Creativity and new product development: Bringing entrepreneurship into engineering design classes

Abstract

We have taught a course on Creativity and New Product Development since 1995. It is unique in its attention to all aspects of the product development process, including the personal and interpersonal issues in product development, as well as the technical ones. Our focus is not just on studying product development, but on actually DOING it. The students develop a new product idea and carry it through to a physical prototype. They must also formulate a business plan, marketing strategy, and an appeal for funding. We bring in guest speakers with expertise in intellectual property issues and several successful entrepreneurs (including former students from this class). In this paper, we discuss the three versions of this class, and how they have evolved. We also discuss our students' successes, and some of the problems they have encountered in trying to commercialize their ideas. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.