Teaching Engineers to Commercialize Innovation

The U.Va. Engineering School — with its setting in a top-ranked, comprehensive university and its robust Department of Science, Technology, and Society — is well positioned to provide specialized education in entrepreneurship and innovation to its technically savvy engineering students. School leaders are now working to advance this unique engineering education.

The School’s faculty, administrators, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and members of the SEAS Trustees, led by Gene Lockhart (ME ’72, Darden ’74), are discussing aspects of a commercialization-focused curriculum, and the possible creation of a new Program/Center for Commercialization of Innovation. Lockhart, the former CEO of MasterCard and an active venture capitalist, introduced the concept for this program enhancement to Engineering School leaders during the SEAS Trustees’ spring 2010 meeting. The proposed program would provide business-focused classes specifically created for engineers to students interested in entrepreneurial activities in new and existing companies. Helping undergraduate students understand how to move from innovative ideas to implementation and ultimately commercialization would be an essential framework for the courses.

The program also would likely include lessons around the concept of “intrapreneurship” — in which one advances one’s ideas within an organization as opposed to launching a startup company. “We’ve had a long history of being a school that produces well-rounded engineers,” Lockhart said. “To supplement the School’s efforts in enhancing business-focused curriculum, and to meet student demand, courses need to be developed specifically for engineers so they can understand the basics of how to take an idea to a successful commercial conclusion.”

Curriculum and resource planning with senior faculty is still under way. Among the ideas under consideration are to have the curriculum emphasize case studies in commercialization, as well as networking and mentorships with leaders in the business community. There are also plans for establishing an innovation lab that would allow for the rapid prototyping of ideas.