Modules for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Existing Curricula

The progress done towards implementing an integrate d pproach to innovation and entrepreneurship in existing engineering curricula is presented. These efforts are based on the fact that the knowledge and skills for the future w orkforce of an energy efficient, sustainable industrial and entrepreneurial society are not full y nurtured in current educational programs. These topics, together with innovative design pract ices, need to be an essential part of the learning experience in undergraduate engineering te chnology programs. The proposed integrated approach teaches the basic theoretical knowledge and handso practices of the aforementioned subjects embedding modules in a sequence of courses acro s the curriculum. The main objectives are: (a) introduce the entrepreneurial p ocess and practice in a multidisciplinary environment, (b) emphasize energy efficiency, envir onmental friendliness, and long-term sustainability in fundamental engineering courses, and (c) apply the proposed approach in the context of human-powered transportation systems, a topic that has great interest and potential in underdeveloped countries. The work included in this project is the definition of the modules and their content, and the labs, projects, practices th at are recommended for implementation. This project is partially funded by an NCIIA planning gr ant, and it is expected that it will serve as a model for integrated modification of design in engi neering technology programs. .