Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Physics: The PIPELINE Program

A 2015 report released by the APS Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics identified several national issues for Industrial Physics (link). One of these was preparing and supporting the industrial physicist – in particular, preparing physics students as likely members of the future industrial physics workforce. Narrow career guidance, deficits in core technical competencies that are developed by hands-on experimentation, and deficits in work skills such as communication, teamwork, and an appreciation of the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration, were specifically listed as challenges in this area.

APS is proud to announce a new program, called PIPELINE, which seeks to integrate experiences into the standard undergraduate physics degree which will explicitly prepare students for careers in industrial and entrepreneurial settings. These include relating physics content to real-world applications, teaching students to communicate to an audience, building more cross-disciplinary research collaboration, familiarizing students with basic business concepts, and capitalizing on physicists’ habit of innovation to create new technical solutions to important global problems. These ideas are becoming widely referred to as physics innovation and entrepreneurship (or “PIE”) education, and have seen a groundswell of interest in recent years among the physics education community.

APS collaborated with six academic institutions and won a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation. The academic partners (Loyola University Maryland, Rochester Institute of Technology, The College of William and Mary, The George Washington University, the University of Colorado Denver, and Wright State University) will develop and disseminate new curricular and co-curricular approaches to teaching PIE, informed by physics faculty who have already built successful physics entrepreneurship programs – as well as advisors from industry. The project will also develop research tools which will monitor institutional change around the adoption of these practices, and provide resources to help faculty overcome obstacles to widespread adoption of PIE practices. To learn more about the specific approaches being implemented in PIPELINE – or to learn more about other PIE related developments in the community – please visit the PIE website at http://www.aps.org/programs/education/innovation/pipeline

By supporting the widespread adoption of these practices, we can improve student learning and career outcomes, and elevate the profile of private sector and entrepreneurial paths as a legitimate career trajectory among physics faculty and students. Undergraduate PIE education will also enhance the skills of those who go on to finish a graduate degree in physics. Some of the developed PIE practices could even be adapted for use in graduate coursework. These efforts align with FIAP’s recommendations for a better prepared future scientific workforce, and we hope to engage with the FIAP community in the development of PIE moving forward.

Crystal Bailey
APS Careers Program Manager

Opinions expressed represent the views of the individual authors and not the American Physical Society or author’s employers.