In the School of Engineering's Intellectual Property course, students consider engineering advances in the context of the business world. Photo by Allen Jones, University Marketing.

Course teaches engineering students the finer points of business

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To teach an engineer about business, sometimes it’s best to be an engineer. That’s why the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering offers a course mostly found in business schools: an entrepreneurial special topics course titled Intellectual Property. 

And it’s found the perfect instructor to teach VCU’s engineering students: Christopher Dosier, Ph.D., adjunct professor.

Jeffrey M. Gallagher, CEO, the Virginia Biotechnology Association, is one of several local professionals to visit the class. Photo courtesy VCU School of Engineering.
Jeffrey M. Gallagher, CEO, the Virginia Biotechnology Association, is one of several local professionals to visit the class. Photo courtesy VCU School of Engineering.

Dosier is a graduate of both the VCU School of Engineering and the College of Humanities and Sciences. In 2006, he received two Bachelor of Science degrees — biomedical engineering with a minor in mathematical sciences and physics, and physics with a minor in chemistry — both summa cum laude. He completed a Ph.D. in bioengineering at Georgia Tech in 2013, focusing on stem cell delivery strategies to treat bone defects.

“My interest in teaching this course arises as I did not have an opportunity for a class like this when I was an undergraduate engineering student at VCU, nor did I have exposure to the concepts when I did my Ph.D. at Georgia Tech in bioengineering,” Dosier said. “I was all engineering and science.”

Barbara Boyan, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Engineering, served on his thesis committee at Georgia Tech and asked him to direct the research program for a startup company whose technology spun off of her lab's academic science program. The company, SpherIngenics, is at the Biotech Park and focuses on new delivery strategies for stem cells.

It is just a different thinking and skillset between the science and engineering and business disciplines.

“We are an early phase R&D-focused company, so I am very much living what we are teaching in the course,” Dosier said. In August 2014, he began pursuing an MBA at the VCU School of Business in the Executive MBA program, which he finishes this month.

“It is just a different thinking and skillset between the science and engineering and business disciplines,” he said. “In a startup phase, where cash and resources are limited, having knowledge in both disciplines is critical. So exposing engineering students to these ideas I think will really benefit them in the future as they land jobs in different industries where they can have a more thorough understanding of a business strategy and where they fit in within an organizational culture.”

Chemical and life science engineering senior Zainab Suwaiket has not considered pursuing an entrepreneurial career full time, yet she still finds the course helpful. “The class covers a variety of emerging topics such as standards, regulations and patents, which I need to know about for my future career,” she said. “I have learned about those topics from previous CLSE classes but now they are covered in more detail.”

While Dosier is the class instructor, the students learn from a team of professionals who combined have more than 200 years of experience in science, engineering, research or business. In addition to distinguished faculty from the VCU School of Engineering, leaders in the Richmond area closely affiliated with the School of Engineering or VCU also lead lectures and discussions about programs, opportunities and their experiences for startup businesses at VCU and in Virginia. Participating community leaders include Ivelina Metcheva, Ph.D., executive director, VCU Innovation Gateway; Carrie Roth, president and CEO, the Virginia Biotech Research Park; Mike Grisham, CEO, the Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corp.; and Jeffrey M. Gallagher, CEO, the Virginia Biotechnology Association.

“That is probably the biggest difference in terms of the material being taught as well as the way the material is approached as opposed to something offered in the business school,” Dosier said. “For instance … we have been touching on biotech a lot, and there are regulatory considerations and hurdles — namely the FDA — that must be considered prior to getting a product to market. There are also device classes and other considerations that are spec or engineering driven, and really do not fall within the realm of business per se.

“So while I could imagine there being some overlap with courses offered by the School of Business, I think we are providing a different aspect and also presenting it from an engineer's perspective which will better relate to engineering students.”

Students present their work. Photo by Allen Jones, University Marketing.
Students present their work. Photo by Allen Jones, University Marketing.

The course focuses on exposing the students to many of the disciplines and considerations to get a product from the idea or lab bench stage to a marketable product. Dosier even uses his own experiences to show students what not to do.

In one class, he presented his senior design project from 2006 to demonstrate that, while it was a good engineering solution, it was not a useful product for the client. While he and his partner developed a device that met all of their design and engineering goals, the practicing clinician to whom they presented it did not see the need for all of the capabilities they had engineered into the device. 

“There was a mismatch between what the customer, in this case a physician, thought they wanted, what they actually wanted, and what we provided,” Dosier said. “So it is important as engineers to understand these business considerations and not just make ‘cool’ stuff. The adage is ‘engineering solutions to problems that do not exist,’ and this was partly the case with my senior design project. I wanted to use this as an example for the students as they will be designing a new product and going through both the development and prototyping and the business case for the product in terms of market analysis, investor recruitment, etc.”

 

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