Collaborative Research: Investigating the Innovation Capabilities of Undergraduate Engineering Students

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This collaborative project between the University of Texas at Austin (a PhD granting university) and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (an MS granting institution) is investigating the impact of undergraduate engineering curricula on the innovation capabilities of undergraduate engineering students. The mechanical engineering departments at both universities are studying innovation capability of students and looking for correlations between their curricula and changes in innovation ability. The goal of the research is to determine to what extent the undergraduate engineering curriculum improves graduate innovation capability. The project is establishing instruments for measuring the innovation capability of students that consist of concept generation exercises where students solve open-ended design problems and a survey to investigate student creative self-efficacy. These instruments contain metrics for assessing the level of originality and technical feasibility of student designs and are being used to determine the effect the complete undergraduate curriculum and the effect of individual courses (design-oriented courses, for example) on student innovation capabilities. This is being accomplished by assessing student innovation capabilities at the entry and exit points of the curriculum and at the beginning and end of selected courses. The research is also correlating innovation capability with student technical performance as measured using the student's grade-point ratio. Because the work is being carried out using very distinct student populations, the work will have a national impact. Major contributions of the project include an instrument for assessing innovation capabilities and a better understanding of the relationship between engineering curricula and the development of innovative engineers.