The Lemelson Center for Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Nevada, Reno

Whether or not entrepreneurship has a place in engineering education is currently a topic of debate. Despite this uncertainty, many institutions have developed courses aimed at teaching entrepreneurship to engineering students. For the faculty at these institutions, the question then becomes, "How to teach invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship?"

At the University of Nevada, Reno, entrepreneurship has been part of an Electrical Engineering capstone course since the early 1980's. The existing senior capstone class was reformed to include the elements of new product design including invention, innovation, patent law, product liability, marketing, sales, distribution, and finance. The students were separated into small "companies" that competed for grade points during the product development process. The company that ended up with the most points earned the best grade. In 1994 the late Jerome Lemelson, one of America's most prolific inventors, provided the initial funds to establish the Lemelson Center for Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (LCIIE) at the University of Nevada, Reno. Since that time, the LCIIE has continued to provide the financial support required to teach our capstone course.

Concerned with the decline in the United States' industrial productivity (e.g. as described by Dertouzos et al.), Jerome Lemelson also developed his E-Team concept, where the "E" denotes both Excellence and Entrepreneurship. In his interview for the "Inventors" series on the Discovery Channel, he stated:

"What I consider to be one of my best innovations...an E-Team is a group of students who train to go into business and develop products in the future while at school."

E-Teams are development teams that consist primarily of students from a wide variety of disciplines, including those outside engineering, along with both faculty and professional mentors. These small interdisciplinary teams are charged with rapidly developing new technologies and products. One reason for the recent interest in the E-Team approach is that funds are being made available from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), a separate Lemelson Foundation program. Both Orthlieb and Weilerstein present good overviews of the NCIIA grant program and its goals. Hampshire College was the host institution for the establishment of the NCIIA. UNR served as both a charter member of the NCIIA and a role model for the E-Team concept.

Since 1994, the multidisciplinary E-Team concept has been adopted at a variety of institutions. Lehigh University has created a unique set of degree programs centered around the E-Team concept. With strong funding from both private and federal sources, the programs involve the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Economics, and Arts and Architecture. At the University of Virginia, E-Teams also consist of a variety of majors from across the campus and begin by studying the methods used by successful inventors. By the end of the Invention and Design course students are expected to draft a patent on their invention. At Swarthmore College the E-Team concept has been implemented in both an elective solar energy class and as senior design projects. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute engineering students can take an elective inventor's studio course to develop either new fundable proposals or improve on previous projects that were funded by the NCIIA.

The Illinois Institute of Technology's invention center places E-Teams in a studio environment modeled after traditional art studios. Students work as apprentices in a shared space to develop and build prototypes, write patents, and develop business plans. Similarly, Rowan University has also embraced the E-Team concept within their 8-semester Engineering Clinic framework. While most of the student projects originate and are funded by local industry and faculty, junior and senior-level students can develop their own ideas and compete for "venture capital" funds.

In 1996 the E-Team concept was added to the Mechanical Engineering capstone design course at UNR and since 1998 the Departments of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering have participated jointly in an E-Team entrepreneurship program. As part of this program, a multi-disciplinary senior-level capstone undergraduate course (MECH 452/EE 491) is taken by all mechanical and electrical engineering undergraduates. In addition to the engineering students, MBA students enrolled in an independent study course (BADM 793) also participate in the capstone design course.