INTERDISCIPLINARY STEM-BUSINESS GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM

Efforts to merge entrepreneurial training into graduate STEM education face many obstacles to implementation. These include curriculum crowding, STEM faculty opposition to time spent outside the research laboratory, STEM student focus on traditional opportunities in large technical organizations, and lack of coordination between STEM departments and colleges of business. This paper will describe efforts to first embed entrepreneurial research commercialization training into an interdisciplinary science/engineering graduate program. We will then describe the creation of a more extensive Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship program housed in the College of Business, its interaction with interdisciplinary student teams participating in national business plan competitions, and how the teams have moved from student business plans competitors to start-up owners. The current status and future opportunities for the student-led companies that have launched from the Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship program will also be addressed.