Rose-Hulman Named ‘Best in Class’

Rose-Hulman administrators and faculty accepted the award at the 2016 KEEN Winter Conference.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has received the 2015 Best in Class Award from the Kern Family Foundation of Waukesha, Wisconsin. The award is given to the top educational institution in the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network.

KEEN is a national effort created by the foundation to produce graduates of private engineering colleges with an "entrepreneurial mindset." Rose-Hulman is one of 22 institutions in the network.

"We hope that others will be inspired by the entrepreneurial culture created at Rose-Hulman that prepares engineering graduates for fulfilling lives and productive careers," said Thor Mikso, director and team leader of the program. "Rose-Hulman continues to lead KEEN in many ways, contributing to the shared mission of transforming the U.S. workforce by instilling the entrepreneurial mindset in engineering students."

Rose-Hulman says one of the foundation’s key goals is to prepare students to identify unexpected opportunities to create technical, societal or economic value. The foundation has already given Rose-Hulman a $2.25 million grant to encourage development of the entrepreneurial mindset through educational practice, faculty engagement and student experiences. The grant runs through 2018.

Other institutions that are a part of the KEEN include Baylor University, Gonzaga University, Marquette University and the Florida Institute of Technology.