Promoting the Entrepreneurial Mindset through a Multiphase Design Experience in Bioengineering
The Kern Family Foundation
The Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) Topical Grants Program
Award Amount: $40,000 | Effective Dates: 08/01/2013 – 07/31/2015
Project Personnel: Principal Investigator Jennifer Currey; co-PI Sudhir Khetan (Bioengineering)
Project Summary: At a liberal arts school such as Union College, science/technology/engineering/math (STEM) students do not have many opportunities to be exposed to the concept of the “entrepreneurial mindset”, both generally (e.g. in terms of creativity, ideation, and thinking outside ones comfort zone), and within specific disciplines (e.g. biomedical device translation for bioengineers). Given an increasing level of interdisciplinarity, it is critical that today’s STEM undergraduates develop a strong entrepreneurial mindset to effect innovation in their fields. To address these issues, we propose the “intrapreneurship” initiative to promote the entrepreneurial mindset amongst our students toward their personal and professional growth. The grant supports a three-phase approach: a seminar/workshop series, a 10-week capstone design course, and an elective course for students to refine their designs and prototypes. Profs. Currey and Khetan aim to produce deliverables that can aid entrepreneurship at other colleges facing similar institutional challenges (particularly a lack of business and entrepreneurship course content.)