Mapping the Path to KEEN Fellowships: Trends, Insights, and Impacts from 2020-2024

The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) Fellowship program fosters entrepreneurial-minded learning (EML) in engineering education and has grown significantly since its inception.This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the program from 2020 to 2024, focusing on the impact of fellows on engineering education, the workshops that have yielded the most fellowships, and the relationship between fellows' disciplines and their contributions.Through a review of KEEN Fellows' projects, we classify their work into several key categories, including technical problem-solving, interdisciplinary applications, societal impacts, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.This classification is informed by KEEN cards, which highlight innovative teaching methodologies such as problem-solving studios, project-based learning, and entrepreneurship in engineering.Our analysis reveals trends in topics, teaching methods, and content of the KEEN cards, offering insights into how fellows from different disciplines (e.g., mechanical, civil, and chemical engineering) bring distinct approaches to integrating entrepreneurial mindsets in their curricula.We also identify workshops, such as Problem-Solving Studios and Integrating Curriculum with Entrepreneurial Mindset, that consistently produce a higher number of fellows, while showing how faculty from diverse disciplines contribute unique perspectives to EML.Finally, we offer recommendations on suitable pathways for engineering educators to pursue KEEN fellowships based on their discipline and areas of interest, underscoring the broad impact of the program on shaping EML and its influence on engineering curricula across institutions.