Growing the Entrepreneurial Mindset in First Year Engineering Students Using Sociotechnical Design Challenges

Abstract

Engineering graduates must acquire both technical knowledge and a diverse range of professionalskills to effectively address the current global challenges. Equally important is aprofound understanding of how technological solutions are influenced by the human andnatural environments in which they are implemented. An open-ended, team-based designchallenge integrates entrepreneurial-minded (EM) skill development into an interdisciplinaryfirst-year engineering course that approaches engineering from a sociotechnical perspective.A mixed-methods study using a post-course reflective questionnaire explored students’self-perceived development of EM skills. Quantitative results from a series of 5-point Likerttypequestions indicate that students felt they developed EM skills in all three areas of the 3-Cframework, with average mean scores above 4.0 in all three categories. Scores were significantlyhigher in the Connections and Create Value subscales (mean 4.31 ± 0.62 and 4.23 ± 0.76,respectively) compared to the Curiosity subscale (mean 4.04 ± 0.84). Student comments onopen response questions support the overall value of the project and the broader sociotechnicallearning outcomes that were achieved. Overall, this study suggests the effectiveness ofincorporating open-ended, sociotechnical engineering design challenges to develop skills thatwill better prepare students for collaborative work on complex, interdisciplinary problemsthey may encounter in their professional careers.