Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Mindset through Design: Insights from Thematic Analysis of First-year Engineering Students' Reflections

Abstract

Mark possesses a diverse background that includes experiences in engineering design, social entrepreneurship, consulting, and project management.

Engineering Deans’ Perspectives on the Value of Entrepreneurial Thinking in Engineering Education

“…Due to the scope of the study, it is not clear to what extent they believe the minimal exposure or involvement in entrepreneurial activities engineering students should have in the curriculum or how EM should be integrated. It has however been highlighted that there is an inherent connection between design and EM (Huerta et al, 2017), which makes EM complementary in supporting the design process in freshman project-based courses and senior capstone projects. The deans expressed the desire to continue trying to scale their entrepreneurship programs for students.…”

Using Online Discussions to Develop the Entrepreneurial Mindset in Environmental Engineering Undergraduates: A Case Study

“…Several educational research investigations have explored the role of the KEEN framework. Huerta and colleagues [21] used introductory engineering design artifacts and written student reflections to conduct a thematic analysis; the findings revealed student awareness, intention and action towards facets related to the entrepreneurial mindset. A different study focused on humanities courses (at a primarily engineering university), integrating the KEEN student outcomes through the development of case studies and inquiry related to real-world engineering applications, to assist students in answer the age old question -when will I ever use this?…”

“…A different study focused on humanities courses (at a primarily engineering university), integrating the KEEN student outcomes through the development of case studies and inquiry related to real-world engineering applications, to assist students in answer the age old question -when will I ever use this? Liu and authors [22] incorporated the KEEN framework into upper-level mechanical engineering courses including Mechatronics, Heat Transfer, and Fluid Mechanics; the results provide evidence and demonstration of behaviors associated with the entrepreneurial mindset when students participate in the three-course scaffold entrepreneurially-minded problem-based learning experience. Although, these efforts have proven fruitful, limited research has focused on integrating the entrepreneurial mindset through online discussions.…”

Fostering Curiosity, Creating Value, and Making Connections in First-Year Students Through Product Archaeology

“…As entrepreneurial mindset is identified to consist of both inherent and learned traits [15], it is important that we start exposing engineering students to the concepts associated with this framework as soon as they start their engineering degree. Several programs have worked on the integration of entrepreneurial mindset into their first-year engineering design programs [16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

“…For instance, in the first-year engineering program at Arizona State University, students completed a team-based design project focused on the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges. Throughout the discussion of the design process students were introduced to elements of entrepreneurial mindset to encourage student exploration of the problem space and their work towards creating a product that would provide value [18]. Most of these implementations have also scaffolded the process for students by providing them with either mini projects [18] or a series of smaller activities prior to the completion of an open-ended design project [16,17].…”