The joys of faculty entrepreneurship

Being involved in a startup as an engineering faculty member has enriched my teaching and research. As a direct result of the entrepreneurial experience, I now teach two new classes , The Entrepreneurial Engineer and Creative Modeling for Tech Visionaries. My university research of late has been informed by my engagement with Nextumi and the world of the web. Even my genetic algorithms class got a dosage of reality therapy when I revised it in the fall, when I put in a section on commercial companies using GAs.

At my school, there are growing numbers of faculty entrepreneurs, but our numbers are still small. People probably see dollar signs when they think of faculty entrepreneurship, but what I see is relevant teaching and research tuned to the 21st century.