Instilling an Entrepreneurial Mindset in a New Generation of First-Year Engineering Students Through a Graphics Course Project

Each year, an increasing number of engineering start-up companies emerge in the U.S. and around the world. Innovation and entrepreneurship have never been so pronounced, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. How can we train engineering students to be more entrepreneurially-minded so they are well-equipped to become global innovators? Engineering educators can use entrepreneurially-minded learning activities to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset, which is a set of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. At a mid-sized Southeastern private institution, we used an open-ended team project and an end-of-semester poster competition within a freshman-level engineering graphics course to encourage an entrepreneurial mindset in students. The goal of the course project was to develop engineering students’ critical thinking and innovation skills while preparing them for their future professions. An end-of-semester course-wide poster competition allowed students to practice teamwork as well as innovative thinking and communication skills. An online survey was conducted during the student poster competition to assess students’ understanding of entrepreneurial mindset and satisfaction with the student poster competition