Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biomedical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Elsaadany, Mostafa

Abstract

Systemic racism in the United States is embedded within the policies that have created oppression for certain groups. Women, people of color, and those from low-income families have less access to entrepreneurial knowledge due to the education gap. It has been determined that less than 20 percent of US patents entail a female inventor. Black and Hispanic college graduates also lack this access as fewer than half as many individuals hold patents. Ensuring that these populations are educated in inventor knowledge can facilitate greater inclusion. The historical Brown vs the Board of Education intended to end unequal public schooling. It was clear that pre-established policies limited underrepresented minorities (URM) in self-advancement. Education between represented and underrepresented groups within society has consistently followed a diverging trend despite these efforts. These disparities often lead to less minority representation within the inventor population. This is especially shown in engineering education. Although engineering education has evolved in order to adhere to the constant changes in society, the lack of diversity causes limits in creativity, innovation, and economic growth. STEM degrees are usually awarded to White and Asian males, thus several groups of society are not exemplified within the STEM field. It is crucial to enhance the underrepresented groups’ availability to entrepreneurial learning to increase progress in the industrial, medical, and academic environment. Previously, a semester-long project-based on Entrepreneurially Minded Learning (EML) was developed and implemented by our group into a sophomore-level biomechanics course. The objective of this project was to increase student curiosity, connections, and value creation as defined by the Kern Foundation KEEN program during the problem-solving process in 3 modules. Based on the positive outcomes obtained from this project, the current study aimed to investigate the motivations, self-efficacy, and responses to EML skills from those in underrepresented groups. Likert-scale and open-ended survey questions were utilized to identify the effectiveness of the EML project in fueling entrepreneurial skills within minority student groups. It was hypothesized that URM students exhibit less motivation to conduct entrepreneurial activities as well as possession of a sense of lower self-efficacy compared to well-represented student populations. After a comparison was made between the represented and underrepresented groups and the statistical difference is confirmed, revision steps were determined to ensure that the gap between groups was reduced. These steps included the addition of a mentor program and a workshop focused on instilling entrepreneurial skills into URM groups.

Keywords

Biomedical Engineering; entrepreneurial; race; gender; FGCs

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