Embedding the Entrepreneurial Mindset into Undergraduate Bioengineering Courses: Two Instructional Laboratory Case Studies

Experimental laboratory courses are foundational to undergraduate instruction in various engineering disciplines. Traditionally, students demonstrate competence in laboratory curricula through protocol-based experimentation as well as assignments such as lab reports, but generally do not gain experience in open-ended design or entrepreneurial innovation - skills which may be highly valued by future employers or graduate schools, and even in upper-level project-based courses such as capstone design. Biofabrication Lab is an upper-level elective laboratory course offering students hands-on experience in advanced cell culture, computer aided design, additive manufacturing, and prototyping related to translational bioengineering. Quantitative Physiology Lab is a required laboratory course in which third-year bioengineering students conduct experiments to measure and model human physiological systems, while gaining experience in data analysis and presentation. To expand the breadth of knowledge and experience gained by students, a project with new learning objectives was incorporated into both courses. Through expert lectures and a robust project, students were introduced to technology commercialization and the entrepreneurial mindset, skills that aid in the development of career-ready and innovative engineers. Students applied these concepts through a laboratory-based design project by participating in a product pitch competition to justify the value of their design to a panel of experts in the field who exemplified potential investors. To measure outcomes, we assessed students' self-reported expertise in various components of these disciplines through surveys administered at multiple points throughout the modules and gathered anonymous feedback through end-of-semester course evaluations. In this paper, we detail the design projects of both courses, demonstrate a new resource to introduce the basics of the entrepreneurial mindset and technology commercialization in technical settings, and highlight the observed outcomes. Finally, by providing evidence of this module's implementation in two distinct engineering laboratory courses that vary in class size, topic, scope, and organization, we aim to provide suggestions and encouragement for translation of this module to laboratory and design courses in a variety of STEM disciplines.