Entrepreneurship, engineering, innovation, and libraries: Empowering innovators with information

Abstract

Nearly two-thirds of millennials aspire to start their own business or have already done so. Innovation and entrepreneurship are dominant forces driving innovation in a dynamic global economy, and universities have an essential role in cultivating the innovators and entrepreneurs of the future. In most universities, capstone senior design courses have an entrepreneurship component. We describe a cross-institution workshop designed to heighten student awareness of university resources supporting entrepreneurship. Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania STEM libraries collaborated with the professional society IEEE to organize a workshop highlighting the role of campus information resources in empowering entrepreneurs. The workshop was organized in a panel discussion format, featuring technology transfer professionals, librarians from both institutions, and examples of successful innovators and entrepreneurs. This allowed for active interaction and networking with the panelists. We review the state-of-the-art in entrepreneurship education, report student feedback, and offer lessons learned from this experience.