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case western reserve university

Physics Entrepreneurship
Program

 

Winner, Price Institute Innovative Entrepreneurship Educators Award

Winner, NorTech Innovation Award

American Physical Society CITATION
for providing a new paradigm for graduate education in Physics


Member, National Professional Science Master's Association

 

 

 


News:

Phycal Featured in Newsweek as one of their "World's Most Intriguing Startups." Profile here. Article here.

Odin SMART Container wins the "Best In Show" award at RFID Journal Live! in April, 2009.

Chris Fennig (Odin Technologies) Honored as a "Distinguished PSM Alumni" in Washington, DC (Nov, 2009)

 


 

An "Innovation Think & Do Tank"
for the Non-Traditional Physicist.

Overview: The award-winning Physics Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) is a two-year professional Master of Science degree in the Department of Physics at Case Western Reserve University. The curriculum is lean and flexible. You will study graduate-level science, business, and innovation while you work on a real-world entrepreneurial project with an existing company or your own startup. STEP will help connect you with mentors, advisors, partners, funding sources and job opportunities. PEP is celebrating its 10th year in 2010.

Who Enrolls: Scientists and engineers who have an in-depth background in physics. PEP students typically have a strong work ethic, an aptitude for creative problem solving, the ability to complete projects and a passion for creating and launching new things. Typically, PEP students do not wish to follow traditional paths of PhD and researcher.

Prerequisites: Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in physics or a physics-related field, including electrical and mechanical engineering. 15% of PEP students hold a masters or PhD.

Class Size: PEP is an elite group. The average entering class size is five students.

Tuition and Financial Assistance: Program tuition is approximately $40,000. Most PEP students qualify for scholarships and fellowships ranging from partial to full tuition. Teaching Assistant (TA) positions, which include partial tuition and stipend, are occasionally awarded to PEP students. Otherwise traditional graduate stipends are not available. Most PEP students are employed in a well-paying internship before the end of the first year.

Careers and Salaries: PEP alumni hold positions that include Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, Project Manager at Genentech, Technology Director at First Energy Corporation, Business Development Specialist at Logos Energy, Inc. (aka Phycal and Contained Energy), and Director of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project. Several PEP students and graduates have started their own companies. The average salary of PEP graduates is approximately $80,000 per year according to 2009 surveys of PEP alumni conducted by the National Professional Science Masters Association and CWRU.

Partners: PEP partners with JumpStart (via TechLift) and BioEnterprise to bring the outside world to campus, including "live" case studies in innovation, guest speakers, and project opportunities for students.

Instructors: PEP instructors are uniquely experienced in both the practice and study of innovation. Students receive a mixture of theory and practical knowledge in a setting that is both academic and industrial.

About CWRU and Northeast Ohio: When you join PEP, you become part of the thriving entrepreneurial culture of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and Northeast Ohio (NEO). CWRU ranks consistently among the top 40 colleges and universities in the United States and is ranked #1 in Ohio. CWRU is home to world-renowned people, libraries, information technology systems, teaching and research in the arts, sciences, engineering, medicine, law, business, design, and social sciences. PEP students have access to extensive library databases for research in marketing, industry, business and science. CWRU is also home to over 20 entrepreneurship-based organizations and programs, many of which are cross-disciplinary. In 2006, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked NEO higher than San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle as a hot region for entrepreneurs. Please browse case.edu and Nortech.org for a taste of the exciting things that are happening at CWRU and Northeast Ohio.

Please contact us if you have any questions. We are looking forward to speaking with you.

 
 
 

The Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Programs have received generous support from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation, the Coleman Foundation, and the National Collegiate Inventor's and Innovator's Alliance (NCIIA). The Physics Entrepreneurship Program receives generous support through a bequest of Robert Stieglitz.

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