Keller gift of $25 million to support innovation in engineering education
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Recognizing an international need for leaders who can harness technology to solve societal problems, alumnus and innovator in education Dennis J. Keller and his wife Constance Templeton Keller have given Princeton University $25 million to strengthen links between engineering and the liberal arts.
The Kellers' gift will endow and name the University's recently created Center for Innovation in Engineering Education in addition to supporting other initiatives in engineering and ecology.
The new center fosters teaching and student projects that cross conventional academic disciplines, preparing students in all fields -- within engineering and across the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences -- to work side by side to solve problems.
"Major issues facing society today -- energy, environment, health, security -- require a mix of technological, political, economic and historical perspectives," said President Shirley M. Tilghman. "The Kellers, in their tremendous generosity, recognize that need and have given us an exceptionally strong foundation on which to integrate engineering into a liberal arts education."
The gift builds on Princeton's longstanding strength in educating engineers who are broadly grounded in the liberal arts and can reach beyond purely technical approaches to achieve wise and creative solutions. The new center also seeks to extend those connections by creating and supporting engineering courses that attract liberal arts students. For all students, the center emphasizes entrepreneurship, leadership and service.
This initiative comes at a time when studies of the engineering profession and economic competitiveness, including two recent reports from the National Academies, are calling for better integration of technical problem solving within a general education. "With its strengths in both engineering and the liberal arts, Princeton is in a unique position to respond to the need for a new approach to engineering education," said H. Vincent Poor, dean of engineering. "The gift from Dennis and Connie Keller will help set a standard that we expect will have an impact well beyond Princeton."
The pursuit of innovation in engineering education has a personal resonance for Dennis Keller, a charter trustee and vice chair of the executive committee of the Princeton University board of trustees. Keller is the founding chairman of DeVry Inc., one of the world's largest publicly held higher education organizations. DeVry provides educational opportunities to more than 100,000 students worldwide, with an emphasis on preparing them for careers in technology, healthcare, business and management.
MoreBeyond start-ups: harnessing entrepreneurship for wide-ranging endeavors
Entrepreneurial thinking is not just for start-up companies and can be applied to all situations, business school professor Julian Lange told a Princeton audience Oct. 4 as he kicked off a five-workshop series on "Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurship."
Entrepreneurship is about creating new ideas, putting them into action and creating value for the stakeholders, he said. While value is often equated with money, Lange encouraged audience members to broaden their definition of the term.
"Nothing is wrong with creating companies that produce useful goods for society, but there are many other organizations that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ways of thinking can benefit," he said. These include governments, large corporations and nonprofit organizations.
Whatever the endeavor, successful entrepreneurs pursue their passions relentlessly, take action and have fun, Lange said. But, they aren't perfect.
"If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough, not taking enough chances," he said, offering a quote from hockey legend Wayne Gretzky: "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."
MorePeople, innovation and fun: Xerox executive discusses leadership and technology
From conducting "dreaming sessions" with customers to hiring a high school student to run errands, Xerox executive Sophie Vandebroek shared professional and personal insights into leadership and technology at a talk Nov. 15.
"You have to create an environment where the researchers and the scientists and all the people working with you have fun," said Vandebroek, Xerox's chief technology officer, as she outlined five basic principles that guide her work and personal interactions.
"It's all about making someone passionate because only if you're passionate do you do really great work."
Her talk, "Xerox Innovation," was part of the "Leadership in a Technological World," lecture series sponsored by Princeton's Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and underwritten by the William Pierson Field Lectureship fund.
In addition to creating an inspiring environment, Vandebroek said she focuses on hiring the best and most diverse group of people and building strong working relationships within the company; listening to customers; supporting open innovation and partnering with outside companies with strong ideas; and looking for opportunity even in the worst of situations.
The principles have all been important as Xerox has executed one of the most dramatic corporate turn-arounds in recent history. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2000 when its current chief executive Anne Mulcahy (who delivered a previous address in the same lecture series) took over. Refocusing its products and level of innovation, the company quickly returned to profitability, going from a loss of $400 million per year to a net income of $1.2 billion. In the last two years, the company refreshed 95 percent of its product line, Vandebroek said.
MoreBeyond startups: Entrepreneurial thinking in corporations
Classic entrepreneurial thinking -- creating new markets for entirely new products -- can be a route to failure at large corporations, even when very well managed, a senior Boeing executive told a Princeton audience Nov. 13.
Walter Skowronski (left in photo), president of Boeing Capital and senior vice president of Boeing Corp., spoke about corporate entrepreneurship at the last of five workshops on applying the principles of entrepreneurship in settings other than start-up companies.
Calling Boeing an exceptionally well run company and an "absolute powerhouse when it comes to technology," Skowronski described several of the company's entrepreneurial initiatives that ended well short of original expectations, from a $200 million fund for seeding spin-off technology ventures to a new system for air traffic management. All were attempts to significantly increase revenue -- or "move the needle" -- at a company that already has more than $60 billion in annual revenues.
Boeing launched a number of new ventures and initiatives earlier this decade. Many ended the victim of bad timing, either a) being ahead of their time, or b) caught in the downdraft of major economic shifts. Others simply lacked the appropriate resources or expertise required for success.
MoreBeyond startups: Barriers to entrepreneurship in academia can be surmounted
University researchers do not often bring new products and services directly to the marketplace, but a key part of their job is same as that of entrepreneurs, according one panelist at a Nov. 8 workshop on entrepreneurship.
"We find ways of doing things that weren't done before and find things out about the world that weren't known before," said Ed Felten, a Princeton professor of computer science and director of the Center for Information Technology Policy. "That's our core job."
The panel discussion on "Entrepreneurship in Higher Education" was the fourth in a series of five workshops on applying the principles of entrepreneurship in settings other than start-up companies. Other topics in the series, led by visiting professor Julian Lange, included government, economic development, non-profits and large corporations.
While intellectual entrepreneurship is the bread and butter of faculty research, Felten said, organizational entrepreneurship within institutions of higher education is a different matter and happens less often. His co-panelists, Nancy Malkiel, Princeton's dean of the college, and David Botstein, a geneticist and director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, told the audience about their own efforts to bring about change within the teaching and administrative structure of Princeton.
"I have no ability to make change happen unless I can persuade a significant fraction of some 800-plus faculty members that it makes sense," Malkiel said. "Unlike someone in the corporate world, I can't say: Do this. I have to rely on persuasion and analysis and a variety of other efforts that might be described as soft, rather than hard power."
MoreBeyond startups: Entrepreneurship in non-profit organizations
Entrepreneurial thinking is essential to the growth of non-profit and non-governmental organizations, Francis Pandolfi, the former chief operating officer of the U.S. Forest Service, said Oct. 18 at Princeton.
"Entrepreneurs have to be ready to deal with change and develop new opportunities from things that change. It is no different in the not-for-profit sector," he said. Pandolfi, who earned his B.S.E. in chemical engineering at Princeton in 1965, has experience in both the private and the public sectors. Prior to his position in government, he served as the chief executive officer of the Times-Mirror Magazines Corp.
Now working as a consultant to non-governmental organizations, Pandolfi discussed four important topics for non-profit entrepreneurs in the third workshop in the "Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurship" series, sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. The series explores the application of entrepreneurial practices in settings other than startup ventures.
First, Pandolfi stressed the importance of a statement of purpose to non-profit organizations of all sizes.
"Private-sector organizations are profit-driven, non-governmental organizations are mission-driven," he said. "It's a very crucial distinction." This emphasis makes it imperative for organizations to have a compelling and competitively distinct statement that provides guidance and definition. "You're looking for an action tool versus a slogan."
All operations are faced with options and must decide between alternative uses for resources, whether a publishing house trying to choose whether to acquire another magazine or a small non-profit organization selecting particular programs to fund. A clear statement of purpose will help non-profit managers decide whether a given option will help accomplish their overarching goals, Pandolfi said.
MoreArea entrepreneurs share secrets with aspiring students and community members
Eleven high-tech entrepreneurs gave of themselves for more than two hours Oct. 16 at Princeton's Friend Center for Engineering Education, sharing stories and answering questions about how they founded and grew their organizations into successful enterprises with dozens of students, faculty and community members.
The Meet the Entrepreneurs event, co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, was inspired by Greg Olsen, Princeton's Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
"I think it's a great way for students, faculty, and other aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from people who have built and grown successful organizations from scratch," said Olsen.
Princeton's student entrepreneurship club was well represented at the event, meeting entrepreneurs and getting ideas for the business plan competition they are planning for later this year.
"I met some really wonderful people who gave me some great ideas for making the club more effective and for making our upcoming competition a success," said Bethani Massey, a member of the Princeton class of 2010.
The Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, as one aspect of its mission, is working to expose students to entrepreneurship in a variety of ways.
MoreBeyond start-ups: Entrepreneurship in emerging markets
Successful entrepreneurs create environments where others can do great things, Peter Kellner said in an Oct. 11 workshop at Princeton.
Kellner, a 1991 graduate of the University, is the co-founder of Endeavor, a non-profit organization that funds "high-impact entrepreneurs" in emerging markets. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he also is the founder and managing director of the New York City-based financial firm Richmond Management.
Kellner's appearance at Princeton was the second event in the "Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurship" series, sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. The five-event series features guest speakers from a variety of settings not traditionally associated with entrepreneurship, including non-profit organizations, government and higher education.
Series organizer Julian Lange, the Dean's Visiting Professor for Entrepreneurship, introduced Kellner as a "visionary leader" who has taken a concept and made it a resounding success.
This success didn't always come easily, Kellner said, admitting that a failure early in his career taught him an all-important lesson in entrepreneurship: "You have to enable others to lead," he said.
MoreBeyond start-ups: entrepreneurship in government
After being elected governor of New Hampshire in 2003, Craig Benson realized that entrepreneurial practices are as important to success in government as they are in the business world, he told a Princeton audience Oct. 4.
"Entrepreneurship works in whatever business you're in," he said, kicking-off a five-workshop series that explores the application of entrepreneurial principles in a variety of settings beyond startup ventures. The series -- "Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurship" -- is sponsored by Princeton's Center for Innovation in Engineering Education.
Prior to becoming the first high-tech entrepreneur ever elected to a U.S. governorship, Benson co-founded one of the first major providers of computer networking equipment -- Cabletron Systems -- in 1989. Six years later, he and his partner took the company public, learning the ins and outs of Wall Street on the job.
Using a variety of anecdotes, Benson offered four entrepreneurial practices for success in any endeavor: making decisions, taking calculated risk, understanding the power of culture and striving to be the best.
"Ninety percent or higher of people rely on somebody else to make decisions for them," he said. "To be a leader, you've got to make decisions." Even the best decision-makers aren't right all the time, he said, but their willingness to try new things often leads to success in the end. Recognizing this, he said he encouraged senior executives at Cabletron to share their mistakes with him as proof of their desire to enact positive change.
But there is a difference between foolhardiness and taking careful risks, Benson said, telling a story of his hang-gliding days while an undergraduate at Babson College, where he now teaches in the business school. While admitting that all hang-gliding is dangerous, Benson said he always came prepared, working with an instructor and taking safety precautions to minimize risk. This willingness to understand and prepare for the risks involved in new ventures served him well when Cabletron acquired Digital Equipment Corp.'s network business, he said.
This acquisition also drove home to Benson the power of culture, he recalled. At the time, the Digital employees were accustomed to a leadership style very different from Benson's. Benson said he realized the importance of creating a culture that worked for all of his employees and strove to build an environment where everyone could prosper. He later used this experience to engage state employees in New Hampshire, he said, such as with awards programs established to recognize innovative workers.
These workers demonstrated craftsmanship -- one of the most important principles in entrepreneurship, according to Benson. Defining a craftsman as "somebody who wants to be the best at what they do," Benson said a desire to succeed and constantly improve is "a real differentiator."
MoreLeadership and technology: Moss shares key components for a better future
Leaders are able to paint a vivid picture of a better future and inspire others to that vision, Frank Moss told a Princeton audience Sept. 26, kicking off the second year of a popular leadership lecture series.
Moss illustrated his point by sharing his own vision for the future and how he is making it come true as the director of the world-renowned Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His talk was part of the "Leadership in a Technological World" lecture series, which is sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education.
Under Moss' direction, the lab is broadening its mission from the development of "gadgets and gizmos" to creating technologies that blur the distinction between human ability and disability, he said.
"What is going to be my success in my tenure at the media lab?" he asked. "If, in ten years when somebody drives by ... they say 'Thank you, Media Lab,' that will be success." Many have already expressed their gratitude to the lab, from people with autism benefiting from computers that help interpret emotions to Iraq war veterans testing "smart" prostheses that behave indistinguishably from actual limbs.
Moss graduated from Princeton in 1971 with a B.S.E. in mechanical and aerospace engineering and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT. A Princeton trustee and a member of the School of Engineering and Applied Science Leadership Council, Moss received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and was named one of Forbes Magazine's "Leaders for Tomorrow."
In addition to having a clear and inspiring vision, Moss said, true leaders design environments to help people turn that vision into a reality.
MorePreparing to Lead: Internships pair students with executives
Mechanical and aerospace engineering major Zhen Xia is accustomed to solving problems that have cut-and-dried solutions, but an internship at IBM this past summer taught him how to approach problems that don't have one right answer.
As part of a new internship program, Xia spent three months working with senior marketing executives at the IBM corporate offices in Somers, N.Y. From analyzing the brand's image to establishing a business case for a new product launch, he found himself in the midst of the complicated intricacies of the business world.
"Unlike technical problem-solving where everything is black and white, problem-solving in business deals heavily with people and customers who have many different viewpoints," Xia said. "In business, there are various shades of gray, which make things exciting and interesting."
Mechanical and aerospace engineering major Zhen Xia worked at IBM corporate offices in Somers, N.Y., with senior marketing executives including Florence Hudson, who earned her degree in the same field from Princeton in 1980. (Photo: Alan Zale)
This is precisely the type of knowledge that the creators of the Preparing to Lead internship program hoped rising seniors would gain from the experience, which closely pairs undergraduates with business leaders to provide opportunities that wouldn't be possible in traditional internships. Offered by the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, the program was first envisioned by center director Sharad Malik to help prepare Princeton students for leadership positions in a technology-driven society.
"Our expectation is that Princeton students will rise to the highest level, and this program allows them the opportunity to experience corporate leadership before they even begin their careers," said Malik, the George Van Ness Lothrop Professor of Engineering.
MoreWorkshop Series: Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurship
Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurship is a series of workshops designed to appeal to faculty and students from a wide variety of departments on campus, as well as alumni and community members. The theme of the series is the application of entrepreneurial approaches in areas other than starting companies: government, higher education, non-profit organizations and NGOs, large corporations, and regional economic development. The workshops will feature a speaker or panelists who will describe innovative approaches that they have implemented in their specific area as a basis for a discussion with the workshop participants.
The series will be led by longtime entrepreneur and business school professor Julian Lange '65, a professor of entrepreneurship and public policy at Babson College. Professor Lange is currently serving as the inaugural Dean's Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship in the Princeton University Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. The series, sponsored by the center, is free and open to the public.
The sessions will be held from 4:30-6:00PM on the dates and at locations listed below, followed by a reception where speakers, panelists, and workshop participants may continue the discussion informally.
Workshop I: Entrepreneurship in Government (story, video)
Date: Thursday, October 4, 2007 Location: Bowen Hall Auditorium
Speaker: Craig R. Benson, Former Governor of New Hampshire; Co-Founder, Cabletron Systems
Craig Benson is the first high-technology entrepreneur to be elected to a U.S. governorship. Making government more entrepreneurial was a major initiative of Governor Benson's administration. Governor Benson will share his views and experiences on topics including making government more transparent, encouraging government employees to take risks, leveraging technology to serve citizens' needs, and fostering public/private partnerships.
Workshop II: Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (story, video)
Date: Thursday, October 11, 2007 Location: Friend Center Convocation Room
Speaker: Peter Kellner '91, Co-Founder of Endeavor and founder & Managing Director of Richmond Management
Peter Kellner will provide insight into Endeavor's impressive 10-year record of accomplishment in identifying high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging and developing countries and supporting their efforts to create jobs and significant businesses. Topics include capital investment, multiplier effects, education and training, and sustainable development.
Workshop III: Entrepreneurship in Non-Profits and NGOs (story, video)
Date: Thursday, October 18, 2007 Location: Bowen Hall Auditorium
Speaker: Francis P. Pandolfi '65, Consultant to NGOs/Non-Profit Organizations; Former Chief Operating Officer, U.S. Forest Service; Former Chief Executive Officer, Times-Mirror Magazines Corp.
Francis Pandolfi is a Princeton alum with deep experience in leading companies and organizations in both the private and public sectors. His presentation will focus on the application of entrepreneurial principles to NGOs and non-profits as a means of helping these organizations achieve their objectives. Topics discussed will include the process of defining and implementing the objectives of non-profits and NGOs, the development and use of metrics, the role of technology in leveraging resources, and future directions, trends, and initiatives.
Workshop IV: Entrepreneurship in Higher Education (story, video)
Date: Thursday, November 8, 2007 Location: Bowen Hall Auditorium
Panelists: Princeton Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel; Princeton professor of genomics David Botstein and director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics; Princeton computer scientist and director of the Center for Information Technology Policy Edward Felten
Professor Julian Lange '65 will moderate a panel of experts who will provide their perspectives on the technological, organizational, and policy issues that must be addressed to enable entrepreneurial initiatives in higher education. Panelists will be drawn from fields including biotechnology and life sciences, computer science and engineering, and university administration.
Workshop V: Corporate Entrepreneurship (story)
Date: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 Location: Friend Center Convocation Room
Speaker: Walter E. Skowronski, President, Boeing Capital Corporation; Senior Vice President, The Boeing Company; Former Senior Vice President of Finance & Treasurer, The Boeing Company
Walter Skowronski will offer his perspective on applying the principles of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking to large, technology-driven companies. Topics will include fostering innovation, identifying, developing, and managing significant projects within the overall corporate mission, and building sustainable initiatives to promote corporate entrepreneurship.
From founding to funding: Successful entrepreneurs offer insight, inspiration
When entrepreneur Ken Kay started his first business, he didn't have a proven product. He didn't have any customers. But he did have an undeniable passion, which he shared in a May 8 panel discussion at Princeton.
Jumpstart members Bill Martin, Ken Kay, and Mario Casabona. Photo by Steven M. Schultz
"I felt excited," said Kay, who ultimately sold the business to Microsoft Great Plains and now chairs the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network of private investors. "I had control over my own destiny. If you're considering being an entrepreneur, you have to have a similar passion. For you, there's no other choice - you have to do this."
Kay shared his story and offered advice to audience members at the event, "From Founders to Funders: Nurturing the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs," which was sponsored by Princeton's Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and Jumpstart. He was joined on the panel by fellow Jumpstart members Bill Martin, the co-founder of the Raging Bull online finance community, and Mario Casabona, who developed anti-jamming technology for GPS systems that was bought by Honeywell in 2004.
Engineering professor and serial entrepreneur Ed Zschau '61, who has taught the University's popular "High-Tech Entrepreneurship" course for 19 semesters, moderated the conversation. In his introduction, he emphasized that many things must be "right" - including the situation, the people, the plan, the community and the resources -- if a start-up business is to be a success.
MoreStartup Spotlight shines on student entrepreneurs
Twelve entrepreneurial ideas competed for the attention of five judges in the first ever Startup Spotlight. The event, run by students, showcased student ideas from across the campus. After all was said and done, the judges awarded top honors to Rethos, a web-based business that fosters social entrepreneurship, and the brainchild of Alexander Salzman '07. Second and third place honors were awarded to EcoVolve, presented by Jason Aramburu '07, and Greekr, presented by Eric Keller GS, respectively.
The winner receives entry into the DFJ East Coast Venture Challenge, a business plan competition open to students at all the Ivy League schools, NYU, and Carnegie Mellon University. Teams will compete at Columbia Business School on Monday, May 21st for $250,000 in seed stage funding. Second and third place winners in the Startup Spotlight are eligible for selection as wild card entries into the event.
The event, inspired by the Innovation Forum held earlier in the year, was conceived, developed, and produced by Joseph Perla '09 just 23 days earlier, an entrepreneurial endeavor in itself. In his opening remarks at the event, Perla described part of his motivation. "When I first came up with the idea for the Startup Spotlight, I had asked a few people for their thoughts. Most of them said that there wasn't enough time. That made me even more determined to make it happen."
The format for the event was a series of 4-minute pitches, performed on a stage in McCormick 101. "Pitchers" were not allowed to use powerpoint slides, putting all the pressure on the presenter's ability to convince the judges of the feasibility of their idea.
(left to right) Tom Vander Schaaff (Edison Venture Fund), Bill Bridgers (Zon Capital Partners), Eric Keller GS (Greekr, 3rd place), John Parker (Rho Ventures), Jason Aramburu '07 (EcoVolve, 2nd place), Ken Kay (Jumpstart NJ Angel Network), Alexander Salzman '07 (Rethos, 1st place), Joe Falkenstein (NJTC Venture Fund). Photo by Steven M. Schultz
Focus on the future for success, says Amazon executive
Great leaders envision the future and create what they see by making decisions for the long run rather than short-sighted choices, Amazon.com senior vice president Jeff Wilke '89 told a Princeton audience April 18.
Wilke, who holds a B.S.E. in chemical engineering from Princeton, illustrated the power of this forward-looking approach using examples from Amazon's wildly successful transformation from online bookstore to Internet retailer of just-about-everything. His talk, "Tough Choices: Leadership is All About the Long Run," was the fourth and final event in the "Leadership in a Technological World" lecture series, sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education.
Focusing on the long run is not a conventional tactic in today's business environment, Wilke said. And so, the onus was on Amazon's leadership to convince investors of their strategy's strength. A 1997 letter to shareholders written by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who earned his B.S.E. in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton in 1986, did just this -- and inspired Wilke to join the company.
"By the third paragraph, the letter literally gave me chills," Wilke said as he shared highlights from the memo.
"Because of our emphasis on the long term, we may make decisions and weigh tradeoffs differently than some companies," Bezos wrote. "Accordingly, we want to share with you our fundamental management and decision-making approach so that you, our shareholders, may confirm that it is consistent with your investment philosophy..."
MoreInvestment in innovation, talent will yield success in the long run, says CEO of Xerox
When handling a present-day crisis, don't forget to invest in the future, Anne Mulcahy, the chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox Corp., told a packed house April 5 at Princeton.
In a lecture titled "Leadership Lessons Learned on the Firing Line," Mulcahy shared the insights she gained as she assumed the helm of Xerox in the midst of a corporate crisis, and the practices she used to lead the remarkable turnaround of the multibillion-dollar corporation.
Mulcahy's talk was the third event in the "Leadership in a Technological World" lecture series, sponsored by Princeton's Center for Innovation in Engineering Education.
"We prepare students to lead by providing exposure to real-life leaders -- leaders who understand technology, great leaders, experienced leaders, leaders with courage and integrity," said H. Vincent Poor, dean of Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science. "Anne Mulcahy is recognized as this type of great leader."
When she became the head of the company in May of 2000, Mulcahy said, Xerox faced precipitously declining revenues, falling profits and debt just under $19 billion. At the same time, the faltering corporation was plagued by flagging customer and employee satisfaction.
Mulcahy said she learned quickly to be bold in her decision-making but humble about asking for help, turning to Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time, for advice.
"Business is a lot simpler than most people make it look," he reassured her.
MoreGreg Olsen appointed Entrepreneur in Residence in engineering school
Princeton University's engineering school has named Greg Olsen, a pioneer in the sensors industry and in space travel, as its first "entrepreneur in residence."
The position gives students and faculty members access to advice and ideas from a highly successful business founder and adds momentum to the growing number of entrepreneurial activities at the school, said H. Vincent Poor, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Olsen said that a company he co-founded, Sensors Unlimited, benefited greatly during its early days from collaborations with Princeton's researchers in material science. Christopher Dries, who received his Ph.D. from Princeton, went on to become the vice president of research and development at Sensors, which is located in Princeton.
"Sensors Unlimited got a lot of help from Princeton and there is a nice trade going on already between Princeton and entrepreneurship," Olsen said. "I just want to keep that going."
MoreInnovation Forum highlights rich range of research
The second annual Innovation Forum at the School of Engineering and Applied Science Feb. 27 showcased emerging technology ranging from a novel laser eye surgery technique to a new way to improve security on the Internet.
Photo at right: Craig Arnold, who presented research on tunable low-cost adaptive optics, talks with John Ritter, director of the University's Office of Technology Licensing (right), and Sharad Malik, director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (center). Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Eleven University researchers each delivered a three-minute "pitch" to a near-capacity crowd of investors, students and community members. After the formal presentations, researchers discussed their innovations at a reception, where posters explaining the research were displayed.
MoreProjects funded through Norman D. Kurtz '58 Fund for Innovation in Engineering Education
This year, through the Norman D. Kurtz '58 Fund for Innovation in Engineering Education, the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education is pleased to offer funds to support "engineering students pursuing projects that offer exposure to engineering applications outside the classroom". Listed below are the students, the projects, and the project advisers for those projects awarded funding for this academic year.
- Project: Efficient Wood Burning Stoves and Future Projects for Huamanzaña, Peru
- Students: Christopher Pritchard '07, Edward Segal GS, Shannon Brink '09
- Advisor: George Scherer
- Project: Assessment Trip for Arsi Negelle
- Students: Justin Wend-Boma Karfo '09, Emily Stehr '08, Andrew Soroka '08
- Advisor: George Scherer
- Project: Optimizing Operation of Quantum Cascade Lasers for Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy
- Student: Tiffany Ko '09
- Advisor: Claire Gmachl
- Project: Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering
- Students: Alex Downey '08, Gordon Franken '08, Brendan Collins '08
- Advisor: Alain Kornhauser
- Project: EPICS Green Building Project (Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Assn. Project)
- Students: Alain Chicoine '07, Elizabeth Allaway '07, Dobromir Parushev '10, Pandora Chua '10, Gregory Hiller '08, Joshua Loehrer '08, Sam Borchard '10, Wing Chun Eric Hui '09
- Advisor: Catherine Peters
- Project: Clean Water Engineering Solutions
- Students: Katherine Barteau '09, Ishani Sud '08
- Advisor: Winston Soboyejo
- Project: Mathematical Contest In Modeling Team
- Student: Jeff Tang '09
- Advisor: Robert Calderbank
Energy executive urges bolder action on global warming
The truth about carbon emissions in the United States is far more than inconvenient, it's terrifying, David Crane, the chief executive officer and president of NRG Energy, told a standing-room-only crowd Dec. 5 at Princeton.
"The time to debate the cause of global warming is over," said Crane, whose company owns power plants and is the nation's 10th largest producer of electricity. "The time to decide what to do about it is now."
This is particularly true, Crane said, because the U.S. is poised to decide in the next two years whether to increase dramatically the number of coal-fired power plants throughout the country. If erected, the plants would add the equivalent of the combined carbon emissions of France and Spain to the U.S. greenhouse gas output, already the largest in the world.
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