Kulatunga named Entrepreneurial Leader

Athula Kulatunga, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering technology, is one of 11 Purdue University professors selected as members of the 2008 Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy.

The program brings faculty together with business innovators and introduces entrepreneurship ideas in the classroom.

Through a series of workshops and networking, Kulatunga will begin to create instructional material to help his students understand how to turn their ideas into useable products.

“Our students learn the skills to make a product, solve a certain problem, or help somebody,” Kulatunga says. “But there’s a difference between developing and designing something for research and developing a product that has market potential.”

In addition to campus learning opportunities, Kulatunga plans on taking a few of his students through the process of creating a product and preparing it for use outside of academia.

“The challenge is to move that concept to the market place. Students need to know where to get help and initial considerations,” he says. “Through this process, they will get firsthand experience.”

The academy is part of the Kauffman Campuses Initiative at Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and also is supported by the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence.

Academy members are nominated by deans and department heads, and selected by the Leadership Academy oversight committee. New members participate in a series of faculty workshops, lunches, dinners and meetings for networking, brainstorming and discussing development of Purdue's entrepreneurial curricula and activities.