Course Description:
Using innovation techniques, and researching of the prior art, students write a professional patent for an original invention that would be acceptable to the USPTO. No physical prototype is required.
Students then defend the commercial viability of their invention via a cited target market analysis that is addressed to a patron who may best market their invention. They also write a test of their invention's claimed patent advantage, a user manual that includes installation, use, and troubleshooting, and identification of both an applicable industry standard and a legal regulation that would govern compliance of the manufacture or use of the marketed invention.
Thus, by shepherding a single idea through a series of researching, reading, writing, and revision assignments that are typical of the verbal tasks of a professional engineer, the student's work culminates in an entrepreneurial product that is workable and market-focused.
Open to all majors.