KEENzine4

What engineering faculty are saying about the entrepreneurial mindset To solve society's greatest challenges, we need engineers who can apply curiosity and creativity to the technical skillsets they have in order to come up with truly innovative ideas. This is where an entrepreneurial mindset becomes important! AnnMarie Thomas Associate Professor of Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Business University of St. Thomas It’s exciting when students discover simple solutions to complex problems that have not been solved before. It’s even more exciting to see them discover simple solutions to problems that they didn't even know existed. Prashanth Asuri Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Santa Clara University Engineering is no longer about simply designing a technical solution to solve a problem. Today’s engineers need an entrepreneurial mindset to innovate, create, and, most importantly, lead. Entrepreneurially minded learning has given us a shared language and innovative pedagogies to cultivate this mindset in our students. Scott Hummel Director of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Lafayette University Adding projects and assignments that help students gain an entrepreneurial mindset has refreshed and reinvigorated my courses. Students develop the skills to identify opportunities, create business models, and communicate solutions not just in technical terms, but in terms of added value for a company, the customer, and society at large. David Jamison Visiting Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Villanova University The goal of a complete engineering education is to encourage and empower students to be fully engaged and active citizens. Entrepreneurially minded learning plays a critical role in not just the intellectual development of every engineer, but in the cultivation of the constitution and character that will allow them to fully be the agents of positive change we so very much need. Lawrence Neeley Assistant Professor of Design and Entrepreneurship Olin College of Engineering As engineering faculty, we need to enable our students to ignite their passion, unleash their creativity, and persist through failure to create meaningful changes. We’re fortunate to be preparing the change makers of the next generation. Instilling a mindset geared toward entrepreneurship is essential to tackle challenges head on. Scott Shrake Director of EPICS and Co-Director of Gen Labs Arizona State University No one needs our graduates to tell them what’s in a textbook, crunchable by a computer, or Googleable from a phone. Our students need to add value beyond commodity information — to find problems, to generate technically competent, creative, societally beneficial solutions to unmet needs, and to advocate for those solutions. That’s why I believe the entrepreneurial mindset is important for my students. Margot Vigeant Associate Dean and Professor of Chemical Engineering Bucknell University 44 45