GE FUND AWARDS MAJOR GRANTS TO
CONNECT ENGINEERING AND BUSINESS EDUCATION
The GE Fund, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, has awarded Penn State two grants totaling $nearly $475,000 to foster entrepreneurship by integrating engineering and business learning environments for undergraduates.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will receive close to $176,000 over two years for a multidisciplinary program involving its School of Engineering and Engineering Technology and School of Business. The grant further will support the development of an integrated engineering and business curriculum, faculty development and team-teaching, and establishment of a Center for Product Realization, an incubator for new business ideas.
The College of Engineering at University Park will receive nearly $300,000 over two years to support a partnership among the College of Engineering, the Smeal College of Business Administration, and Penn State Altoona. The three colleges will collaborate to develop and implement faculty development and a new four-course sequence for engineering students on the principles and practices of entrepreneurship.
"At GE, constant innovation and boundary-less thinking are critical to our ongoing success," said John Krenicki, CEO of GETS. "Efforts like these help universities reinvigorate their curricula and produce graduates with the knowledge and leadership skills we need."
Dr. John Lilley, provost and dean at Penn State Erie, said, "We are delighted that GE and Penn State will collaborate in yet another way to advance economic innovation. Our program will build on the strengths of our engineering and business faculty and support entrepreneurial initiatives. This new program will educate engineers to understand the business environment, and it will prepare business majors to understand engineering principals and processes."
Penn State Erie and General Electric Transportation Systems (GETS) currently maintain a wide-ranging partnership that includes remote diagnostics research, undergraduate senior design projects, and student internships. The e-Business Solutions unit of GETS is located in Knowledge Park at Penn State Erie.
"The University Park grant will support engineering faculty development programs in problem-based learning, collaborative learning, and assessment," said Dr. Robert Pangborn, the College of Engineering’s associate dean for undergraduate studies. "We plan to involve students, faculty, and industry mentors in an entrepreneurial business plan competition."
Dr. Robert J. Simoneau, director of the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Penn State Erie, observed "As we develop a model for integrating business and engineering, we will test it through our engineering senior design projects, coupled with team-taught entrepreneurship classes. Our final outcome will be a Center for Product Realization Processes that will serve as an incubator for new ventures."
Roger Nozaki, program manager for higher education at the GE Fund, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, traveled to Knowledge Park at Penn State Erie to make the check presentation. "We’re excited not only by the potential of the individual proposals," said Nozaki, "but by the collaboration between the campuses that will greatly multiply what we all learn from these efforts."
The GE Fund, the philanthropic foundation of the General Electric Company, invests in improving educational quality and access and strengthening community organizations in GE communities around the world. All told, GE, the GE Fund, and GE employees and retirees contributed over $90 million to community and educational institutions in 1999. For more information on the GE Fund, visit www.ge.com/community/fund.html.
For more on this story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/gefund.html
Contact: Loretta Brandon (814) 898-6063 (O) (814) 864-9922 (H) e-mail
