A Natural Fit: Grand Challenge Scholars Program

Formal integration of EM began by examining the ASU GCSP overall to evaluate where EM development already occurred in existing program components and where it could be further enhanced. We used the Fulton GCSP requirements/program manual to take a holistic look at the GCSP with the aim of identifying where EM fits and seeing how the program is related to EM beyond the obvious connection with the program’s entrepreneurship component. This assessment led to enhancing ASU’s curriculum for GCSP participants. Initial ideas of how to message and encourage EM/the 3C’s came from KEEN materials on defining the 3C’s and information received at a KEEN Integrating Curriculum with Entrepreneurial Mindset (ICE) Workshop, led by faculty from Lawrence Technological University. Since the FSE150: Perspectives on Grand Challenges for Engineering course is required for all students in the GCSP and already contained some assignments and outcomes that align with EM, it appeared to be a great place to start further integration of EM. 

The introductory GCSP course (FSE 150) was developed for the program to introduce students to the GCSP, and to the interdisciplinary global nature of the NAE Grand Challenges. It was also developed to further encourage students to explore approaches to solving global challenges they are interested in from the very start of their academic career in GCSP. The “Future Solutions Project,” a creative open-ended team design project, was add to FSE 150 and first implemented in 2013,  EM was not explicitly integrated into the Future Solutions project and piloted until Spring 2016. 

The project modifications required students to focus more on identifying an opportunity to create value, designing a solution to meet the needs of a target customer, and describing the impacts their solution will have on society, including the value it will create. In Fall 2016, further modifications to the project were made explicitly requiring students to communicate the value created by their solutions when they presented their project work to other faculty, staff, and GCSP students through posters and models during a poster session at the end of the semester.  Throughout the course,  the 3C’s were used to describe the core activities of engineering, and creating value for society was emphasized as it relates to engineering solutions to the NAE Grand Challenges. EM was also integrated into the course syllabus for the Fall 2016 semester, when the following two course learning outcomes specific to EM were added:

• Identify opportunities to create added value in the Grand Challenge areas, and conceptualize a potential future solution. 
• Interpret why (and in what ways) a technology/design solution adds value from multiple perspectives (technological, sociocultural, economic, environmental, global, etc.), and describe a design solution in terms of its societal value (as well as its technical features and function). 

The changes to the project and addition of these learning objectives were inspired by the GCSP director’s involvement with KEEN and learning about the 3C’s. Working to find ways to further integrate EM into the course gave her an opportunity to look at the course objectives anew and revise them to more directly represent what students achieve in the course through the Future Solutions Project.

Also in 2016, the GCSP SI program’s curriculum was revised to incorporate more focus on the 3C’s. T.  A sustainability-focused, hands-on design activity was revised to include more emphasis on customers and provide opportunities for interaction with customer representatives during the design phase. Students utilized a Value Proposition Canvas to create design features that satisfied specific customer needs and described the value created when presenting their prototypes.

In 2017, EM also served as a means of further strengthening the connection between GCSP and the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI). KEEN team staff members reviewed the list of FURI participants who were also in GCSP and identified projects with an EM element. One of these students received KEEN research funding in addition to her GCSP research stipend or FURI funding, and during the spring 2017 FURI Symposium, she presented in the same area with KEEN signage as other KEEN research funding recipients. Together these students’ presentations provided insight into how the 3C’s influenced their projects. 

NOTE: Supporting resources for this case study can be found within its companion KEEN card (link below), which is also where the community can discuss the case and its broader topic.