This award is to Babson College to support the activity described below for 36 months. The proposal was submitted in response to the Partnerships for Innovation Program Solicitation (NSF-04556).
Partners The partners include Babson College (Lead Institution), Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Sloan Consortium for Online learning, Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education for Scientists and Engineers at Stanford University, Geo-Centers, Inc., Jackson State University, Hampton University, Salish Kootenai University.
The primary objective is to educate engineering faculty about how to teach and apply entrepreneurship as a core feature of engineering education. The program will result in the production of engineering graduates who not only develop innovative ideas, but who will transform their innovations into the companies, products, systems and services that drive the national economy through the creation of wealth.
The proposed program is patterned after the successful symposium for entrepreneurship educators, which has been in existence at Babson College for the past 20 years. Olin College of Engineering, the partner institution, was founded to provide a learner-centered engineering education. Entrepreneurial thinking is integrated throughout the curriculum, a unique feature in engineering education. The two institutions are therefore ideally suited to develop a program to teach engineering faculty how to teach and apply entrepreneurship as part of engineering education.
The Sloan Foundation will provide a quality on-line education component and also disseminate information about the proposed program to the 680 institutions that are part of the Sloan Consortium. An important feature of the program is to enhance the participation of underrepresented groups in technology. Historically Black colleges and Tribal colleges will also be partners in this program. The faculty from these colleges will be the first invitees to the Symposium.
People in SBIR-funded firms will team with engineering faculty in the Symposium in order to enhance the start-up and progress of new ventures.
Potential Economic Impact
Knowledge creation through innovation must be carried forward by the entrepreneurial process to secure a positive economic impact on our society. The program will result in the production of engineering graduates who not only develop innovative ideas, but who will transform their innovations into the companies, products, systems and services that drive the national economy through the creation of wealth.
The intellectual merit of the project lies in the transformation of engineering education curricula to include the teaching of entrepreneurship and in the introduction of the teaching partner-pair concept into engineering education.
The broader impacts of the activity concentrate on education and training of current and future entrepreneurs. There is a strong emphasis on involvement of underrepresented groups. Two historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and one Native American university are partners.
