A Cross-Disciplinary Entrepreneurship Commercialization Process Model: Learning In Action

Abstract

This paper will discuss how a multi-disciplinary team of engineering professors, business professors, entrepreneurs and students designed, developed and commercialized a new product related to an underwater submersible vehicle …underwater Robot.

A new technology has been designed, developed and prototyped to aid in underwater exploration. The technology developed is a portable, remotely controlled submersible vehicle device capable of capturing high-quality images in depths up to 50 feet. The uniqueness of the new technology is that the device is significantly less expensive, more portable, and easier to deploy than other submersible vehicles on the market.

The paper will discuss product design, prototype development, competitive analysis, new market development, marketing strategies, cost analysis, and commercialization. Discussions will center on different cross disciplinary fields of study, such as electrical engineering, civil engineering, manufacturing, market analysis, entrepreneurship and commercialization. The paper will demonstrate the collaboration that occurred between these fields to form a truly interdisciplinary entrepreneurship venture. (Clouse, R. W. Aniello, J., Biernacki, J. 2003).

The paper suggests a paradigm change in curricula developed from around subject oriented learning and offers a model of integrated learning beginning with looking at the end product and developing a process and product that can be applied to the open market place….authentic learning. (Creed, C. J., Suuberg, E. M. & Crawford, G. P. 2002; Clouse, R. W. (1994).

This project is an extension of the “Learning in Action” process developed by R Wilburn Clouse and Terry Goodin at Vanderbilt University and adapted to include projects from other universities including this product from Western Kentucky University’s electrical engineering department and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. (At the time of development of this project….R. Wilburn Clouse was the Executive Director of the WKU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Stacey Wilson was professor of Electrical Engineering). These two Professor co-directed the grant that developed this project. (Clouse, R. W., Goodin, T., Aniello, J. 2016).

A brief discussion of the Learning in Action concept is discussed below followed by the design, development and commercialization of the underwater robot. These discussions illustrate the unconventional thinking that permeated this project development.