Teaching Entrepreneurial Mindset in a First-Year Introduction to Engineering Course

Abstract

With a mission to graduate engineers who can create personal, economic, and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work, KEEN (Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network) started a movement of fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in young engineers. This paper will discuss the experience and evaluation of incorporating entrepreneurial mindset learning in a freshman Introduction to Engineering course.Introduction to Engineering is a one-semester 2-credit hour freshman lecture and lab course focusing on teaching engineering design process, with students completing a half-semester long multi-disciplinary design project. In addition, technical concepts such as engineering drawing, MATLAB and basic disciplinary knowledge are taught along with the introduction of "soft skills" such as communication, teamwork and project management. This paper will discuss how KEEN's 3Cs framework, i.e., curiosity, connections and creating values, was incorporated into the existing course content centered on an open-ended design project. The impact of this addition will be evaluated through student surveys on their awareness of entrepreneurial mindset concepts.

Design and Development of Compressed Air Controller Tire Inflation System (CACTIS) Using a System Engineering Approach and Elements of the KEEN Framework

“…Students list pain points that bother themselves or others, and select their design project. They used a decision matrix with criteria "Societal Importance, General Interest, Market Need, Engineering Related Problem, # of Current Solutions, and Solution Benefit" to help students identify opportunity [18].…”

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].…”

Entrepreneurial Mindset (EML) Modules for Chemical Engineering Courses

“…These grand challenges present the opportunity for chemical engineers to show their curiosity and creativity in determining new processes and design solutions. The need for these innovative, entrepreneurial engineers is obvious, and the universities are recognizing the need to incorporate these skills into their curriculum [2] [3] [4,5].…”