Developing Entrepreneurial Mindset in Industrial Engineering Classes: A Case Study

Abstract

Instilling entrepreneurial mindset among engineering students is one of the challenges in engineering education. This paper presents the efforts to improve a core undergraduate industrial engineering course, Designing Value in Supply Chain, to infuse entrepreneurial thinking among students using an internally funded grant by Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN). For this purpose, three new course modules are designed and their effectiveness on student learning is evaluated. This course is ideal for establishing entrepreneurially minded learning (EML) as a systematic approach is required for managing the chain of supply, especially since the impacts of the decisions are not isolated and will be spread out through the entire chain. In addition, creative multidisciplinary knowledge is required to address most of the supply chain challenges. The proposed modules are expected to promote students' creative thinking, curiosity, collaboration and communication skills, and enable them to identify the opportunities where they can apply their technical skills to create value in the community based on customers' expectations. These factors are key pillars of EML as proposed by KEEN.In the first course module, students propose a new product to be released to the market (idea generation). They complete this module as the product moves toward the end user in the supply chain following the concepts they learn during the term. This module enables the students to observe the domino impact of the decisions they make in the initial stages of supply chain and enhances structured learning experience by linking different concepts. In the second module, in order to expose the students to real life applications of the course content, wireless consumption data provided by students is used to practice different demand forecasting methods. Students also need to provide some economic analysis to choose the best solution alternative regarding their forecasted values. This module makes the learning process more meaningful as the learners observe a real life application of the subject. In the third module, students practice energy management in order to minimize energy waste as one of the most important types of waste in lean production systems. In this module, they are expected to determine several sources of energy waste on campus and propose action plans, and estimate the economic impact of their solution. As a result of this project, students learn how to create value and communicate an engineering solution in terms of economic benefits. Students provide a report for each module which is graded based on designed rubrics. All these modules are performed in teams which in turn improves students' team work and collaboration skills. This paper elaborates the details of each module and learning outcomes, and presents the student evaluation results, and at the end discusses the lessons learned.

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).…”

“…Entrepreneurial mindset (EM) is a widely encouraged way of thinking and has become a popular topic of study in the past decade (Bosman & Fernhaber, 2018; Byers et al., 2013; Huang-Saad et al., 2018; Ridley et al., 2018). It has been proven that training students to think entrepreneurially and learning how to learn has led to development of crucial skills such as communication, leadership, and critical thinking (Ali et al., 2012; Blaschke, 2012; Ghazi Nezami et al., 2016; Hase & Kenyon, 2013; Huerta et al., 2017; Jensen & Schlegel, 2017). Likewise, the understanding that combining business and technical skills is crucial in an evolving society has helped with stakeholders buying into the importance of developing EM within engineering programs (Brunhaver et al., 2018; Dabbagh & Menasce, 2006).…”

“…Many college and university engineering departments have taken to tailoring projects and courses to encourage student development of EM (Cook & Cuper, 2010; Kim et al., 2016; Riofrío et al., 2015; Wang, 2017). Many of these curricular interventions have been successful, with engineering students having learned or refined important technical and business skills (Ghazi Nezami et al., 2016; Jensen & Schlegel, 2017; Riofrío et al., 2015). Research has also shown that co-curricular and extracurricular activities have encouraged student development of EM, as well as interventions outside of the university setting (Chen et al., 2017; Ramsgaard & Østergaard, 2018; Yasuhara et al., 2012).…”