2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Entrepreneurship education has made its way at most engineering institutions. Lean methods and the I-corps culture have gained notoriety and momentum across the United States. At a Southwestern institution, designated as an I-Corps Site in 2017, continuous trainings (courses) are offered to undergraduate and graduate engineering students. During spring, summer and fall semesters, students are guided to conduct interviews with potential users of their innovations and refine their entrepreneurship skills. After three years of successfully impacting students (Lagoudas et al., 2019-2020), a team of investigators is looking into aspects of the training that might have been unperceived during prior assessments. In this study, we analyze via quantitative and qualitative methods, the answer to the research question: What aspects of the I-Corps site program experience could be enhanced or modified based on performance and perceptions of participants?
To answer this question, during the Summer of 2023, twelve students enrolled in an I-Corps site program experience that involved 6 weeks of guided training and answered to a pre- and post-surveys that included questions in the dimensions of: (1) interest in entrepreneurship, (2) confidence in value proposition, (3) self-efficacy in entrepreneurship, (4) self-efficacy in marketing/business planning, (5) self-efficacy in customer interview skills, and (6) current status of technology and business model.
Preliminary quantitative analyses showed similar results to prior research about significant changes in student perceptions of confidence in value proposition, customer interview skills, and current status of technology and business model. However, in qualitative terms, when asked about their overall experience, those who rated it lower, expressed expectations not met related to training in market research and other entrepreneurship skills.
This work in progress will present the case of those students who either did not express expectations or their expectations were not met. Preliminary results show that some students may enter the experience with misconceptions of the type of training they will obtain, or they might be too advanced in their skills to take full advantage of the experience. The results of this investigation will bring light to current entrepreneurship trainings and trainers so more refined interventions can be offered.
Lagoudas, M., Yoon, S. Y., & Boehm, R. (2019, July). The Implementation and Assessment of an I-Corps Site at a Southwestern University: Lessons Learned. In Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Lagoudas, M., Yoon, S. Y., Boehm, R., & Asbell, S. (2020, July). Impact of an I-Corps site program on engineering students at a large southwestern university: Year 3. In Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.