Waterloo - the engineering school built with the vision of Entrepreneurship

An organization is built as per the vision of the founders.

Waterloo is excellent example of why it has become the most innovative school of engineering in Canada. The very first sentence about Waterloo on it's website reads, "Since it was launched in 1957 by a group of industrialists with a dream of changing the world through innovation and research, Waterloo has become an internationally recognized leader in entrepreneurship and innovation."

The founders of Waterloo were successful entrepreneurs, who had built their fortunes during the great American industrial revolution and had very clear vision of building a school for creating innovations, build new enterprises which should result into local economic development. If some students get university degrees in the process of this entrepreneurship development then that is just a byproduct.

As against this, what was the vision of founders of our engineering colleges in India? Before independence, the engineering colleges were started to meet the maintenance requirements of the machinery being imported by the British for military or civil administration. One of the first 2 engineering colleges in India, College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) was started and headed by a British engineer, to train Indians for maintaining the first railway line started between Mumbai (Bombay) and Pune (Poona). All the brand new inventions of machinery and railway engines were imported from Britain. What British wanted from Indian engineers was Civil engineers to repair tracks and mechanical engineers to repair railway engines and other machinery like signals etc.

After independence, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, set up few IITs with the vision of national industrial development. A very small number of engineers got the benefit of more forward looking education. IITs did deliver some entrepreneurial talent to India but it can be debated whether it was far less than what should have been delivered.

The third major proliferation of private engineering colleges has occurred during the past 2 or 3 decades, which is with a vision of pure profits by meeting the huge unsatisfied demand for engineering degrees to the large number of new graduates coming out of high schools. The founders of these colleges are politicians, businesses, feudal landlords but very rarely some entrepreneurs who have innovated new technological products.

The government control through AICTE has further taken out any entrepreneurial vision from the colleges. 

If we want to bring about change, the start will have to be from the VISION. We need to ask some very basic questions like,

1. Does the college vision statement have any word with the meaning of innovation or entrepreneurship?
2. What percentage of founder members were entrepreneurs of inventor with some patents to their credit?
3. How many governing board members are successful entrepreneurs?
4. What percentage of faculty members are practicing industry technologists or entrepreneurs or have previous industry experience before joining as faculty member?
5. Does the mission statement include any goals which measure the successful start ups or entrepreneurs?

All posts related to Entrepreneurship Education Framework are archived at http://eefw.blogspot.ca/

Ashok Ranade

Director

IIT Alumni Canada

+1-647-864-7671 (Canada)

+91-99-1010-4046 (India)

ashok.ranade@iitalumnicanada.com

Development Facilities/ Labs for Entrepreneurs

To implement Entrepreneurship Education Framework in Engineering Colleges, the colleges need to create facilities or Labs equipped with the latest tools to learn and build products in specific leading edge technologies. The Indian colleges are focussed towards teaching obsolete curriculum and therefore never have a need to set up labs in the leading edge technologies.

In the last 20 years the world has witnessed proliferation of entrepreneurship in leading edge technologies like Social media, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Open source software, Solar energy, Driverless cars, Nano and the list can be expanded  by many more. It will be interesting to find out how many Indian engineering colleges have set up labs for at least one of these emerging technologies? Our labs in the engineering colleges are generally set up when it is necessary to teach a topic that is introduced in the university curriculum. A topic is introduced the university curriculum only after about 10 years of the adoption of technology by the industry. 

Following are few examples of the type of labs being set up in American universities in past few years. Indian Engineering Colleges will benefit by exploring whether some of these should be set up in their colleges as well.

Social Media Lab at Ryerson : Social is the first emerging technology among the top 4 identified by a Toronto based hackers meet up group. While Social is a great technology to be explored by budding entrepreneurs, this is a technology that every entrepreneur from any other technology also need to learn and adopt for the growth marketing. 

Digital Graphics Project at UofT : Digital graphics are connecting the entire workspace of engineering from design to manufacture of physical products. 3D printing have revolutionized the possibilities.

Urban Energy center at Ryerson: Cities will witness phenomenal changes in next few decades. This industry sponsored center will offer excellent opportunities for entrepreneurs to nurture new ideas.

I propose to keep adding to this list in next 100 days. Please help me with your suggestions for additions.

All posts related to Entrepreneurship Education Framework are archived at http://eefw.blogspot.ca/

Ashok Ranade

Director

IIT Alumni Canada

+1-647-864-7671 (Canada)

+91-99-1010-4046 (India)

ashok.ranade@iitalumnicanada.com

Educator's Guide of Entrepreneurship Education

Perhaps the biggest challenge of integrating Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering degree programs is Teacher/Faculty development.

Entrepreneurship education is very different than the traditional engineering courses with substantial amount of theoretical classroom training, practical or Lab exercises which are typically standard set problems and solutions. The Entrepreneurial education is project based, team based, experiential, very unique different experiences. Evaluation can not be with standard tests. There is less teaching and more self learning. Therefore, Entrepreneurship education requires completely new pedagogies. Our existing engineering college teachers need to be trained in these new pedagogies and framework.

European Commision, identified the need to train the educators in entrepreneurial education and organized 2 transactional events which were attended by 170 practitioners. A comprehensive guide for educators is released which provides excellent guidelines to educators and documents about 40 case studies, of how teachers are being trained in entrepreneurship education in many different countries of EU. Full guide is available for your review at our shared work space at https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=D214190D32E4D103!1029&authkey=!AJ0I0IbPKu5llJ0&ithint=file%2cpdf

The abstract of the guide is given below:

=============================================================

In 2012, DG Enterprise and Industry and DG Education and Culture initialised two transnational events targeting teachers' preparation for 

entrepreneurship education. The events took place in May 2012 (Dublin, Ireland) and in September 2012 (Brdo, Slovenia). The aim of the 

events was to bring together actors involved in teacher education and training in entrepreneurship to present good practice, exchange ideas 

and learn from each other. 

About 170 delegates from more than 30 countries – European Member States as well as Accession Countries and Partner Countries – took 

part in the two events. Experts presented frameworks and guidelines; and practitioners from schools, teacher training institutions, NGOs and 

training providers showcased their methods, programmes and projects. Innovative ideas were explored and discussed in workshops and group 

working sessions. Altogether, a wide variety of areas of action regarding the implementation of entrepreneurship education in teacher 

education was covered. 

This manual aims to showcase a selection of examples of inspiring practice featured through the two events to a wider audience. It highlights 

the enablers and the success factors of the examples, and provides contact details for more information.

Building on this, it provides a selection of practical recommendations developed as a result of the events, hoping to inspire practitioners to take 

action and continue with their own activities to enable teachers for entrepreneurship education.

============================================================

You will also find useful to know how European Commission is managing the task of education and training in Entrepreneurship. Please read details at  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/education-training-entrepreneurship/

All posts related to Entrepreneurship Education Framework are archived at http://eefw.blogspot.ca/

Ashok Ranade

Director

IIT Alumni Canada

+1-647-864-7671 (Canada)

+91-99-1010-4046 (India)

ashok.ranade@iitalumnicanada.com

On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 3:55 PM, Ashok Ranade <ashokr@erplabs.ca> wrote:

What can we teach about Entrepreneurship in Engineering? 

Here is a something to learn from Computer Science department of Univ of Toronto. While this course is about Biz of Software, there can be similar courses in the final year of each engineering faculty, like "Biz of Civil engg", Biz of Manufacturing", Biz of Automobiles" etc. etc.

Prof Karan Singh, has shared some information about a course that is offered at the final year of 4 year degree program. Following is information about the course for enrollment of students.

======================================================

The Business of Software, offered in the Fall 2014 and Winter 2015 semesters, introduces you to the nature, structure, and dynamics of the contemporary software industry. The focus of the course is the key factors involved in hypothesising, validating and executing a viable business model necessary to launch and sustain a successful software-based business venture. 

In this course, you will learn techniques and methodologies that will give you a distinct career advantage after graduation. It is designed to give you a true-to-life experience of the thought process behind successful business ventures, whether you plan on creating your own startup or working for an established employer. In either case, critical business analysis skills complement the computer science skills sought by the industry. 

You and your team will devise a cool, innovative solution to a significant industry problem. This will involve researching your customer base, forming and testing hypotheses, and producing a value proposition that will form the basis for your business model. You will investigate your customer base and market by identifying the key activities, resources and partners needed for fulfillment. This process culminates in a business model that both makes sense in a financial context and resonates with a venture capital (VC) audience—the kind of audience who will critique your final product as part of the class.

This course sets very high standards for the students in it because the business world demands nothing less. The final business plan is judged by the same exacting standards as a potential client or VC, where there is no such thing as an "A for effort," and a failure in 1% of your plan means you lose the contract. We have an obligation to ensure that your business education is thorough and demanding, and only students who are exceptionally dedicated and committed to developing mastery over the techniques and methodologies in this course will excel. 

Guest speakers and panelists include entrepreneurs and investors that are currently active in the industry, each will share their unique real-world experiences, insights, and perspectives on the future of software and software entrepreneurship. 

Course objectives include a meaningful understanding of: The high-technology business environment in general and the software industry in particular. The business concepts and principles behind creating and launching a successful software venture. How to produce, present, and critique business proposals and plans for software ventures, and how to develop business simulation and forecasting models in support of these plans. How to speak and present to investors, executives, judging panels, incubators and accelerators. Upon successful completion of the course, you will have first-hand experience of the stages, processes, and challenges involved in transforming an idea for a software application into an investable business venture, and will be ideally positioned to begin launching your own software venture. 

*NEW!* This fall students have the option to take part in a multi-university cognitive computing business plan competition using IBM Watson as the technology driving your venture. The grand prize for the competition will be $100,000 in seed money. Participating in the competition option requires you to enrol in CSC490H1F as well as CSC454H1F. 

========================================================

On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 4:11 PM, Karan Singh <karan@dgp.toronto.edu> wrote:

This is the course

CSC454H Business of Software

 

Some old course links are here.

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/people/RMB/old/old_csc454/

have a look.

 

there may be some newer links off of ron baecker's webpage.

-karan

 

Increasing importance of Entrepreneurship in Engineering Education

Background

Fast growth of engineering schools but poor employability of graduates
While engineering education in India has a long history, it has assumed critical significance on the global scenario only in the last few decades. Today, it boasts of about 3400 engineering colleges that are churning out 1.5 million graduates every year. However, various industrial bodies complain that these graduates are not able to meet their requirements. NASSCOM-McKinsey report (2011) has pegged the employability number at 25 %whereas Aspiring Minds' National Employability Report (2013) estimates it to be merely 17 %. The latter study had analyzed 55,000 IT and computer engineering students from 250 colleges across the country. According to a survey done by the World Bank and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), 64% of employers are “somewhat”, “not very”, or “not at all” satisfied with the quality of the engineering graduates they hire. As per planning commission study, the employability of engineering graduates in India is 17.5 % while that in Malaysia is 27% and in the US 76 % (Global Employability List 2012) This poses grave concern not only at national level but also at the international level as many developed countries are looking up to India to fulfill their requirements of engineering graduates to a good extent.

Need to have ability to innovate
One of the most critical competencies required in the graduates is "the ability to innovate". The current Indian engineering education system appears to inhibit the competency. Till the recent past, the Indian industry, especially the manufacturing sector, was driven by imports and offered mainly production, support and maintenance jobs. The academia was playing to the requirement and not nurturing problem solvers and knowledge creators and neglected both application-oriented and fundamental research. This is reflected in producing just 1000 PhDs per year as against 3500 in the US – even when the US has only 10% of engineering graduates as that of India. Another reflection is in dismal number of patents. India ranks 17th with 5170 patents while Japan and US are well above 200,000 mark(Patents, 2013). China is not far behind them and South Korea is touching the 100,000 mark. Indian education system has to do a lot of catching up so that India can leverage their demographic dividend and not face demographic disaster.

Drivers for selection of Entrepreneurship career path
The students in the past did not choose to become entrepreneurs immediately after completing the engineering degree education. But now in the new environment many would choose to become entrepreneurs very early, immediately after or even during their education. The reasons for this change are:

1. Secured, steady well paid employment opportunities immediately after the engineering degree have reduced in comparison with past decade
2. Starting a new enterprise during or immediately after the engineering degree is becoming a feasible option, specially for those who have the passion required and willing to work hard. The proliferation of internet, low capital required for start up, ease of raising capital, ease of identifying and connecting up with partners/promoters etc. are making the dreams of starting new enterprises lot more feasible.
3. Government and social/philanthropic organizations are providing high quality training, mentoring, consulting and financial support for new entrepreneurs. Banks and Angel/Venture capital is becoming accessible for good ideas even for student proposals.

National economic priority for promotion of entrepreneurship

Worldwide there is recognition of strong need of increased entrepreneurship for sustaining economic growth. This has prompted the government and non-government national leadership to invest substantial money and efforts to support new entrepreneurs. This effort and money has trickled down to educational institutes as well for starting entrepreneurship accelerator programs and training/mentoring initiatives.

Re: biz of < a technology > ; A course for EEFW

What can we teach about Entrepreneurship in Engineering? 

Here is a something to learn from Computer Science department of Univ of Toronto. While this course is about Biz of Software, there can be similar courses in the final year of each engineering faculty, like "Biz of Civil engg", Biz of Manufacturing", Biz of Automobiles" etc. etc.

Prof Karan Singh, has shared some information about a course that is offered at the final year of 4 year degree program. Following is information about the course for enrollment of students.

======================================================

The Business of Software, offered in the Fall 2014 and Winter 2015 semesters, introduces you to the nature, structure, and dynamics of the contemporary software industry. The focus of the course is the key factors involved in hypothesising, validating and executing a viable business model necessary to launch and sustain a successful software-based business venture. 

In this course, you will learn techniques and methodologies that will give you a distinct career advantage after graduation. It is designed to give you a true-to-life experience of the thought process behind successful business ventures, whether you plan on creating your own startup or working for an established employer. In either case, critical business analysis skills complement the computer science skills sought by the industry. 

You and your team will devise a cool, innovative solution to a significant industry problem. This will involve researching your customer base, forming and testing hypotheses, and producing a value proposition that will form the basis for your business model. You will investigate your customer base and market by identifying the key activities, resources and partners needed for fulfillment. This process culminates in a business model that both makes sense in a financial context and resonates with a venture capital (VC) audience—the kind of audience who will critique your final product as part of the class.

This course sets very high standards for the students in it because the business world demands nothing less. The final business plan is judged by the same exacting standards as a potential client or VC, where there is no such thing as an "A for effort," and a failure in 1% of your plan means you lose the contract. We have an obligation to ensure that your business education is thorough and demanding, and only students who are exceptionally dedicated and committed to developing mastery over the techniques and methodologies in this course will excel. 

Guest speakers and panelists include entrepreneurs and investors that are currently active in the industry, each will share their unique real-world experiences, insights, and perspectives on the future of software and software entrepreneurship. 

Course objectives include a meaningful understanding of: The high-technology business environment in general and the software industry in particular. The business concepts and principles behind creating and launching a successful software venture. How to produce, present, and critique business proposals and plans for software ventures, and how to develop business simulation and forecasting models in support of these plans. How to speak and present to investors, executives, judging panels, incubators and accelerators. Upon successful completion of the course, you will have first-hand experience of the stages, processes, and challenges involved in transforming an idea for a software application into an investable business venture, and will be ideally positioned to begin launching your own software venture. 

*NEW!* This fall students have the option to take part in a multi-university cognitive computing business plan competition using IBM Watson as the technology driving your venture. The grand prize for the competition will be $100,000 in seed money. Participating in the competition option requires you to enrol in CSC490H1F as well as CSC454H1F. 

========================================================

On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 4:11 PM, Karan Singh <karan@dgp.toronto.edu> wrote:

This is the course

CSC454H Business of Software

 

Some old course links are here.

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/people/RMB/old/old_csc454/

have a look.

 

there may be some newer links off of ron baecker's webpage.

-karan

 

Elaboration of Topics of Framework for Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering Colleges

The topics identified for the framework are available in a shared powerpoint slide deck in the most uptodate form on OneDrive.

Now, over the next 100 days, I propose to elaborate each topic as a blog post and will be available for your review at http://eefw.blogspot.ca/. Please comment on the post which will help us to start a dialog between all of us. 

The framework will be presented at the International Conference on Transformation in Engineering Education . If you are attending the conference then please let me know, we have some limited business class upgrades of air tickets available.

If you would like to elaborate a topic, then we can produce a short video and you can participate in the conference with your video presentation and followed up with remote Q&A using Skype or G+. 

Ashok Ranade

Director

IIT Alumni Canada

+1-647-864-7671 (Canada)

+91-99-1010-4046 (India)

ashok.ranade@iitalumnicanada.com

On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 8:26 PM, Ashok Ranade <ashokr@erplabs.ca> wrote:

Dear All,

Thank you for your time and very useful advice for developing a Framework for Entrepreneurship Education for Engineering Colleges. Based on your inputs, I have revised and updated the topics which will be part of Framework into a deck of powerpoint slides which are attached with this message.

As discussed, we have also launched a survey of Entrepreneurs to understand what entrepreneurship related education do they think should be part of engineering college level curriculum. An invitation for online survey is attached for your reference.  I will appreciate if you will respond to this survey and also forward it to other entrepreneurs in your network.

For or collaborative efforts to develop this framework, I have created shared workspaces and you are requested to access all the details from these resources.

Shared documents:  https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=D214190D32E4D103!707&authkey=!AJ0I0IbPKu5llJ0&ithint=folder%2c

Blog:  http://eefw.blogspot.ca/

Starting this post all subsequent communication will be available at this blog and you are requested to respond with all your suggestions and changes to these blog posts. This will ensure all your comments will remain properly documented and get communicated with teh entire team.

Thanks again for your support,

with best regards,

  Ashok Ranade

+1-416-494-7671 (w)

+91 20 2550 7586 (w)

+1-647-864-7671 (c)

+91 9910104046 (c)

On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 11:50 AM, Prashant Srivastava <prashant.srivastava@senecacollege.ca> wrote:

​​Dear All,

Thank you very much for attending the discussion on Framework for Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering Colleges. 

I thank Prof. Pradeep Waychal and Ashok Ranade for their presentation and thoughts shared by everyone. 

I am sharing a dropbox like for the pictures  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5byu37tnh18jwvn/AAAjCrwX9LdmbHNSsEcpch4ea
​

Warm Regards,

Prashant

Dropbox - Seneca Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again! Read more...

 

Fwd: IFI - ENTREPRENEURSHIP SERIES

Let's start a dialogue !         integrating engineering and entrepreneurship      Is entrepreneurship and engineering driving your agenda? A significant portion of Pan-IIT 2014 Toronto was on the theme of Entrepreneurship. We would like to invite you to join a dialogue on integrating engineering with entrepreneurship.  IIT Alumni Canada is launching a project 'Integrating Innovative Entrepreneurship with Engineering Education'. From the Pan-IIT event  it was clear that this topic was of utmost relevance!  We cannot start this dialogue without having inputs of path-breakers like you and to begin this, we have developed a small survey for this purpose. Here's the link to the survey. At the upcoming International Conference on Transformations in Engineering Education in Jan 2015, we have been invited to conduct a workshop for engineering educators. Your feedback will help us validate our design for the workshop. If you have any suggestions regarding this initiative and this survey, let us know.  I request you to forward this message to your friends and colleagues who are integrating entrepreneurship and engineering. You may write to to any one of us for more information or better still, participate in the dialogue by clicking here.  Ashok Ranade, Email: ashokr@erplabs.ca Raju Goteti: Email: raju.goteti@gmail.com with best regards, Raju Goteti VP - IFI IIT Alumni Canada   Integrating Engineering & Entrepreneurship. Click here for the Survey     Copyright © 2014 IIT Alumni Canada. All rights reserved. Contact email: rajugoteti@gmail.com You are receiving this message because you opted in at http;//iitalumnicanadaorg Unsubscribe

Fwd: Framework for Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering Colleges, 2pm, 13th Aug

Dear All,

Thank you for your time and very useful advice for developing a Framework for Entrepreneurship Education for Engineering Colleges. Based on your inputs, I have revised and updated the topics which will be part of Framework into a deck of powerpoint slides which are attached with this message.

As discussed, we have also launched a survey of Entrepreneurs to understand what entrepreneurship related education do they think should be part of engineering college level curriculum. An invitation for online survey is attached for your reference.  I will appreciate if you will respond to this survey and also forward it to other entrepreneurs in your network.

For or collaborative efforts to develop this framework, I have created shared workspaces and you are requested to access all the details from these resources.

Shared documents:  https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=D214190D32E4D103!707&authkey=!AJ0I0IbPKu5llJ0&ithint=folder%2c

Blog:  http://eefw.blogspot.ca/

Starting this post all subsequent communication will be available at this blog and you are requested to respond with all your suggestions and changes to these blog posts. This will ensure all your comments will remain properly documented and get communicated with teh entire team.

Thanks again for your support,

with best regards,

  Ashok Ranade

+1-416-494-7671 (w)

+91 20 2550 7586 (w)

+1-647-864-7671 (c)

+91 9910104046 (c)

On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 11:50 AM, Prashant Srivastava <prashant.srivastava@senecacollege.ca> wrote:

​​Dear All,

Thank you very much for attending the discussion on Framework for Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering Colleges. 

I thank Prof. Pradeep Waychal and Ashok Ranade for their presentation and thoughts shared by everyone. 

I am sharing a dropbox like for the pictures  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5byu37tnh18jwvn/AAAjCrwX9LdmbHNSsEcpch4ea
​

Warm Regards,

Prashant

Dropbox - Seneca Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again! Read more...