A Comparison of Maker and Entrepreneurial Characteristics

Abstract

He teaches context-centered electrical engineering and embedded systems design courses, and studies the use of context in both K-12 and undergraduate engineering design education. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Education (2010) and M.S./B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Jordan is PI on several NSF-funded projects related to design, including an NSF Early CAREER Award entitled "CAREER: Engineering Design Across Navajo Culture, Community, and Society" and "Might Young Makers be the Engineers of the Future?," and is a Co-PI on the NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments grant "Additive Innovation: An Educational Ecosystem of Making and Risk Taking." He was named one of ASEE PRISM's "20 Faculty Under 40" in 2014, and received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama in 2017. Dr. Jordan co-developed the STEAM Labs TM program to engage middle and high school students in learning science, technology, engineering, arts, and math concepts through designing and building chain reaction machines. He founded and led teams to two collegiate Rube Goldberg Machine Contest national championships, and has appeared on many TV shows (including Modern Marvels on The History Channel and Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC) and a movie with his chain reaction machines. He serves on the Board of the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, AZ, and worked as a behind-the scenes engineer for season 3 of the PBS engineering design reality TV show Design Squad. He also held the Guinness World Record for the largest number of steps-125-in a working Rube Goldberg machine.

IllumiNUT Shake-Light Manufacturing: An Engineering/Business Interdisciplinary Supply Chain Project

“…The spirit of this project is aligned with previous and ongoing efforts to expose students to both "authentic" engineering and entrepreneurial experiences and environments 1,2 and understand and assess student entrepreneurial mindset and learning 3,4 .…”

Using Entrepreneurial Mindset Constructs to Compare Engineering Students and Entrepreneurs

“…These studies range in their focus, but many are concerned with understanding the relationship between EML (or entrepreneurship in general) and other, more familiar, areas of the engineering education literature. These include explorations of the relationship to "makers" behavior [9], how various experiences can promote EML (e.g. first year [10] and extra-curricular [11]), and applications in specific courses, both traditional engineering [12] and those with a more specific EML focus [13].…”

How Well Can Makerspaces Build an Entrepreneurial Mindset?

“…The intersection between entrepreneurs and makers most often lies in customer development after an idea is formed [19]. Thus, it is not surprising that there were fewer instances in both the interviews and surveys of the engineering students developing eKSOs or takeaways affiliated with value-creation due to the makerspace.…”