Business course for engineers gets raves

A new Engineering class teaches science-minded students about finance. The School of Engineering and Applied Science is offering a new course this semester designed to provide juniors and seniors with the basic business skills they would need in order to bring technical innovations to the marketplace. The course -- entitled Engineering Entrepreneurship -- was first envisioned several years ago by then-Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington and focuses "on the person who has that amazing idea," said Tom Cassel, director of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program and the course's instructor. "An engineer's economic value just increases tremendously if they know how to capitalize on their ideas," Cassel added. Cassel, a graduate of the Engineering School's undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs, came to Penn this summer after serving as the chief executive officer of a local energy company. He spent much of the summer researching and visiting various programs in business and engineering offered at other universities nationwide. Drawing on model courses already in place at both Harvard and Stanford universities, Cassel's students are given a broad overview of several different business disciplines, including accounting, finance and marketing. Case studies are taken directly from standard entrepreneurship texts and outside experts are being called in to provide the students with additional insight into current issues of importance in the business world. But while the study of these issues may distinguish the course from the chemical and mechanical engineering subjects taught in the adjoining Towne Building classrooms, Cassel says that his students do not need the extensive business background required of their entrepreneurial counterparts in the Wharton School. "I don't care if a student has taken any business classes before and I don't care if he or she does it in the future," Cassel said. "I'm looking for the person who wants to develop their passion for technology." The interdisciplinary approach to teaching engineering and business dates back to the development of the Management and Technology program, which was first established in 1977 as a dual-degree program between Engineering and Wharton. What sets this particular program apart, however, is the availability of the single entrepreneurship class, Interim Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt said. "The type of student at Penn tends to be very entrepreneurial," Glandt said. "Management and Technology is a good example, but they only take 50 students a year out of a class of 400. This gives some of the others that exposure." Plans are currently underway to expand the Entrepreneurship Program, either by adding an additional section next semester or eventually developing a second-level course. And already, the course is drawing rave reviews from administrators, who cite its innovative approach to preparing students for careers in the technology sector. "It was a match made in heaven," Glandt said. "What we're doing now is as cutting-edge as is happening anywhere." Engineering senior Jonathan Weinstock, who is enrolled in the class, said, "I think it's been terrific. I've gotten background and insight I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else."