Entrepreneurship and response strategies to challenges in engineering and design education

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is one of the contemporary expectations to engineers and their training at engineering schools. But what is entrepreneurship? We propose three different conceptualizations of entrepreneurship in engineering and design programs. They are: (1) the technology-driven promotion response centered in technological development; (2) the business selection response strategy centered in business skills (which should be additional to the technical skills); and (3) the design intervention response strategy focused on a network approach to technology, business and society. These conceptualizations are response strategies from engineering communities, professors and institutions to perceived challenges. We argue that all engineering educators deal in one way or another with the three response strategies when approaching issues of curricular design, academicreform and the international accreditation of programs. Toillustrate our argument, we present the three response strategies as they are found at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). We also discuss the different perceptions of the role of engineering knowledge they entail. One radical response is found in the case of the DTU program, Design and Innovation. This was conceived as a deliberate attempt to constitute the third response strategy asan alternative tothefirst, which we argue is the dominant strategy in engineering programs around the world. © 2012 TEMPUS Publications.