1. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Learning—
Shaking up Research and Assessment
NCIIA Open Conference
March 22-24, 2012 –San Francisco
Grant Number: 1125457
Sheri Sheppard, Shannon Gilmartin, Angela Shartrand

2. Epicenter Mission
The Epicenter is dedicated to unleashing the
entrepreneurial potential of undergraduate
engineering students across the United States
to create bold innovators with the knowledge,
skills and attitudes to contribute to economic
and societal prosperity.

3. Definitions
Entrepreneurs have the knowledge, skills and
mindset required to identify and solve problems,
and to seize opportunities. [entrepreneurial thinking]
Innovation means to create new products,
services and processes which produce positive
economic and societal impact. [innovative thinking]

4. Starting Point:
Data from Faculty and Student Surveys
Faculty Data: Jamieson & Lohmann (2011). Innovation with Impact –
Draft. ASEE
Student Data: Duval-Couetil, Reed-Rhoads, & Haghighi (2012).
Engineering Students and Entrepreneurship Education:
Involvement, Attitudes and Outcomes. International Journal of
Engineering Education, 28 (2), pp. 425–435.
(Reproduced with permission)

5. Collaborative learning Experiential learning
(e.g., PBL)
Inquiry-based learning
Faculty are already incorporating innovative
teaching practices
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.

6. Collaborative learning Experiential learning
(e.g., PBL)
Inquiry-based learning
Faculty are already incorporating innovative
teaching practices
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.

7. Collaborative learning Experiential learning
(e.g., PBL)
Inquiry-based learning
Faculty are already incorporating innovative
teaching practices
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.

8. Collaborative learning Experiential learning
(e.g., PBL)
Inquiry-based learning
Faculty are already incorporating innovative
teaching practices
Question:
•How might we best leverage these pedagogies in entrepreneurship education?
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.

9. Entrepreneurship doesn’t rank high in
importance for engineering faculty
Rate the importance of engaging undergraduate students in the following learning environments,
in advancing a culture of scholarly and systematic innovation in engineering education:
Plotted percentages are the aggregate of “Important” and “Highly
important” responses
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.

10. Question:
•How might we explore the
rationale of the 46.8% and 5.5%
who think entrepreneurship is
not important?
Entrepreneurship doesn’t rank high in
importance for engineering faculty, but
there are different opportunities
Important
PracticedNot Practiced
Not Important
16.5%
5.5%
31.2%
46.8%
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.
=47.7%

11. Engineering programs interact with
industry, less so with other programs
Survey item: Collaborating with these stakeholders in educational innovation
is…
◉ Important
◉ Important and Practiced
Question:
•How might we leverage the established relationship with industry in
strengthening entrepreneurship education?
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.

12. % agreement with statement
Students’ Attitudes about Entrepreneurship Education
Sample: 501 engineering students enrolled in senior-level
capstone design courses at three large public universities
with established entrepreneurship programs.
NO ENTREP COURSES
Data source: Duval-Couetil, N., T. Reed-Rhoads, & Haghighi,
S. (2011). Engineering Students and Entrepreneurship
Education: Involvement, Attitudes and Outcomes,International
Journal of Engineering Education, in press.
Aspirations
and
perceived
impact

13. % agreement with statement
Students’ Attitudes about Entrepreneurship Education
Sample: 501 engineering students enrolled in senior-level
capstone design courses at three large public universities
with established entrepreneurship programs.
Data source: Duval-Couetil, N., T. Reed-Rhoads, & Haghighi,
S. (2011). Engineering Students and Entrepreneurship
Education: Involvement, Attitudes and Outcomes,International
Journal of Engineering Education, in press.
NO ENTREP COURSES
Offerings and
opportunities
Aspirations
and
perceived
impact

14. % agreement with statement
*
*
*
*
Students’ Attitudes about Entrepreneurship Education
Sample: 501 engineering students enrolled in senior-level
capstone design courses at three large public universities
with established entrepreneurship programs.
Data source: Duval-Couetil, N., T. Reed-Rhoads, & Haghighi,
S. (2011). Engineering Students and Entrepreneurship
Education: Involvement, Attitudes and Outcomes,International
Journal of Engineering Education, in press.
NO ENTREP COURSES ENTREP COURSES
Aspirations
and
perceived
impact
Offerings and
opportunities

15. • Faculty are already incorporating innovative teaching practices
• Few engineering faculty feel that entrepreneurship is important and
practiced in their programs … but there are opportunities
• Engineering programs do a good job of interacting with industry, and
there are untapped opportunities to interact with other colleagues on
campus
• Engineering students are interested in entrepreneurship, but do not
necessarily see it as being practiced, discussed, or encouraged in
their programs
This helps to situate today’s conversation about what you are seeing
and emphasizing in entrepreneurship programs at your campus.
Summary…

16. Ways to get involved

17. Creating …
Resources, experiences and community for students and faculty
A change in thinking
New knowledge

18. Our Research Component:
some realities
Important and practiced instructional approach or environment
Labs:
94.5%
PBL (Design):
now up to
56.9%
Entrepreneurship
Programs:
16.5%
We have a lot to learn from design education and research, and
from a diverse community of researchers…
Data source: Jamieson & Lohmann, 2011.
Innovation with Impact – Draft. ASEE
Reproduced with permission.

19. Our Research Component:
possible research questions
What contributes to faculty’s perceptions of
entrepreneurship and innovation?
What constitutes evidence of student learning
of entrepreneurship and innovation?
How do different entrepreneurial endeavors
affect students differently?
How do innovative new hires fit into
organizations?
What makes an organization friendly to
innovative engineers?

20. Panel Discussion Q&A
• What are the key skills/abilities/attitudes you think
are important for entrepreneurship and innovation?
• How does your course/pedagogy help students
develop these skills/abilities/attitudes?
• How do you know your course/pedagogy is effective?
(~5 min each + 15/20 min Q&A)

21. Project:
CAREER: A Study of How Engineering Students Approach Innovation
Panelists
Dr. Şenay Purzer
Purdue University

22. Cognition Behavior Motivation
Associating
ObservingNetworking
Questioning
Experimenting
Enjoyment
Valuing
Şenay Purzer, Kavin Nataraja, Tuba Mirza, James He, Billy Myers, Nick Fila
Acknowledgement: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (NSF CAREER 1150874).

23. Teaching Innovation Skills & Processes to Engineering Students
Şenay Purzer (spurzer@purdue.edu)
NCIIA March 23, 1012
Engineering Students' Definition of Innovation
Understanding how students define innovation is a critical component necessary as we develop curricula that support student innovation skills. The purpose of this study was to identify engineering students’ understanding of innovation in two ways: 1) by directly asking them to provide their definition of innovation, and 2) by asking them to evaluate the innovative qualities of six products. The participants were 50 first-year engineering students who completed a first-year engineering design course. Students’ completed a series of open-ended questions provided in a word document. These responses were first reviewed to identify emer
• How Does Teaching Support These skills?
• Current:
• Open-ended design project: Students identify a
need & develop solutions
• Future:
• Reflective journals showing evidence for the use
of 7 innovative thinker’s attributes (associating,
questioning, etc.)

24. Assessing Engineering Students’ Approaches to Innovation
Şenay Purzer (spurzer@purdue.edu)
NCIIA March 23, 1012
Engineering Students' Definition of Innovation
Understanding how students define innovation is a critical component necessary as we develop curricula that support student innovation skills. The purpose of this study was to identify engineering students’ understanding of innovation in two ways: 1) by directly asking them to provide their definition of innovation, and 2) by asking them to evaluate the innovative qualities of six products. The participants were 50 first-year engineering students who completed a first-year engineering design course. Students’ completed a series of open-ended questions provided in a word document. These responses were first reviewed to identify emer
• How Do You Know It Is Working?
• Current (research & assessment):
• Observations: Teams moving from focusing on “own needs”
to others’ needs
• Innovation Metric: Evaluation of ideas generated
• Future (research & assessment):
• Correlation: Evidence for the use of innovative thinker’s 7
attributes vs. solution innovation quality
• Comparison: Gender, cultural, grade level differences

25. Dr. Mark Schar
Stanford University
Project: Global Innovation
Panelists

26. “Innovation refers to the overall process
whereby an invention is transformed into a
commercial product that can be sold
profitably.”
(Crawford and Di Benedetto, 2008)
Experience
Prototype
Dark Horse
Prototype
Functional System
Prototype
Funky
Prototype
Reference Model
Prototype
ME310 Global Innovation Engineering
•Established 1967; partnership with Corporations (+200)
•28-32 master’s level students/year (mostly ME’s)
•28-40 master’s level students from Global universities
•8-9 teams/year; reciprocal travel
•Three quarters, about 1/3 of master’s requirements
•Two Professors, 3 Course Assistants, Administrator
•Students go to work for product management companies

27. Engineering
Manager
New Product Development (NPD) Team
Finance
Manager
Marketing
Manager
Sales
Manager
Human Resources
Manager
ME310X – Product Management Mindsets
Session Topics:
1.What is Product Management?
2.Getting a Product Management Job
3.Leadership and New Product Development
4.The Finance Mindset
5.The Sales Mindset
6.The HR Mindset
7.The Marketing Mindset
8.NPD Strategy
9.Personal Selling: Winning Ethically
•3 hour sessions, 3 per quarter
•MBA Materials: Harvard, Stanford
•Case Study and Discussion
•Simulation
•“Real World” Guests
• 100% Placement (61 students), multiple offers
• “ME310X Certificate of Product Management”
• www.bit.ly/ME310X

28. Dr. Nathalie Duval-Couetil
Purdue University
Project: Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program
Panelists

29. Dr. Lawrence Neeley
Olin College
Project: Innovation through Design+Entrepreneurship
Panelists

30. Panel Discussion
• What are the key skills/abilities/attitudes you think
are important for entrepreneurship and innovation?
• How does your course/pedagogy help students
develop these skills/abilities/attitudes?
• How do you know your course/pedagogy is effective?
(~5 min each + 15/20 min Q&A)

31. 1. Map how important and practiced entrepreneurship is in:
Important
PracticedNot Practiced
Not Important
X Your classroom
 Your Institution
# Your Program
(place in the appropriate quadrant)
2. What are the Entrepreneurship/Innovation skills students should acquire?
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Name (optional): _____________________________________________

32. Table Discussions
1. What key skills/abilities/attitudes are necessary
for innovation and entrepreneurship?
2. What course/pedagogies have you or your
program been experimenting with? [or, what roles
might your organization play in helping students learn these
things?]
3. What would you really like to know about
entrepreneurship and/or innovation education?

33. Bio Sketch
Şenay Purzer is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering Education
and is the Director of Assessment Research for the Institute for P-12 Engineering
Research and Learning (INSPIRE) at Purdue University. In 2012, Dr. Purzer
received a NSF CAREER award, which examines how engineering students
approach innovation. She is currently leading projects funded by NSF, NASA, and
corporate foundations. She has journal publications on instrument
development/validation, teaming & design education, and teacher professional
development. She is also an editorial board member for the Journal of Pre-College
Engineering Education (JPEER). Purzer has received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees
in Science Education at Arizona State University. She has a B.S. degree in Physics
Education and a B.S.E. in Engineering.

34. Mark Schar
Mark works in the Center for Design Research at Stanford; he
is a member of the Symbiotic Project of Affective
Neuroscience Lab or "spanlab" at Stanford; and he is a lecturer
in the School of Engineering.
Mark's area of research is the intersection of design thinking
and the neuroscience of choice where he has several research
projects underway. Mark comes to us from a 30 year career in
industry as a Vice President with The Procter & Gamble
Company and Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing
Officer with Intuit here in Silicon Valley.
Mark has a BSS from Northwestern University, an MBA from
the Kellogg School of Management and his PhD is from
Stanford University.

35. Nathalie Duval-Couetil
Purdue University
Nathalie Duval-Couetil is the Director of the Certificate in
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, Associate Director
of the Burton D. Morgan Center, and an Associate Professor
in the Department of Technology Leadership and Innovation
at Purdue University. She is responsible for the launch and
development of the university’s multidisciplinary
undergraduate entrepreneurship program, which has
involved over 3500 students from all majors since 2005. As
part of the program, she has established entrepreneurship
capstone, global entrepreneurship, and women and
leadership courses and initiatives. Prior to her work in
academia, Nathalie spent several years in the field of market
research and business strategy consulting in Europe and the
United States with Booz Allen and Hamilton and Data and
Strategies Group. She received a BA from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst, an MBA from Babson College, and
MS and PhD degrees from Purdue University.

36. Lawrence Neeley is an Assistant Professor of Design and
Entrepreneurship at Olin College in Needham, MA. He brings to
Olin his passion for design, prototyping, manufacturing and
entrepreneurship. Both his research and educational efforts
center upon helping designers rapidly imagine, realize and
offer compelling real world products.
Before coming to Olin full time, Lawrence spent three years as
a postdoctoral associate in mechanical engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lawrence holds a Ph.D.
and an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the Center for
Design Research at Stanford University. He also holds a B.S. in
Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County.
Lawrence Neeley
Olin College of Engineering