Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindset in Students: A Modular Framework for Integrating Entrepreneurship Education Into Engineering Capstone Projects

Abstract

This paper aims to integrate entrepreneurship component into senior capstone engineering projects, so to elevate their entrepreneurial intentions. Incorporating entrepreneurship into engineering capstone projects helps students understand how their technical skills can be applied in real-world scenarios. It encourages them to develop solutions that are not just academically sound but also practical and marketable. Engineering Capstone’s projects are designed to provide senior students with opportunities to present their own solutions. These are all potential ideas for start-ups, that can stimulate new employment and economic growth. Nowadays the role of entrepreneurship to market economies has significantly increased, since it acts as the wheels of the economic development of the country. So, in this context, entrepreneurship education has emerged out as a demanding subject to be mastered by young graduates. This paper proposes a framework with modules (arranged according to Bloom Taxonomy) to be delivered within two stages aligned with engineering capstone projects’ academic timing. This methodology will boost the interest of the students for individual start-ups and embrace any upcoming opportunities to be successful entrepreneurs. This framework can be implemented in any engineering department.   Received: 29 September 2023 / Accepted: 16 December 2023 / Published: 5 January 2024