Engineering Entrepreneurship Summer Institute (E2SI)

E2SI Abroad in 2025!

Current Villanova Undergraduate Students
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Updated 03/10/2025

8 Weeks • 16 Credits • One Minor

Villanova University's Engineering Entrepreneurship Summer Institute (E2SI) welcomes students from all academic backgrounds. This immersive sixteen credit hour minor blends entrepreneurial spirit with product innovation principles, fostering collaboration across disciplines. E2SI guides you through the entire process from initial concept to venture pitch with no prior technical or business expertise needed. Discover how to transform your ideas into new business ventures!

Why Engineering Entrepreneurship?

The need for entrepreneurial skills is much broader than the focus on starting a new enterprise. Employers value self-starters who take initiative, show persistence and demonstrate leadership. A product innovation skillset is essential to both entrepreneurial and corporate environments. These competencies are invaluable in any career and differentiate students from the competition.

In the E2SI Abroad program, undergraduate students will learn tenants, tools, and frameworks for global innovation and entrepreneurship, preparing them to work in corporate innovation, product development, or in a technology-based startup. They also gain experience in international business and social impact, as they visit startup partners, supply chain and import-export organizations in the host country, learn more about the challenges other countries face, and consider how they can be part of the solution

Program Benefits

Understand the principles of existing and emerging technologies such as AI and IOT and how they apply globally
Study design thinking and how to follow a process for innovating
Practice customer discovery and how to identify a clear problem or opportunity
Explore creativity, ideation and concept development
Prototype and test ideas through customer validation
Gain practical, hands-on experience in many entrepreneurial activities.
Build financial models and business model frameworks
Practice and deliver compelling venture pitches
Develop leadership, business and management skills to run and strengthen any enterprise.

The curriculum in E2SI has been designed to create a unified, immersive experience for cohorts of students, so the program must be completed in a single summer. For summer 2025, the first four courses take place online May 27 through June 27, while the last two are held abroad June 30 through July 18.

Program Details

The Engineering Entrepreneurship Summer Institute (E2SI) program offers students a unique blend of virtual and in-person learning experiences over 8 weeks.

Virtual Learning (Weeks 1-5): During the first five weeks, students engage in intensive online coursework, laying the foundation for their entrepreneurial journey. They dive into creativity and innovation techniques, explore emerging technologies, and study the principles of opportunity identification and business feasibility. As part of their global focus, students conduct in-depth research on Panama's economy, with a particular emphasis on the country's agricultural sector. They explore the potential of agritech in revolutionizing farming practices and study successful agribusinesses in Panama including Cuatros Caminos, a sustainable coffee farm dedicated to empowering the rural farming community.

Throughout this virtual phase, students work on developing venture concepts. They create initial business models, conduct market research and create high level product concepts. This virtual phase prepares students for their upcoming immersion in Panama's entrepreneurial ecosystem and sets the stage for real-world testing and refinement.

Panama Immersion (Weeks 6-8): For the final three weeks, students travel to Panama City, Panama, where theory meets practice. This vibrant capital becomes their laboratory for exploring entrepreneurship in a global context. Students immerse themselves in the local culture with visits to the Panama Canal, Casco Antiguo, and the renowned BioMuseo, while simultaneously gaining insights into the practical challenges of international business through engagement with logistic innovation centers and import-export organizations. Their experience is enriched by a 4-day excursion to Boquete, a picturesque town in the Chiriquí highlands. Here, they delve deeper into Cuatro Caminos' operations, witnessing firsthand the application of agritech in sustainable coffee production. This hands-on experience allows them to validate assumptions about their ventures and make real-time adjustments based on insights gained from the field.

Throughout their time in Panama, students apply their newly acquired skills in product innovation and business development, learning from Cuatro Caminos' startup journey and other local entrepreneurs in the agritech space. The program culminates in the delivery of their own venture pitches, many inspired by the agricultural innovations they've witnessed, in this inspiring international setting.

EGEN 2100: Engineering a Creative Mindset: (1 credit) An introduction to various methods, practices, and tools that can be effectively used to develop creative solutions to problems.

EGEN 2150: Whole Systems Thinking in International Business Development: (3 credits) Students will gain a working understanding of problem identification within a global framework.

EGEN 2200: Emerging Technologies in Product Innovation: (3 credits) Foundation course for moving an initial product concept from idea to reality.

EGEN 3100: Customer Discovery and Design Thinking: (3 credits) Learn and apply techniques to assess the technical and business feasibility of product and service concepts within a customer centric focus.

In Panama

EGEN 3200: Product and Service Prototyping: (3 credits) Focused on the design and construction of a proof-of-principle prototype which demonstrates a product or service.

EGEN 4100: Advanced Business Model Design (3 credits) Students will experience the detailed steps in business venture formation.

Final application deadline is Saturday March 15

Program Dates - May 27 - July 18, 2025

May 27 - June 27: Virtual Learning

June 30-July 18: Abroad in Panama

Does not Include these estimated costs: