Carnegie Mellon University
Integrated Innovation Institute

Engineering + Design + Business

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Solving Tomorrow's Challenges: The Entrepreneurial Edge in Engineering

How the Engineering Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship additional major gives undergraduate students an advantage

By Hannah Brelsford

Mark Sanders, Engineering Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program Director at the iii, and Brandon Bodily, Assistant Teaching Professor at the iii, are working to drive innovation at the intersection of engineering and entrepreneurship. They both bring valuable perspectives—Brandon, corporate lens, and Mark, insights from the startup world. Together, they're transforming how undergraduate engineers at Carnegie Mellon think about their craft through the Integrated Innovation Institute's Engineering Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (EDIE) program.

The EDIE undergraduate major is more than just another credential—it's a gateway to a revolutionary approach to engineering. In a world where technology and business increasingly intersect, this program equips students with a powerful toolkit that goes far beyond traditional technical skills.

Why should engineers care about entrepreneurship? It's simple: today's most impactful engineers aren't just technical experts—they're problem solvers, innovators, and visionaries who can transform breakthrough ideas into real-world solutions. The EDIE program doesn't just teach engineering; it teaches engineers how to turn their technical expertise into transformative opportunities that can reshape industries, solve global challenges, and create lasting value.

By bridging the gap between technical knowledge and entrepreneurial thinking, Mark and Brandon are preparing the next generation of engineers to do more than just design—they're teaching them to dream, to innovate, and to lead.

“Those [engineers] who had connections with the customers and the business are the ones who are more successful and able to promote ideas and concepts that work because they were able to speak the language of the business.” – Brandon Bodily, Assistant Teaching Professor, iii

Beyond Tech: How Entrepreneurial Skills Make You a Stronger Engineer

Both Mark and Brandon have experienced situations in the workplace where entrepreneurial skills were crucial to engineering success. However, when team members were not equipped with these skills, it impeded the teams’ potential for innovative solutions and success.

During his time at a research lab, Mark noticed a critical disconnect: engineers were developing products without considering their commercial viability. With engineering and sales/marketing operating as separate silos, products often missed addressing crucial market needs.

This revelation highlighted a crucial lesson: effective engineering requires close collaboration with end users throughout development. When engineering teams break down silos between product development, marketing, and sales, they create solutions that address real market needs.

“When engineering teams break down silos between product development, marketing, and sales, they create solutions that address real market needs.”

The experience taught Mark that engineering excellence starts with properly identifying and researching the problem - not just solving it.

While working in the metal industry, Brandon faced a strategic dilemma. His team had developed a promising new product with clear market interest, but introducing it risked disrupting their existing forging mill business.

Brandon's team conducted extensive market research to understand both customer needs and the new product's potential impact. Despite its promising benefits, they faced a crucial challenge: persuading the mill to invest in technology that could compete with their core business. Success required Brandon to synthesize his understanding of the business model, industry dynamics, and technical capabilities to build a compelling case for innovation.

The relationship between entrepreneurship and engineering can be understood through the analogy of accuracy versus precision. Engineers working in isolation may achieve accuracy–-consistently delivering solutions that solve a specific problem. However, precision—hitting the right target—requires entrepreneurial thinking.

“Engineers working in isolation may achieve accuracy–-consistently delivering solutions that solve a specific problem. However, precision—hitting the right target—requires entrepreneurial thinking.” 

By combining engineering expertise with entrepreneurial skills, professionals can develop solutions that are both technically sound and precisely aligned with market needs.

Mark Sanders stands speaking to two prospective students in front of a blackboard in a classroom

Prospective EDIE students speak with Mark Sanders

Key Entrepreneurship Skills for Engineers 

Entrepreneurial thinking enables engineers to transcend traditional technical boundaries and drive meaningful innovation. Below are a few specific skills bridge this gap between engineering and entrepreneurship:

1. Learn to fall in love with the problem, not the solution

Engineers who learn to embrace problems rather than immediately seeking to eliminate them gain valuable perspective. This approach prevents premature commitment to a single solution and creates room for deeper analysis, ultimately yielding more robust and innovative solutions.

2. Center the user throughout the engineering process

Engineers who prioritize customer perspectives gain crucial insights that technical expertise alone cannot provide. Through direct engagement with users, they uncover unstated needs, challenge their assumptions, and refine solutions to match real-world requirements. This process demands more than just technical prowess—it requires the ability to listen actively, ask probing questions, and communicate complex ideas clearly. The result is solutions that not only work technically, but truly resonate with their intended users.

3. Understand how to properly motivate your team

Just as entrepreneurs build and inspire teams to pursue market opportunities, engineering leaders must cultivate entrepreneurial thinking throughout their organizations. This means moving beyond traditional technical management to create an environment where innovation thrives. Effective leaders accomplish this by:

  • Connecting daily technical decisions to broader business impact
  • Empowering teams to take calculated risks
  • Encouraging direct customer engagement at all levels
  • Breaking down barriers between technical and business units
  • Fostering a culture where learning from failure is celebrated

When this entrepreneurial leadership style flows through all levels of management, it creates alignment between technical capability and market needs, ultimately delivering more value to customers.

“The problem-solving skills [between entrepreneurship and engineering] are not that different. In general, once they get a set of requirements, engineers are great at working towards those. Where they differentiate themselves is in the understanding of the problem and taking the time to understand customer needs.” – Brandon Bodily, Assistant Teaching Professor, iii

Accelerating Your Career with an Entrepreneurial Mindset

By integrating entrepreneurial and engineering skills, engineers open the door to more success, innovation, and solutions. 

This approach to engineering may not suit everyone. 

Some engineers may prefer to concentrate on a specific solution, while others might seek to integrate their solutions more effectively into society. Developing these skills enables engineers to communicate their needs to customers, ultimately benefiting the overall business rather than focusing solely on a single solution. 

Although engineers can choose not to invest in these entrepreneurial skills, neglecting them can lead to communication barriers and hinder problem-solving abilities, which in turn could impede their ability to innovate.

“Do you absolutely need these skills? No. Will it make you more successful? Yes.” Mark Sanders, Engineering Design, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program Director, iii

Of course, both approaches have trade-offs, and the engineering approach that a person takes depends on their ideas and motivations within the discipline. 

At the Integrated Innovation Institute, the Engineering Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (EDIE) program offers engineering students an opportunity to explore this additional side of engineering. 


Offering Engineering Students a Headstart with the EDIE Program

The Engineering Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (EDIE) undergraduate additional major for engineering students allows them to focus on developing these multidisciplinary skills early on in their careers.

“You either get exposed to them [entrepreneurial skills] in EDIE or in your undergraduate education, or you stumble upon them in your career and hope that someone mentors you enough to apply them.” – Brandon Bodily, Assistant Teaching Professor, iii

In engineering, answers are often located in the back of the textbook. Students can flip through the pages to see if they're solving problems correctly. In the real world, there isn’t an answer key. The EDIE curriculum prepares students to solve problems when there is no “right answer.”

Students in EDIE learn about recent shifts in innovation timelines. Today, students are addressing different problems than in the past. Technology is advancing at a much faster pace; innovation timelines that once spanned decades now typically range from 3 to 5 years. The EDIE program equips students with the skills to adapt their technical knowledge to this rapidly changing environment.

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Students in the inagural Intro to EDIE course with Professor Brandon Bodily

By exposing students to this unique skill set, EDIE offers a career-driven approach to education focused on the reality of the industry where students need wider skill sets than their set discipline. Hard skills are not sufficient for engineering students these days; they also need soft skills like adaptability, critical thinking, and creativity. 

“Most students are going to end up in careers that are not specifically related to engineering. EDIE allows for different avenues for people to go down. It opens the students' worlds a little more.” – Mark Sanders, Engineering Design, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program Director, iii

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