Products, IP and Entrepreneurship
World-class products are associated with excellence and economic strength. Think Apple and USA, or Samsung and South Korea. As future leaders, students will be introduced to products and intellectual property and explore their importance to the economic well-being of nations, firms & individuals.
Starts
15 July 2020
Time
On Days
Fee (₹, incl taxes)
Audience
About the Course
This course is for children entering grade 8, 9, or 10.
The objective of this course is to introduce products and intellectual property (IP) and explore their importance to the economic well-being of nations, firms and individuals. This will help students develop a product and IP mindset, and provide a toolkit to understand and navigate this landscape in their professional lives. Middle School/ High School is an opportune time to introduce these key ideas as seen from the instructor’s experience in teaching this course at a school in Bengaluru.
In our world today, 7.8 billion people consume 100 million products. Products start life as ideas, and after being nurtured through many stages of technical and commercial development and testing, they reach the marketplace.
Products are the building blocks of a strong economy. Countries (and businesses) that understand this and build great products with a strong core of intellectual property see rapid economic and social development. In the last 60 years, we have Japan, Germany, Korea and now China as examples. Countries with no understanding of this fact remain dependent on other countries for their requirements. They import products (e.g., defence equipment) paying huge premiums for IP, often at costs comparable to their national healthcare or education budgets. This keeps them in a state of perpetual underdevelopment.
A ‘product mindset’ that leverages scientific and technological capability is needed to create economic value. For every JC Bose, we need a Marconi. (See https://bit.ly/BoseMarconi)
This course introduces products and tracks their journey from idea to fruition, from research lab to enterprise. It discusses the multi-disciplinary nature of this process, and the focus on quality, learning and skills development essential for this journey. Through this, it aims to develop in the students the mindset to value themselves and their work.
All these ideas are introduced through real-life examples and cases that students can relate to. No background in Economics is assumed or needed.
Read the course facilitator, Kiran HR's blog post about the fascinating journey from the question 'why is the sky blue?' to an industry, and the questions that will be explored in this course.
About our Facilitator:
Rachit is an electronics engineer who has been designing analog circuits for the past decade. His work experience includes Cosmic Circuits and Cadence Design Systems (which acquired Cosmic Circuits), on the design of integrated circuits for audio codecs, serial interfaces, and phase locked loops amongst other things. He likes to spend his time on reading, understanding audio, building speakers, music, and sports.
Rachit has a Masters degree from the Centre For Electronic Design And Technology at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
Muralidhar (aka Murali) is senior mentor and course designer at GenWise with 20+ years of experience in the social sector. In addition to delivering Vocational Training to young adults, he is currently responsible for design, manufacturing and marketing operations at a traditional handicraft (wooden toys) enterprise near Bengaluru. Murali has also delivered training and professional development programs for secondary science teachers and 'making' skills to "gifted students" for around 4 years.
Murali has a bachelor's degree in Engineering from IIT Madras.