Catalyzing the Adoption of Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering by Aligning Outcomes with ABET

Nathalie Duval-Couetil; Elizabeth C. Kisenwether; Joe Tranquillo; Jacob Dean Wheadon

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation Education Session 3
Tagged Division: Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation
Page Count: 18
Page Numbers: 24.265.1 - 24.265.18
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20156
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/20156
Download Count: 497

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Paper Authors

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Nathalie Duval-Couetil Purdue University, West Lafayette orcid.org/0000-0002-0260-0208

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Nathalie Duval-Couetil is the Director of the Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, Associate Director of the Burton D. Morgan Center, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Technology Leadership and Innovation at Purdue University. She is responsible for the launch and development of the university’s multidisciplinary undergraduate entrepreneurship program, which has involved over 5000 students from all majors since 2005. She has established entrepreneurship capstone, global entrepreneurship, and women and leadership courses and initiatives at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prior to her work in academia, Nathalie spent several years in the field of market research and business strategy consulting in Europe and the United States with Booz Allen and Hamilton and Data and Strategies Group. She received a BA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, an MBA from Babson College, and MS and PhD degrees from Purdue University. She currently serves on the board of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship in the role of Vice President for Research. She is also a Senior Research Advisor to the Stanford University Epicenter.

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Elizabeth C. Kisenwether Pennsylvania State University, University Park

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Liz holds a B.S.E.E. from Penn State (1979), and M.S.E.E. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1981) and The Johns Hopkins University (1988). She worked in the defense industry for 11 years with HRB Systems/Raytheon, and then co-founded a high-tech startup (Paragon Technology). Since joining Penn State in 1999, Liz has taught design courses in a variety of engineering departments. From 2002-2010, Liz was Director of the Engineering Entrepreneurship (E-SHIP) Minor, serving undergraduates from all majors. She was awarded the 2005 Price Foundation Innovative Entrepreneurship Educators Award – Stanford University. In 2006, she was awarded the ASEE Kauffman Outstanding Entrepreneurship Educator Award. Liz is currently co-Director of the Lion Launch Pad, a student-centric on-campus business accelerator program and is also involved in research funded by NSF and NCIIA (National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance). Between 2008-2012, Liz supported ASME’s annual Innovation Showcase (I-SHOW), was a faculty adviser for the Kern Family Foundation’s KEEN (Kern Engineering Entrepreneurship Network) program, and served as Division Chair and Program Chair of the ASEE Entrepreneurship Division. In 2013, Penn State’s new Intercollege Minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ENTI) was approved, with five focus areas for undergraduate students to select from: Food and Bio-Innovation, New Media, New Ventures, Social Entrepreneurship and Technology Based Entrepreneurship.

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Joe Tranquillo Bucknell University

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Joe Tranquillo teaches at Bucknell University, offering courses in signals and systems, neural and cardiac electrophysiology, instrumentation and medical device design. He has published widely on electrical dynamics in the heart and brain, biomedical computing, engineering design and engineering education.

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Jacob Dean Wheadon Purdue University

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Abstract

Catalyzing the Adoption of Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering by Aligning Outcomes with ABET Accreditation StandardsEconomic trends and a changing job market for college graduates, has generated significantinterest among universities and employers in graduating more engineers who haveentrepreneurship skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. As a result, many engineering studentshave increasing access to entrepreneurship education, however, research shows this is not yetwidespread or institutionalized. ABET accreditation is a significant force in shaping theundergraduate engineering curriculum. We propose that wider adoption within engineeringacademic programs could be driven by demonstrating the manner in which entrepreneurshipeducation outcomes align with ABET Criterion 3 a-k. This approach would help address anumber of barriers, including: 1) the limited space available in academic programs to integratewhat might be perceived by faculty as “non-engineering” curriculum; 2) the reality that manyengineering faculty may not have had exposure to, experience with, or interest inentrepreneurship education; and 3) the reluctance on the part of engineering programs to modifycurriculum that, without entrepreneurship education, meets ABET accreditation outcomes. Inmany areas, ABET’s expected outcomes require that engineering programs equip students withmany of the same skills that are traditionally acquired through entrepreneurship education - suchas the ability to lead others, use teamwork and communicate well, perceive opportunities, reactand adapt with flexibility in the face of uncertainty, deal well with risk and failure, as well as theability to address real-world problems. The purpose of this paper will be to provide a rationalefor aligning entrepreneurship education with ABET accreditation standards. It will do so byreviewing the manner in which educators have successfully aligned entrepreneurship principlesand experiential learning activities with ABET Criterion 3 a-k. It will also review the literaturerelated to building and assessing the body of knowledge for entrepreneurship-related educationthat is pertinent to engineers. The researchers have already conducted pilot research that emergedfrom the Stanford Epicenter initiative which resulted in a preliminary list of 52 entrepreneurshipoutcomes in 4 major categories or content areas. Feedback on this work suggests that there issignificant interest and support among engineering faculty and administrators in pursuing suchan approach.

Citation
Format

Duval-Couetil, N., & Kisenwether, E. C., & Tranquillo, J., & Wheadon, J. D. (2014, June), Catalyzing the Adoption of Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering by Aligning Outcomes with ABET Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20156

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -             Catalyzing the Adoption of Entrepreneurship Education in                 Engineering by Aligning Outcomes with ABET                            Accreditation StandardsEconomic trends and a changing job market for college graduates, has generated significantinterest among universities and employers in graduating more engineers who haveentrepreneurship skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. As a result, many engineering studentshave increasing access to entrepreneurship education, however, research shows this is not yetwidespread or institutionalized. ABET accreditation is a significant force in shaping theundergraduate engineering curriculum. We propose that wider adoption within engineeringacademic programs could be driven by demonstrating the manner in which entrepreneurshipeducation outcomes align with ABET Criterion 3 a-k. This approach would help address anumber of barriers, including: 1) the limited space available in academic programs to integratewhat might be perceived by faculty as “non-engineering” curriculum; 2) the reality that manyengineering faculty may not have had exposure to, experience with, or interest inentrepreneurship education; and 3) the reluctance on the part of engineering programs to modifycurriculum that, without entrepreneurship education, meets ABET accreditation outcomes. Inmany areas, ABET’s expected outcomes require that engineering programs equip students withmany of the same skills that are traditionally acquired through entrepreneurship education - suchas the ability to lead others, use teamwork and communicate well, perceive opportunities, reactand adapt with flexibility in the face of uncertainty, deal well with risk and failure, as well as theability to address real-world problems. The purpose of this paper will be to provide a rationalefor aligning entrepreneurship education with ABET accreditation standards. It will do so byreviewing the manner in which educators have successfully aligned entrepreneurship principlesand experiential learning activities with ABET Criterion 3 a-k. It will also review the literaturerelated to building and assessing the body of knowledge for entrepreneurship-related educationthat is pertinent to engineers. The researchers have already conducted pilot research that emergedfrom the Stanford Epicenter initiative which resulted in a preliminary list of 52 entrepreneurshipoutcomes in 4 major categories or content areas. Feedback on this work suggests that there issignificant interest and support among engineering faculty and administrators in pursuing suchan approach.
AU  - Nathalie Duval-Couetil
AU  - Elizabeth C. Kisenwether
AU  - Joe Tranquillo
AU  - Jacob Dean Wheadon
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Catalyzing the Adoption of Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering by Aligning Outcomes with ABET
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/20156
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20156
ER  -