Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Engineers: An Application of the Three C's (Creativity, Curiosity, and Connections) in a Collaborative Summer Mega-Course

Abstract

Scott Kirkpatrick is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Optical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He teaches physics, semiconductor processes, and micro electrical and mechanical systems (MEMS). His research interests include heat engines, magnetron sputtering, and nanomaterial self-assembly. His masters thesis work at the University of Nebraska Lincoln focused on reactive sputtering process control. His doctoral dissertation at the University of Nebraska Lincoln investigated High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering. Developing an entrepreneurial mindset in engineers: An application of the three C's (creativity, curiosity and connections) in a collaborative summer mega-course AbstractIn order to develop intra-and entrepreneurs, it is important to encourage a student's curiosity and skill in creating value and forging connections. We (a cross campus collaborative team of three professors from humanities, science, and engineering) developed an integrated mega-course that incorporates three separate fields that encompass a number of themes. These themes include teaching innovation, developing an entrepreneurial mindset, and creating solutions for developing economies. The program focuses on engaging students with our quickly changing world and its needs, bringing them out of the academic bubble to ignite their curiosity as they investigate the Grand Challenges proposed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Students from various majors work together in teams using their creativity to design a solution that solves the stakeholders' needs. Students are motivated to produce a high quality design not only through the intrinsic motivation of meeting stakeholders' needs, but also by the requirement of holding a press-conference with local media, who will need to be convinced of both the need for and the value of the students' design. Background: About our ProgramThe program investigates the Grand Challenges proposed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 1 in a multidisciplinary course providing credit in Communication, Physics, and Mechanical Engineering. The NAE Grand Challenges are broad, important concepts for engineers to accomplish in this century for the betterment of humankind, and provide our students with a large number of topics to consider for their project. We provide the students with a broad goal shown in Table 1 and allow them to brainstorm ideas to pursue. Our students break into groups to make initial prototypes (column 3 of table 1) of a product they would like to pursue for the summer. The students then assess the various prototypes as a group advocating for both their design and another groups' design. This competitive process ends with the class voting as a whole on which project will go forward. We then assign a project lead from among the students to carry the elected prototype through to completion.

Exploration of the Experiences That Shape Engineering Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindset Development

“…Within the domain experiences (curricular, co-curricular, and research), it was clear that students found curricular experiences to be the most prevalent in nurturing their EM, making up 39.34% of the total number of experiences. It has been shown throughout literature that curricular interventions are extremely beneficial in introducing creative and entrepreneurial thinking to students to better prepare them for their future careers (Bernal et al., 2017; Fraley et al., 2018; Ghazi Nezami et al., 2016; Huerta et al., 2017; Jensen & Schlegel, 2017; Kim et al., 2016; Kirkpatrick et al., 2016; Riofrío et al., 2015; Wang, 2017). Much of these studies are focused on analysis of EM growth immediately after an intervention takes place (Ali et al., 2012; Hsiao, 2013; Kim et al., 2016), but this study shows that after giving students time to reflect across multiple experiences, they still consider curricular interventions to be the most beneficial to their EM development.…”

“…Though EE and the assimilation of EM are necessary for all students, EM in engineering has been an area of particular focus over the last several years (Huang-Saad et al., 2018). EM integration through curricular activities has been shown to have a positive impact on undergraduate engineering students' EM development (Bernal et al., 2017; Fraley et al., 2018; Ghazi Nezami et al., 2016; Huerta et al., 2017; Jensen & Schlegel, 2017; Kim et al., 2016; Kirkpatrick et al., 2016; Riofrío et al., 2015; Wang, 2017). Interventions in first year engineering are widely studied, often within general engineering courses that utilize design and problem solving (Huerta et al., 2017; Jensen & Schlegel, 2017; Riofrío et al., 2015; Wang, 2017).…”

“…Interventions in first year engineering are widely studied, often within general engineering courses that utilize design and problem solving (Huerta et al., 2017; Jensen & Schlegel, 2017; Riofrío et al., 2015; Wang, 2017). In these types of projects, students often work in groups to solve a real world problem by utilizing the design process to produce a product or service (Bernal et al., 2017; Fraley et al., 2018; Ghazi Nezami et al., 2016; Huerta et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2016; Kirkpatrick et al., 2016; Wang, 2017). First year students who had participated in these types of projects were shown to have improved in skills such as communication, teamwork, understanding of design, curiosity, and creativity (Ghazi Nezami et al., 2016; Jensen & Schlegel, 2017; Riofrío et al., 2015).…”

Towards New Experiences for International Cooperation: A Multidisciplinary Ict and Business International Project

“…The PBL approach allows this way of acquiring entrepreneurship skills. Furthermore, the potential outcomes of PBL are aligned with the three C's of the entrepreneurial mindset (Creativity, Curiosity, and Connections) [5] and there are several reported uses of PBL for Entrepreneurship teaching [2], [6], [7], [8], [9].…”

“…Share previous work of group members, to establish an idea of each other's knowledge level and way of working.4 Adding cultural activities early on in the project and also at the start of the return visit, makes for a better team spirit 5. The timespan for the most recent project was about 8 weeks, with 6 weeks of virtual collaboration.…”