Leadership in Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The establishment of an innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership engineering undergraduate program at a university is shared. The development timeline began at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2007 and culminated in its inception in 2015. Five years of implementation and continuous quality improvement following the inauguration culminated with ABET accreditation in summer 2020. The degree plan features a four-year spiral curriculum. There is an iterative revisiting of engineering topics, innovation and entrepreneurship subjects, business acumen, and leadership engineering themes throughout the courses. The first year introduces core concepts in design, innovation, and entrepreneurship, the second year brings engineering modeling and simulations, and measurements to incorporate technical engineering practices, the third year focuses on entrepreneurship, people, and products, and the capstone year drives innovation in practice, through culminating team-driven projects. The concept of "leadership engineering" was first coined in 2011. The development of the plans for a new generation degree program offering proceeded through 2013 when the proposal for establishment passed procedurally through the university and our state public university system. The original proposal of "Leadership Engineering" was requested to be adapted to be titled "Engineering Leadership" on the basis that it aligned with conservative generally accepted norms for "Engineering Management." Now coined the E-LEAD degree program, it is the first of a kind undergraduate degree in the US. The degree offering was ratified and approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in October 2014. The first students began undertaking technical engineering courses at the university, taught within conventional engineering disciplinary departments, during 2013. By achieving this head start and completing inaugural groundbreaking special topics classes in leadership engineering subjects in 2014, we celebrated our first cohort of students graduating in May 2017. We have since achieved a further four major milestone graduating cohorts; May 2018, 2019, virtually in May 2020, with the fifth and latest in May 2021. In total, we have graduated 51 students, with the majority (26) being women. The degree program has proceeded through three iterations, updating courses, emphases, and aligning pre-requisites, and refining course outcomes during this period. During pioneering the student-centric program, several innovations in teaching methods and curriculum proceeded. Teaching methods and pedagogical approaches used at Olin College are adapted to teach engineering innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. The resulting program has a unique character, emphasizing small cohorts engaged in learning within a hands-on project-based studio environment. Improvements have been made by partnering with businesses and industries, including Boeing Corporation, Halliburton, and Lockheed Martin.