Drive innovation from concept to
commercialization – that’s the goal of one of the first initiatives – a four-course
management training program for engineering students - of the new Institute of
the Global Entrepreneur at the University of California San Diego. We sat down
with a few of the students in program to get their thoughts on how they see it
helping them translate their technology to the marketplace.
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| Nick Forsch, Bioengineering, Ph.D. Grad Year ‘19 |
“I caught the startup bug when I participated
in a biomedical design competition - I love the innovation that comes out of
small groups of people working towards a common goal with limited resources,”
said Nick Forsch, a bioengineering PhD student at UC San Diego. “The nature of
startups forces product design to focus on the essential components for meeting
the needs of the target market.”
Upon arriving at UC San Diego after his undergraduate
education at Washington University in St. Louis, Forsch joined bioengineering
professor Andrew McCulloch’s cardiac mechanics lab. McCulloch’s research
focuses on understanding the development of heart failure using models of
cardiac electromechanics. When he’s not in class or the lab, Forsch is on
of the vice presidents of the Bioengineering Graduate Society and enjoys
playing soccer.
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| Karcher Morris, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. Grad Year ‘18 |
“About a year and a half into my
Masters, I decided to switch into a Ph.D. program because I had a great lab and
a great PI,” said Morris. “At that point, I wondered about an MBA program. With
undergraduate degrees in both aerospace engineering and management science, I
was always looking for that well-rounded experience.”
According to Morris, it was one or
the other when it came to graduate school. “I could either further my technical
skillset or switch to business.”
Morris is part of the first course in
the new program.
“This class has given me a new
perspective because I’m working with a diverse group of motivated engineers.”
Somayeh Imani found her niche in circuit design of wearable
sensors – and it opened her eyes to the world of startups.
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| Group photo of Patrick Mercier's Energy-Efficient Microsystem lab. Imani is second from the left in the back row. |
“There is so much opportunity in the field of wearables to
commercialize technology,” said Imani, who is a graduate student in the
Energy-Efficient Microsystem lab of Patrick Mercier, the Co-Director of the
Center for Wearable Sensors at the University of California San Diego. “But
commercialization is hard – you need a business plan and marketing skills
–things that engineers don’t usually learn much about during their degree.”
Imani is part of the new pilot course – the first of four in
the Technology Management and Entrepreneurism Fellowship Program – that aims to
turn engineers into change makers through exposing them to the lab to market
commercialization process. Participants earn a certificate at the end of four
quarters.
