Systems engineering entrepreneurship - A unique convergence of the business and engineering realms

Abstract

Engineering Entrepreneurship, Engineering Management and Systems Engineering courses offered by the Department of Engineering Systems at Florida Tech have greatly enriched the students' educational experience, broadened their perspectives, served as community outreach forums and integrated experiential learning with academic programs. Students work in E-teams and write NCIIA proposals to commercialize innovative product or university/research lab developed technology. This paper describes a unique course series in Systems Engineering (SE) Entrepreneurship. Innovation in product/service design and commercialization that enables entrepreneurship can be successfully leveraged by applying SE principles/ techniques which parallel entrepreneurship steps such as Customer Requirements Engineering and opportunity recognition; Project/Quality Engineering, Decision/Risk Analysis, Systems Modeling, Engineering Economics and business planning, Systems Integration and business plan development, Systems Launch considerations and product/business launch, etc. Concepts in strategy, team dynamics, and finance are integrated into these courses focusing on Engineering Entrepreneurship. It appears that Engineering Entrepreneurship has emerged as a Killer App for Systems Engineering and the Systems Engineering Entrepreneurship Course Series has emerged as an unique convergence of the Business and Engineering Realms in Academia. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.