Integrating Entrepreneurial-minded Learning in Electronic Design Course

In recent years, more universities and faculty are engaged in incorporating entrepreneurial minded learning (EML) into the engineering curriculum. However, it is not easy for students to build up entrepreneurial skills within one course or a couple of courses in an already crowded engineering program. The College of Engineering (CoE) decided to embed entrepreneurial skills in engineering learning activities for a number of courses throughout the program curriculum, requiring an efficient and integrated process. By incorporating EML in different course sequences such as circuits, electronic design, and communication sequences, students will have the opportunity to develop and build up their entrepreneurial mindset. The paper reviews the CoE’s experience and preliminary evaluation results of integrating EML in our junior level course EE375 Electronic Design I. EE375 is the first electronics course of a three-course electronics design sequence. The course covers circuits design using diodes and transistors with several laboratory experiments. This lab modification is part of a curriculum-wide effort to integrate EML to different course sequences. Students will be repeatedly exposed to entrepreneurship skills when applying them to their capstone design as well in the other course sequences.