Resumen de The idea to product® program: an educational model uniting emerging technologies, student leadership and societal applications
R. S. Evans, J. Parks, S. Nichols
Universities are increasingly including technology entrepreneurship in engineering education. This follows the increased expansion of the subject of engineering design education in recent decades. The literature describes important justifications for incorporating entrepreneurship education into engineering curricula, and faculty have developed courses and activities to support this approach. The Idea to Product1 Competition (I2P1) is an interesting artifact of these developments, and the efforts of students, faculty members and members of the entrepreneurial community at large and the assessment of the program indicate that it is an effective educational program. I2P1 represents an extra-curricular program that supplements and draws from the curriculum and traditional coursework. Led in part by student groups, the I2P1 program has developed into a component of a larger culture of innovation and technology entrepreneurship at many universities. Drawing from the literature and ABET guidelines for engineering programs, the authors establish a framework for supporting engineering entrepreneurship. That framework establishes a foundation for a discussion about the program and an integrated program assessment project. The final section of the paper provides general conclusions about the program as an educational program and as part of an entrepreneurial culture, followed by an outline for future work.
