Introducing the Entrepreneurial Mindset to Freshman Engineering Students Through an Agriculture Sector Project

This full paper addresses the topic of introducing the entrepreneurial mindset to freshman engineering students. The entrepreneurial mindset encompasses three parts - curiosity, connections, and creating value. During a project course, freshman engineering students discover the entrepreneurial mindset through the process of completing a team project. The assignment consists of five real-life problems from the agriculture sector. These issues tackle the reduction of water usage for crops, increased efficiency on the farm, and a reduction of over planting and chemical use on crops. The students are exposed to equipment and topics most have never analyzed or contemplated in the agriculture sector. After announcing the five problems, the students are immediately curious about the issues and enthusiastic about how they are going to develop solutions. The student teams select the problem they want to solve for their project. The teams research the subject matter and make connections with a farmer to gain more insight about the problem. With this connection, the students determine the requirements for the project design and realistic constraints about the equipment. The students explore creating value to the prototype by having results that can be retro-fitted on an existing piece of equipment, improve existing technology, or develop something new within a reasonable budget. The student teams benchmark their prototypes to determine where their product would fit in the market. They create value by knowing how their final solution benefits the user. Finally, the students build mechatronic prototypes using an Arduino, and the user is able to view the final demonstration and the innovative solutions from the student teams. This project exposes students to the entrepreneurial mindset and the importance of being curious, connecting with their user, and creating value in a design. Since the inception of this project, it has become a fundamental assignment in the course and an integral part of the class.