Teaching Innovation and Economic Content to Materials Science and Engineering Students: Innovation for Materials-intensive Technologies and Industries

Three years ago, the school of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University implemented “Teaching Innovation” as an initiative of the Dean’s office. Subsequently a course, “Invention and Innovation in Materials Intensive Technologies” was developed and offered as an elective suitable for fulfilling requirements in both the Material Science and Engineering and the Engineering and Public Policy programs. We have completed the second offering of this content to students drawn primarily from the senior undergraduate student population. We note that in the cohort of science and engineering students, few have been exposed to more than a cursory look at business operation, product development or commercialization strategy; thus this course fulfills a need in the practice of how to operationalize innovative change. With all products being comprised of materials, innovative changes in material selection, processing, and material properties can be felt in almost every business sector. Many innovations claimed at the product level are in fact traceable to or made possible by innovation in materials. Few, if any other engineering disciplines have such a wide influence. This course is unique as it has been constructed specifically to dissect the commonly accepted interpretation of innovation and re-assemble the process with materials and the materials business in mind. Throughout this document we will refer to the term “materials innovation” as a catch-all term for innovations of materials and material systems, process innovations that are essential to materials manufacturing, and business practice changes within the framework of the materials industries. In delivering this course to our students, we wish to have our engineering students consider and be able to understand the complexities that arise as a result of invention and the issues that arise during commercialization of the innovation. The topic scope is constrained to materials and material intensive industries as there are significant differences when innovating materials as opposed to products. Innovation of products can also be dependent on the innovations arising from materials either through new functionality or improved properties and performance. On innovation, a report by Royal Academy of Engineering offered that the long cycles of innovation we now experience maybe a result of the incremental innovation practices of the past century. We endeavor to remove these constraints by educating future engineers and scientists in the theory and practice of innovation with a particular focus on materials.