You might expect a course in entrepreneurship to be based in a business school, but the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton melds talents and disciplines by teaching entrepreneurship in the engineering faculty. This summer, the school will further expand the reach of its entrepreneurship diploma program by establishing a summer institute for arts, technology and business students.

 “We have created a destination spot where business and engineering students work together,” said Dhirendra Shukla, the chairman of the Dr. J. Herbert Smith Centre for Technology Management & Entrepreneurship, or TME, since 2009.

 “And this summer, we’re going deeper into the pool and bringing artistically creative people into the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The students may be developers of wood or clay products, 3D producers or game makers. We want people who haven’t been traditionally involved to create a richer community.”

With an MBA and a PhD in entrepreneurial finance, as well as qualifications in both chemical engineering and computing and performance engineering, Shukla straddles both worlds. Born in Rajasthan, India, raised in Zambia and educated in the U.K., Shukla has worked with telecom company Nortel Networks (Canada), and chemical company Croda International (U.K.).

He explained that business faculty professors at the university identify key entrepreneurial students, who are then paired with engineering students. Together, they work on novel ideas or with startups or companies that are struggling. Alternatively, they may work with professors to commercialize an idea.

The blending has proven very successful, with around 10 start-ups formed last year. Success stories from last year include a team that won New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition. Another team of chemical engineering students recently appeared on CBC’s Dragons’ Den. The team asked the investors for $200,000 for 15 per cent of their industrial hand-cleaning business. They received various offers and chose to accept Jim Treliving’s offer of $200,000 for 22 per cent.

The TME program started 25 years ago and has burgeoned. Last year, there were more than 300 students enrolled and there are more than 420 this year. The school has just appointed a second entrepreneur-in-residence, Jordan Smith, the founder of OneLobby, to work alongside Rivers Corbett, co-founder of Relish Gourmet Burgers. There may soon also be a couple of designers-in-residence and a scholar-in-residence.

 “We are adding more skill sets and points of view to the mix,” said Shukla. “We consider ourselves to be management educators, but we also teach more hands-on skills, such as performance excellence and project management. We integrate design, strategy, marketing and finance courses to make entrepreneurship part and parcel of our DNA.”

Part of the diploma’s success stems from its use of the Lean methodology philosophy developed by Steve Blank and the Lean Startup Movement theory popularized by Blank’s former student, Eric Ries.

The Lean approach aims to shorten development cycles, measure progress and gain customer feedback.

 “Previously, entrepreneurship was taught from books, but things have changed,” Shukla said. “Now experiential learning is very important. There is a huge emphasis on taking the tools of entrepreneurship and getting students to do it.

 “Before, people wrote pages and pages of business plans,” he continued. “But no one really understood them because businesses shift. In our diploma, students put their entire business plan on a one-page canvas. It’s a visual thing. People can see why you move things around as the business changes. That’s very powerful.”

Like many entrepreneurs, Shukla sees boosting entrepreneurship among the young as part of the answer for this region’s lacklustre economy. For himself, he has studied and worked around the world, but is happy to be here.

 “My one-year trial period has turned into five years. At first, I thought there’d be no way myself or my family would want to stay in Fredericton. But it’s a beautiful city, the people are amazing, the campus is so nice and I love my work.”