Cornell Dyson: My Path to Technological Entrepreneurship

In this essay, I will discuss my transition from a childhood fascination with economics and finance to my current passion - for management and entrepreneurship in technology, and highlight how Cornell Dyson's hands-on approach and research opportunities align with my aspirations in social entrepreneurship.

My interest in economics and finance sprouted during my childhood. Back then, I followed my mom while she explored real estate for her business and visited her financial advisor. However, it wasn’t until I started Cosh(ex), my calculator programming business, that I discovered what I truly wanted as my own field: management and entrepreneurship in technology.

After months of almost frantic programming, I began distributing calculator programs to my friends. I quickly realized that many students wanted my programs and decided to make it a business, targeting students who couldn’t write their own programs. The night I designed the entire website for my business, working into the early morning hours, I finally understood the quote, “Entrepreneurs don’t need sleep.”

My experience with Cosh(ex) confirmed my interest in management and technological entrepreneurship, but I was troubled by the prospect that this potential career path would alienate some of my passions. I love economics, business management, computer science, philosophy, and neurology; however, I am most passionate about helping the physically disabled, especially veterans. I found a compromise upon waking up from an exciting dream. It was of a futuristic tech facility: strictly white and translucent, simplistic in design. I was running around, making sure all the parts of artificial limbs came together properly. My company was making more than just artificial limbs — they were mind-controlled artificial limbs!

Building a company dedicated to designing and improving neuroprosthetics would mobilize all of my interests, and simultaneously address my passion for helping the physically disabled as well as my goal of making a difference through social entrepreneurship. Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences allows me to study Applied Economics and Management and possibly double major or minor in Biological Engineering. Through completing the core requirements for Cornell Dyson’s AEM major, I will have a strong foundation in management, applied economics, and quantitative analysis, while choosing to concentrate in Entrepreneurship opens me up to classes that best suit my aspiration to build a neuroprosthetics company, such as AEM 3380: Social Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Solvers and AEM 4380: Entrepreneurial Strategy For Technology Ventures. By focusing on the biological material and biotechnology fields within the Biological Engineering major, I can develop the academic expertise to oversee my hopes of further improving the currently very mechanical mind-controlled artificial arm through biological imitation. CALS enables me to access this powerful combination of all my passions and goals.

Dyson’s hands-on approach stands out to me. For example, the Cornell Social Business Consulting Group gives me the opportunity to learn more about social entrepreneurship through corresponding with real social businesses across the globe, preparing me for when I start my own social business. Similarly, formalized research with Dyson under the Honors Research Program offers both a rare opportunity and a stimulating challenge. I would like to work with Professor Aija Leiponen on her interdisciplinary research about technology, economics, and innovation. Cornell Dyson, as seen from my essay, oppens great opportunities for me as my studies would empower me to pursue my life goal of improving society by becoming a social entrepreneur, the entrepreneur who refines the artificial limb industry. What was once a dream, and may still seem like a science fiction vision, can become a reality.