An official website of the United States government
Current structures of STEM graduate programs raise questions about addressing graduates’ interest in multiple career paths, and how programs prepare graduates for positions increasingly available in varied occupations. This problem is addressed through an innovative doctoral program in engineering, Pathways to Entrepreneurship (PAtENT), which works to develop a scalable alternative student-centered framework. This research explores how this program responds to calls for graduate STEM education to address changes in science and engineering, the nature of the workforce, career goals, and how program components build an entrepreneurial mindset. A mixed-methods design includes a curriculum analysis showing alignment of program components to recommendations for Ph.D. STEM programs from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Direct measures include surveys and interviews developed for current doctoral students and faculty to describe students’ and faculty perspectives about program components, particularly entrepreneurship and the patent process. The curriculum analysis shows strong alignment of the PAtENT program components and activities to the ten elements of the National Academies’ recommendations. A survey of graduate students in engineering, computing, and business show strong measures in engineering and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Interviews of program participants and faculty demonstrate strong interest in patents and developing entrepreneurship. This innovative program in engineering focusing on obtaining a patent as a capstone shows potential to reform doctoral studies, so candidates are prepared not only for academic careers but a range of industry and government work environments. This work will lead to development of a model for other graduate STEM programs.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on June 23, 2025
Pathways to Entrepreneurship (PAtENT): Addressing the National Academies Recommendations
Though the field of engineering has experienced significant changes over the last several decades, many graduate programs have not made any substantive changes in their curriculum. This is particularly important given that data show that over sixty percent of new doctorate program graduates do not go into academic research [1]. Recognizing the critical need for change, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [2] made recommendations for graduate STEM education programs. The intent was to examine how graduate STEM education can focus on evidence-based practices which better respond to the needs of students and broader society. The Committee on Revitalizing Graduate STEM Education identified key competencies for educational systems so that they are dynamic in addressing current needs of students while anticipating future contexts in STEM graduate education. These competencies were the framework for this research which employed curriculum analysis methods to the PAtENT (Pathways to Entrepreneurship), an alternate pathway to the doctorate in engineering at this University. The curriculum analysis included the two components of the Academies’ recommendations: 1) Develop scientific and technological literacy and conduct original research and 2) Develop leadership, communication, and professional competencies. The research used a dimensional core curriculum analysis [3 - 4] to analyze program information including documents, artifacts, and other data related to coursework, original research, student classroom experiences as well as laboratories and fieldwork. The descriptive content analysis used a systematic process to allow for identifying attributes within documents and data in order to align identified components to program activities and structures. Coding for the curriculum analysis used an inductive, thematic and descriptive approach in aligning program components and activities to ten elements listed for the two components in the Academies’ recommendations. Document analysis identified curriculum expectations and program outcomes that were tagged to the elements in the recommendations. The goal of this research was to identify PAtENT program activities and features that best addressed a particular element. Procedures followed key processes from curriculum study methodology including identifying desired outcomes, determining what content and activities contributed to those outcomes, and identifying experiences developed to result in those intended outcomes [5 - 7]. This systematic process identified attributes and components of PAtENT program features that aligned to the ten elements.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1954978
- PAR ID:
- 10583160
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Society of Engineering Education
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
This Work in Progress paper describes the lessons learned from a new pathway for doctoral candidates in STEM programs allowing capstone degree requirements to be fulfilled by research culminating in a patent application. The Pathways to Entrepreneurship (PAtENT) model aims to bring greater alignment between doctoral degrees and the rapidly changing employment landscape. Given that seventy percent of PhDs exit academic careers within three years [1], creating doctoral pathways that align with multiple career options is an imperative. We describe the PAtENT model, rationale and goals. Components of the pilot program will be explained through a curriculum alignment describing key activities that respond to recommendation for STEM graduate programs identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine [2]: developing scientific and technological literacy and conducting original research; and developing leadership, communication, and professional competencies. After two years of development and implementation, we are also able to discuss lessons learned and strategies for scaling the model. We present findings from students in the program and a reflective interview of the project leadership team. In order to adopt this innovative education model, students, faculty, and universities need understanding of career pathways and opportunities beyond traditional academic pursuits.more » « less
-
Roundtable discussion: Join us for a discussion on the ideal components of STEM graduate education. We will present information on the design, development, and piloting of a new graduate course to promote research innovation, mentoring, and career readiness. We will share our experiences working with graduate students in electrical engineering and highlight specific course content and assignments that respond to recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.more » « less
-
The importance of diversifying the national STEM workforce is well-established in the literature (Marrongelle, 2018). This need extends to graduate education in the STEM fields, leading N.C. A&T to invest considerably in graduate education and wraparound support initiatives that help graduate students build science identity and competencies for careers both within and beyond academia. The NSF-funded Bridges to the Doctorate project will integrate culturally reflective mentoring and professional development specifically designed for Black, Latinx, and Native American Ph.D. students. This holistic, graduate student development model includes academic and professional skill-building for STEM careers alongside targeted support for pursuing fellowship opportunities. This paper discusses the planned mentoring approach for the aforementioned program and previous approaches to mentoring graduate students used at N.C. A&T. The BD Fellows program will support formal and informal mentoring relationships, as mentoring contributes towards retention in STEM graduate programs (Ragins, 2007). BD Fellows will participate in monthly one-hour seminars on how to identify, establish, and maintain informal mentoring relationships (Schwartz et al., 2018; Parnes et al., 2020), while STEM faculty will attend seminars on leveraging their social networks as vital sources of mentorship for the BD Fellows. Using a multi-pronged collaborative approach, this model integrates the evidence-based domains of self-efficacy (Laurencelle & Scanlan, 2018; Lent et al., 1994; Lent et al., 2008), science/research identity (Lent et al., 2015; Zimmerman, 2000), and social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 2005; Lent and Brown, 2006) to recruit, enroll, and graduate LSAMP Fellows with STEM doctoral degrees. Guided by the theories, the following questions will be addressed: (1) To what extent is culturally reflective mentoring identified as a critical driver of B2D Fellows’ success? (2) To what extent are the program’s training components fostering increases in B2D Fellow’s self-efficacy, competency, and science identity? (3) What is the strength of the correlation between participation in the program training components, mentoring activities, and persistence in graduate school? (4) To what extent does the perceived importance of self-efficacy, competency, and science identity differ by race/ethnicity and gender? These data will be analyzed using both formative and summative assessments of program outcomes. Quantitative data will include pre-, post-, and exit surveys. Qualitative data will assess the impact of mentoring and program support. This study will be guided by established protocols that have been approved by the N.C. A&T IRB. It is anticipated that our BD Fellows program will significantly impact the retention and graduation rates of underrepresented minority STEM graduate students in our doctoral programs, thus producing a diverse workforce of STEM professionals. Materials from the program recruiting cycle, mentoring workshops, and the structured fellowship application process will be disseminated freely to other LSAMP and minority-serving institutions across the country. Strategies and outcomes of this project will be published in peer-reviewed journals and shared in conference proceedings.more » « less
-
Data Science plays a vital role in sciences and engineering disciplines to discover meaningful information and predict the outcome of real-world problems. Despite the significance of this field and high demand, knowledge of how to effectively provide data science research experience to STEM students is scarce. This paper focuses on the role of data science and analytics education to improve the students' computing and analytical skills across a range of domain-specific problems. The paper studies four examples of data-intensive STEM projects for supervised undergraduate research experiences (SURE) in Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical science, Quantum Physics, and Cybersecurity. The developed projects include the applications of data science for improving additive manufacturing, automating microscopy images analysis, identifying the quantum optical modes, and detecting network intrusion. The paper aims to provide some guidelines to effectively educate the next generation of STEM undergraduate and graduate students and prepare STEM professionals with interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and competencies in data science. The paper includes a summary of activities and outcomes from our research and education in the field of data science and machine learning. We will evaluate the student learning outcomes in solving big data interdisciplinary projects to confront the new challenges in a computationally-driven world.more » « less
