This project will revolutionize the preparation of engineers to serve needs of the United States in scientific progress, health, prosperity and national defense by dramatically increasing engineers' desire to learn and to persist in highly competitive professional environments. Success in identifying important needs for society and in designing useful solutions will be embedded into the entire educational experience of three engineering programs - biological, chemical and bioengineering - at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University to motivate learning and propel student recruitment and retention. As a result of this project, a new model of engineering education will be envisioned and implemented to produce engineers with high motivation, exemplary design abilities, strong identity as an engineer, ability to select and solve problems critical to society, and problem solve with an entrepreneurial mindset. To produce such engineers, a continuum of needs-finding and design thinking will be integrated throughout the four year curriculum bringing innovation and entrepreneurship in the academic culture of these engineering programs. A broad range of educators and industry representatives will be partners in these curricular innovations. Courses will be restructured to scale back traditional lectures and to add significant prototyping and proof-of-principle labs. Reverse internships for students will be created with industrial mentors and entrepreneurs on campus. Faculty development will provide engineering educators the knowledge and skills to integrate design in their courses.

This project's revolutionary approach to undergraduate engineering education will be first implemented in three BS engineering programs - biological, chemical and bioengineering - within the College of Engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. A public Historically Black University (HBCU) and the top producer of Black engineers in the country, the institution and these engineering programs will serve as a national model in which curricular innovation will be investigated in the context of a diverse engineering student body. Upon demonstration of educational effectiveness within these engineering programs, dissemination to other programs across the country will assure broader impact of the best practices. Using motivational and bioecological development theory, students' learning will be assessed to gauge the effectiveness of needs-finding and design thinking as problem solving techniques. It is anticipated that results from this project will contribute to fundamental principles of motivation during learning and benefit a wide range of student groups and programs in the country. This project is jointly funded by the Division of Undergraduate Education; the Division of Engineering Education and Centers; the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation; the Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems; and the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships; reflecting the alignment of this project with the respective goals of the divisions and their programs.