Inculcating an Entrepreneurial Mindset in

Engineering Education: Project Approach

F iras Hassan Heath LeBlanc Khalid AI-Olimat

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Ohio Northern University

Ada. Ohio. USA

Abstract- In a competitive global economy, it is important for

engineering students to develop entrepreneurial skills that

include effective collaboration and communication, persisting

and learning from failure, management, and solving ambiguous

problems. This paper summarizes a project that aims to instill

these skills as part of an entrepreneurial mindset in engineering

students. The project was implemented in an introductory

electric circuits class with a mixed representation of students

majoring in electrical, computer, civil, and mechanical

engineering. Students were organized into groups of two or three

to design a temperature sensor using a negative temperature

coefficient thermistor. Students groups were provided with

customer specifications and were given a month to research the

problem and obtain a viable solution. The groups were required

to provide evidence compiled into a written product proposal

that included a bill of materials, cost analysis, circuit design and

simulation, testing plan, layout of the printed circuit board and

packaging schematic, delivery time, and the voltage-temperature

relationship of the designed circuit. After submitting the written

proposal, each group was given five minutes to pitch their

proposal using a poster in an effort to convince the customer (in

this case, the instructor) that their design was the best and most

cost-effective solution.

Keywords-entrepreneurship; electric circuits; customer appropriate value proposition

I. INTRODUCTION

In order for engineering graduates to contribute and compete in the modem global economy, strong technical knowledge by itself is not enough. Graduates are challenged with the choice of how best to enrich the economic return from their knowledge. So, they should have an ability to communicate effectively, manage time, sell ideas, recognize and properly evaluate opportunities, and incur the risk involved with acting to seize those opportunities. The aforementioned qualities lead us to the importance of developing an entrepreneurial mindset. An entrepreneurially minded engineer places product benefits before design features, and leverages technology to fill unmet customer needs [1 ].

As the world's dependence on technology increases, there is no doubt that the demand for engineers is increasing. This fact puts a demand on engineering institutions to produce well rounded engineers who possess qualities that are relevant to entrepreneurship such as creativity, original thinking, self­control, confidence, comprehensive awareness of market

This work was supported by the Kern Family Foundation as part of the KEEN (Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network) program.

978-1-4673-5261-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

trends, prediction of future demand, conceptual ability, leadership, and initiative.

Entrepreneurship programs add value to students, the degree programs in which they are housed, and the institutions that host them [2 ]. Curricula that emphasize problem solving, technical writing, teamwork, entrepreneurship, and business management skills can help students overcome the barriers associated with relevance, obtain higher GP As, and achieve higher retention rates. Specifically, it can improve the retention for women and underrepresented minorities [3]. Engineering Entrepreneurship also supports ABET program outcomes (currently defmed as student outcomes) such as the ability to function on a team and communicate effectively in an interdisciplinary environment [4].

Different institutions have used different models to introduce the entrepreneurial mindset into their curricula. For example, Brown University's Division of Engineering has created a two-semester course sequence designed to introduce students to entrepreneurship through a unique merger of classroom learning and industry participation. Deliverables at the end of the two-semester sequence include a business plan and product prototype [5 ]. A study conducted at George Mason University shows that introducing entrepreneurial concepts in a fust-year engineering course can improve students overall perceptions of the engineering profession [6 ]. The University of Nevada at Reno has developed a special capstone course for senior electrical and mechanical engineering students teamed with MBA students from the College of Business Administration. The course covers all phases of new product development including innovation, patent law, product liability, business, sales, marketing and venture capital [7]. Finally, Pennsylvania State University has introduced an Engineering Entrepreneurship minor that consists of five classes. The fust class, Entrepreneurial Leadership, is taught during the junior year and the other four classes D Entrepreneurship Business Basics, Introduction to Engineering Design, Technical Entrepreneur, and Product Development D are taught in the senior year. The purpose of this minor is to build students' life skills so they can succeed within innovative, product-focused, cross-disciplinary teams [8]. At the authors' institution, the entrepreneurial mindset is also tightly integrated in the curricula through a two-course introduction to engineering sequence at the freshman level, a

two-course capstone design sequence at the senior level, and a business elective covering the principles of entrepreneurship.

It is clear from the literature that most of the work related to entrepreneurship in engineering education has been done either at the freshman or senior level. Courses at the sophomore and junior levels typically contain the bulk of the fundamental engineering science in the curriculum. Hence, it is difficult to develop the entrepreneurial mind set in these courses without sacrificing technical content.

In this paper, we argue it is possible to add extra credit projects that concentrate on entrepreneurial concepts in courses at these levels. Such projects can help students link the gap between the concepts generally learned at the freshman level and only applied in the capstone projects at the senior level. One example of a sophomore-level technical course is electric circuits, which is a required class for most engineering majors.

The paper is organized as follows. Section two summarizes the contents of the electric circuits class. Section three describes the extra credit project that was implemented. The project is an example of a simple addition to a technical course that emphasizes entrepreneurial thinking. Section four explains the outcomes of the project and the assessment data. Section five concludes by giving some ideas on how to adapt the concepts described in this paper to other classes.

II. ELECTRIC CIRCUITS

Engineering students must acquire many skills, one of which is the knowledge of electric circuit analysis. Many branches of electrical engineering, such as power, electric machines, control, electronics, communications, and instrumentation, require knowledge of electric circuit theory. Circuit theory is also valuable to students specializing in other branches of engineering because all engineers use and operate electrical equipment and systems in practice. Mechanical engineers use motors to drive machines. Chemical engineers apply heat and drive pumps. Civil engineers oversee construction sites and use electronic surveying devices. In all of these examples, the instrumentation and control equipment is primarily electrical.

Engineering students learn electric circuit concepts and analysis skills in the Electric Circuits course, which is consolidated into a single course at most universities. That course combines both direct current and alternating current circuits, and covers various topics. Typical topics include resistive networks, nodal analysis, loop analysis, superposition theorem, Thevenin's and Norton's theorems, operational amplifiers, capacitance and inductance, first-order circuits, ac steady-state analysis, steady-state power analysis, ideal transformers, and three-phase circuits.

Despite all of this technical content, we managed to integrate an extra credit project that exposes students to entrepreneurial thinking. The next section describes the implemented project in detail.

III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The project was implemented as an extra credit assignment in several sections of the Electric Circuits course. Students interested in participating were asked to organize themselves into groups consisting of two to three individuals to design a temperature sensor. Each group had to pitch a proposal in an effort to convince the customer (in this case, the instructor) that their design was the best and most cost effective solution. To do so, each group had to provide supporting evidence that their design was in fact the best. The evidence was required to be compiled into a three to five page product proposal that included:

• a bill of materials • cost analysis (including the profit and the team

members' salaries) • circuit design and simulation (using specific, physical

components) • testing plan • layout of the PCB and packaging schematic • delivery time • voltage-temperature relationship

Each group had to develop their bill of materials, cost analysis, and testing plan based on an initial customer order of 100 sensors. Each temperature sensor was required to operate in the range of 25'C to 100'C. The temperature sensing element had to be a thermistor, which is a variable resistor whose resistance value varies significantly with temperature. To provide a minimal amount of structure and consistency between the groups, each group was required to use the same Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistor produced by Murata Manufacturing Company. The specific model used was the NCP03XM102J05RL (the data sheet was provided separately).

The students were also given some of the basic operating principles of NTC thermistors. For instance, the temperature dependence of an NTC thermistor is given by the equation:

_ In(�J

B--1--1 (1)

T To

where To is the reference temperature in Kelvin [K], Ro is the resistance of the thermistor at the reference temperature in ohms [0], T is the temperature under consideration (in Kelvin), R is the resistance of the thermistor at temperature T, and B is a constant called the B-constant (measured in Kelvin), which is used for a given temperature range to approximate the temperature-resistance dependence. For the NCP03XM102J05RL model, To = 298.15 [K] (or 25'C), Ro =

I [kO], and B = 3560 [K] for the range of25' to 100'C (i.e., the operating range for the temperature sensor). The error tolerance for this model is ±5% (in resistance at a given temperature), the permissive operating current at 25'C is I [mA], the rated electric power at 25'C is 100 [mW], and the dissipation constant at 2YC is ImWrC. These parameters specify that as long as the current is kept below I [rnA] and

power dissipation below lOO [mW], then the thermistor will operate as expected (i.e., negligible self-heating). These specifications were given to help simplify the circuit analysis for the students. If they chose to operate their thermistor above this range of current or power, then they had to account for self-heating, which significantly complicates the analysis.

The students were told that the customer plans to use their temperature sensor circuit with a microcontroller that accepts a voltage in the range of 0 to 5 [V] in order to close the loop and turn on some fans to dissipate heat based on the temperature. In order to design the control law to be implemented in the microcontroller, the customer needs the voltage-temperature characteristic of the temperature sensor circuit. The only specified guidelines were to make sure that the output voltage was O [V] at a temperature of 2YC, and

5 [V] at a temperature of 100°C.

The directions for the project were intentionally ambiguous. This was meant to encourage creativity. Moreover, we provided a vague customer specification to expose the students to realistic customer behavior. The students were given approximately four weeks to design their temperature sensors and produce the written proposal. A few days after submitting the written proposals, the students were asked to give a five minute pitch presentation where each group attempted to sell their product. The presentation was accompanied by a poster made in PowerPoint to help them make their case.

Hands On Electronics 402 W College Ave, Unit: 1799

December 5, 2012

DearMr.

Our company was thrilled when you sent us your problem involving the temperature varying

circuit, the solution to which yielded a very useful piece of equipment that can be utilized for

many different applications. The development of such a circuit eliminates the need for a digital

sensor and utilizes analog componentry, allowing units to easily be repaired.

The attached proposal outlines the development process for the creation of the Temperature

Sensing Circuit. Also included is a cost analysis, explanation of the functionality, and an analysis

of the labor and production including projections for future production.

If you have any questions feel free to contact Daniel Meeks at (567) 674-0030 any time.

Daniel Meeks,

Communications Officer

Fig. 1. Sample of a cover letter

Cost Analysis

Circuit Parts Quantity ReSistor

Differential Op Amp Thermistor

6V Battery (rech,)

PCB/Unit Enctosure

Wiring/Various

Price Per Unit ($) Price for 100 Units ($)

3 0.01

0.23 23

0.2 20

10.78 2156

1.55 155

0.5 so

PCB board -3 (85"x l1")sheets 18

Salary

Manufacturing

Testing

Doltars Per Hour ($) Hours per Unit Price for 100 Units ($)

Fixed Initial Cost Solution for Customer

PCB Design

Debugging

Total (05t; Per Unit

Total (for 100)

Fig. 2. Sample of bill of materials

20 �25 500

20

20

20

20

0.05

1

0.5

Without batteries With Batteries

100

100

20

10

$9.99 $31.55

$999.00 $3,155

PNWOETERS RC ,.

R'

,.

" " -

""

R1

..,

R. ,.

� 3 .. _�

V+_ 6

2 V- - 1

uA741 "0

Fig. 3. Sample of a circuit design

5�--

t!+L----'.2

Ii 1- -3. 2 t-­,I

vo".,.!! t-,. U 1.� 0.8 0.6 -r-8j

Circuit Temper�ture \Is. Voltage

"' ,.

, i" 6 V ..=...

I ,

25 30 35 40 45 SO SS 60 65 70 7S 80 85 90 9S 100 Temperature-C

Fig. 4. Sample of a voltage-temprature relationship

Fig. 5. Sample of a PCB layout

Fig. 6. Sample of a poster

�

Probe

Samples from different students' projects are shown above in the following manner. Figure 1 shows a sample of a cover letter. Figure 2 shows a sample of a bill of materials. Figure 3 shows an example of a designed circuit schematic. The temperature-voltage characteristic of this circuit is shown in Figure 4 . Using a curve fitting algorithm, students also found the equation that relates temperature to voltage. Figure 5 shows a sample of a PCB layout. The layout has an allocated area for batteries. Finally, figure 6 shows a sample of a poster that was used as a visual aid in pitching their design.

IV. OUTCOMES AND ASSESSMENT

The project was designed to cover the following three outcomes:

• Effectively communicate a customer appropriate value proposition

• Apply critical thinking to ambiguous design problems • Effectively collaborate in a team setting

All three outcomes are related to the entrepreneurial mindset of an engineer. The outcomes were assessed based on the students' grades along with a separate student survey.

The students were graded based not only on the quality of the design, but also on the cost of the product, and the ability to effectively communicate and sell their product. The project was worth five extra credit points, and the grading policy is summarized in Figure 7 . As shown in the figure, the written proposal was given the highest weight, 50% of the score, because although the pitch may pique the interest of the customer, the substance behind the pitch is contained in the proposal, which summarizes most of the project deliverables. The pitch was given 30% of the score because the pitch is the means by which the idea is conveyed to the customer. Also, the poster is important as a visual aid to help sell the idea and weighs 20% of the grade. Finally, to model real-life competitiveness between different companies, a 20% bonus -i.e., an additional bonus point - was given only to the group that convinced the instructor that their idea was the best, while taking into account that the pitch was backed by substance.

The assessment of the elements of the total grade for the project was carried out largely through the use of rubrics that focus on the project outcomes. The written proposal rubric includes assessment of the overall organization, paragraph development, written language mechanics, and format and style. In addition to these items in the rubric, each of the required deliverables listed in Section III were assessed first based on whether it was reasonable and sound, and second whether it added value to the proposal in a way that differentiated that aspect of the proposal from the competition. The poster rubric includes assessment of the organization of the content, facilitation of communication of content and purpose, connection with the audience, and aesthetic aspects. The pitch rubric focuses on the connection with the audience and verbal and nonverbal delivery.

In any project that involves a group of students, it is usually difficult to assess the work of an individual student in the group. The deliverables are often submitted in written form so that it is impossible to determine the breakdown of

Fig 7. Grading policy

TABLE T. DISTRIBUTION OF STUDENTS' GRADES

Written Proposal Points 50 40 30

Number of Students 5 6 5

Poster Points 20 10

Number of Students 10 6

Pitch Points 30 20 10

Number of Students 3 10 3

contributions among the individuals in the group. However, with a pitch presentation, it is much clearer which students have contributed the most and are most passionate about their work.

A total of sixteen out of forty-eight students decided to take this project. Students who participated in the project were a good representative of all different majors in the circuits class including electrical, computer, civil and mechanical engineering. Also, their overall class grades were spread between A and F. Students who were doing well in the class material were interested in the project to improve their entrepreneurial mindset. On the other hand, students who were barely passing were interested in the project because of the extra credit. As mentioned before, the participating students were asked to organize themselves in groups of two or three. All groups assumed access to all of the equipment in the laboratory, which includes PCB prototyping and soldering stations. They were allowed to consult with the laboratory technician about the cost of operating those machines, as long as an estimated consultation fee was included in their project cost estimate.

Table 1 shows the distribution of the students' grades for the three different grading categories given in Figure 7 . As shown in the Table, only two groups--a total of five students-­received the full percentage on the written proposal. The

remammg groups were penalized because of mlssmg deliverables or non-convincing proposal material. Most groups did good work in their poster design and obtained all points in this category. Only three students were passionate enough to get a full grade on the pitch. Finally, the winning group that consisted of three students was the only group to receive one extra bonus point.

At the end of the project, a survey was given to the students to assess the outcomes of the project from the perspective of the students. The following statements were used in the survey:

S1 . The project enhanced my understanding of the course.

S2 . The project enhanced my oral, written, and visual communication skills.

S3 . The project taught me how to effectively work in a group setting.

S4 . The project exposed me in practical issues in an engineering design problem.

S5 . The project improved my understanding of economic and fiscal issues of writing a customer-appropriate proposal.

Students were asked to rank these statements using a five­level Likert scale with one being 'strongly disagree' and five being 'strongly agree'.

Out of the sixteen students who participated in the extra credit project, fifteen completed the survey. Table 2 shows the results of this survey. The two most important statements that are closely related to entrepreneurial outcomes are statements 3 and 5 . It is encouraging that most students either agreed or strongly agreed that the project taught them how to write a

TABLE II. SURVEY RESULTS

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

4.8

4.6

4.4

4.2

4

3.8

3.6 S1 S2

SI

0

0

2

11

2

S3

S2 S3 S4

0 0 0

0 1 0

2 3 0

12 7 6

1 4 9

54 S5

Fig. 8. Average scores of given statements in survey

S5

0

0

1

8

6

customer-appropriate proposal. While the results for statement 3 were also generally positive, it is interesting that one student disagreed that the project improved the student's ability to effectively work in a group. Perhaps this indicates there was a conflict within that group. Since this project had a significant design component, students strongly agreed that the project improved their problem solving skills. Students also agreed that the project enhanced their communication skills. We believe this is because the project required them to pitch their proposal orally with the aid of a poster. Finally, the results from statement 1 indicate that the project was a successful augmentation to the course. This statement is backed by the fact that the project did not hinder the overall performance of the participating students in the class. On the contrary, one student was able to pass the class because of the extra credit that he was able to receive from the project. A summary of the average scores of the five given statement in the survey is shown in Figure 8.

V. CONCLUSION

This paper summarizes an extra credit project that was given in the electric circuits class to expose engineering students to an entrepreneurial mindset. The Electric Circuits course belongs to a group of classes that are usually given at the sophomore level and considered to be rich in technical content. While there is a lot of evidence in the literature of integrating entrepreneurial mind set at the freshman and senior level, little work has been done at the sophomore and junior levels. The focus of this paper is to cover this gap by using simple projects that can cover entrepreneurial concepts without hindering the technical content of the sophomore/junior level classes. The nature of the project can be adapted to fit in any technical class. First, the project material is related to the topics covered in the class. Second, students were given enough time to work on the project. Hence, the effort they put into the project did not hinder their performance in the class. Third, the project was given as extra credit, so students could choose not to do it. Fourth, delivering the project material only took a small portion of class time. Fifth, the project successfully covers several entrepreneurial outcomes. Overall, it is the authors' opinion that any project with the above characteristics can be easily integrated in any technical course and will instill valuable entrepreneurial skills in the engineering students. Such skills are invaluable in the workplace.

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