Nearly two years ago, Missouri S&T joined the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), and Dr. David Borrok said the partnership would lead to students and faculty embracing a mindset centered on creativity, connections and value creation.
Borrok, vice provost and dean of S&T’s College of Engineering and Computing, says the partnership continues to deliver on that promise.
“It has been rewarding to see our faculty and students fully embrace KEEN’s principles and approach challenges by combining technical skills with creative problem-solving and innovation,” Borrok says. “Our university has always provided exceptional technical training, and with KEEN and other initiatives, we’re helping students learn how to creatively apply those skills and make impacts and that go beyond the classroom.”
Since the partnership began, the college and S&T’s Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) have awarded $32,000 in mini-grants funded by the Kern Family Foundation to help faculty integrate KEEN principles into courses. Projects have included redesigning classes to better integrate concepts like value creation; improving the impact and creativity of senior design presentations using artificial intelligence; and increasing student engagement in labs.
CAFE also created a continuing community-of-practice program where faculty share experiences and explore new ways to bring KEEN’s core principles into their courses.
Borrok says faculty members now regularly contribute to KEEN’s online platform, Engineering Unleashed, and many have developed activity cards, attended the KEEN National Conference and taken part in workshops around the country.
Before the spring 2025 semester, the college hosted a multi-day workshop to help instructors incorporate the KEEN philosophy in their courses.
Dr. Rachel Kohman, assistant dean of entrepreneurship education for S&T’s Kummer College of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development, says KEEN principles are now also a key part of the university’s first-year engineering and computing course.
The updated curriculum includes sessions on brainstorming methods to solve organizational pain points, finding connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, and addressing ethical issues through an entrepreneurial lens. Over 30 faculty and staff members have volunteered to support these class sessions, alongside a core planning and teaching group that helped guide the course’s KEEN-focused redesign.
“Anything we can do to help faculty and students understand and embrace the important engineering mindset principles promoted by KEEN, we’ve been excited to try,” Kohman says. “These efforts will equip thousands of students with skills to innovate and create value in their lives, careers and communities. We’re laying the foundation for long-term success for our students and their future industries.”
To learn more about S&T’s KEEN initiatives, visit cafe.mst.edu/teaching/keen.
About Missouri S&T
Missouri University of Science and Technology is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to The Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.