Not many classes manage to combine technology, business and a tour of Sydney Harbour, but in June the eight students enrolled in Technology Entrepreneurship managed to get all that and more.
The new study abroad course, led by engineering Professor Tristan Tayag, kicked off with a week on campus in Fort Worth, where labs got them up to speed on technologies like laser optics. The labs prepared them for lectures from local entrepreneurs who used technological insights and ideas to launch successful companies.
“The students learned how to take the entrepreneurial leap, how to deal with intellectual property issues and how to make entrepreneurial decisions within a larger company that is launching a new initiative or product,” Tayag says.
The second and third weeks were in Australia. Students traveled to the culturally diverse city of Sydney and the historic port city of Newcastle, where they learned about the challenges and opportunities facing  entrepreneurs Down Under. During the summer of 2013, the course to Australia will again be offered, but this time to Sydney and Melbourne.
The class itinerary included a visit to the University of New South Wales for a lecture on renewable energy and the University of Sydney and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics. They also heard from Aussie experts on investment, export services and venture capitalists.
For their final exam, students had to present several ideas for a new business, based on what they had seen and learned from the class and their travels.

The possible startups students proposed included:
•Use a submarine service to transport tourists from Sydney to the popular Bondi Beach instead of having to take a series of busses and trains.
•Import the popular bridge-climbing adventure tours offered on Sydney’s Harbour Bridge to bridges in the United States.
•Launch a chain of meat pie restaurants in the United States like the popular Australian chain Pie Face. (The chain opened in New York City earlier this year.)
• Sell and install surfboard racks on buses and taxis around Australian coastal towns like Sydney.
Tayag said he developed the class with the help of Jane Kucko, director of TCU’s Center for International Studies; Brad Hancock, director of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center; and Mike Sherrod ’10 MBA, Neeley’s William M. Dickey Entrepreneur in Residence. (Bloomberg Businessweek recently ranked Neeley’s undergraduate entrepreneurial management program in the nation’s top 10.)
Tayag also participates in the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center’s Coleman Fellows program, a special initiative funded by the Coleman Foundation to promote the teaching of entrepreneurialism in future generations.
“I could pick almost any country to go to because there are entrepreneurs everywhere, “Tayag said. “But I had contacts in Australia and was able to set up meetings with people there. Plus, there was a lot of student interest in going there. These students ended up with a great experience.”