Monday, July 11, 2005 — Just seven months old, USC’s Mark and Mary Stevens Institute for Technology Commercialization has already begun enrolling students, undergraduate and graduate, for innovative multidisciplinary programs in engineering entrepreneurship.   Venture capitalist and USC alumnus Mark Stevens funded SITeC with a $22 million gift announced November 11, 2004. In the short time since, SITeC has placed two separate curriculum tracks in place and will begin training students in all aspects of turning research into products when USC classes begin August 22.
“We are proud that SITeC has moved with entrepreneurial speed to begin its academic mission,” said Yannis Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Peter Beerel, an associate professor in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering who is SITeC’s faculty director of educational programs, said that SITeC’s initial undergraduate and graduate offerings are an ambitious curriculum that “are based on courses from both the USC Marshall School of Business and the Viterbi School of Engineering. They cover all aspects — economic, technological, legal and management — of commercializing new engineering ideas.”

At the graduate level, SITeC offers a certificate program, which will teach students with engineering or other degrees how to evaluate ideas and inventions, and also, said Beerel, “giving would-be entrepreneurs the confidence to succeed.” Required courses include such offerings as “Introduction to New Ventures,”  taught by the Marshall School, and the Viterbi School's “Strategic Management of Technology."

The "Introduction to New Ventures" course includes a "live case study" in which teams of engineers and business students will evaluate, analyze, and develop recommendations for an existing USC technology-based start-up. The graduate certificate also includes electives in engineering project management, managing engineering teams, and business plan development.   The graduate program is available to both on-campus students as well as off-campus students via the Viterbi School's innovative Distance Education Network (DEN).

"Our mission is to foster the entrepreneurial and commercialization spirit in USC engineers and scientists and we’ve just begun,” said Beerel, “Come back and see what we’ll have in two years.”

For right now, though, Beerel urged students to check out the program on the SITeC website a http://viterbi.usc.edu/sitec. If you have questions about how to get started on DEN, please contact studentaffairs@den.usc.edu or call (213) 740-0116.