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EntrePreneurship
Experience Level: Silver
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Experience: Introduction to Entrepreneurship Class &
Capstone Project.
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Duration: Spring & Fall Semester 2020 (135+ hours)
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Description: The introduction to entrepreneurship course ideally meets the overall expectations for a Grand Challenge entrepreneurship experience because it involves learning more about the entrepreneurial mindset, as well as, opportunity recognition through invention and innovation to building a business plan. In addition, it involves working on an individual project competition with the objective to innovate a business model and present it.
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The mechanical engineering capstone course project relates to my grand challenge "Engineer Better Medicine" and it also requires the knowledge learned in the previous entrepreneurship course. This involves working as a start-up engineering design company to solve a specific issue for a customer. This requires going through the process of invention, market, and feasibility assessment, as well as, having an entrepreneurial mindset.
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Reflection: The introduction to entrepreneurship course was very interesting and unique because it allowed me to build a business model. This is not normally done with engineering courses. In addition, this class helped me understand how the business world works. It showed me the reality of what it takes to start a firm, as well as, an idea of the steps and mentality needed to stand firm and stand out amongst the various competitors. The skills and knowledge learned in this class could potentially be utilized in the future to start a business in the medical field.
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The capstone project exposes me to an entrepreneurial environment. The reason is due to the various duties of constant innovation, feasibility assessment, product sponsor interaction, and most importantly, applying a teamwork mindset to reach the best solution. This experience is very valuable because it reflects on how an engineering design firm works.
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Relation to Grand Challenge Engineer Better Medicine:
My final project was aligned from a social-preneurial standpoint, it was based on creating a service that involved providing animal therapy, and at the same time, providing adoption services. Although this was not really related to my grand challenge, it helped me to learn more about the high amount of critical thinking and preparedness needed when forming a new market venture.
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My capstone project is aligned with my grand challenge because it consists of designing a bioreactor to grow biofilms. This product needs to meet unique capabilities as mentioned by the consumer working at the USDA. Biofilm growth is widely studied because of its resistance to drugs or chemicals which leads to infections and contour contamination. Some areas of concern are in medical devices, any sort of piping system, etc.
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Program-wide learning: The entrepreneurship class teaches all about having a feasibility plan, market assessment, and business planning, in order to decide whether your idea has a realistic/ possible application in the market. The project itself requires having a realistic vision with regard to the business idea development that would be proposed. This class contributes to creating a mentality of teamwork for success. A specific start-up company does not necessarily require only one person, but different personalities, backgrounds, and most importantly good ideas.
Experience specific learning objective:
An additional entrepreneurial learning objective could be to apply discipline and dedication. A start-up cannot happen if there is no dedication and discipline to constantly work on achieving one’s goal, especially for an entrepreneur. Both experiences give exposure to the discipline and dedication needed to find a good business plan. Discipline to do research, risk assessment, etc. Dedication to work with different people and communicate constantly, until the goal is reached.
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Core Learning Objective: Develop strategies for recognizing opportunities and identifying the tools for quality risk assessment.
The entrepreneurship class definitely teaches you about opportunity recognition of business ideas, not only to become an entrepreneur but a sociopreneur. In addition, it teaches you about how important a market assessment is to figure out the industry in which you are entering, knowing your competition, customer demand, seller demand, etc. All of this, to reach a conclusion about whether to take the risk or not. Also, a feasibility analysis stage of investigating the merits of a potential new venture.
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Capstone Project: Bioreactor System