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Leadership in Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship and Engineering Innovation Division Technical Session 3

Tagged Division

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37422

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37422

Download Count

408

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Paper Authors

biography

Peter Golding P.E. University of Texas at El Paso

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Professor in the Department of Engineering Education and Leadership. Director of the Center for Research in Engineering and Technology Education at the University of Texas at El Paso

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biography

Scott A. Starks P.E. University of Texas at El Paso

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Dr. Starks is a Professor of Engineering Leadership at the University of Texas at El Paso. He received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Rice University in 1978 and is a registered Professional Engineer.

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biography

Roger V. Gonzalez P.E. University of Texas at El Paso

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Roger V. Gonzalez, Ph.D., P.E., is the Director of the Leadership Engineering program for the College of Engineering and Professor and Chair of Engineering Education and Leadership. Dr. Gonzalez earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1986 from UTEP. He earned his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow and the premier Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern Medical School. Professor Gonzalez has been recognized for scholarly work, education innovation and socio-entrepreneurial humanitarian efforts. He is known and respected for actively incorporating students into all three of these areas.

Among many highlights of his scholarly work, he was awarded a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award for his work in neuromuscular control and musculoskeletal biomechanics on children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Gonzalez’s scholarly work includes over 100 publications in journals and conference proceedings many of which are co-authored with his students.

For his efforts and innovation in engineering education Dr. Gonzalez has received the American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE) Teaching Award, the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Award, and LeTourneau University’s top research and scholarship award. He was also a Finalist for the IEEE Global Humanitarian Engineer of the Year award in 2013. He serves as an engineering program evaluator for the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the sole entity for accrediting engineering programs in the United States.

Dr. Gonzalez is Founder and President of LIMBS International (www.limbs.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit humanitarian organization that designs, creates and deploys prosthetic devices to transform the lives of amputees in the developing world by restoring their ability to walk. Since its founding in 2004, the LIMBS Knee has helped over one thousand amputees in almost 50 countries on four continents.

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Meagan R. Kendall University of Texas at El Paso

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An Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at El Paso, Dr. Meagan R. Kendall is helping develop a new Engineering Leadership Program to enable students to bridge the gap between traditional engineering education and what they will really experience in industry. With a background in both engineering education and design thinking, her research focuses on how Hispanic students develop an identity as an engineer, methods for enhancing student motivation, and methods for involving students in curriculum development and teaching through Peer Designed Instruction.

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David G. Novick University of Texas at El Paso

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David G. Novick, Mike Loya Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Professor of Engineering Education and Leadership, earned his J.D.at Harvard University in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science at the University of Oregon in 1988. Before coming to UTEP he was on the faculty of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Oregon Graduate Institute and then Director of Research at the European Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Engineering. At UTEP he has served in a number of positions including as Chair of the Department of Computer Science, Associate Provost, Associate Dean of Engineering for Graduate Studies and Research, and co-director of the Mike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce. His research focuses on college-level engineering education for entrepreneurship and leadership. He has authored or co-authored over 135 refereed publications and over $16 million in funded grant proposals.

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Cole Hatfield Joslyn University of Texas at El Paso Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-8218-2992

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Cole Joslyn is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Education and Leadership at The University of Texas at El Paso. His research emphasizes humanizing engineering education, particularly 1) increasing Latinx students’ sense of belonging in engineering by a) integrating holistic, socio-culturally responsive practices and Latinx cultural assets and values into educational success strategies, and b) understanding how Latinx students experience values conflicts and exploring how to help them reconcile those conflicts; 3) promoting student growth/development in multiple dimensions; and 4) reconciling the social and technical nature of engineering.

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Abstract

The ongoing development and continuous quality improvement of an undergraduate program in engineering entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership at a university is shared. We present the development timeline from program inception and the operational processes and practices undertaken during the first five years of the program, culminating in our proceeding through ABET accreditation (in the past year). The concept of “leadership engineering” was first coined in 2011, and the development of the plans for a new generation degree program offering proceeded through to 2013 when the proposal for the establishment was passed through the university procedures and proceeded to achieve approval from the public university system. The original proposal was adapted to be titled “Engineering Leadership” – now coined the E-LEAD degree program – and is the first of a kind in the US; the degree offering was ratified and approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in October 2014. The first students began undertaking technical engineering courses at the university, taught within conventional engineering disciplinary departments, during 2013. Through achieving this head start, along with completing inaugural groundbreaking special topics classes in leadership engineering subjects in 2014, we celebrated our first cohort of students graduating in May 2017. We have since achieved two further graduating cohorts; in May 2018, and May 2019, and in this contribution, we share their characteristics and achievements. During the course of these pioneering students’ programs, a number of innovations in teaching methods and curriculum proceeded. These improvements were aided by a partnership with Olin College. Methods and approaches to core engineering courses taught in the Olin engineering degree program were adapted to teach engineering leadership at the university. The resulting program has a unique character, emphasizing small cohorts deeply engaged in learning in a hands-on project-based studio environment. As of October 2019, the program has thus been operational for 5 years. Three versions of the degree plan have in essence proceeded, and these will be elaborated in the paper: The first period, proceeding from commencement through to the 2016 catalog, involved the testing and inauguration period described above, including practicing Olin adoptions and adaptations of several courses. During this phase of the program two tracks were offered: business, called sequences, provided to guide students along with several of the many optional pathways in their degree aspirations. The second period followed, with the introduction of sequences in our 2017 catalog, to provide students scaffolding and guidance in technical engineering coursework pathways; in topical areas such as biomedical engineering, computer sciences, mechanics, and materials science and engineering. The third and latest development period began in earnest in fall 2019; it includes further improvement and specification of options and clarifying pre-requisite and degree program coursework pathways. Progress further includes ABET accreditation, aligned to time with the university’s existing, regular ABET program process. Further initiatives include changes and improvements in the curriculum offerings, including business engineering, ethics, finance, innovation and technology, and entrepreneurship practices. All the while the program has gained in status and function, with all student two-semester senior capstone experiences being industry-partner funded, for example, and strong recruitment of students occurring into US and international industries, graduate schools, and government. We will share students’ stories of pathways to employment, before, as a finale to this paper, conjecturing some future directions and options for ongoing program development.

Golding, P., & Starks, S. A., & Gonzalez, R. V., & Kendall, M. R., & Novick, D. G., & Joslyn, C. H. (2021, July), Leadership in Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37422

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