Engineering Entrepreneurship

The mission of the Michael J. and Ann Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education is to enable interdisciplinary student entrepreneurship in the broadest sense by providing education on tools, concepts, and resources to foster creativity and the ability to develop commercially viable ideas. Since its opening in 2014, the program’s curriculum is designed to arm engineering students with the appropriate entrepreneurial skills to successfully pitch and commercialize their innovations. Workshops and courses are led by Northeastern faculty and innovators from industry.

Students collaborate in the Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education
An interdisciplinary group of students collaborate on bringing an innovation to market in the Sherman Center.

Program Offerings

Generate is a student-run product development studio focused on completing real product development work for real clients through the build studio, which is made up of highly skilled Northeastern engineering students.

Additionally, Generate Labs is a program for freshmen engineering students to get a taste of the product development cycle, Generate, and entrepreneurship as a whole. Labs functions as a startup within Generate—with brainstorming, prototyping and building an internal idea instead of consulting on a client project.

Forge is a diverse user-centric development community that teaches product development and entrepreneurial skills to students interested in tech.  Forge targets undergraduate students who are looking to gain experience and learn about product development and entrepreneurship. There are no college or skill requirements as we strive to foster a diverse community built around educating our members and providing opportunities to grow for all.

The Co-op program offered by the Sherman Center allows entrepreneurial engineers the opportunity to focus solely on building their own ventures for a six-month co-op period. The co-op financially supports the student’s innovation for the stipulated period of time.

The Master of Science (MS) in Product Development, offered through the Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education, is designed to meet the growing demand for skilled product engineers and managers. Product development is the key to the success of businesses and the technology sector continues to fuel the world economy. Leaders in many companies are the product managers and engineers as they guide product innovation and lead in crafting products for users.

The Entrepreneurial Engineering minor, available as an option for students during their undergraduate study, is specifically designed for the technology-minded entrepreneur who seeks to understand disciplinary fundamentals, assess market needs, create technologies, and determine how to manufacture solutions sustainably and economically.

The Sherman Events series brings its community together through speaker engagements, industry networking events, and large-scale events like Tech Rebels, which brought high-profile speaker Bilal Zuberi, partner of venture capitalist firm Lux Capital, to campus last February.

Partnering Across Northeastern’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

The center complements Northeastern’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship on campus. The center and works closely with the D’Amore-McKim School of Business and IDEA, Northeastern’s student-run venture accelerator, as well as Husky Start Up Challenge, Mosaic, Entrepreneurs Club, Venture Mentoring Network, and Health Sciences Entrepreneurs.

Program Contacts


Theo Johnson
Director,  Michael J. and Ann Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education
Advisor,  Generate: Student-led Product Development Studio


Mark Sivak
Associate Teaching Professor,  Art and Design & Michael J. and Ann Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education
Associate Teaching Professor,  Michael J. and Ann Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education

3D Printing, Augmented Reality, Experience Design, Games for Health/Education, Product/App Design, Virtual Reality

About Michael J. Sherman

Michael J. Sherman is a College of Engineering alumnus and tech innovator with over 40 years of experience in communications hardware and software development, including wireless applications for military, government, and commercial use. He started AES Corporation in 1974 and grew it into a leading manufacturer of long-range wireless communications equipment for customers worldwide. His vision is to ensure that engineering students are able to communicate and develop products for the commercial world; understanding the business behind the science to bring to market capabilities.

Michael and Ann Sherman pose in the Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education.
Michael J. and Ann Sherman