UDM's Entrepreneurship Program has received a third grant from the Kern Family Foundation's Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN). The two-year Phase III grant for $200,000 will focus on developing the entrepreneurial mindset in as many UDM engineering students as possible. Pending final approval, all UDM students, including engineering majors, will be able to select a minor in Entrepreneurship beginning this fall.

Entrepreneurship faculty, from left: Rayess, Weaver and Mascarenhas

"The first and second KEEN grants enabled us to create a paradigm shift in how we approach engineering education at UDM," says Professor of Mechanical Engineering Nassif Rayess. "The shift involves a strong development of the intrapreneurial/entrepreneurial mindset and skill set while maintaining strong analytical capabilities."

According to Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jonathan Weaver, "KEEN III, the latest grant, paves the way for an expanded set of technical entrepreneurship case studies to be used in undergraduate engineering and science courses and the revision of several required courses to include significant entrepreneurship content. The ultimate goal is to provide each engineering student with at least one entrepreneurship-related exposure per semester of study."

A part of the funding also involves an array of co-curricular and extracurricular activities including identifying entrepreneurial co-op opportunities for UDM's mandatory co-op program. Plans also include a series of seminars and workshops, and publication of case studies, scholarly papers and a new textbook on systematic innovation for engineers.

Demonstrating its support, UDM has designated the Engineering Annex as "innovation space" for the "e-ship" program's activities. In addition, the College of Engineering & Science has allocated more than $40,000 from alumni contributions as matching funds for the project, with additional matching funds to be sought.

UDM will continue to work with the other 20-plus KEEN-funded schools, which include the "I-75 Corridor Schools" Kettering University, Lawrence Technological University and Ohio Northern University, to share case studies and other educational materials through conferences, workshops and seminars.

Pre-college students will continue to be introduced to entrepreneurship through existing courses developed under the first KEEN grant and others to be developed.

Weaver, Rayess and Professor of Business Administration Oswald Mascarenhas, S.J., have led program development with support from many key faculty from Architecture, Digital Media and Psychology, and administrators. More UDM engineering and business faculty will join the e-ship team to participate in workshops, curriculum development, interdisciplinary projects and other activities.