Intellectual Property in the Engineering Syllabus - a Model for Integrating Key but not Core Concepts across the Disciplines

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The need for increased entrepreneurship within the higher education curricula has been well recognized. In order for undergraduate engineers and scientists to be able to participate in enterprise related activities they need fundamental skills in working with intellectual property (IP) and the associated legal aspects. The successful management of intellectual property rights includes more than an understanding of the relevant law. Strategic management of intellectual property rights is based on an understanding of IPR recognition, protection, valuation, and exploitation.

The project has identified several key barriers to the integration of IP into the engineering curricula . Engineers and Lawyers have to work with concepts that are unfamiliar. The engineering curricula is already overcrowded and can not support any new subjects. There is an absence of an established pedagogy for creating well planned, integrated, sequenced and cumulative learning experiences that enables relevant material from other disciplines to be integrated into the core engineering curricula. At the same time, the project has identified examples of engineering faculties and law faculties of academics aware of the importance of introducing intellectual property to engineering, science and technology students.

Project Aims

Using the example of intellectual property and the engineering syllabus the project aims to develop a resource that identifies integrating intellectual property as:

• a significant strand of enterprise education
• a model for the delivery of other areas of law, regulation or compliance to non-lawyers
• a model for developing a pedagogy that will facilitate the inclusion of other non-core key topics into the syllabus

The project team identify what is already being done in this area, drawing on examples of current practice and academic texts from engineering and law. They also seek to identify current attitudes via a survey of engineering academics, engineering students, recent engineering graduates and industry and small businesses.

Project Team

Project Leader: Professor Ruth Soetendorp, Bournemouth University e-mail: rsoetend@bournemouth.ac.uk

The project team is a unique blend of engineering and law academics including Professor Jim Roach at Bournemouth's School of Design, Engineering & Computing, Bill Childs and Dr Rob McLaughlan of the Faculties of Law and Engineering at the University of Technology, Sydney, respectively.

As well as receiving funding from Engineering Subject Centre, the project has been awarded funding from the Higher Education Academy's Law Subject Centre ( www.ukcle.ac.uk/research/projects/soetendorp.html ), highlighting its interdisciplinary focus.

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