Integration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Elements: The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers
• Main Authors: Raber, Mary, Baker, Jim R
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 26.06.2016
• Subjects: Colleges & universities; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Innovations; Interdisciplinary aspects; Students
• DOI: 10.18260/p.25428

At our university, we have carried a long-term goal and expectation of student start-ups and other commercial outcomes arising from our interdisciplinary student-led design program. Over the years, and through the efforts of a few individuals, we have developed pockets of programs and support resources to help those students follow through on their entrepreneurial interests. To-date though, we have largely fallen far short of our goals related to outcomes from those interests. Within the past two years, we have experienced a perfect storm of efforts, interests and activities that have aligned to allow for significant traction in the realization of a cohesive set of resources…what we refer to as an integrated I&E Ecosystem. The goals of our integrated ecosystem include the creation of learning environments that better engage students, faculty and staff in developing an innovation and entrepreneurial mindset, and the creation of a bridge across academic units to help foster collaboration throughout the campus community. Through this paper we propose to share our journey to creating an Innovation & Entrepreneurship ecosystem on our campus including information on the programs, individuals and networks that have helped us to move forward along the way as well as our efforts to assess the state of evolution of the I&E Ecosystem. Through the efforts of a few champions who have maintained a passion for creating this ecosystem, the creation of an interdisciplinary college, participation in transformative programs such as I-Corps, Pathways to Innovation and University Innovation Fellows, as well as support from entrepreneurial alumni, we will share how a ten-year journey is finally generating a cultural change on our campus and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.