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Entrepreneurial Design Projects: What Type of Projects Are Effective in Improving Student Learning & Enthusiasm?

Abstract

At Penn State’s Entrepreneurship Minor, we have been experimenting with various types of design projects for the last three years in two courses: Engineering Design Principles (QMM 492), and Entrepreneurial Leadership (ENGR 310). In this paper, we review our experience regarding the implementation of these projects in the Entrepreneurship curriculum, and provide an assessment encompassing student learning, motivation, and entrepreneurial achievement. We have implemented and studied the effectiveness of the following types of projects: 1) need based conceptual design projects, 2) design and build projects, and 3) build and sell projects. Overall, preliminary results indicate that while all the included project types were perceived to be effective, the most effective one is identified to be the build and sell type, which more comprehensively simulates entrepreneurship.

Introduction

Shorter product life cycles and the trend toward mass customization are placing increasing demands on design practitioners and entrepreneurs. In addition, competitive pressures lead to less time spent by designers in traditional mentorship and apprenticeship methods of practice. Therefore, less-experienced designers are being given more responsibility for a larger number of design tasks1. Yet mostly these designers are not well prepared to undertake these responsibilities. Accordingly, the demands from industry regarding this issue influenced the current ABET criteria. The current criteria for accreditation state that ‘‘engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have: an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs,’’ and ‘‘an ability to function in multi-disciplinary teams.’’2

Multi-disciplinarity is mostly treated as having students with different engineering backgrounds in a design team (e.g., one mechanical engineer, and two industrial engineers). In industry, however, product design teams also involve individuals with non-engineering backgrounds such as law, business, industrial design, etc. Our graduates are rarely prepared to effectively perform in such environments due to a lack of experience with true multidisciplinary teams. At the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), our response to this need is twofold: (1) the Master of Manufacturing Management degree program; and (2) the Engineering Entrepreneurship Minor. These curricular programs provide the opportunity for our graduates to complete product designs in true multi-disciplinary teams by utilizing strengths of the students coming from engineering, business and science backgrounds. This educational set-up also provides cross- training opportunities for our graduates.

To date, in both of the above mentioned programs the following types of projects have been incorporated to the curriculum in Entrepreneurial Leadership (ENGR310) or Engineering Design Principles (QMM492) courses since fall 2003:

1) Need based Conceptual Design Project (examples are provided below):

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Okudan, G., & Finelli, J., & Kisenwether, E. (2006, June), Entrepreneurial Design Projects: What Type Of Projects Are Effective In Improving Student Learning & Enthusiasm? Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--1221