Bringing Innovation And The Entrepreneurial Mindset (Back) Into Engineering: The Keen Innovators Program

The U.S. economy has gone from being a predominantly innovation-based economy to being a predominantly service-based economy. Historically, this is not a trend that can sustain a nation, and this is especially apparent in the face of the economic downturn in recent years. The challenge is how to bring innovation back into the engineering disciplines, when many of our faculty have never worked in industry, and so are not necessarily aware of the complex and multi-faceted problems faced by industry. The Kern Family Foundation has made it possible, through the Kern Entrepreneurial Education Network (KEEN), to help engineering faculty catch the vision of the need to inculcate innovation into all phases of the engineering coursework, through the KEEN Innovators Program at Baylor University. The charter Innovators have participated in several KEEN meetings and Regional Conferences, finished a sponsored summer of research into best methods of deploying the entrepreneurial mindset into their courses, and helped coordinate the selection and continuation of the 2010 Innovators. This paper will present the background of the program, the assessment of the first year of the program and its impact on student learning, and future expansion of the program. We will also discuss lessons learned and best practices, including the necessity of working across disciplinary boundaries and the importance of administrative support.