2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Case Study: Summer Faculty Development Workshops to promote Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning Across Domains

Presented at Faculty Development Division (FDD) Technical Session 2: Designing Meaningful Faculty Development

This evidence-based practice paper covers a series of summer topical faculty development workshops built on the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning (EML) framework. These workshops were open to all engineering and STEM faculty. The topic for each workshop varied each summer and included computing across a curriculum, EML for lab and design courses, and AI integration. These workshops were unique in that participants did not incur costs to attend the workshop but were required to develop a “final project idea” to present to the organizers. Completing the workshop and final presentation made them eligible to apply for a mini grant (about $5,000) to implement their project idea in their classes. For the workshops, faculty participants were selected through an application process from KEEN partner schools. The first part of the workshop had participants learn theory through targeted sessions. Each session of theory was followed by a chance to implement and work with peers to develop their ideas. By the end of the workshop, participants presented their work to the other participants and organizers to receive feedback. After the workshop, organizers hosted “office hours” to further hone and improve their ideas in preparation for presenting their final project idea in order to apply for a mini grant. The “final presentations” were given virtually, and afterwards, several faculty were awarded a mini grant to implement their idea / module. This paper analyzes post-survey data about participants’ experience in the workshop over the years as well as the impact the mini grants made as a main motivator for faculty development. With this framework in mind, other engineering faculty developers and faculty will be able to successfully motivate and implement effective faculty development at their universities.

The authors prefer to present this paper as an oral presentation.

Authors

Casey Jane Rodgers http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6378-3386 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Casey Rodgers is a PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering and a Masters student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She received her BS in Civil Engineering with a minor in Computer Science at Purdue University in May 2020 and received her MS in Civil Engineering at UIUC in May 2022. Her research interests focus on developing computer graphics, computer vision, and machine learning solutions for structural health monitoring, post-disaster response, and engineering education problems.
Dr. Jay Mann University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Jay Mann is Director of the Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3) in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Mann is a twenty-five-year veteran educator with previous experience as a high school classroom teacher, school administrator, and teacher educator. He is a three-time graduate of the University of Illinois (A.B. in History; M.Ed. in Educational Organization and Leadership; Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction).
Dr. Rebecca Marie Reck http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5894-4130 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Rebecca M. Reck is a Teaching Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research includes alternative grading, entrepreneurial mindset, instructional laboratories, and equity-focused teaching. She teaches biomedical instrumentation, signal processing, and control systems. She earned a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Prof. Jacob Henschen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1031-2409 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Professor Henschen completed his B.S., M.S., and PhD. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2007, 2009, and 2018 respectively. He was an Assistant Professor at Valparaiso University until he moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a Teaching Assistant Professor in June 2020. He serves as the co-chair for the Teaching Methods and Education Materials Committee at ACI and the co-chair of the Committee on Faculty Development at ASCE.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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