Educating Engineering Undergraduates to be Industry Innovators and Managers

在国家科学基金会科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划的资助下，该项目将支持德克萨斯理工大学24名表现出经济需求的高成就学生的成功。在五年的时间里，该项目将为两组12名攻读电气和计算机工程学士学位的学生提供为期三年的奖学金。为了满足以工程为重点的公司对多样化，创新劳动力的需求，该项目旨在培养具有“内部创业”能力的毕业生。 内部创业和企业家精神需要类似的能力，并能够开发新的企业，产品或服务。 然而，内部创业侧重于在现有组织内发展创新。内部创业技能已被证明可以支持职业发展，以及改善管理技能和机会。 该项目旨在帮助学生发展内部创业技能，为他们提供资源，包括奖学金，教师和行业导师，劳动力发展研讨会，工业实习和创业培训。 该项目包括行业合作伙伴关系，将提供额外的奖学金支持，导师和实习机会。该项目将利用NSF目前对德克萨斯理工大学I-Corps Site和Node项目的投资，这些项目提供培训和资源，帮助创新者将他们的想法商业化。该项目的研究问题集中在确定工程专业学生的创业教育的功效。研究小组将从内部创业能力测量量表的前测和后测、导师访谈和学生自我评估调查中获取和分析数据。 这些结果将与学生成绩的衡量标准，如GPA，保留和毕业时间相关。通过这项研究产生的知识将提供洞察内部创业教育和工程专业学生的成绩之间的关系。与行业和教师导师的互动应该提高学生的保留率，并导致实习和全职就业机会。 通过这种方法培养的学者有望通过他们强大的工作技能和内部创业/创业能力造福社会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project will support the success of 24 high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need at Texas Tech University. Throughout its five years, this project will fund three-year scholarships to two groups of twelve students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in electrical and computer engineering. In response to the needs of engineering-focused companies for a diverse, innovative workforce, this project aims to produce graduates with "intrapreneurship" competencies. Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship require similar competencies and enable development of a new venture, product, or service. However, intrapreneurship focuses on developing innovations within an existing organization. Intrapreneurial skills have been shown to support career progression, as well as improve managerial skills and opportunities. This project aims to help students develop intrapreneurship skills by providing them with resources including scholarships, faculty and industry mentors, workforce development seminars, industrial internships, and entrepreneurship training. The project includes industry partnerships that will provide additional scholarship support, mentorship, and internship opportunities. The project will leverage NSF's current investment in Texas Tech University's I-Corps Site and Node programs, which provide training and resources that help innovators commercialize their ideas. The project's research questions focus on determining the efficacy of intrapreneurial education for engineering students. The research team will obtain and analyze data from Intrapreneurial Competencies Measurement Scale pre-test and post-tests, mentor interviews, and student self-assessment surveys. These results will be correlated with measures of student achievement such as GPA, retention, and time to graduation. The knowledge generated through this research will provide insight into the relationship between intrapreneurial education and engineering student achievement. Interactions with industry and faculty mentors should improve student retention and lead to internship and full-time employment opportunities. Scholars educated through this approach are expected to benefit society through their strong job skills and intrapreneurship/entrepreneurship competencies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.