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Physics
entrepreneurship program honored
by Susan
Griffith
Case Western Reserve University's Physics Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) has received the NorTech Award for Innovation from Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition (NorTech) during its award ceremony June 4 at Landerhaven. PEP is a master's degree program offered by the CWRU department of physics in close cooperation with CWRU's Weatherhead School of Management. PEP couples scientific training with real-life work experiences for students with an interest in starting new high-tech business and growing them successfully. NorTech was founded in 1999 as a leadership coalition to encourage regional technology leadership. It honored individuals and companies that have created and implemented some of Northeast Ohio's best innovations. This new paradigm for graduate education was the vision of Cyrus Taylor, professor of physics and PEP director; Robert Hisrich, CWRU's A Malachi Mixon Professor of Entrepreneurship at Weatherhead School and Lawrence Krauss, the Ambrose Swasey Professor and chair of physics. "As I travel around the country and talk about PEP, I've come to appreciate
that interdisciplinary programs are extremely difficult to get off
the ground," Taylor said, citing how science offers a different
kind of program from a business education program as well as the "formidable
barriers" within the institutional structure of the university
setting. He credits the leadership at CWRU "that has enabled this at every step of the way" for PEP's success. In addition to recognizing efforts by PEP's founders, NorTech also recognized the leadership effort to launch PEP by CWRU President Edward M. Hundert, Provost and University Vice President James Wagner, Deputy Provost and Vice President for Academic Programs Lynn Singer and deans Sandra Russ from the College of Arts and Sciences and Mohsen Anvari from the Weatherhead School. The success of the physics program has led this year to the development of CWRU's Science Entrepreneurship Program (SEP) that has expanded the PEP model to graduate programs in CWRU's biology, chemistry, mathematics and statistics departments. By next fall, approximately 20 students between the ages of 22 and 55 will be enrolled as the programs come into operation over the next year. PEP also led to the Student Educational Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) Center, which encourages undergraduate students to launch campus businesses. "The result is scientists are empowered as entrepreneurs and have the skills to start new high-tech businesses and grow then successfully," said Edward Caner, a second-year PEP student, who nominated CWRU for the award along with Dwayne Cambridge-also a second-year student in the program. Caner also is vice president of development for AHS Hydrofoils, a company specializing in retractable, hydraulically operated and self-stabilizing hydrofoil systems. He attended CWRU for the science/business training to launch the manufacturing of this system that is based on technologies developed in Russia and at Caltech. AHS Hydrofoils has established
its research and development offices in Cleveland. PEP also measures its success through the Weatherhead Entrepreneur Venture Association Business Plan Competitions. The competition's first- and second-place winners in the past three years have been PEP students. The also has been recognized for its "best practices" by the 2003 National Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education for Engineers at Stanford University and the American Physical Society Fellowship Citation. Interest in replicating the program has come from Britain, Sweden, Russia and other parts of Europe. "Our idea is to grow businesses and keep them in Cleveland," Taylor
said.
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This page last updated on:
Thursday, 02-Dec-2004 12:30:38 EST |
