PAtENT: a student-centered entrepreneurial pathway to the engineering doctorate

Figures & data

Table 1. Core recommendations for STEM doctoral programs.

1. Develop Scientific and Technological Literacy and Conduct Original Research
ELEMENTS	KEY ACTIVITIES
a. Develop deep specialized expertise in at least one STEM discipline.	Progress in program requires acquiring deep specialized expertise and conducting original research; also emphasizes entrepreneurship.
b. Acquire sufficient transdisciplinary literacy to suggest multiple conceptual and methodological approaches to a complex problem.	Required to enroll in courses offered by College of Business on entrepreneurship and Innovation, in addition to engineering program.
c. Identify an important problem and articulate an original research question.	Patent planning which has a 4-step process.
d. Design a research strategy, including relevant quantitative, analytical, or theoretical approaches, to explore components of the problem and begin to address the question.	Committee evaluates the student’s progress towards the research goals as outlined in the proposal for research.
e. Evaluate outcomes of each experiment or study component and select which outcomes to pursue and how to do so through an iterative process.	Support for progress toward filing a provisional patent, overseen by the entire committee, and supervised by faculty mentor.
f. Adopt rigorous standards of investigation and acquire mastery of the quantitative, analytical, technical, and technological skills required to conduct successful research in the field of study.	Viability of the patentable technology (as determined by the patent committee), and external peer review of the proposed technology.
g. Learn and apply professional norms and practices of the scientific or engineering enterprise, the ethical responsibilities of scientists and engineers within the profession and in relationship to the rest of society, as well as ethical standards that will lead to principled character and conduct.	Two required courses focusing on academic integrity and responsible conduct of research.
2. Develop Leadership, Communication, and Professional Competencies
a. Develop the ability to work in collaborative and team settings involving colleagues with expertise in other disciplines and from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds.	Management electives can lead to graduate certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation; candidates are required to take at least one management course.
b. Acquire the capacity to communicate, both orally and in written form, the significance and impact of a study or a body of work to all STEM professionals, other sectors that may utilize the results, and the public at large.	Students participate in Ventureprise (NSF I-Corps site) on-campus training modules and professional development programs for aspiring entrepreneurs, mentoring by commercialization experts, customer discovery.
c. Develop professional competencies, such as interpersonal communication, budgeting, project management, or pedagogical skills that are needed to plan and implement research projects.	Entrepreneurship courses (Business) focus on product and technology-specific strategies and case studies for market research, customer discovery, decision making, financing, team management, and product management.

Table 2. Graduate student entrepreneurship survey constructs and sample items.

Concept/Origin	Constructs	Sample Item
Engineering Efficacy (Glazer & Peurach, 2012)	Self Efficacy	I can master the content in the [graduate program]‐related courses I am taking this semester
	Experimental Efficacy	I can perform experiments independently
Entrepreneurial Efficacy (Preskill & Torres, 1999)	Tinkering	I can work with tools and use them to build things
	Design	I can identify a design need
Innovation (Clarke & Dede, 2009)	Creativity	I can find new ways to implement ideas
	Teamwork	I can invite feedback and comments
	Innovation	Convince people to support an innovative idea
	Network	Build relationships outside the team/organization

Figure 1. Roadmap of Progression towards Ph.D. Candidacy: Traditional versus PAtENT Program.

Table 3. Survey results by program for engineering self-efficacy, entrepreneurial efficacy, and innovation skills.

Construct	Engineering Doctoral Students (n = 27)
	Mean	SD
Self-Efficacy	5.09	1.03
Experimental Efficacy	5.39	0.58
Tinkering	4.67	1.17
Design	4.99	1.10
Creativity	5.01	0.77
Teamwork	4.88	0.77
Innovation	4.86	0.73
Network	4.83	0.86

Glazer, J. L., & Peurach, D. J. (2012). School improvement networks as a strategy for large-scale education reform: The role of educational environments. Educational Policy, 27(4), 676–710. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904811429283

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Preskill, H., & Torres, R. T. (1999). Evaluative inquiry for learning in organizations. SAGE Publications.

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Clarke, J., & Dede, C. D. (2009). Design for scalability: A case study of the River City curriculum. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18(4), 353–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-009-9156-4

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.