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|  |  |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n|  |  |  |  | |  |\n|  |  |  |  |  |  |\n\nSPRING 2020  \nUsing Lean Launchpad to Build an Innovation Ecosystem at a Historically Black University  \nTORI RHOULAC SMITH National Science Foundation Alexandria, V. A.  \nGRANT WARNER AND  \nLEGAND BURGE Howard University Washington, D.C.  \nINTRODUCTION  \nThe lack of racial diversity in the technology industry has been widely acknowledged, especially since 2014 when many Silicon Valley companies, like Google, Facebook, and Intel, released racial diversity data. (USEEOC 2014) Statistics indicate that Blacks and Hispanics are grossly underrepresented in professional careers within technology companies. While Blacks comprise over 14% of the workforce in all private industries in the United States, they account for only 7.4% of the high tech workforce, as defined by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Similarly, Hispanic workers comprise just under 14% of jobs in all [private U.S. industries](private U.S. industries), but less than 8% in high tech industries. By contrast, however, whites account for nearly 64% of the workforce in all private [U.S. industries](U.S. industries), but over 68% of the high tech workforce and Asian Americans comprise less than 6% of the private industry workforce in the U.S., but over 14% of the high tech workforce. (USEEOC 2017) Howard University faculty involved in tech entrepreneurship noticed this disparity first-hand as entrepreneurs themselves and as participants in entrepreneurship events and conferences. They set out to build an innovation ecosystem at Howard, a historically Black University, in order to address this gap and prepare more traditionally underrepresented engineering professionals for careers in the current and future technology innovation sector.  \nBuilding an innovation ecosystem was the preferred approach for the undergraduate engineering experience at Howard University because an ecosystem is, by definition, a sustainable environment that supports interconnected and often complex networks. More than a single program or course offering, an ecosystem would have a more prolonged and profound impact on increasing the presence of traditionally underrepresented populations in high tech industries. This paper explores the building of an innovation ecosystem at Howard University and addresses how it started, what it entails, outcomes that have been observed thus far, and next steps.  \nSPRING 2020 1  \nADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION  \nUsing Lean Launchpad to Build an Innovation Ecosystem at a Historically Black University  \nKey words: HBCU, underrepresentation, innovation  \nHOW IT STARTED  \nAs a participant in the inaugural cohort of the Pathways to Innovation program, a team of engineering faculty and administrators at Howard University committed to integrating structured innovation and entrepreneurship learning experiences in the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Pathways to Innovation was a major focus of Epicenter-the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation, funded by the National Science Foundation, whose goal was “to help institutions transform the experience of their undergraduate engineering students and fully incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship into a range of courses as well as strengthen co-and extra-curricular offerings.”(Epicenter 2018) Howard applied to be part of the Pathways to Innovation program in order to expand its capacity to prepare traditionally underrepresented engineering students of high academic standing and potential to become leaders in tech innovation and entrepreneurship.  \nAt the time, Howard had select engineering and computer science faculty members introducing coursework and advising design projects that engaged students in structured innovation and entrepreneurship experiences, but participating in Pathways to Innovation became the catalyst to moving from isolated efforts t","cbCailJyaOsps9w3","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailJyaOsps9w3","pdf",421961,"English","# Introduction\n# How it started\n# What the literature says","[{\"question\":\"Why did Howard University pursue building an innovation ecosystem?\",\"answer\":\"To address racial diversity gaps in technology careers and better prepare traditionally underrepresented engineering professionals for innovation and entrepreneurship roles.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the Pathways to Innovation program influence the initiative?\",\"answer\":\"It provided the catalyst to shift from isolated innovation efforts into a coordinated, structured approach integrated into the undergraduate engineering curriculum.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the core elements of the Lean Launchpad model used in the program?\",\"answer\":\"It focuses on proposing a business model, identifying underlying hypotheses, and running experiments to validate or invalidate assumptions.\"}]","SPRING 2020 - Using Lean Launchpad to Build an Innovation Ecosystem at a Historically Black University | PDF",1792066035]