Board 296: Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE): Program Goals and First-Year Activities

Paul M. Yanik; Chip W Ferguson; Andrew Ritenour; Wendy Cagle; Scott Rowe

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42803
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42803
Download Count: 133

Chip Ferguson is the Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology and Professor of Engineering and Technology at Western Carolina University.

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Andrew Ritenour Western Carolina University

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Andrew Ritenour is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering + Technology at Western Carolina University (WCU). In addition to teaching in the field of electrical engineering, he coordinates the senior engineering capstone program which is a multidisciplinary, two-semester course sequence with projects sponsored by industrial partners. Within this role, he focuses on industrial outreach and the teaching and assessment of professional skills. Prior to joining WCU in 2018, he spent a decade in industry managing and developing innovative technologies across a broad spectrum of applications: SiC and GaN high voltage transistors for energy-efficient power conversion, radio frequency (RF) surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters for mobile phones, and flexible paper-like displays for e-readers. He holds 31 patents related to semiconductor devices and microfabrication and has published in IEEE and AIP journals and conferences.

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Wendy Cagle

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Scott Rowe Western Carolina University orcid.org/0000-0001-5691-079X

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Scott Rowe is an Assistant Professor in Western Carolina University’s School of Engineering + Technology. He joined Western Carolina University in 2021 after studies in concentrated solar power and controls engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Scott’s research relates to accessible and inexpensive engineering equipment for laboratory education.

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Abstract

The NSF S-STEM funded program titled Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE) seeks to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking in engineering and technology students with the goal of creating graduates who bring impactful contributions to industry through the generation of creative technology ideas and new businesses.

Over its six‐year duration, this project will fund scholarships to thirty‐six unique full‐time students with financial need who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in engineering or technology. The project aims to cultivate skills in entrepreneurial thinking among undergraduates in engineering and technology by involving a cohort of students across academic years in an intensive learning community and to bring their technology‐oriented product ideas from inception to market. Scholarship recipients will be linked with campus resources, local industry partners and experts, faculty mentors, through cohort teaming sessions to propose, critique, select, develop, and implement commercially viable technology products.

The novel approach to engineering education developed through this project will serve to enrich the creative potential of new graduates in technical fields and to expand small business creation and employment, both of importance to growth regions where there may be fewer large mainstream employers. Key dimensions of those who exhibit entrepreneurial thinking will often include a growth mindset, a regular practice of creativity, and high personal self‐efficacy. With entrepreneurism seen as an enabling force to overcome employment and income divides between urban and rural job markets, dimensions of entrepreneurship that may be taught are of high interest. The project will investigate the impacts of the learning community on the learned dimensions of the entrepreneurial mindset and will examine the effects of program interventions on entrepreneurism in scholarship recipients as compared with other students in the host department.

Over the past academic year, ten scholar participants have been recruited. Weekly cohort meetings have been held to build community and teaming aspects of the cohort. Program directors have facilitated activities designed to lay a base of expectations for regular output in creative ideation among the scholars, to build self confidence in putting their individual ideas forward in shark-tank-style group discussions, and to encourage their interactions in ways that reinforce interdependence among participants. Invited speakers have presented on topics to facilitate these outcomes including idea generation using random objects, the nature of creative thinking, intellectual property protection, and success/failure narratives. Scholars have also been engaged with training from a regional startup incubator as a means introducing the cohort to the nature of startup formation and comparing their ideas with those of aspiring technology entrepreneurs.

This paper will outline activities from the inaugural year of the program including scholar recruitment and demographics, cohort meeting activities and dynamics, invited speaker topics, scholar perceptions of the program to date, and perceptions of their own growth in entrepreneurial thinking. Findings from these activities may inform the prospective structure of similar entrepreneurship programs.

Citation
Format

Yanik, P. M., & Ferguson, C. W., & Ritenour, A., & Cagle, W., & Rowe, S. (2023, June), Board 296: Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE): Program Goals and First-Year Activities Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42803

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The NSF S-STEM funded program titled Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE) seeks to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking in engineering and technology students with the goal of creating graduates who bring impactful contributions to industry through the generation of creative technology ideas and new businesses. 

Over its six‐year duration, this project will fund scholarships to thirty‐six unique full‐time students with financial need who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in engineering or technology. The project aims to cultivate skills in entrepreneurial thinking among undergraduates in engineering and technology by involving a cohort of students across academic years in an intensive learning community and to bring their technology‐oriented product ideas from inception to market. Scholarship recipients will be linked with campus resources, local industry partners and experts, faculty mentors, through cohort teaming sessions to propose, critique, select, develop, and implement commercially viable technology products. 

The novel approach to engineering education developed through this project will serve to enrich the creative potential of new graduates in technical fields and to expand small business creation and employment, both of importance to growth regions where there may be fewer large mainstream employers. Key dimensions of those who exhibit entrepreneurial thinking will often include a growth mindset, a regular practice of creativity, and high personal self‐efficacy. With entrepreneurism seen as an enabling force to overcome employment and income divides between urban and rural job markets, dimensions of entrepreneurship that may be taught are of high interest. The project will investigate the impacts of the learning community on the learned dimensions of the entrepreneurial mindset and will examine the effects of program interventions on entrepreneurism in scholarship recipients as compared with other students in the host department. 

Over the past academic year, ten scholar participants have been recruited. Weekly cohort meetings have been held to build community and teaming aspects of the cohort. Program directors have facilitated activities designed to lay a base of expectations for regular output in creative ideation among the scholars, to build self confidence in putting their individual ideas forward in shark-tank-style group discussions, and to encourage their interactions in ways that reinforce interdependence among participants. Invited speakers have presented on topics to facilitate these outcomes including idea generation using random objects, the nature of creative thinking, intellectual property protection, and success/failure narratives. Scholars have also been engaged with training from a regional startup incubator as a means introducing the cohort to the nature of startup formation and comparing their ideas with those of aspiring technology entrepreneurs.

This paper will outline activities from the inaugural year of the program including scholar recruitment and demographics, cohort meeting activities and dynamics, invited speaker topics, scholar perceptions of the program to date, and perceptions of their own growth in entrepreneurial thinking. Findings from these activities may inform the prospective structure of similar entrepreneurship programs.

AU  - Paul M. Yanik
AU  - Chip W Ferguson
AU  - Andrew Ritenour
AU  - Wendy Cagle
AU  - Scott Rowe
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 296: Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE): Program Goals and First-Year Activities
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/42803
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--42803
ER  -