2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 339: NSF S-STEM: Educating Engineering Undergraduates to be Intrapreneurs

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

The Tech Intrapreneurs Program (TIP) program focuses on developing intrapreneurship skills and competencies in undergraduate Engineering students. Intrapreneurship is the practice of developing a new venture, product, or service within an existing organization. Engineering-focused companies require a diverse workforce that is capable of innovation and many students will not join these types of firms in as their first employer post-college. Intrapreneurial skills have been shown to facilitate career progression and improve managerial skills and opportunities, even in established companies. In order to address the need for more STEM workers to have intrapreneurial skills, TIP recruited and enrolled academically talented and diverse electrical and computer engineering undergraduate students. TIP provides a multi-faceted approach to improve entrepreneurship skills. Specifically, the program combines faculty and industry mentorship, workforce development seminars, an international experience, an industrial internship, entrepreneurship programs, and scholarships (provided by NSF and an industry partner) to produce graduates with intrapreneurship competencies. A total of 68 scholars in four cohorts were admitted to TIP. Scholars, hiring managers, and mentors were surveyed on topics to reveal the efficacy of the program. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. This paper presents data on the growth in intrapreneurship competencies for each of the cohorts of students, data on mentoring practices that were integral to the TIP experience, as well as student and mentor perception data on the benefits of the program.

Authors

Dr. Tim Dallas Texas Tech University [biography]

Tim Dallas is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech University. Dr. Dallas' research includes developing educational technologies, Microelectromechanical Systems, solar energy collection, and Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
Dr. Heather Greenhalgh-Spencer Nanyang Technological University [biography]

Heather Greenhalgh-Spencer, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech University, as well as the Associate Chair of the department. Her research emerges at the intersection of Educational Technology, Pedagogical Innovation, Personalized Learning, Diversity and Equity Issues, and Global Studies. Greenhalgh-Spencer explores practices of using technology and pedagogical innovation to create engaged learning in both formal and informal learning spaces, and in both national and global contexts. She explores diversity and equity issues in the STEM pipeline, and also researches embodied and transdisciplinary learning practices that increase engagement for underrepresented populations in STEM courses. Greenhalgh-Spencer also researches blended / personalized learning (BL/PL) and the ways that BL/PL can create diverse pathways and increased opportunities for all students.
Dr. Kelli M. Frias http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-6295-6823 [biography]

Kellilynn M. Frias received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Kogod School of Business at American University. Her research interests include marketing strategy, business-to-business rel

Download paper (2.06 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session