Creating an entrepreneurial culture in an engineering university

Abstract

This paper describes the process followed at Michigan Technological University (MTU) over the past dozen years to develop an entrepreneurial culture, not only at the university but in the surrounding rural area as well. Michigan Tech offers programs primarily in the areas of engineering, the sciences, and business administration. The process of developing an entrepreneurial culture was gradual, and many obstacles had to be overcome, ranging from patent and licensing practices that discouraged innovation to faculty attitudes that were skeptical of "nontraditional" course content. Perhaps the greatest obstacle was a pervasive culture in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that conditioned people to wait for somebody else to do something. The process started with a course in creative problem solving for freshmen taught as an overload by volunteer faculty. Later, a grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) made possible the development of a course for senior students that focused on developing products for commercialization. Subsequent grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCIIA, the Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Network, and industrial firms and donors facilitated courses and programs related to entrepreneurship. The Michigan Tech Enterprise SmartZone was eventually established as an entrepreneurial incubator for technology-based businesses, with the first of these businesses "graduating" in the fall of 2007 to a freestanding business with its own facilities. Dozens of faculty members are investigating the prospects of commercializing technologies that they have developed, and students are becoming involved in the process. Michigan Tech now has one of the highest percentages of undergraduate students named on invention disclosures in the nation. Also, many local inventors are approaching the SmartZone and Michigan Tech for advice and assistance in starting and developing businesses. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.