LSU professor developing program to take lab work to marketplace

LSU biological and agricultural engineering professor Dan Hayes has more in mind for his students than textbooks and research in the laboratory. Hayes wants to build an entrepreneurial culture at LSU through the development of a 12-credit certificate program teaching the fundamental techniques of business processes and plans so that engineering students can turn their research ideas into business ventures. The 12-credit program will help engineering students understand research and design projects from an industry perspective. Through six different BAE courses in entrepreneurship, psychology, business and industry engineering, students will learn the importance of designing with customer needs in mind. “Sometimes, as academic researchers, we get very myopic about our research, focusing solely on what is feasible and publishable from an academic standpoint,” Hayes says. But, Hayes points out, what is feasible and publishable from an academic perspective does not necessarily have real-world, industrial or clinical applications. Hayes hopes to help LSU engineering students design their materials, devices and processes not only with academic goals but also with a bigger picture in mind—real-world applications. The planned certificate program will prepare engineering students to develop their ideas in such a way that they move from the lab bench to product invention; students will gain an understanding of how then to take those products to industry and businesses. “In academia, we often neglect to define a ‘good product’ as one with industrial scale feasibility and marketable characteristics,” Hayes says.