Why emphasis on Technopreneurship in Engineering Education?

HIT will inculcate among its graduates the philosophy of technopreneurship and develop values responsible for a mindset shift from the traditional expectation of employment by government, commerce and industry. Under the technopreneurship ethos, graduates will be capacitated to start high –tech enterprises, make an impact on the national economy and have their presence felt on the global market. HIT, under its thrust to incubate, commercialize and transfer technology will contribute to the growth of the national economy by generating jobs and creating wealth. HIT will establish linkages and strategic partnerships with individuals, corporate and financial institutions to implement and realize this goal. The University will create mechanisms to support internal flexibility and collaboration in mobilizing its capabilities to address key societal issues and problems. Under this goal, HIT will develop various enterprises under its holding company, Institech Holdings.

The Science Park concept, a progeny of this goal will be responsible for bringing together ideas and people with knowledge and financial strength so as to rejuvenate and grow the industrial sector through the incubation and promotion of start-ups and business development in defined technology areas whilst promoting implicational research and development.

High-tech and entrepreneurial skills are driving our economy back to prosperity. Technopreneurship-merging technology prowess and entrepreneurial skills- is the real source of power in today’s knowledge-based economy. A technopreneur distinguishes logic from tradition, tradition from prejudice, prejudice from common sense and common sense from nonsense while integrating a variety of ideas from diverse groups and disciplines.

Technopreneurship is not a product but a process of synthesis in engineering the future of a person, an organization, a nation and the world. Strategic directions or decision-making processes are becoming more demanding and complex. This requires universities, and in site professional development programs and training to produce strategic thinkers who will have skills to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment.

Traditional university programs, however, lack the teaching methods to turn today’s students into creative, innovative, visionary global leaders who understand the importance of technopreneurship. Recent technological advances and global competitiveness have changed and broadened the nature of liberal arts to embrace humans and machines. The answer is not creating new liberal arts or soft-skills courses, but integrating them into the general technical curriculum. These changes take time. Also, what about present and past universities’ graduates? The solution is to increase in site training and development at all levels of a corporation.

These programs focus on what workers and professionals should be able to do. These include functioning on multidisciplinary teams, communicating effectively, acquiring updated knowledge of technological developments, and understanding the basic technical concepts and their new applications and improvements.

Creativity is breaking the conventional mental blocks and playing with imagination and possibilities, leading to new and meaningful connections and outcomes while interacting with ideas, people and the environment. Technopreneurship is the only source of long-run sustainable competitive advantage. In an era of man-made brainpower industries, individual, corporate, and national economic success will all require both new and more extensive skills sets than have been required in the past. By themselves skills don’t guarantee success. They have to be put together in successful organizations. But without skills and technopreurship there are no successful organizations.