2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

From Research to Reality: Building a Peer-Led Innovation Ecosystem in Higher Education

Presented at Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation Division (ENT) Technical Session 8- Institutional Programs & Ecosystems

In 2020, first-year honors students conducted a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) to examine how innovation could be more effectively fostered in higher education. Their research concluded that while coursework builds technical competence, an innovative mindset thrives through peer-driven, co-curricular engagement. The students proposed a framework emphasizing experiential learning, mentorship, and multidisciplinary collaboration to bridge the gap between academic theory and professional practice.

Building on this foundation, a college of engineering institution partnered with students to translate this research into reality through a comprehensive leadership initiative known as IGNITE. Now in its third year, the initiative has demonstrated significant measurable success in scaling a peer-led ecosystem. In its second year, the program generated 1,824 student engagements and reached 844 unique students across 73 events. By the third year, the model achieved greater operational stability, recording 1,005 engagements in a single semester with an average attendance of 33 students per event. Notably, 27% of participants became repeat attendees, and digital engagement surged to over 690 Slack members and 1,100 Instagram followers, signaling the emergence of a sustained innovation community.

The resulting student organization leads all experiential programming under faculty guidance, coordinating initiatives in creativity, industry immersion, outreach, and venture incubation. Supported by external endowments and industry partnerships, the model provides a sustainable pathway for student-led growth. This case study analyzes the three-year evolution of the initiative, examining the effectiveness of the peer-led model and the structural adaptations required to survive leadership turnover and institutional complexity. By discussing iterative lessons learned regarding leadership continuity, organizational documentation, and mission buy-in, this paper offers a scalable, data-backed blueprint for institutionalizing innovation through student leadership.

Authors

Dr. Melissa Mae White University of Florida [biography]

Dr. Melissa Mae White is an Instructional Associate Professor in the Engineering Innovation Institute within the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. She teaches and coordinates courses in innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship, focusing on developing experiential learning frameworks that integrate design thinking and multidisciplinary collaboration into engineering education. She serves as the faculty lead for the Innovation Gator Network Inspiring Tech and Entrepreneurship (IGNITE), a university-wide student innovation initiative housed within the Engineering Innovation Institute that bridges classroom learning with real-world creative problem solving.

Dr. White is also affiliate faculty in the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida. Her teaching and research interests center on creativity development, innovation competency, and peer-to-peer learning models that empower students as co-designers of their educational experience. She has led efforts to expand co-curricular innovation programming through partnerships with industry, ensuring sustainability and access for students across disciplines. Her current work examines the effectiveness and challenges of student-led ecosystems in fostering creativity, accountability, and entrepreneurial mindset development within higher education.
Bianca A Valsecchi University of Florida [biography]

Bianca Valsecchi is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida, graduating in May 2026. This academic year, she serves as the Director of the Innovation Gator Network Inspiring Technology and Entrepreneurship (IGNITE) within the Engineering Innovation Institute. She was also the Program Coordinator for the IGNITE Industry Scholars Program during the 2024-2025 academic year, an industry-embedded initiative connecting students with corporate innovation projects. Her goals include applying innovation, collaboration, and interdisciplinary teamwork to create a meaningful impact within engineering education to better transition students into the industrial workplace.

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