Stanford "EPI.Center" Shakes Up U.S. Engineering Education

Today the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (EPI.Center) launches operation to create seismic change in how undergraduate engineers are educated in the United States. The EPI.Center, based at Stanford University’s School of Engineering, will serve as an education, research and outreach hub for the creation and sharing of entrepreneurship and innovation education resources among the nation’s engineering schools.

Interested parties can sign-up online for EPI.Center news and updates at: epicenter.stanford.edu.

The EPI.Center is funded by a recent grant from the National Science Foundation, and is directed by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering. STVP’s key partner in the EPI.Center is the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).

DR. TINA SEELIG NAMED EPI.CENTER DIRECTOR

The EPI.Center leadership team has selected Dr. Tina Seelig to serve as the center’s director. Dr. Seelig is an award-winning educator, having received the Gordon Prize for innovative curriculum design and teaching methods from the National Academy of Engineering in 2009. Dr. Seelig will also continue to serve as STVP’s executive director.

“In choosing Tina as the EPI.Center’s inaugural director, we have an effective and engaging leader who can hit the ground running when it comes to changing engineering education in America,” says Stanford Professor Tom Byers, a principal investigator on the EPI.Center project. “Tina will be instrumental in the EPI.Center’s efforts to identify and harness excellent entrepreneurship education curricula and activities from a wide variety of engineering schools across the US.”

[quote_right]“The economic future of the United States is dependent upon unleashing the enormous untapped potential for innovation in America’s talented engineering students.[/quote_right]Dr. Seelig is currently working with the EPI.Center principal investigators, including Byers and Stanford Professors Kathleen Eisenhardt and Sheri Sheppard, to develop a comprehensive operating plan. With the EPI.Center’s focus on accelerating the creation of the next wave of American innovators, Dr. Seelig is eager to put the center’s work into motion.

“The economic future of the United States is dependent upon unleashing the enormous untapped potential for innovation in America’s talented engineering students,” says Seelig. “I am honored to play a role in engaging higher education engineering faculty and students in this important effort.”

EPI.CENTER LOGO DESIGN CONTEST

The center is now inviting design submissions for the EPI.Center’s logo. The creator of the winning logo concept design will receive $700 USD. All contest entries must be submitted by September 28, 2011.

Visit the EPI.Center logo contest page on crowdSPRING for additional contest details and information.