Engineers have a lot of good ideas. But when you come up with a good idea, there is a long haul between conceptualization and commercialization. This prevents many innovative concepts from leaving the drawing board. That is where diversifying education can pay off.
There are some fundamental disconnects that can prevent engineers from venturing into the business side of innovation and which can lead to failure once there. As described in a Forbes article, engineers
While this is not true of all engineers, and there have certainly been successful entrepreneurs with engineering backgrounds (hats tipped to Mr. Gates, for instance), the numbers could be higher. There is also potential for streamlined commercialization and product refinement when the inventor and chief proponent can comfortably cross those lines.
That is the gap the University at Buffalo hopes to bridge. They have initiated an entrepreneurial “bootcamp” of sorts to help students find success in pursuing their ideas.
The UB Program provides unique resources and allows students to function as an entrepreneur while earning class credit. They are tasked with identifying strengths and weaknesses of their ideas, developing their marketing strategies and refining their methods.
The course is offered over the winter semester and enrollment comes from undergraduate and graduate students in any major who have innovative ideas coming in. The focus is on reaching out to potential customers through direct contact and soliciting feedback in order to help the students advance their projects, or alternatively, to realize there isn’t a market for it.
The course is worth three credits to anyone who takes it, but there’s more at stake than a GPA. The course culminates with the students presenting their ideas to local entrepreneurs. The top projects will receive $5,000-$8,000 for start-up expenses, mentorship and space in the UB Technology Incubator.
The inaugural class offering occurred this past winter semester, and two out of six of this year’s winning ideas come from engineering majors. Those ideas are software that estimates the risks and damage costs associated with natural disasters and electromagnetic vibration isolation for high-powered microscopes, cameras and lasers.
Not all engineers want to be entrepreneurs. Some would rather do the innovating from behind the scenes. For those who are more business-minded, however, opportunities like this can help them hash out ideas before taking the plunge.
Image courtesy of the University at Buffalo. Clockwise from the far left are UB students: April LoTempio; Vitchel Toussaint, Michael Sparks, Elena Ramona Stefanescu and Travis West.