Titles & Abstracts

The Role of Universities in Inclusive Innovation - Prof. Dr. Mercedes Delgado

There are two trends at leading US research universities that motivate this work (Delgado & Murray, 2023, 2025). First, universities account for a large share of new (first patent) inventors in the economy (by 2024, 9% of all new inventors in the US economy were generated in patents granted to universities). Second, a large share of new inventors at the university patents are PhD students (30%)– referred as New Inventor-PhDs (i.e., those filing their first granted patent during their studies or soon after graduation). Faculty advisors that are themselves top inventors play a very important role in training their advisees to become new inventors by working together on projects that are co-patented (Delgado and Murray, 2023). However, female advisees are less likely to become new inventors during their doctoral training. The drivers of this gender gap will be discussed.

In ongoing work, we also study the long-term innovation effects of engaging in first-patenting during doctoral training (Delgado, Murray, Kolev, 2026). The goal is to test potential cumulative advantages in commercializing science. To examine this question, we follow a representative sample of STEM PhD graduates through their careers to assess how getting patents early might affect subsequent innovation outcomes. Specifically, we will examine the effects on entrepreneurship and innovation (patents) of PhD students becoming new inventors during their doctoral program versus a control group of students who did not file a patent during their PhD. Importantly, we study whether the long-term effects of becoming New Inventor-PhDs differ for men versus women.

Our hypothesis is that allocating more resources to universities (and faculty inventors) to train new inventors could have a large and long-lasting effect on high-quality entrepreneurship and innovation. Furthermore, women face more family constraints in their careers than men (Goldin, 2011). We want to test whether some of those barriers may be reduced for women who become new inventors during their doctoral program (versus other female PhD graduates) since they have learned to patent and their innovation skills will be more visible (i.e., they are listed as inventors on a patent) when they join another organization after graduation.

The preliminary findings for the sub-sample of MIT show that New Inventor PhDs have higher likelihood of becoming entrepreneurs (versus the control group), and they also have higher patenting productivity. This paper will inform the debate about deep tech ventures and the “missing millions” in terms of STEM talent who are yet to engage in science-based innovation and entrepreneurship.

Learning to see the math around us - Prof. Dr. Minna Hannula-Sormunen

Growing amount of research shows that while for some children, the world may appear to be full of numerosities, numerically ordered sets of items, quantitative relations and other mathematical aspects, for some other children, mathematical aspects remain largely ignored, unless someone specifically directs their attention to mathematical aspects. It seems that these individual differences in the amount and quality of spontaneous mathematical focusing behavior are positively related to differences in the amount and quality of practice children acquire in using and practicing their mathematical skills. Intervention studies demonstrate potential of supporting children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity at preschool age (e.g., Hannula-Sormunen et al., 2020). How to use these findings in developing professional vision and expertise of early educators? The presentation will describe the journey from the first research findings of spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) to the current state of art in pre- and inservice teacher training and early math education in Finland in respect to practical implications of these research findings.

Promoting Conceptual Knowledge, Procedural Knowledge and Procedural Flexibility in Early Mathematics Learning - Prof. Dr. Bethany Rittle-Johnson

Successful competence development in mathematics requires children to develop conceptual and procedural knowledge, as well as procedural flexibility. Prompting children to explain concepts and procedures, supporting children in comparing multiple solution procedures, and providing opportunities for children to explore problems prior to direct instruction are effective instructional techniques for promoting all three types of knowledge. Too often, children are not supported in engaging in these active learning techniques in mathematics classrooms. Doing so would help unlock children’s mathematical potential and enhance student achievement. 

Acquiring STEM skills by providing feedback: Why, when, and how - Prof. Dr. Christian Schunn

A general and easily scalable form of cognitive scaffolding for skill acquisition involves putting students in the position of evaluating and improving the work of their class peers. Meta-analyses and meta-regressions strongly support the value of peer feedback for STEM learning, especially the feedback providers’ learning. However, there is huge effect heterogeneity, and moderator analyses in meta-analyses do not generally add much insight. Mediation analyses conducted at a finer grain size in specific datasets have identified which forms of feedback are most useful, and they are largely consistent with predictions made using the ICAP learning theory. Additionally, findings are emerging regarding person-specific and situational factors that shape these learning opportunities.