2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Faculty and Students' Perceptions and Experiences in the STEM Patent Pathway Program and Entrepreneurial Mindset Development: A Case Study

Presented at ENT-2: Bridging Faculty and Student Perspectives in Entrepreneurial Education

Nowadays, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduate programs raise questions about how graduate programs prepare students for their future occupations. It is noted that some universities are developing innovative doctoral programs to explore alternative defense pathways beyond the traditional dissertation. Pathways to Entrepreneurship works to demonstrate a creative student-centered framework [1]. The purpose of the patent pathway program is to cultivate doctoral students’ entrepreneurial mindset and provide them with a practical pathway and career trajectories. There is limited research on the STEM doctoral dissertation pathway. Most doctoral programs primarily concentrate on research and are tailored to prepare future academic researchers. However, traditional programs often neglect essential industry skills such as leadership, communication, and teamwork abilities, which are vital for success outside academia [2]. Establishing entrepreneurial connections can prepare students with comprehensive skills in industry, government, and business [3]. The patent proposal process, compared to the conventional dissertation defense, has the potential to support candidates with pragmatic experiences that foster an understanding of entrepreneurship [1]. This is a qualitative study design that adopts a case study. Thematic analysis is employed to analyze the interview transcripts based on the entrepreneurial mindset theoretical framework. Research data are drawn from one Ph.D. student, three alumni, and five faculty members. Participants are from different STEM disciplines, including mechanical engineering, chemistry, and optical science. In conclusion, students’ and faculty’s interviews generate fresh insight into the value of the pathway patent program. The data supports that an innovative patent pathway program can cultivate STEM doctoral students’ entrepreneurial awareness. The entrepreneurial mindset significantly impacts students’ professional competencies of being well-rounded candidates in academia as well as the broader job market.

Authors

Ms. Katherine Jiawen Ren http://orcid.org/0009-0004-5914-9499 University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

Katherine Jiawen Ren is a Ph.D. student in the Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Katherine is currently a Graduate Research Assistant in the Educational Leadership Department in the Cato College of Education. Her research interests include educational psychology, research methodology, and STEM education. She had contributed to a project examining how math and science motivational beliefs influence STEM students’ major choice in college. Her recent work focuses on exploring STEM students’ metacognition, entrepreneurial mindset, self-regulated learning strategies, and learning achievement.
Dr. David K Pugalee http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3356-1600 University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

David Pugalee is a full Professor and Director of the Center for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education (STEM) at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Pugalee has published works on STEM teaching and learning and on the NSF project Developing a Systemic, Scalable Model to Broaden Participation in Middle School Computer Science that focuses on computational thinking in science and mathematics. He has more than two decades of classroom teaching experience at both the K-12, including mathematics and science, and higher education levels and has led multi-million dollar grants related to STEM education.
Dr. Audrey Rorrer University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

Audrey Smith Rorrer is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC), where she also serves as the Lead Evaluator for the Center for Education Innovation in the College of Computing and Informatics. Dr. Rorrer’s scholarship areas include the science of broadening participation in computing, SoBP, which is a recognized domain of critical importance in STEM workforce development and educational programming. Her research and evaluation has focused on educational programs, outreach and collective impact activities that foster inclusion and equity in computing and engineering. College student development and faculty career development are central themes across her body of work, which focuses on focus on capacity building in research and evaluation, organizational change in STEM education, and integration of computing into pedagogy.
Dr. Praveen Ramaprabhu University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

Praveen Ramaprabhu is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Sciences at UNC Charlotte, where he heads the Laboratory for Multiscale Computational Fluid Dynamics (LMCFD). Starting with his Ph.D. research at Texas A&M University, Dr. Ramaprabhu has worked extensively using experiments and careful numerical simulations to advance the understanding of turbulent mixing due to fluid instabilities. Dr. Ramaprabhu is a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering.
Dr. Mesbah Uddin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2945-6744 University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

Mesbah Uddin is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UNC Charlotte and has a long track record of providing leadership to multi-disciplinary activities within the campus; he serves as Director of the North Carolina Motorsports and Automotive Research Center and coordinator of UNC Charlotte’s Engineering Design Optimization initiative. He is currently serving as the Chair of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Road Vehicle Aerodynamics Forum Committee; this committee is responsible for developing and maintaining SAE standards, technical papers, and special publications related to road vehicle aerodynamics and wind noise performance and test techniques. Dr. Uddin is a member of UNC Charlotte Military Affairs Committee. In the past, he served as a member of the North Carolina Governor’s Motorsports Advisory Council. He served as PI on several multi-investigator multidisciplinary federally funded STEM education grants.
Dr. H. P. Cherukuri University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

Harish Cherukuri is the Chair and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Cherukuri obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics,The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His scholarship interests include Engineering Education, Modeling of Manufacturing Processes, Computational Mechanics, Machine Learning in Manufacturing and Materials, and Additive Manufacturing.
Dr. Terry Xu University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

Terry Xu is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She currently serves as the Associate Chair for Graduate Programs. Her research interest is in the field of synthesis and characterization of one-dimensional nanostructures. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2004.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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