2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Students’ Self-Perception of Their Entrepreneurial Characteristics

Presented at Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation Division Technical Session 7

In recent years, entrepreneurship has been viewed as a necessary component of engineering education to support the development of an innovative workforce. Engineering entrepreneurship education is seen as a means to develop entrepreneurial mindset and skills that are essential for a successful professional life. In an effort to integrate entrepreneurship education into an already dense curriculum, universities and colleges offer a range of entrepreneurship programming from individual classes, certificate programs, and minors and or majors. With these various options, students have several different pathways to entrepreneurship education. However, research has shown that student demographics influence their participation in entrepreneurship programming. Further, self-efficacy, which is the belief in one’s ability, is seen as a key characteristic motivating intent and activity. To continue to understand the factors that affect student engagement in entrepreneurial learning and their development of entrepreneurial skills, we examined students’ self-perceptions and beliefs with respect to demographics and background. Specifically, we looked at students’ self-perception of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), creative self-efficacy (CSE), and Risk-taking with respect to gender, family background, class standing, major, previous exposure to entrepreneurship classes, and on their self-identification as entrepreneurial. Survey data was collected from 194 students at a large, Midwest public research university. Independent t-tests were used to look for differences in ESE, CSE and Risk-taking with respect to student demographics and background. Results indicate that men score higher in risk-taking than women. Students with entrepreneurs in the family and students in their third year or higher score higher in some aspects of ESE. Students with previous exposure to entrepreneurship classes score higher in CSE. Finally, students that self-identify as entrepreneurial score higher in ESE, CSE, and Risk-Taking. These results indicate that engineering students hold varying entrepreneurial characteristics based on their background and demographics and that the characteristics assessed are more sensitive to students' self- identification as entrepreneurial than their background and demographics. Implications of the results on the development and implementation of entrepreneurship programming for engineers are discussed.

Authors

Miss Vibhavari Vempala http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7119-1498 University of Michigan [biography]

Vibhavari (Vibha) Vempala is a PhD student in Engineering Education Research at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include engineering identity, engineering student development and students' experiences and perceptions of Biomedical Engineering. Vibha received a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering from the joint department of Biomedical Engineering at The North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Mr. Jacob Frederick Fuher University of Michigan [biography]

Jacob Fuher is an engineer working in the automotive industry. His academic and research interests include Data Analysis, Optics and Network, Communication and Information Systems, as well as education. He plans to further explore engineering education research throughout his career. Jacob Fuher has earned a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Electrical Engineering at Purdue University.
Ms. Heydi L. Dominguez New Jersey Institute of Technology [biography]

Heydi Dominguez is a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her career interests include conducting research in the field of engineering education, particularly focused on entrepreneurship and design education for engineering undergraduates. At NJIT, she is actively engaged in the Society of Women Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
Mr. Jeremiah Ogunbunmi New Jersey Institute of Technology [biography]

Jeremiah Ogunbunmi is an undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Materials Science and Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research interest is analyzing data that enhances entrepreneurial mindsets in engineering Education. His career interest is optimizing lean manufacturing in drug administration process. He is actively involved with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers.
Dr. Aileen Huang-Saad Northeastern University [biography]

In February 2021 Dr. Huang-Saad joined the Bioengineering faculty at Northeastern University and became the Director
of Life Sciences and Engineering Programs at The Roux Institute (Portland, Maine). Dr. Huang-Saad has a fourteen-
year history of bringi
Dr. Prateek Shekhar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6552-2887 New Jersey Institute of Technology [biography]

Prateek Shekhar is an Assistant Professor - Engineering Education at New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research is focused on examining translation of engineering education research in practice, assessment and evaluation of dissemination initiatives and educational programs in engineering disciplines. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California and B.S. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India.

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