1. Scott A. Sell, Ph.D. Saint Louis University
Keywords: Tissue engineering, engineering design, entrepreneurship,
Tissue Engineering Startup Simulator: Integrating Entrepreneurship into Tissue Engineering Education
Scott A. Sell, Ph.D.
Saint Louis University

2. Why? What problem are you solving?
The tissue engineering sector has an extremely high percentage of startup companies funded by venture capital. However, students focusing in tissue engineering / biomaterials typically are not exposed to courses that teach or focus on entrepreneurship.
What are your educational objectives?
Instill an entrepreneurial mindset into students taking BME 4410 Tissue Engineering
Educate and promote entrepreneurship skills relevant to the field
Teach students how to apply the practice of engineering design to a non-traditional engineering course

3. When? What is the developmental history of your innovation?
Dr. Scott Sell has worked on the integration of entrepreneurial concepts into BME4410 since Spring 2015
This work has been funded by both the KEEN and Coleman Fellows foundations to promote active collaborative learning, problem-based learning, and entrepreneurial-minded learning

4. Where? Saint Louis University BME 4410: Tissue Engineering
While I have experience integrating this approach into only this particular course, the modules created have been disseminated to the other KEEN and Coleman Fellows institutions

5. What?
The semester long course is run from the perspective of student groups operating as individual tissue engineering startup companies competing for funding from a venture capitalist group.
This involves a number of ACL, PBL, and EML activities interspersed with traditional tissue engineering lecture materials throughout the semester
Topics covering intellectual property rights, market analysis, and pitching are covered (i.e. What is an NDA?; How do we navigate the FDA?; How do we create a business model canvas?; etc.)
Student design groups must research and present on three topical areas pertaining to their chosen tissue target for product development:
Market Analysis: describe the market for their tissue, competing products, failed products, etc.
Testing Regime: describe what testing will need to be done to create a successful product for this tissue (i.e. in vitro, mechanical testing, animal models, etc.)
Novel Design/Approach: describe novel design, justify rationale for that design, address manufacturability, scale up and implementation, etc.
Each group presentation is judged by a three person panel consisting of myself and external entrepreneurs who are knowledgeable in the field
Painstorming: following each presentation, groups discuss possible drawbacks to each design and areas for possible improvement.

6. Prognosis?
Overall the students thoroughly enjoyed all of the ACL activities and were very engaged in them
Students do a very good job of determining potential markets for their specific tissues and with determining ethical concerns for their tissues
Based upon student assessments:
The product design approach helped to learn about different tissues, fabrication techniques, and implementation strategies
Students tend to struggle with the “testing regime” phase
Painstorming helped with revising initial ideas for design (students actually wanted more painstorming surprisingly)
Ethical discussions/implications of products was one of their favorite activities
The role of the external entrepreneurs is invaluable. Their presence and input helps to legitimize the work in the mind of the students
Assessment is always an issue! I would love insight into how to best assess student learning, their inherent curiosity, and long-term impact on their entrepreneurial mindset.