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Today's employers not only want graduates who are critical thinkers and problem solvers that are able to work in teams, but also individuals that understand innovation and how to use entrepreneurial activities to move innovations to become benefits to society. For research-based graduate students, this is even more desired, with emphasis on an understanding of innovation processes and the realization of the role that innovation plays for the survival and growth of existing corporations as well as the key contribution it makes in start-up companies. Many engineering programs focus on traditional engineering attributes, and although these are essential elements that engineering graduates should learn through their training, little attention is paid to innovation and the conversion of innovations to realized impacts. Here, we review innovation and discuss our experience with trainees (graduate students and post-doctoral scholars) and how to engage them in innovation activities. Our observation is that innovation is coachable and can be cultivated in research-based trainees. We recommend nine actions (understanding the challenge, motivation, safe and mentored local environment, tolerance to failure, diversity, rewarding of passion, awareness of the external, internal-external environment, and creative destruction and preservation) that trainees should be exposed to in order to promote innovation and entrepreneurial activities so that they can establish and/or strengthen their innovation and entrepreneurship muscles, which hopefully continues after they leave university.

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Coculturing of two white-rot fungi, Dichomitus squalens and Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, was explored for the optimization of cultivation media for simultaneous augmentation of laccase and peroxidase activities by response surface methodology (RSM). Nutrient parameters chosen from our previous studies with the monocultures of D. squalens and C. subvermispora were used to design the experiments for the cocultivation study. Glucose, arabinose, sodium nitrate, casein, copper sulfate (CuSO4 ), and manganese sulfate (MnSO4 ) were combined according to central composite design and used as the incubation medium for the cocultivation. The interaction of glucose and sodium nitrate resulted in laccase and peroxidase activities of approximately 800 U/g protein. The addition of either glucose or sodium nitrate to the medium also modifies the impact of other nutrients on the ligninolytic activity. Both enzyme activities were cross-regulated by arabinose, casein, CuSO4 , and MnSO4 as a function of concentrations. Based on RSM, the optimum nutrient levels are 1% glucose, 0.1% arabinose, 20 mM sodium nitrate, 0.27% casein, 0.31 mM CuSO4 , and 0.07 mM MnSO4 . Cocultivation resulted in the production of laccase of 1,378 U/g protein and peroxidase of 1,372 U/g protein. Lignin (16.9%) in wheat straw was degraded by the optimized enzyme mixture.

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