Entrepreneurial Thinking in a First-Year Engineering Design Studio
- Conference
- Location
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Columbus, Ohio
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2017
- Start Date
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June 24, 2017
- End Date
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June 28, 2017
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation
- Page Count
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15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--28287
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/28287
- Download Count
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444
Paper Authors
Ashley Bernal Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Ashley Bernal is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She received her PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2011. She was an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) teaching fellow and Student Teaching Enhancement Partnership (STEP) Fellow. Prior to receiving her PhD, she worked as a subsystems engineer at Boeing on the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (JUCAS) program. Her research areas of interest include piezoelectrics, nanomanufacturing, optical measuring techniques, and intercultural design.
Patricia Brackin P.E. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Patricia Brackin is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where she teaches design throughout the curriculum. She is particularly interested in sustainable design. Her B.S. and M.S. are from the University of Tennessee in Nuclear Engineering and her Ph.D. is from Georgia Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering. Her industrial experience includes Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Chicago Bridge and Iron, and a sabbatical at Eli Lilly. She is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Tennessee.
Richard A. House Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Richard A. House is Professor of English at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He received a B.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. His interests include liberal education for engineers, engineering communication and pedagogy, sustainability, and Shakespeare. He is co-author (with Richard Layton, Jessica Livingston, and Sean Moseley) of The Engineering Communication Manual, published by Oxford University Press.
Jay Patrick McCormack Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Jay McCormack is an associate professor in the mechanical engineering department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Dr. McCormack received his PhD in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003. His areas of research interest include engineering education, computational design, and manufacturing.
Anneliese Watt Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Anneliese Watt is a professor of English at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She teaches and researches technical and professional communication, rhetoric and composition, medicine in literature, presidential election rhetoric and other humanistic studies for engineering and science students. Her current work focuses on engineering design.
Bill Riley Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
Bill Riley is Assistant Professor of English at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College near Terre Haute, Indiana, where he directs the Professional Writing major.
Abstract
During the summer of 2016, the authors of this proposal developed, taught, and assessed an experimental course in an integrated design studio format. As the course was supported with funding from the KEEN initiative of the Kern Family Foundation, one of our goals was to encourage entrepreneurial thinking in our students. Students met seven hours a day and completed authentic design tasks. The course integrated objectives and content from three first year courses--introduction to design, rhetoric and composition, and graphical communication--normally taught separately. The studio was based on a sequence of three major projects: reverse engineering a child’s toy, developing an ethnography after visiting an engineering consulting firm, and developing adaptive toys for children with disabilities. Students’ client for the last assignment was Reach Services, a local non-profit organization that maintains a library of toys adapted for users with disabilities. Reach Services provides “comprehensive services to individuals and families of all ages facing a wide spectrum of challenges” across the categories of disability (cognitive, emotional, physical, and language-related).
One approach that we used for assessment of entrepreneurial thinking in our students was to explicitly introduce them to “the three Cs” of promoting curiosity, making connections, and creating value, as described on the KEEN website. We then, at the conclusion of each of the three major assignments, asked students to reflect on how that assignment addressed each of the Cs; this was completely open-ended reflection with no direction provided by the instructors. In addition, a weekly survey was developed to gain feedback on student and faculty perceptions. The survey identified tasks within the categories of opportunity, design, and impact. For example, a task within opportunity is “investigate the market.” For each task, students and faculty were asked to rank the degree to which each was achieved (high, medium, low, and none) during the week. Results were gathered and tabulated. In this paper, we will share the results of both forms of assessment, including summarizing the student responses, comparing and contrasting responses among the instructors, and between the instructors and the students. We will offer conclusions about the extent to which the design studio format encouraged entrepreneurial thinking among entering students.
Bernal, A., & Brackin, P., & House, R. A., & McCormack, J. P., & Watt, A., & Riley, B. (2017, June), Entrepreneurial Thinking in a First-Year Engineering Design Studio Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28287
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