About KEEN

The Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) is a collaboration of U.S. universities that strive to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering and technology students. KEEN’s mission is to graduate engineers who will contribute to business success and in the process transform the American workforce.

The KEEN universities include:

• Baylor University (TX)
• Boston University (MA)
• Bucknell University (PA)
• Gonzaga University (WA)
• Kettering University (MI)
• Lawrence Technological University (MI)
• Mercer University (GA)
• Milwaukee School of Engineering (WI)
• Ohio Northern University (OH)
• St. Louis University (MO)
• Santa Clara University (CA)
• Union College (NY)
• University of Dayton (OH)
• University of Detroit-Mercy (MI)
• University of Evansville (IN)
• University of New Haven (CT)
• Villanova University (PA)
• Western New England University (MA)
• Widener University (PA)

Graduates of KEEN schools will be prepared to identify new technology-based business opportunities in their engineering disciplines. This network of colleges creates synergy between member institutions that takes advantage of the network’s collective faculty in a manner that transcends an individual university’s status. For more on the philosophy of KEEN see Instilling the Entrepreneurial Mindset in Engineering Undergraduates published in the Journal of Engineering Entrepreneurship (JEEN).

The mission of the KEEN institutions is further described by the KEEN Student Outcomes listed below.

A student should be able to:

1. Effectively collaborate in a team setting
2. Apply critical and creative thinking to ambiguous problems
3. Construct and effectively communicate a customer-appropriate value proposition
4. Persist through and learn from failure (to learn what is needed to succeed)
5. Effectively manage projects and apply the commercialization process (within respective disciplines)
6. Demonstrate voluntary social responsibility
7. Relate personal liberties and free enterprise to entrepreneurship