Six seed grants totaling $19,000 were awarded to Missouri S&T faculty members to support the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network’s (KEEN) principles, which focus on entrepreneurial mindset in courses. 

Funding comes from the Kern Family Foundation and is sponsored by S&T’s College of Engineering and Computing and the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence. S&T became a KEEN partner institution in October 2023. 

Grant awardees include: 

• Dr. Hossein Abedsoltan, assistant teaching professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, received $1,000 for a project titled “Entrepreneurial thinking in Numerical Computing: A hands-on Lab on Linear/Nonlinear System in Chemical Engineering.”
  
• Dr. Mario Buchely, the Roberta and G. Robert Couch Assistant Professor of Materials and Science Engineering, received $1,000 for a project titled “Integrating Entrepreneurial Mindset in Metallurgical Engineering: Module4-Impact Charpy Testing.”
  
• Dr. Rohit Dua, assistant teaching professor of electrical and computer engineering, received $5,000 for a project titled “Implementing Project-Base Learning (PBL) Components in Electrical and Computer Engineering Elective Courses.”
  
• Dr. Arezoo Emdadi, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, received $2,000 for a project titled “Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindset in Additive Manufacturing through a KEEN-Focused Module in METENG 5150.”
  
• Dr. Michael Gosnell, assistant teaching professor of computer science, received $5,000 for a project titled “Design-Decipher-Defend: A Scalable KEEN Framework for Large-Class Engagement.”
  
• Dr. Jeremiah Rittenhouse, assistant teaching professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received $5,000 for a project titled “Redesigning ME 3708 Machine Design I in an online, asynchronous format to align learning objectives with EM principles.”
  
• Dr. Kelley Wilkerson, associate teaching professor of materials science engineering has been awarded $1000 for a project titled “Integrating Entrepreneurial Mindset into Crystallography through Structured Checkpoints and real-World Problems Solving.”