The Lean Canvas for Invention: A Team-Based Framework for Research Development, Mentoring, and Career Readiness

Developing a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce is critical to our nation's ability to compete with innovation and competition globally. However, graduate training programs in STEM are not preparing students for changes in the nature and availability of work, shifts in workforce demographics, rising competition, macro ethics, and unremitting and striking innovations in technologies and research methods.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recommends that STEM graduate education respond to workforce needs, connect theory to practice, utilize project-based learning, guide the exploration of diverse career paths, and develop core competencies as well as transferable professional skills. The National Science Foundation Innovations of Graduate Education (IGE) award to the University of Utah will respond to these recommendations by examining the impact and feasibility of a bold, new, transformative, team-based approach to graduate research development and entrepreneurship in engineering that optimizes the quality and consistency of mentoring interactions and relationships among members of the research team, and fosters graduate students’ professional competencies and workforce readiness.

This project not only helps graduate students develop the skills and knowledge to be successful in their discipline, but also enhances the quality and effectiveness of peer and faculty mentoring relationships to create a more inclusive, supportive, and productive research environment. Results will inform the education community on best practices for training the next generation of STEM scientists.

The Lean Canvas for Invention (LCI) is a web-based course that was recently developed and initially previously piloted. It will help research teams think through a research problem and plan and implement both team and individual research projects. This project will expand the basic LCI by including formalized mentoring and career development.

The first research objective is to apply the expanded LCI with seven research teams and examine differences in student outcomes (e.g., quality of research proposals, critical thinking skills, research self-efficacy, etc.) between those who participated in the LCI and a representative sample of non-LCI peers. The second research objective is to provide mentoring training and resources through interactions among students, faculty, and relevant industry stakeholders on a regular and structured basis.

Quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups with LCI participants will evaluate the perceived quality, characteristics of, and satisfaction with their mentoring relationships and how mentoring influenced graduate students’ persistence attitudes. Pre- and post-intervention surveys with LCI and non-LCI peers will examine students’ and faculty’s sense of belonging within the research team, the academic department, and the larger field of engineering.

The third research objective is to foster the development of professional competencies and workforce readiness by helping students create an individualized career development plan including career aspirations, goals, and action steps that will be reviewed at specific time points. Career exploration resources, as well as structured networking opportunities with professionals in the engineering-related industry, will be provided.

Pre- and post-intervention surveys with LCI and non-LCI peers will examine differences in the development of STEM core competencies as well as progress towards degree and workforce readiness indicators.

The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.