2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Preparing civil engineers to address decarbonization and infrastructure resilience requires integration of technical content with systems thinking and stakeholder-centered decision-making. This study presents the design and assessment of a six-week Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) sensing challenge embedded within a junior-level civil engineering laboratory course. The module was intentionally aligned with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) framework, Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value, while reinforcing technical competencies consistent with guidance from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Students collected and analyzed real-time building performance data with sensors, engaged with interdisciplinary experts, and developed retrofit recommendations supported by energy modeling and economic justification. A mixed-methods assessment approach evaluated cognitive depth of student-generated questions (Curiosity), interdisciplinary integration in structured reflections (Connections), and stakeholder-centered value propositions in final deliverables (Creating Value).

Results indicate measurable growth in analytical question complexity and expansion of interdisciplinary reasoning over the six-week period. Final projects demonstrated emerging capacity to translate technical analysis into stakeholder-informed recommendations, though integration of building-level metrics with whole building and system-level impacts varied across teams.

Findings of this empirical work demonstrate that EM can be intentionally embedded within technically rigorous coursework to deepen disciplinary learning while strengthening stakeholder-centered reasoning.