TY - JOUR
T1 - Cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset through design
T2 - 124th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition
AU - Huerta, Mark Vincent
AU - London, Jeremi
AU - Trowbridge, Amy
AU - Avalos, Marvyn Arévalo
AU - Huang, Wen
AU - McKenna, Ann
N1 - Funding Information:
Efforts to promote entrepreneurship in engineering education may come in a variety of forms. These activities can be conceptualized using a continuum with commercialization at one end and mindset at the other. The most common entrepreneurship-related activities that happen in the engineering education ecosystem are experiential in nature involving steps toward commercialization or creating a startup (Duval-Couetil, Shartrand, & Reed, 2016). These activities include the development of a business plan, consulting with practicing entrepreneurs, interviewing potential customers, delivering pitches, applying to grants, and prototyping a physical product or application. What are not as common, however, are activities that focus on cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset (EM). A mindset can be defined as framework for making predications and judging the meanings of events in one’s world (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). This trend is changing, however, due to the increasing set of EM focused activities sponsored by the KERN Family Foundation. While the activities at this end of the spectrum are increasing, the number of in-depth qualitative and/or quantitative analysis on the impact of cultivating an EM is lacking. This study helps address this need.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education, 2017.
PY - 2017/6/24
Y1 - 2017/6/24
N2 - Design is often specified as the characteristic that distinguishes engineers from professionals in other fields. This skill gives engineering graduates a competitive edge for pursuing diverse career paths and for responding to a range of social and technological needs throughout their careers. A component of this competitive edge includes affording students the opportunity to develop an entrepreneurial mindset (EM). According to the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), the EM includes three dimensions: curiosity, creation of value, and connections. While entrepreneurship is frequently associated with commercialization and business, it is a critical but undervalued aspect of designing products and solutions in engineering. Over the past decade, various members of KEEN have embedded the EM in engineering curriculum offered by programs across the U.S. This is one of few studies that investigate the impact of doing so. Given the inherent characteristics of an EM and the engineering design process, this paper starts by describing the overlap between the two and reveals how they complement one another; then goes into a thematic analysis of the mindsets of twenty-seven students who had just completed a design activity accompanied by EM interventions in a first-year engineering course. The purpose of the study is to explore how their mindsets were revealed in their written reflections on: the attitudes and behaviors they perceive were necessary for successfully completing the design activity; the specified attitudes and behaviors they feel they possess; and which attitudes and behaviors they perceive are necessary for success after graduation. The results of this study reveal that students seamlessly weave together thoughts on actions performed during the design process with facets of an EM throughout their reflections. It includes evidence of how engineering design and EM can inform and influence one another while engineers engage in their work. The findings of this study help make the case for the need to co-facilitate the development of an EM as part of teaching engineering design in undergraduate engineering education.
AB - Design is often specified as the characteristic that distinguishes engineers from professionals in other fields. This skill gives engineering graduates a competitive edge for pursuing diverse career paths and for responding to a range of social and technological needs throughout their careers. A component of this competitive edge includes affording students the opportunity to develop an entrepreneurial mindset (EM). According to the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), the EM includes three dimensions: curiosity, creation of value, and connections. While entrepreneurship is frequently associated with commercialization and business, it is a critical but undervalued aspect of designing products and solutions in engineering. Over the past decade, various members of KEEN have embedded the EM in engineering curriculum offered by programs across the U.S. This is one of few studies that investigate the impact of doing so. Given the inherent characteristics of an EM and the engineering design process, this paper starts by describing the overlap between the two and reveals how they complement one another; then goes into a thematic analysis of the mindsets of twenty-seven students who had just completed a design activity accompanied by EM interventions in a first-year engineering course. The purpose of the study is to explore how their mindsets were revealed in their written reflections on: the attitudes and behaviors they perceive were necessary for successfully completing the design activity; the specified attitudes and behaviors they feel they possess; and which attitudes and behaviors they perceive are necessary for success after graduation. The results of this study reveal that students seamlessly weave together thoughts on actions performed during the design process with facets of an EM throughout their reflections. It includes evidence of how engineering design and EM can inform and influence one another while engineers engage in their work. The findings of this study help make the case for the need to co-facilitate the development of an EM as part of teaching engineering design in undergraduate engineering education.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030554763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85030554763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85030554763
SN - 2153-5965
VL - 2017-June
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 28 June 2017
ER -