E4 INITIATIVE: EET/TET COMBINES INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Abstract

Over the past few years, the Electronics andTelecommunications Engineering Technology (EET/TET)Programs at Texas A&M University have been reorientingtheir undergraduate curricula to have a product/systemdevelopment focus. By emphasizing elements of design andtest, the EET/TET programs have been able to integrate awide range of embedded systems technologies throughout thesophomore, junior, and senior course/lab work. Now,EET/TET students work in teams to design, develop, test anddeliver a fully functional working prototype of an embeddedmicrocontroller-based device/system. From this continuedsuccess has grown a unique initiative that leverages theinnovation and product development successes of the capstonedesign sequence to that which promotes entrepreneurialopportunities -- The Engineering Entrepreneurial EducationalExperience, or E4. This paper outlines the curricula that isused to support the E4 initiative and presents several recentinnovation successes that have resulted in thecommercialization of the prototypes developed by the studentteams.

Index Terms – Capstone Design, Entrepreneurship,Innovation, Multidisciplinary, Product Development.