ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Overview
In this course, you learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship with application to public interest technology. Understanding and utilizing the entrepreneurial mindset gives you a unique perspective that will help you no matter your position or organization. Having an entrepreneurial mindset in the public sector drives innovation and can be invaluable.
Learning Outcomes
By completing the lessons in this course, you will be able to:
- Think like an entrepreneur, and understand the Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Define a Value Proposition, champion an idea and pitch it to others to fund or obtain buy in
- Recognize the role of Customer Discovery
- Analyze the potential of your business and the scale that makes it viable
- Apply an entrepreneurial mindset to implement an idea and make it a reality
Instructor
Ted Graef is the Director of Engineering Entrepreneurship (E-SHIP) at Penn State University. As director, Ted leads the E-SHIP program and its offerings, including the technology-based entrepreneurship cluster of the intercollege minor in entrepreneurship. He is the co-founder of All Traffic Solutions (ATS), a traffic- and parking-equipment manufacturing company based in State College. Originally founded in 1999 as Intuitive Control Systems, a company aimed at developing controls for mobile construction equipment, ATS changed its focus to the traffic market in 2003. Ted served as president of ATS as it organically grew into a recognized leader in the burgeoning field of Internet of Things, successfully transitioning to a hardware and services company with connected units in all 50 states and 20 countries. In 2016, Edison Partners invested in the ATS, and he transitioned to its chief operating officer. Before co-founding ATS, Ted worked as the director of manufacturing engineering at Simco Electronics and a senior project engineer at Lutron Electronics. Since 2017, he has also served as a lecturer for the School of Engineering Design and Innovation E-SHIP and Engineering Leadership Development programs.
Ted received his master of business administration from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business in 2000 and his bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland in 1984. He is a licensed professional engineer in Pennsylvania.