Part-time engineering graduate students at Johns
Hopkins will soon be able to broaden their studies with
business education classes through a new certificate
program in technical entrepreneurship and innovation.
The Whiting School
of Engineering recently received a $23,000 grant from
the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance
that 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, PTE 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, the program will be
offered at the Johns Hopkins
Montgomery
County Campus in Rockville, Md., 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 at
SPSBE, 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 go
to www.jhu.edu/pte.