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Session 2793

From Technologist to Entrepreneur: Why Experiential Learning Should Work to Expand Students’ Viewpoints and Communication Styles

June Ferrill Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communications Rice University

Abstract

As corporations require more engineers to become members of entrepreneurial teams, university engineering departments should seek to provide more opportunities for students to learn the discipline’s content and communication skills needed in such roles. Students can be led to expand their professional viewpoints and roles beyond that of engineers. Expanding an undergraduate engineering student’s viewpoint from technologist to entrepreneur requires him or her to internalize the entrepreneurial culture, a necessary step in gaining facility with its communications.

This paper attempts to show why experiential learning should best facilitate this necessary process. It discusses experiential learning theory and the concept of learning different genres to become members of different discourse communities. These theories underpin the described course components and other learning activities which endeavor to teach students to become members of a different disciplinary culture and discourse community--in this case, different from the university and different from their technology fields. Emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurial communications, specifically the business concept presentation and early-stage business plan, this paper follows theory with application by describing the multifaceted experiential approaches used to teach entrepreneurship to Rice University undergraduate engineering students. Much of this learning involves students actively using their own innovations to develop business plans and drawing members of the entrepreneurial community into a student-led club and the classroom. Students also participate in the business community through forums, field trips to entrepreneurial organizations’ meetings, and forming an actual business.

From Technologist to Entrepreneur: Why Experiential Learning Should Work to Expand Students’ Viewpoints and Communication Styles

Introduction

The late 1990s and early 2000s have seen an increase in technical entrepreneurship, whether by individuals applying for patents or by companies seeking to develop products through cross-

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Ferrill, J. (2002, June), From Technologist To Entrepreneur: Why Experiential Learning Should Work To Expand Students' Viewpoints And Communication Styles Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10774