Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Lehigh University / Department of Economics, Lehigh University / Department of Art and Architecture, Lehigh University Abstract The environment of the entrepreneur and the academic are often considered diametric opposites. So how then do we as educators go about not only encouraging an entrepreneurial outlook and fashioning an entrepreneurial spirit to produce more capable leaders of our time. To foster entrepreneurial characteristics among all its students, Lehigh University is continually developing a multidisciplinary educational environment where entrepreneurial spirit is the key to applied learning. Lehigh's academic programs in Integrated Product Development (IPD), Integrated Design Arts (IDA), Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE) feature project courses integrating Engineering, Business and Design Arts through corporate sponsored projects and entrepreneurial teams, or E-Teams, consisting of students, faculty advisors, staff support and company mentors. Project sponsors include the full range from student entrepreneurs and other start-up companies, to established small, medium and large corporations. The multi-level approach to curricular integration includes pre-college outreach, freshman projects, curricula support, capstone projects and graduate projects. The educational environment includes a Campus Center; an entire building designed around the practical and creative needs of our students teams. In previous papers we focused on the curricular mechanisms of the entrepreneurial environment at Lehigh needed to realize this vision of purpose-oriented learning. This paper will discuss the design and implementation of the freshman projects course in the IBE program as the introduction to the entrepreneurial environment, our assessment and evaluation methods, lessons learned and future plans for improving our freshman projects course.
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