Coursebooks

Innovation & entrepreneurship in engineering

MGT-555

Lecturer(s) :

Michaud Véronique
Profs divers *
Weber Thomas Alois

Language:

English

Withdrawal

It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.

Summary

This course is a joint initiative between the School of Engineering and the College of Management to encourage and promote entrepreneurship and management skills, engineering design, hands-on experience, teamwork, and awareness of social and ethical implications in engineering and management.

Content

The material is taught in four modules, including Systems Engineering, Product Design Principles, Business Economics, and Prototyping Practice. A key component of the course consists of a team project, usually conducted in collaboration with an industry partner, addressing a significant commercial need and/or societal issue. Lectures will be given by domain experts. The first part of the course focuses on product design. Students will be working in multidisciplinary teams to define a product concept, draft a prototype and propose a plan for product commercialization. At the conclusion of the course, the projects will be entered in a prize competition, judged by a panel of industry experts and faculty.

Topics include: Design Criteria * Modularity * Project Planning * Lifecycle Analysis * Investment Criteria * Real Options * Electric Circuits * Reliability Engineering * Materials * Robotics * Software Development * Intellectual Property * Machining, 3D printing and Assembling a Prototype * Environmental Sustainability * Ergonomics

Keywords

Business economics, product design, systems engineering, technology commercialization, hands-on practice

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

To be able to register for this course, instructor permission is required. For this, students are asked to prepare a 1-page motivation statement, to be sent per email by September 15 to the course coordinator (myrna.flores@epfl.ch).

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Translate specifications into product design
• Assess / Evaluate the economic viability of product at different development phases
• Manage the production of a prototype
• Develop a plan for the commercialisation of the product

Transversal skills

• Communicate effectively, being understood, including across different languages and cultures.
• Evaluate one's own performance in the team, receive and respond appropriately to feedback.
• Set objectives and design an action plan to reach those objectives.

Assessment methods

• 40% Presentation
• 50% Report/prototype
• 10% Collaboration

Supervision

Office hours	No
Assistants	Yes
Forum	Yes