1 Implications of a Multi-Disciplinary Educational and Research Environment: Perspectives of Future Business, Law, Science, and Engineering Professionals

Functioning well in a global, technology-driven, multi-disciplinary environment necessitates a more robust educational paradigm in science and engineering. For a technical education to be complete, it is no longer enough to train scientists and engineers solely in technical areas. There are clear shortcomings in academic curricula that need to be addressed in order to bring about this required paradigm shift. Much the same is true for students of law and business, who will have to understand many of the technological underpinnings and corresponding implications to impart their perspectives. While it is true that multi-disciplinary education and innovation programs are starting to surface, the question of “how the participants ’ experiences will influence future career plans and personal goals ’ is largely unanswered. Our focus in this paper is the importance of understanding social, economic, and legal aspects of science and engineering within the context of graduate-level education. Specifically, the authors take a closer look at the TI:GER®(Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program from the participants ’ perspective. TI:GER ® is a multi-disciplinary program between Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, focused on integrating science, engineering, business, and law for the commercialization of innovations in the global marketplace. Based on their experiences, the authors present their learning and insight on multi-disciplinary education in a mixed technical and professional degree setting. 1 Hal and John Smith Chair in Entrepreneurship, Professor, and Corresponding Author