The engineering entrepreneurship program has named Dave Barton as its spring 2007 Bishoff Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Barton is the founder of BlueSwarf, a company that develops and markets new technologies for metalworking industries. As the Bishoff Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Barton will spend Feb. 21 and 22 teaching and talking with students in the engineering entrepreneurship program. Barton has more than 25 years of experience in the metalworking and machining fields. He was founder and president of American Machinist Supply in San Jose, Calif. In 2002, he founded BlueSwarf in the Silicon Valley, and moved it to Penn State's Innovation Park at the end of that year. As an early pioneer in B2B eCommerce, he served as executive vice president of venture-backed Internet start-up MachineTools.com and also served as a consultant to Federal Express, Autodesk, Milacron, Yahoo and eBay. Barton was one of the subjects of the 2004 best-selling book "LIFE 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness." Barton earned a bachelor of science degree from Arizona State University.
The Entrepreneur-in-Residence program is named for and underwritten with an endowment by E.V. Bishoff, who was a Pittsburgh native and long-time supporter of Penn State engineering. The program contributes to the engineering entrepreneurship program's mission to develop new entrepreneurs and creative thinkers through innovation, leadership and project-based coursework.