News Release
Build Business Skills Johns Hopkins Graduate Program to Offer Entrepreneurship and Innovation Certificate Part-time engineering graduate students at The Johns Hopkins University will soon be able to broaden their studies with business education classes through a new certificate program in technical entrepreneurship and innovation. The university's Whiting School of Engineering recently received a $23,000 grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, which will enable the school's Part-Time Programs in Engineering and Applied Science and the university's School of Professional Studies in Business and Education to offer five integrated courses to provide entrepreneurial education not found in most higher education engineering curricula. According to Ed Addison, Part-Time Engineering Technical Entrepreneurship and Innovation Certificate Program coordinator, there is a growing need in business for engineers with technology and entrepreneurial skills. "By answering this vital need, Johns Hopkins is giving engineering professionals the option to become entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and innovators," Addison said. An intrapreneur is a corporate executive who develops new enterprises within the corporation. Expected to begin in September 2004, the program will be offered at the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus in Rockville to students with at least three years of work experience. Courses will focus on experiential education, creativity and curricular innovation. Upon finishing the program, all students will have completed a comprehensive business plan. Program administrators hope that some of these business plans will foster start-up companies. Students who complete the program requirements will receive a certificate in technical entrepreneurship and innovation. Amy Yerkes, associate dean of academic affairs in the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education, describes the new program as a proactive approach by Johns Hopkins to meet the needs of a growing number of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who are driving the region's economy. "Professionals in our region's leading companies need to call upon a knowledge base that doesn't necessarily map to traditional academic departments or divisions," Yerkes said. "More than ever, that knowledge base is interdisciplinary, and by bringing together the strengths of our business and engineering programs, we can position entrepreneurs to successfully bring new ideas and products to the market." For more information on the Technical Entrepreneurship and Innovation Certificate Program, call (301) 294-7070 or visit the Web site at www.jhu.edu/pte. Part of The Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, the Part-Time Programs in Engineering and Applied Science offer masters degrees in 13 distinct disciplines, as well as undergraduate programs in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering science. There are currently more than 2,200 students enrolled in PTE programs at seven education centers throughout the Baltimore/Washington area. For more information on PTE programs and functions, contact Executive Director Sarah Steinberg at (301) 294-7070, visit the Web site at www.jhu.edu/pte, or e-mail pte@jhu.edu.
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