IGE: Reimagining the STEM Doctorate: The Pathways to Entrepreneurship (PAtENT) program

科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）博士课程的设计主要是为了培养候选人进行原创性研究，并为他们在高等教育机构担任教职员工做好准备。在这种模式下，通过在学术期刊上发表原创研究来满足STEM博士学位的顶点要求，其中的工作必须通过同行评审得到专家的有利评价。近年来，越来越多的STEM博士通过开发可专利技术和成立创业公司来参与技术创业。STEM博士项目，就其存在而言，并没有充分为越来越多活跃于创业领域的STEM劳动力提供必要的专业技能和准备。这项授予北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校（UNCC）的国家科学基金会研究生教育创新（IGE）奖将引入一种新颖的方法，STEM博士生将开发可专利的技术作为最高要求。这些创新将在一个名为“创业之路”（专利）的新项目中实施，该项目将为获得博士学位提供另一种途径，这有可能提高毕业率，在部署博士学位的当地社区创造就业机会，并保持国家在技术创新方面的优势。该项目的中心目标是为STEM博士学生制定可扩展的替代路线图，并反映快速变化的劳动力需求。这一目标将在不牺牲传统博士项目的技术严谨性的情况下实现，通过将专利申请提交给外部同行评审。独立评估人员将收集有关该项目有效性的广泛数据，并解决具体目标，如路线图与博士学位所需的核心科学和专业要素的一致性，评估试点研究的可扩展性潜力，为全国其他博士机构的STEM项目提出建议，并衡量该项目所针对的代表性不足的少数族裔的参与率和就业结果。评估将采用混合方法设计，包括针对当前学生和教师的调查、投票和访谈，以及针对项目领导的反思性问题。该项目将强调招募女性和资深学生，这些群体目前在科技创业公司的员工队伍中代表性不足。如果成功，该项目将有助于实现STEM博士课程的现代化，以适应国家未来作为知识经济的需求。研究生教育创新（IGE）项目专注于研究生教育的研究。IGE的目标是试点、测试和验证研究生教育的创新方法，并产生将这些方法推广到更广泛的社区所需的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Doctoral programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are designed primarily to train candidates in conducting original research and to prepare them for careers as faculty members at institutions of higher education. In this model, the capstone requirement for the STEM PhD is satisfied through the publication of original research in academic journals, where the work must be evaluated favorably by experts through peer-review. In recent years, there has been an increasing participation of STEM PhDs in technology entrepreneurship, through the development of patentable technologies, and the formation of startup companies. The STEM PhD program, as it exists, does not adequately provide this growing proportion of the STEM workforce who are active in entrepreneurship with the necessary professional skills and preparation. This National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) award to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) will introduce a novel approach in which STEM PhD students will develop patentable technologies as the capstone requirement. These innovations will be implemented in a new program called Pathways to Entrepreneurship (PAtENT), which will provide an alternate pathway to earning a doctoral degree that has the potential to spur graduation rates, generate employment in the local communities in which it is deployed, and maintain the nation’s edge in technological innovation. The central goal of the project will be to develop an alternate roadmap for STEM PhD students that is scalable and reflects the rapidly evolving workforce needs. This goal will be achieved without sacrificing the technical rigor of the traditional PhD program, by subjecting the patent applications to external peer review. An independent evaluator will collect extensive data on the efficacy of the program, and address specific objectives such as the alignment of the roadmap with the core scientific and professional elements required for a PhD, assess the scalability potential of the pilot study, develop recommendations for STEM programs at other doctoral institutions across the country, and measure the participation rates and employment outcomes of under-represented minorities targeted by the program. The evaluation will consist of a mixed-methods design that will include surveys, polls and interviews developed for current students and faculty, and reflective questions for the project leadership. The project will emphasize the recruitment of female and veteran students, groups that are currently under-represented in the technology startup workforce. If successful, the project will help modernize STEM doctoral programs to suit the needs of the country’s future as a knowledge-based economy. The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.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.