Educating Engineering Undergraduates to be Industry Innovators and Managers

在美国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优秀学生的成功。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元化、创新型劳动力的需求，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相似的能力，能够开发新的企业、产品或服务。然而，内部企业家精神侧重于在现有组织内开发创新。内部创业技能已被证明可以支持职业发展，并改善管理技能和机会。该项目旨在通过为学生提供奖学金、教师和行业导师、劳动力发展研讨会、工业实习和创业培训等资源，帮助学生培养内部创业技能。该项目包括行业合作伙伴关系，将提供额外的奖学金支持、指导和实习机会。该项目将利用美国国家科学基金会目前对德克萨斯理工大学I-Corps Site和Node项目的投资，该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创业教育的有效性。研究团队将获取和分析来自内部创业能力测量量表前测和后测、导师访谈和学生自我评估调查的数据。这些结果将与学生成绩的衡量标准相关联，如GPA、留校率和毕业时间。通过本研究产生的知识将有助于深入了解创业教育与工程专业学生成绩之间的关系。与行业和教师导师的互动应该提高学生的保留率，并带来实习和全职就业机会。通过这种方式培养的学者有望通过他们强大的工作技能和内部创业/创业能力来造福社会。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。

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.