Implementing an Entrepreneurial Mindset Design Project in an Introductory Engineering Course

Abstract

joined Florida Tech's College of Engineering as Director for Innovation in 2015. Recognizing the value of collaboration, communication, teamwork, talent, and opportunity recognition during her professional technical experience catalyzed a return from industry to academia. Delivering unique solutions to government missions as a federal contractor and mentoring FIRST Robotics inspired an interest in building our next generation of engineering talent through innovative curricular and co-curricular experiences. Jennifer has always explored broad, multi-disciplinary engineering solutions earning her

Makerspaces in First-Year Engineering Education

“…First-year project-based engineering courses requiring activities within makerspaces incorporate fundamental multidisciplinary engineering skills and offer excellent opportunities for Entrepreneurial-Minded Learning (EML) [41]. The maker revolution provides new opportunities for entrepreneurs, inventors, and customers to reduce product-development time [8].…”

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].…”

Work in Progress: Development and Implementation of a Self-guided Arduino Module in an Introductory Engineering Design Course

“…The course, which begins with a design challenge description and culminates with students demonstrating a working physical prototype by the end of the semester, serves as a first exposure to the engineering design cycle for many students. This project-based approach is used by numerous other first year engineering programs and is certainly not unique to this particular course, but it comes with both advantages and disadvantages [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. On the positive side, students typically enjoy the hands on aspect of the course and are able to experience firsthand what it takes to design and build a product.…”

“…Use of microcontroller technology in freshman level courses is not new, and these concepts have been taught through in-person laboratory instruction with positive results at numerous universities [2], [3], [6]. Additionally, multiple universities have employed a "flipped classroom" approach to teaching microcontroller basics with online instruction prior to in-class lab activities [1], [7], [8].…”