1. Entrepreneurship in Water Resources Sustainability
Keywords: Water Resources, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability
Entrepreneurship in Water Resources Sustainability
Amanda Cox, PhD, PE

2. Why?
The mission of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) is to graduate entrepreneurial minded engineers so they can create personal, economic, and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work
KEEN has identified three common characteristics of successful entrepreneurship endeavors: 1) curiosity, 2) making connections, and 3) creating value
The objective of this educational module is to foster the student entrepreneurial mindset through exploring the application of these three concepts to sustainable water resources engineering

3. When?
The educational module was developed in the spring of 2015 and the first two submodules were implemented in the Hydraulic Engineering undergraduate course
Four lab periods were used for the students to work in groups and provide presentations
The first submodule was also implemented in the spring of 2016 in the same course, but the second was not covered due to time limitations
Example student slides:

4. Where?
This educational module has been implemented only at Saint Louis University
It was developed to cover about four class periods for a single course
Example student slides:

5. What?
Group Project Exploring Making Connections and Creating Value: Student groups give presentations highlighting successful examples of water resources entrepreneurship. Students identify what connections were made to develop the technology and describe the value created from the technology. Students assess the societal need, technical feasibility, environmental impact, societal trends and perceptions, and market availability of the technology.
Curiosity Exercise: Student groups give presentations on the topics presented in the paper “Some Curious Things about Water Management“ by Lund (2013). Example: studies forever, are sometimes cheaper and more politically convenient than action or technically serious work
What has worked really well?
Students enjoyed working in groups to explore these topics
The presentations initiated valuable discussion and curiosity regarding water resources sustainability

6. Prognosis?
Impact was documented through evaluations at the end of the semester
The innovative module consumed a lot of class time and reduced time for focusing on more traditional topics
I plan to move the module to an elective course to help preserve time in the core-curriculum course
The curiosity submodule was converted to a presentation from its original form of multiple in-class discussions
I would like advice on how to efficiently integrate special educational modules into courses that have rigid fundamental content