Workshop: Building a Framework to Understand the Impact of Entrepreneurship Support Programs on the Formation of Engineers

几十年来，专业技能的发展，包括沟通、商业、创造力、领导能力和其他素质的熟练程度，一直被强调与工程专业学生获得技术技能几乎或同等重要。虽然没有人怀疑学生需要获得技术工程知识的重要性，但专业技能，包括沟通，团队合作，道德理解以及对经济和社会因素的考虑对于工程师的专业形成至关重要。创业支持项目（ESPs）是学生获得这些专业技能的一种机制，既适用于那些渴望成为企业家的学生，也适用于那些计划在工业环境中工作的学生。事实上，全国各地的许多esp都侧重于获得包括专业技能集在内的技能或属性，工程专业学生可以在各种职业环境中使用这些技能或属性，无论是创业、内部创业，还是在行业甚至学术界担任领导角色。在过去的几十年里，全国范围内以创业为重点的课程、项目、课程和其他培训机会嵌入科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）项目的数量急剧增加。然而，esp对学生的专业形成和不同属性（如创造力、冒险精神、同理心和好奇心）的获得的影响在很大程度上是未知的。尽管社会科学在研究许多与企业家精神典型相关的属性方面有着悠久的历史，但这种基础研究与esp的工作之间几乎没有联系。该提案旨在建立一个框架，作为社会科学研究和从业者之间的联系，他们通常没有带宽或背景来从事这项研究。这个项目的目标是通过创建一个基于研究的框架来指导esp的开发、指导和评估，从而弥合社会科学家和工程创业实践者之间的差距。本项目将以德尔福研究和由跨学科专家组成的三组虚拟讲习班来启动这一进程。结果将是一个初步框架，该框架确定了一套明确的先决条件、ESP环境的特征和与创业相关的结果，包括职业道路、创业知识和ESP旨在影响的属性，以及一套白皮书，其中描述了a)现有的测量方法和工具，并提供了可靠性和有效性证据；b)基于证据的教学策略将影响这些与创业相关的学生属性。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。

For several decades, the development of the professional skill set, comprising proficiency in communication, business, creativity, leadership, and other attributes, has been emphasized to be nearly or equally as important as the acquisition of technical skills by engineering students. While no one doubts the importance of students’ need to acquire technical engineering knowledge, professional skills including communication, teamwork, ethical understanding, and considerations of economic and societal factors are critically important for the professional formation of engineers. Entrepreneurial Support Programs [ESPs] are one mechanism by which students can gain these professional skills, both for students who aspire to be entrepreneurs as well as those who plan to work in industry settings. In fact, many ESPs across the country focus on the acquisition of skills or attributes comprising the professional skill set that engineering students can use in varied career settings, whether that includes venture creation, intrapreneurship, or in a leadership role in industry or even academia. Over the past several decades, the number of entrepreneurship-focused courses, programs, and cocurricular and other training opportunities embedded into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs across the country has increased dramatically. However, the impact of ESPs on students’ professional formation and the acquisition of different attributes—such as creativity, risk taking, empathy, and curiosity is largely unknown. Though the social sciences have a strong and robust history of studying many of the attributes typically associated with entrepreneurship, there is little connection between this foundational research and the work of ESPs. This proposal seeks to build a framework that serves as a liaison between social science research and practitioners, who typically do not have the bandwidth or background to engage in this research. The goal of this proposed project is to bridge the gap between social scientists and engineering entrepreneurship practitioners by creating a research-based framework to guide the development, instruction, and assessment of ESPs. This project will initiate this process with a Delphi study and a set of three virtual workshops with interdisciplinary experts. The outcome will be an initial framework that identifies a clear set of antecedents, characteristics of the ESP context, and entrepreneurship-related outcomes, including career pathways, knowledge of entrepreneurship, and attributes that ESPs aim to influence, along with a set of white papers that describe a) existing measurement approaches and tools with reliability and validity evidence, and b) evidence-based instructional strategies that will impact these entrepreneurship-related student attributes.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.