The Four Engineering Social Innovation Skills: a Scholarly Review to Catalyze the New Generations of Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

Innovation in higher education and ecosystems play a key role in developing skills to appeal to an increasingly socially responsible job market. To do so, engineering educators must teach future professionals "social innovation skills": the ability to identify a community's social needs and transform this information into innovative technical solutions. This scholarly review was the foundation of a study the author performed to explore to what extent engineering students exhibit social innovation skills in an industry-driven capstone project in the program of civil engineering at a Midwestern research-intensive institution. The results suggest of the scholarly review suggest new directions for future research, such as integrating community engagement and learning the structure of the government as platforms to facilitate social innovation skill learning among engineering students. Thus, I proposed the new concept of Engineering Social Innovation Skills.