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Center
confers new status on engineering entrepreneurship
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Professor Jon Burgstone’s IEOR 190, the College’s
new class in engineering entrepreneurship, was in such high
demand when it was first offered spring semester 2004 that
more than 100 students showed up for the 45 available slots.
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One student presenting his business plan for an entrepreneurial
venture was met with a classroom full of raised hands, a barrage
of questions, and a challenge from the instructor: “Does
everyone agree that this business can generate $60 million of
revenue in its first two years?”
The setting was IEOR 190, the College’s new class in engineering
entrepreneurship and the foundation for Berkeley’s new Center
for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET). Similar programs exist
at Georgia Tech, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, MIT,
and Stanford, and the demand is growing among engineers who are
increasingly working in management roles in U.S. companies.
“Students are thirsty for this kind of knowledge,”
says Jon Burgstone, IEOR professor and CET faculty chairman. “Exposing
them to the mindset of an entrepreneur will make them better prepared
and more competitive.” A private investor, Burgstone was
formerly cofounder and CEO of SupplierMarket, an online marketplace
for locating new trading partners that was acquired by Ariba in
2000 for $1.1 billion.
The CET will allow the College to attract both students and professionals
interested in better academic preparation for entrepreneurship,
Burgstone says. He has assembled an academic board of engineering
faculty and a high-powered advisory board that includes Michael
Marks (Flextronics), Jim Davidson (Silverlake Partners), Allen
Morgan (Mayfield), and Tom Byers (Stanford). The CET will coordinate
closely with Berkeley’s Management of Technology program
run by Drew Isaacs and Haas Business School’s Lester Center
for Entrepreneurship and Innovation run by Jerry Engel, both Haas
professors.
“The curriculum will take advantage of much that is already
available in this area, buttressed by the appropriate use of some
of the finest entrepreneurs in the world who live right here in
the Bay Area,” says Marks.
Long-term plans include offering engineering undergraduate majors
a five-course certificate in entrepreneurship. Besides IEOR 190,
current offerings include 190B/E198, Entrepreneurial Marketing
and Finance; and 171, Organizational Leadership. With two classes
under his belt, IEOR senior Andrew Laffoon has nothing but rave
reviews.
“Burgstone’s class [190] gave me the tools and knowledge
I need to work in a startup,” Laffoon says. “The CET
and the programs it will offer are a huge need and a huge opportunity.”
Go to www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~cet/
for more details.
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