Kern Entrepreneurial Education Network (KEEN) KEEN Vision: “to graduate engineers who will contribute to business success, and in doing so, transform the American workforce” Kern Family Foundation Equipping young Americans to become tomorrow's leaders and innovators. • Drs. Robert and Patricia Kern – Lifetime entrepreneurs and founders of Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNRC) • Foundation Involvement – K-12 Education Reform – KEEN – Faith, Work, and Economics • KEEN is represented by 20+ member universities from across America • Foundation sunset in 2035 Objective KEEN Student Outcomes • Enterprising Attitude – Attributes: Curiosity, definition, persistence, resourcefulness, business opportunity identification • Multidimensional Problem Solving – Ambiguous and complex situations • Illuminating Communication – Collaboration & understanding • Resolute Integrity – Ethics and societal awareness & contribution Overview of Grants Funded Year Amount Objectives 2007 $5,000 Planning Grant 2008 $50,000 • Tech Entrepreneurship Certificate Program • KEEN Innovators – Faculty Proposals 2009 $75,000 • KEEN Innovators – Expanded Program • TE Fellows Program 2011 $736,000 Helping Hands Dense Network (HHDN) • Intrapreneurship End-to-End Education (IE3) • Intercollegiate Design Programs “Helping Hands” Dense Network (HHDN) • Individual grants awarded to four KEEN schools with complementary strengths – Intercollegiate Student Design Projects – Intrapreneurship End-to-end Education (IE3) • Baylor/UDM and Villanova/Dayton formed somewhat independent teams based on cultural alignment – working toward similar objectives As part of IE3, HHDN universities conducted Iship study with 16 companies / agencies Phase 3 Phase 1 ID Key Competencies • Corporate visits • Engage and understand culture, stories, examples • Identify key skills Phase 2 Curricular Recommendations Iship Best Practices • Ongoing work • Evaluation and recommendations for curriculum upgrades • Broad sweep of universities evaluated • Compile findings • Publish and present results for feedback Key competency areas identified in order of importance to companies • • • • • • • • • • Communication / Value Proposition Ideation / Innovation Confidence Teamwork Technical competence Intellectual property Experimenter / modeler Anthropologist (cultural awareness) T-shaped engineer Cross-pollinator IE3 – Corporate Intrapreneurship Training • Began with SuperCoach® Entrepreneurship Training from Enable Ventures in 2005 • Developed Corporate Intrapreneurship Training – Capstone “Technology Entrepreneurship” course – Four-day workshop – i5 international venue • Focused on commercialization – no design or innovation component • Transferable curriculum – 22 video segments captured (e.g. IP, comms) – Available for purchase at Udamy.com – Joint project underway with UDM to incorporate front-end and back-end of innovation • Innovation Engineering (Eureka Ranch) black belt training and certification underway Intercollegiate Design Projects • Students from Baylor and UDM joined forces with UDM nursing students to create designs for handicapped VA patients • Students meet face-to-face three times – Client visit – requirements definition – Detailed design review – Client presentation • Students learn: – Communications and team dynamics in a remote setting – Entrepreneurial opportunities – Job-like experience that enhances resume and interview skills Standup Wheel Chair / Walker Designed for disabled veteran at Detroit VA Bed with Built-In Potty Click to Watch Video Even the best ideas and inventions in the world have no value until they have a customer. – Jim Clifton, The Coming Jobs War Building the Bridge from Innovation to Value Creation • Skills Components can be taught • Business Analysis • Strategy Development • Customer/Market Insight • Collaboration • Communications • Mindset Components must be experienced • Pre: The stuff people do who couldn’t handle the math • Post: True appreciation and partnership • Marker: “If you get the technology right, the rest will fall into place.” • Evidence: 90% of USTPO patents fail to generate revenue • Strong E-School and B-School collaboration & education Engineers are natural innovators. Entrepreneurially minded engineers are market informed, solution oriented, and focused on value creation.