October 2, 2006

Engineering Entrepreneurs Program Offers Unique Twist on Engineering Traditions

In 1993 Dr. Tom Miller, an entrepreneur himself, initiated the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program (EEP) as a way to encourage creative, ambitious students looking for ways to put their innovative ideas to work. Today more than 300 students have completed his course in which they work in teams to turn creative concepts into marketable products. Miller, who is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and vice provost for distance education and learning technology at NC State, has many success stories to tell.

One former student from the very first EEP class, Donald (Donnie) J. Barnes (CPE ’95), retired from Red Hat as a millionaire at age 27. Engineering student entrepreneurs Bill Nussey (EE ’87) and Chris Evans created DaVinci Systems — one of the world’s leading email products — at a time when NC State was emerging as a power in information technology. They later sold the company for $6.65 million. Evans sold Accipter, which he founded, for more than $50 million. Scot Wingo (MS CPE ’92), who studied with Miller before the EEP was formally established, is one of the program’s most outspoken advocates and chairs the EEP advisory board. Wingo states, “Tom Miller really mentored me and encouraged an entrepreneurial path.” He, along with fellow NC State engineering alumni Aris Buinevicius and Dean Hallman, co-founded and sold Stingray Software for $21 million. Wingo and Buinevicius then co-founded AuctionRover.com, which sold for $166 million, and are now building their third successful company, ChannelAdvisor, from the ground up.

In 2002 EEP was expanded into a college-wide program open to all engineering departments. That same year the EEP students were selected to demonstrate their product, IIPSys (Intelligent Internet Photo Systems), a digital photo manager that they marketed as a turnkey solution for organizing collections of digital photos, at InfoTech 2002, an annual conference sponsored by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) that draws more than 800 attendees. Competition to demo at the conference was intense — just 20 of the more than 60 applicants were accepted. CED chose participants based on innovation in the technology and its current and potential market applications. The NC State team received a perfect score in the competition, something achieved by only a few of the applicants. But what is so remarkable is that all of the other competitors are established businesses — the IIPSys team was the only student group invited to attend.

Miller and Dr. Stephen Walsh, teaching associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, lead the program. According to Walsh, students who “think outside the box” are naturals for EEP. Walsh stated, “We make the students do everything from lining up small business clients, to stock option grants, to market research and calling investment bankers.”

The Engineering Entrepreneurs Program demonstrates one of the many ways that private support makes an impact on the educational programs offered and the success of the students in those programs. For example, Donnie and Ashley Barnes have shared their Red Hat success with NC State by donating $500,000 to endow the EEP.

Programs such as EEP have a strong impact on students. According to Miller, “Most EEP graduates don’t start their own companies from day one, but the lessons learned from the EEP seem to be valued by the students regardless of their career path. Former students come back and say that their experiences in EEP helped to define their whole career, bringing out leadership qualities that let them realize their potential in a protected environment.”

— weston —

/ News Index / News Archives Index /