U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster ’78 of New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District visited Thayer School on January 22 to highlight the importance of integrating entrepreneurship into higher education and strengthening STEM education in schools.

Kuster’s visit came two weeks after Thayer School professors were awarded the National Academy of Engineering’s Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. The prize recognized Dartmouth’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Program for incorporating entrepreneurship into all levels of the engineering curriculum—from the undergraduate through the doctoral level—to prepare students for technology leadership.

“The Thayer School of Engineering has a very strong integration model that promotes working relationships between entrepreneurs and the educational system,” Kuster told a group of faculty and students as she described efforts to strengthen New Hampshire’s economy and foster entrepreneurial activity in both academia and the private sector...

Kuster tours the project labs at Thayer School. Photo by Doug Fraser.

...Kuster graduated from Dartmouth in 1978 with a degree in environmental policy before receiving a JD degree from Georgetown. Her son, Travis Kuster ’14, is an engineering major.

Kuster’s visit included a tour of Professor Jason Stauth’s power electronics research lab and Thayer School’s student project labs and Machine Shop. Among the hands-on projects she viewed: her son’s engineering design work on a security and charging system for a personal transport vehicle.

Kuster noted that she hadn’t realized that some 750 Dartmouth students are pursuing engineering degrees. “That they want to make the world better for people is very inspirational,” she said.