Mr. Rowan’s requirements were that the gift be
used to create a high-quality, public undergraduate engineering institution and to impact the economic
development of southern New Jersey, a region which has historically lagged behind northern New Jersey.
Having started with a clean curriculum slate during a period of national change in engineering curricula in
response to ABET 2000, we had the opportunity to infuse an entrepreneurial culture into our engineering
program from its inception. Specifically, we have developed the following policies/programs:
• Created an 8-semester Engineering Clinic course sequence in which hands-on design projects
are completed every semester.
• Developed a “job-fair” model for student clinic project staffing in which students get “hired” into
their Engineering Clinic projects by marketing themselves and their capabilities to faculty,
• Created an Undergraduate Venture Capital Fund where students can obtain funding up to $2500
per semester to develop their own original inventions,
• Created the Competitive Assessment Laboratory for competitive benchmarking of consumer
products.
• Developed a micro-business model in which some Engineering Clinic project teams provide
engineering services (design, fabrication, modeling, etc.) to other projects,
• Hired (College of Business) an endowed chair in entrepreneurial studies,
• Created the Technological Entrepreneurship Concentration, which is a certificate program that
will be populated jointly by Engineering and Business students,
• Obtained state funding to build the South Jersey Technology Park and Technology Business
Incubator adjacent to the Rowan campus.
This paper will describe the impact of each of these initiatives toward creating an entrepreneurial culture
in our undergraduate students. It should be noted that many of these initiatives do not require a new
program or major curriculum reform. Rather, our results suggest that it is possible to start with some
small initiatives and build upon each initiative as the momentum for entrepreneurship develops.
Anthony J. Marchese, John L. Schmalzel, John C. Chen, and K. Mark Weaver, "Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture at a Startup Engineering Program" in "Teaching Entrepreneurship to Engineering Students", Eleanor Baum and Carl McHargue
Eds, ECI
Symposium Series, Volume P2 (2003). http://services.bepress.com/eci/teaching/20
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