Graduate Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) Certificate Program
The Graduate Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) at North Carolina State University is a unique interdisciplinary program that provides students the knowledge, skills and tools needed for bringing technology innovations to market. The curriculum is equally valuable for those seeking to start a new company based on an innovative technology and for those working within an established firm to bring new technologies to the marketplace.
The Graduate TEC Certificate program was created especially for graduate students with backgrounds in management, engineering, science or other technology related fields who are interested in developing entrepreneurial ventures based on intellectual property. It provides students enrolled in NC State graduate programs and others who have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university (but are not enrolled in a graduate program at NC State) the opportunity to obtain recognized academic credits in Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization.
Through this hands-on, project-based teaching model, students will learn and apply a proven structured approach to evaluating technologies, creating and developing product ideas, and constructing business proposals. The curriculum for this certificate program is drawn from the core courses for the Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization Concentration in the NC State College of Management’s Jenkins MBA program. It is taught jointly by faculty in the College of Management’s Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the College of Engineering’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
The TEC curriculum has been taught for more than a decade through the NC State Jenkins MBA program and through entrepreneurship and economic development programs on four continents. At its core is a unique technology commercialization teaching methodology – the TEC Algorithm – developed at NC State with funding from the National Science Foundation.
Faculty
Courses for this certificate program are taught by faculty in the NC State College of Management and the NC State College of Engineering. Students also will be paired up with entrepreneurship mentors who have a track record of starting successful technology based ventures. Lead faculty members are:
- Ted Baker, associate professor and TEC Certificate Program Director, College of Management
- Roger Debo, director, TEC Initiative, College of Management
- Mark Johnson, associate professor, College of Engineering’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Dig Deeper
- NC State College of Management – Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- NC State College of Engineering – Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Jenkins MBA – Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization Concentration
- Technology Entrepreneurship Commercialization Initiative
- NC State University Graduate School