Building Capacity for Research in Technology-Based Social Entrepreneurship Education for the Next Generation of Engineering Leaders

尽管工科学生强调创业精神和社会责任，但这两个主题的教育和研究在很大程度上是分开的。以技术为基础的工程师社会创业教育有足够的潜力，让工程专业的学生有机会成为具有企业家精神、对社会负责的工程领导者。然而，在工程教育领域，对这一问题的研究却很少。这个项目的目的是促进理解工程师如何启动技术社会企业识别商业机会，可以实现利用技术来解决社会问题的目标，以及成功的基于技术的社会创业所需的能力。基于这些知识，项目团队将开发一种测量工具来评估本科工程专业学生的这些能力。研究结果和最终的工具将为工程学生和打算与工程师合作的其他学科的学生提供以技术为基础的社会创业教育的基础。在参与本项目的过程中，项目负责人将在工程创业教育方面建立特定领域的知识，并在教育研究方法以及项目开发和管理方面积累深入的知识和经验。本项目的研究方面将解决以下问题：(1)创建技术社会企业的工程师如何识别利用技术解决社会问题的商业机会？(2)工程师领导他们的技术社会企业需要具备哪些能力？(3)新开发的衡量成功的技术型社会企业家能力的工具的有效性和可靠性证据是什么？研究1的研究结果将基于专家工程师的经验，采用混合方法的扎根理论方法。研究研究2的结果将是德尔菲研究，将是工程师领导技术社会企业的能力清单。研究3的结果可望为未来工程创业教育的研究提供有效且可靠的工具。PI还将根据调查结果开发新的本科和研究生课程模块。项目成果将通过研讨会和会议报告进行分享。该项目的成功与否将通过与咨询委员会的定期会议进行评估。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会EDU STEM教育研究核心研究能力建设（ECR: BCSER）项目的支持，该项目旨在培养研究者开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。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。

Despite the emphasis on both entrepreneurship and social responsibility for engineering students, education, and research on the two topics have been mostly separate efforts. Technology-based social entrepreneurship education for engineers has ample potential to give engineering students the opportunity to become socially responsible engineering leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset. However, very little research on the topic has been conducted in the field of engineering education. This project aims to advance understanding of how engineers who have launched technology social ventures identify business opportunities that can fulfill the goal of utilizing technology to solve societal problems and the required competencies for successful technology-based social entrepreneurship. Based on this knowledge, the project team will develop a measurement instrument to assess these competencies in undergraduate engineering students. The research findings and the resulting instrument will provide a basis for technology-based social entrepreneurship education for engineering students and students from other disciplines who intend to collaborate with engineers. In the process of participating in this project, the principal investigator (PI) will establish domain-specific knowledge in engineering entrepreneurship education and in-depth knowledge and experience in educational research methods as well as project development and management.The research aspects of this project will address the questions: (1) How do engineers who founded technology social ventures identify business opportunities that use technology to solve societal problems? (2) What competencies are necessary for engineers to lead their technology social ventures? And (3) What validity and reliability evidence can be found for the newly developed instrument that measures the competencies for successful technology-based social entrepreneurship? The findings from Research Study 1, which will apply a mixed-methods grounded theory approach, will be based on the experiences of expert engineers. The outcomes of Research Study 2, which will be a Delphi study, will be the list of competencies for engineers to lead technology social ventures. The outcomes of Research Study 3 are expected to be a valid and reliable instrument that can be utilized in future research on engineering entrepreneurship education. The PI will also develop new undergraduate and graduate course modules based on the findings. Project findings will be shared through workshops and presentations at conferences. The success of this project will be assessed through regular meetings with the advisory board. The project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.