Integrating Entrepreneurship Throughout An Electrical And Computer Engineering Curriculum

Many engineering programs are attempting to emphasize the importance of entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurial mindset for all engineering students. Since many start-up companies are founded on the basis of a newly developed technology, it is a natural progression for at least some engineering graduates to become entrepreneurs. Even for those with a more conventional career path, entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial way of looking at problems will help them to maximize their professional success. Of course, practically all engineering programs are already overloaded with critical learning objectives ranging from highly technical skills to highly interpersonal and communication skills. As a result, it can be a great challenge to find an opportunity to incorporate even a small amount of entrepreneurship into an existing engineering curriculum. The authors present an ongoing effort at their university to integrate entrepreneurial projects and modules directly into required ECE courses in all four years of the curriculum. The effort begins in the first-semester Fundamentals of Engineering course, builds in Advanced Digital Logic Design during the sophomore year and Embedded Microcontrollers during the junior year, and culminates for some students with an entrepreneurial senior design project.