Boosting Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Ecological Approach in Higher Education

The 21st century presents daunting challenges and extraordinary opportunities for those who can connect knowledge, discovery, and alternative thinking to innovative solutions for global problems. Educators have the opportunity to foster the environment that leads to innovations from a good idea. A critical step is to help our students see how good ideas then move to product (commercialization). To do this, an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship on our campuses must be created on our campuses. Developing this ecosystem is like putting together the pieces of a puzzle, with each piece a vital component that interacts and complements the others. The pieces of the puzzle that build an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship include not only the knowledge acquired in the classroom but also the role of creativity, diverse perspective, and risk-taking as well as government policies and investment interests. This paper describes the components of an ecosystem of science and technology innovation and entrepreneurship on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which can serve as a model to others. The approach is based on evidence from neurobiology on how people learn and combines theory with multiple opportunities to practice skills in real-world settings. This combination provides students with the environment to develop ideas that are both significant and commercially viable. In our model, students see how investments in science and technology research lead to economic growth through the emergence of commercially viable and innovative technologies resulting in the creation of new markets and applications. This approach could serve as a model for other institutions of higher education that are interested in creating an entrepreneurial mindset - the willingness to define a problem and the capacity to create an innovative solution where both students and faculty participate.