2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

An Entrepreneurial Mindset-Based Early-Curriculum Exposure to Undergraduate Research

Presented at ENT-3: Transforming Engineering Curriculum through Entrepreneurial Approaches

Numerous studies have shown that research experience is beneficial to undergraduate students. However, faculty often face challenges identifying potential student researchers and navigating the short duration of student participation. Research opportunities are frequently dependent on individual faculty recruitment efforts and word of mouth, which means many students are unaware of the possibility of joining a research team until late in their undergraduate career. This late awareness leaves little time for a deep and meaningful research experience.

Through collaboration across five universities, we have developed an Early Exposure to Research program that employs entrepreneurially minded learning at the freshman and sophomore levels to introduce to students the concept of research and encourage them to get involved in undergraduate research. A series of videos and designed exercises inform students about research opportunities and the role that research plays in the development of technologies that benefit society. These exercises have been employed at the five universities, which range from primarily undergraduate institutions to large research universities. Post-surveys and one-year follow up surveys have beenemployed to evaluate the effects that the program has had on the students’ understanding about research, as well as their motivation and inclination to become involved in research themselves. In this paper, we will describe the videos and activities and present the results of the surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of the Early Exposure to Research program. Initial results indicate that students who engaged with our full set of Early Exposure to Research materials, including videos and activities, showed a high motivation to pursue undergraduate research and a greater gain in their ability to explain the research process and the impact of research in society.

Authors

Dr. Blake Everett Johnson University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Dr. Blake Everett Johnson is a Teaching Associate Professor and instructional laboratory manager in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include experimental fluid mechanics, measurement science, engineering education, engineering leadership, and professional identity development.
Dr. Irene Reizman http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0585-2213 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Irene M.B. Reizman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Alfred R. Schmidt Endowed Chair for Excellence in Teaching at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She holds a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research interests include metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and impacts of undergraduate research experiences on student learning.
Dr. Liping Liu http://orcid.org/https://0009-0004-2397-7970 Lawrence Technological University [biography]

Liping Liu serves as the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research in the College of Engineering at Lawrence Technological University. She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her primary research expertise lies in the fields of thermal sciences and fluid mechanics, with a focus on addressing transport phenomena in energy processes. Her work primarily aims to enhance the performance and efficiency of energy generation, conversion, and utilization across multiscale and multidisciplinary applications. She is a member of ASME, ASEE, ASHRAE, and SAE International, and she is also actively engaged in the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN).
Dr. Mary Lauren Benton http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5485-1041 Baylor University [biography]

Mary Lauren is an assistant professor of bioinformatics at Baylor University. She received her B.S. in Bioinformatics at Baylor University before completing her M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University.
John Peponis Lawrence Technological University [biography]

John Peponis is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Lawrence Technological University. He completed his Bachelor's and Master's in Biomedical Engineering at Lawrence Technological University.
Maysam Nezafati http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9249-4479 Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

I am a lecturer in the department of biomedical engineering at Georgia institute of technology /Emory University. I have been working on educational research since 2016. My main focus is on problem based learning core courses. But specifically I work on
Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and her B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (same school, different name). At Rose-Hulman, Michelle is co-leading a project to infuse an entrepreneurial-mindset in undergraduate students’ learning, and a project to improve teaming by teaching psychological safety in engineering education curricula. Michelle also mentors undergraduate researchers to investigate the removal of stormwater pollutants in engineered wetlands. Michelle was a 2018 ExCEEd Fellow, and was recognized as the 2019 ASCE Daniel V. Terrell Awardee.
Dr. Jonathan Rylander Baylor University
Mitchel Daniel Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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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