Educating Engineering Undergraduates to be Industry Innovators and Managers

Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX

Investigators

Abstract

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.