Law Commons^™

Auburn University Team Takes Third Place In 2011 Launchpad Competition

Paul Swamidass

"Launchpad helps motivate the Thomas Walter Center to prepare a sound business plan for a promising Auburn University engineering invention each year," said Swamidass. "The screening provided by the Launchpad judges and publicity offered by the competition increases the chances that a strong Auburn invention will get to market for the benefit of the economy and the public. We expect IPC Foam to attract a CEO and private capital to establish a local startup to successfully commercialize this technology."

First Annual Invention2venture (I2v) Apprentice Challenge Workshop (2010)

Paul Swamidass

In a nutshell, a number of AU student teams, after an introduction from experts on starting and running a business, were challenged along the lines of Mr. Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice,” to start a business and produce income in 72 hours with $100 seed investment given to each team. The teams delivered, and in the process gained hands-on experience in entrepreneurship; the teams returned the seed investment and kept the profits. Two teams were rewarded.

Product Concept To Complete Business Plan In Three Months In An Ug Course For Business + Engineering Students, Paul Swamidass, Nels Madsen, P.K. Raju, Jackie Dipofi

Paul Swamidass

sophomores/juniors work in multi-disciplinary teams to conceive and select a technology-intensive product, develop a project schedule, conduct market research and survey, complete product engineering/design, make manufacturing/sourcing decisions, estimate demand for five years, develop production/sourcing capacity, estimate investment needed and 5-yr cash flow as part of a business plan in 3 months; the business plan presentation is judged by a panel. The course is called Introduction to Business and Engineering but it is a holistic Technology Ventures course that prepares engineering and business students to partner together in bringing a technology-intensive product to the market. This course can be easily adopted …

The Effect Of Auburn University’S Business-Engineering-Technology Program On The Predisposition Towards Entrepreneurship In Business And Engineering Graduates, Paul Swamidass, Daniel Butler

Paul Swamidass

The unique Business-Engineering-Technology (BET) minor at Auburn University trains business and engineering students in teamwork and entrepreneurship. All eleven graduates of the first BET class (2003) and nineteen graduates from the second BET class (2004) were surveyed to assess their entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and abilities. Their responses were compared against the Auburn University norm for graduating seniors. The norm was developed using 254 responses from business and engineering students who were cohorts of the BET students. In this lock-step program, students design and develop three different products and matching businesses to exploit their products. Over the two years, they prepare …

Succeeding In A Cross-Disciplinary, International, Student Design-Team Project: Auburn University/University Of Plymouth Experience, Paul Swamidass, Bob Bulfin, David Grieve, Chetan Sankar, Venu Vulasa

Paul Swamidass

Globalization has turned product design upside down. Members of a single design team in multinational firms may be located in several countries such as the USA, UK, Italy, India and so on. It is a challenge to give engineering and business students a taste of this experience. Auburn University’s Business-Engineering-Technology (B-E-T) program, and the College of Engineering, University of Plymouth, participated in a joint effort to replicate real-life product design process with a mixture of engineering and business students. This paper describes the experience, its lessons and compares it with other attempts at multinational student design-team projects.

Modeling The Adoption Rates Of Manufacturing Technology Innovations By Small Us Manufacturers: A Longitudinal Investigation Feb. 2003, Pp. 351-366., Paul Swamidass

Paul Swamidass

This study provides conclusive evidence to support the view that small plants are slower than larger plants to adopt manufacturing innovations. This empirical study based on over 1000 US manufacturing plants engaged in producing discrete products, studies the adoption of manufacturing technologies in small plants relative to large plants between 1993 and 1997.

Under the assumption that small manufacturers are disadvantaged, several federal and state programs have been created to assist small manufacturers in acquiring and adopting manufacturing innovations. Through quantification of technology adoption in small manufacturing firms, this study’s findings reveal which manufacturing innovations are in greater need of …

Innovations In Competitive Manufacturing, Paul Swamidass

Paul Swamidass

Competitive manufacturing in the US was made possible by the progress made in a number of areas. For example, progress in competitive manufacturing is attributable to advances in the strategic use if manufacturing, cellular manufacturing, lean manufacturing, flexible automation, total quality management, supply chain management, design for manufacturing, mass customization, improved costing, and so on.

Pressured by competition, US manufacturers began the journey to competitive manufacturing in the late seventies; their success brought revolutionary changes to US manufacturing.

The book is arranged in 13 different chapters, each covering a major subject within manufacturing management. Each chapter consists of one or …

Technology On The Factory Floor Iii: Technology Use And Training In Us Manufacturing Firms, Paul Swamidass

Paul Swamidass

This is the third issue of the Technology on the Factory Floor series. The study was sponsored by the Manufacturing Institute and the National Science Foundation. Data for this study of manufacturing technology use was collected from 1,025 manufacturing plant managers during 1997 using a modified survey questionnaire originally used in the 1993 study.

The findings were: Since the 1993 study, inventory turnover increased, rejection and rework reduced, and cycle time and manufacturing costs decreased; overall, there was measurable improvement in manufacturing since 1993. Other findings were: larger plants use technologies more extensively than smaller plants; exporters use more manufacturing …

Technology On The Factory Floor Ii: Benchmarking Manufacturing Technology Use In The Usa, Paul Swamidass

Paul Swamidass

This monograph is the result of the second joint effort of the Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the author for studying the use of fifteen different manufacturing technologies in the US. Timely support by the National Science Foundation enabled this second study to be expanded to a larger number of participants. A total of 1,121 members of NAM participated in this study. Hard technologies studied were: AGV, CAD, CAM, CIM, CNC, FMS, LAN, Robotics and automated inspection, and soft technologies studied were: TQM, JIT, SQC, MRP, MRP II, and manufacturing cells.

Selected findings are: CAD, …