With over 250 billion dollars in endowment and intellectual firepower unrivaled anywhere in the world, this country's research universities are the crown jewels of our society. But these grim economic times and the complexity of the world's biggest problems demand that universities become problem-centered engines of innovation and increasingly adept at execution. There is increasing evidence that leaders in higher education are responding to the challenge:
- At a recent discussion of entrepreneurial science, Bob Langer, one of the world's most innovative scientists, announced that MIT has designated world-wide challenges a campus-wide priority and both Stanford and the University of North Carolina have articulated similar initiatives.
- Multi-disciplinary problem-based initiatives of all kinds are supplementing traditional departmental structures on campuses nationwide. Bio-X, which brings together physicians, chemists, physicists, biologists and engineers, in an effort to attack challenging problems in human health, is a model for such an approach.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Buck Goldstein: The Entrepreneurial University -- Revving Up Innovation on Our Nation's Campuses
