2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Successful design experiences require the students to engage in both divergent and convergent thinking throughout the design process. However, student experience and competency with navigating ambiguity, especially in the divergent thinking domain, is often lacking, leading to student frustration and poor design experience. Expanding upon our previously reported work, one solution described here is to restructure the Materials Science and Engineering capstone course into a two-semester sequence and to incorporate design frameworks that emphasize different thinking domains. In the two-semester sequence, the students are introduced to the Human-Centered Design (HCD) framework that provides a scaffold for design thinking in alternating convergent and divergent domains. Throughout the sequence, students are also explicitly introduced to and engage in the Engineering Student Entrepreneurial Mindset. This mindset drives innovation by focusing on Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value (the 3 C’s).

Reported here are the results of survey data taken at the beginning, midpoint, and end of the capstone sequence for academic year 2024-25 (i.e., August, December, and May). This survey examines the students’ perceptions and self-efficacy of HCD and includes the Engineering Student Entrepreneurial Mindset Assessment (ESEMA) that examines the students’ mindsets centered around the 3 C’s. The 2024-25 survey had 46/57 respondents (~80%); the survey was also administered in AY 2023-24 with 25/60 respondents (~43%). While the AY 2023-24 survey results showed a plateau between the midpoint and end of the capstone sequence, the new 2024-25 survey results show a clear increase in the students’ self-efficacy in all five HCD spaces from beginning to midpoint to end of the capstone sequence. We can correlate these results with classroom activities and interventions that were designed to explicitly target HCD spaces stemming from the previous results.

In the ESEMA survey, AY 2023-24 had nuanced results, with some categories peaking in the midpoint surveys. In 2024-25, the results show clearer trends (positive, negative, and constant) that can be attributed to classroom interventions and explicitly engaging the students in the Entrepreneurial Mindset. These analyses provide insight and feedback on the courses’ content, activities, and structure, allowing for evidence-based course modifications.