July 16, 1999
New certificate will give bioengineering grads entrepreneurial edge
The University of Washington Board of Regents today approved a new graduate certificate program aimed at giving UW bioengineering graduates an entrepreneurial edge as they enter the fast-paced and often high-risk world of commercial biotechnology.
The professors who developed the multidisciplinary program, Gary Hansen and Patrick Stayton, expect the driving force behind the effort to be the interaction between the up-and-coming bioengineers and graduate business students, who together will study the research and development process and how to turn scientific findings to tangible, marketable products.
The entrepreneurship in technology certificate program, offered under the School of Business Administration’s program in entrepreneurship and innovation, seeks to give graduates the knowledge and skills they need to be leaders and innovators at the juncture of science and business. It’s training that’s not being provided in an integrated manner anywhere else in the country, according to Stayton, an associate professor of bioengineering. He added that it’s something students not only need, but – at least at the UW – that they have been asking for.
“This wasn’t just a top-down thing – the students were telling us that they wanted something to bring them together with some of the business people,” Stayton said. “About 70 percent of our graduates end up going into the private sector while only 30 percent remain in academics, and I think we in the academy are more geared toward cloning ourselves educationally. The landscape has changed for our students and we need to provide them with relevant training.”
Hansen, an associate professor of strategic management, says his students are eager to rub shoulders with the scientists and find out what’s hot in bioengineering. Such interactions, he said, can lead to very tangible benefits.
“It’s very likely that they will meet people with whom they will start businesses sometime down the road,” Hansen said. “Or maybe not so far down the road.”
The UW certificate is the result of a collaboration among the School of Business Administration, the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine. It’s unusual in that it integrates business training into an existing bioengineering doctoral program without lengthening the time required to obtain the doctorate. In the program, graduate bioengineering and science students develop their business prowess in mixed classes with Master of Business Administration students. The emphasis is on entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, and participants are required to complete a project in which business and science students work together to develop a business plan for commercializing intellectual property. Students can select one of two tracks: the entrepreneurship path, which focuses on start-up companies and venture practices, or the intrapreneurship path, which delves into creating new ventures or businesses within existing corporations. Science students gradu!
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ate with an entrepreneurship in technology certificate and business students receive the program in entrepreneurship and innovation certificate.
The first certificate-program class will begin in the fall with an anticipated class of 20 technology students and 40 to 50 MBA students. Hansen and Stayton say they expect enrollment to increase to about 60 technology students as other departments become involved.
“The molecular and cellular biology program has expressed interest, as have students in several other departments,” Stayton said. “I don’t think we’ll have trouble recruiting. This is the way the future is going. I think we’ll have people beating down our doors to get in.”
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For more information, contact Stayton at (206) 685-8148 or stayton@bioeng.washington.edu, or Hansen at (206) 543-0784 or hansen@u.washington.edu.
