American Society For Engineering Education Research Articles

Lifting as we climb: Experiences and recommendations from women in neural engineering.

Neural engineering is an emerging and multidisciplinary field in which engineering approaches are applied to neuroscience problems. Women are underrepresented in engineering fields, and indeed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields generally. Underrepresentation of women is particularly notable at later academic career stages, suggesting that even though women are interested in the field, barriers exist that ultimately cause them to leave. Here, we investigate many of the obstacles to women's success in the field of neural engineering and provide recommendations and materials to overcome them. We conducted a review of the literature from the past 15 years regarding the experiences of women in academic careers, as well as reports on the number of women in fields closely related to neural engineering from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Additionally, we interviewed six women in neural engineering who are involved in initiatives and outreach concerning the inclusion and experiences of women in engineering. Throughout the literature and interviews, we identified common themes spanning the role of identity and confidence, professional relationships, career-related hurdles, and personal and professional expectations. We explore each of these themes in detail and provide resources to support the growth of women as they climb within the field of neural engineering.

Conference Rubric Development for STEM Librarians’ Publications

ABSTRACT Librarians within the Engineering Libraries Division (ELD) annually publish conference papers for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). The existing ASEE rubric was not sufficient for our members, so we developed a new rubric as a charged committee for this task. We briefly discuss the sparse literature in this area, focusing on the use of rubrics and the rationale behind them. Due to this lack of literature, our committee primarily utilized additional sources such as rubrics found from other professional organizations in STEM and library fields. Our rubric is designed to encourage substantive feedback and growth of authors during the process, while clarifying the expectations for submissions. This rubric consists of overall guidance and specific needs, with flexibility for the different research methods and applications expected (i.e. work-in-progress/completed research, quantitative/qualitative, etc.). We implemented this rubric successfully for the 2021 conference cycle, but will further refine it as needed, based on feedback following future conferences. With scarce literature on conference peer review, we hope by sharing our work, others may also consider and improve their organizations’ processes.

Update of MOU with American Society for Engineering Education

Update of MOU with American Society for Engineering Education

The Academy, the Association, and the Society Advancing Environmental Engineering Training and Credentialing

As the lead society for environmental engineering and similarly named programs accredited by ABET (formerly the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, Inc.), the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientist (the Academy) welcomes a conversation on the training and credentialing of environmental engineers. Faculty of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (the Association) and the Environmental Engineering Division of the American Society for Engineering Education (the Society) have a vested interest in this conversation. We encourage you to engage in this conversation and contribute your views as we refresh our shared definition of the environmental engineering body of knowledge and explore how our self-regulating process of licensure and credentialing may best protect the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

Changing Environments Require Changing Competencies

The global pandemic is highlighting how work and life is changing.Changes in health, social, work, and life routines are altering skills and behaviors needed by engineers and managers. Competency models provide a job and career growth opportunities for both organizations and people and need to be updated into dynamic tools that provide direction for both people and the organizations they work in. This notebook builds from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) listing of engineering competencies to provide new findings on seventeen competencies used by civil engineers to address 2019 business challenges. Future discussions include:Field competencies and Digital competencies, Continuous versus Adaptable Competencies, and Sustainable development and responsible leadership competencies.

The Job I Never Wanted Was Exactly What I Needed

The Job I Never Wanted Was Exactly What I Needed Stephanie G. Adams (bio) In march 2011, i accepted the offer to become the department head of the Engineering Education Department at Virginia Tech. In the history of the department, I would be the second, full-time department head and the first, permanent, woman of color. The fact that I was the first, permanent, woman of color department head should come as no surprise given the demographics of the engineering field. In 2017, there were 143 African American women engineering professors. This represents 0.5 percent of the 27,372 tenured/tenure-track faculty in engineering. Over the last forty-plus years, the percentage of underrepresented minority faculty in engineering has increased and according to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) "By the Numbers," we make up 3.1 percent of all engineering faculty. Diversity and broadening participation in STEM have been a national priority for over forty years. Industry and academic leaders recognize that diversity, in all forms, is crucial to innovation and the development of new ideas. The presence of different perspectives and experiences improves productivity, creativity, and thus innovation. With a start date of August 10, I had a lot to do in five months: find a place to live; pack and move; close out my life at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU); and most importantly, figure out what exactly a department head was supposed to do, as this was not a job I had ever hoped to have. I had been an assistant and associate dean at two institutions with my eye on becoming a dean. I had studied and interacted with deans for many years, and I had a strategy for what I would do when I finally became a dean. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to become a dean and with the strong urging of a colleague, I applied for this position. Before I dive into the experience [End Page 196] of being the department head, I feel it is important to start with the preparation for the interview. I researched the department from top to bottom; I combed the website; I talked to some of the faculty in the department I had come to know through professional societies; I studied similar departments around the country; and I talked with friends who were or had been department heads/chairs. When I went for the interview, I had a pretty good handle on the department, the successes it had experienced, the challenges facing it, and the resources (people, money, space, and time) available to move it forward. The department was founded in 1967 as the Engineering Fundamentals Division within the College of Engineering. The objective was to provide incoming first-year students a better understanding of engineering. The unit was viewed as a service division in the college whose primary mission was teaching. The majority of the faculty had MS degrees and tenure was based on good teaching and conference presentations. In 2004, the division was renamed the Department of Engineering Education and a new doctoral program in engineering education was launched. In addition to the launch of the graduate program, an expectation was set that the department would shift its identity from a teaching-focused department to a research-focused department. A new type of faculty member was hired with a different set of expectations. Faculty were expected to have a PhD, conduct research on par with traditional engineering departments, develop and teach graduate level courses, and advise graduate students. When I arrived, the unit was operating structurally as a department with teaching faculty, research faculty, and a new doctoral program. But the shift in focus created a major challenge; one department with two disconnected camps. Our collective task was to provide a foundation from which to begin our work toward one unified department. As I began to understand the department, I came to realize that the decision to add a graduate program and attendant research expectations had been a topdown one, and that not all in the department bought into or understood how the new graduate program would or should be integrated. In my preparation stages, I also asked for the...

The correlation between undergraduate student diversity and the representation of women of color faculty in engineering

AbstractBackgroundDespite the critical role of faculty diversity in the persistence and academic experiences of undergraduate students as well as in the development of engineering innovations, women of color (WoC) faculty are still underrepresented in engineering programs across the United States.Purpose/HypothesisThis study identifies whether the demographic composition of undergraduate engineering students is correlated with the representation of WoC faculty. It also highlights the institutional‐ and departmental‐level factors that contribute to the race–gender diversification of the engineering professoriate.Design/MethodInformed by organizational demography as the theoretical framework, the methods include linear and logit regression analyses. Data come from the American Society for Engineering Education, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, and the American Community Survey, and include engineering departmental‐level observations across 345 institutions over 12 years.ResultsEngineering departments that award more bachelor's degrees to women African American/Black undergraduate students are more likely to employ relatively more African American/Black women faculty. This positive relationship is also found among Asian Americans and Hispanics/Latinas.ConclusionsResearch findings demonstrate the relationship between engineering undergraduate composition, as well as other departmental‐ and institutional‐level factors, and the prevalence of WoC faculty. The findings highlight important areas for stakeholders and academic administrators to consider when developing strategies and programs to diversify the composition of engineering faculty.

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Description of Graphic on the cover of the October issue of JEE 109(4)Professoriate Bound: Online Coaching for Black Engineering ScholarsAnn Varnedoe 1, Dara E. Naphan‐Kingery 2, Ebony O. McGee 1, and William H. Robinson 11 Explorations in Diversifying Engineering Faculty Initiative (EDEFI), Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN2 Department of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, Western New Mexico University, Silver City, NMProfessoriate Bound is a gender‐identity and race‐conscious virtual coaching program that focuses on the necessity of diversifying the professoriate within the field of engineering and computer science. Through research backed measures (Robinson, McGee, Bentley, Houston & Botchway, 2016; McGee, White, Jenkins, Houston, Bentley, Smith & Robinson, 2016; Naphan‐Kingery, Ridgeway, Brockman, McKane, Botchway & McGee, 2019), two Black faculty members guide participants through an 11‐session coaching program. The faculty members are assigned to coach a group of two to three Black doctoral students from the disciplines of engineering or computer science; the program assists these students as they navigate the process of successfully completing their PhD and enter the professional world. Each coaching pair consists of one engineering faculty member and one social science faculty member. In addition to providing professional development, the overall goal of Professoriate Bound was to provide participants with a virtual counterspace—a “safe space” that is separate from mainstream educational spaces and occupied by other minoritized students (Ong, Smith & Ko, 2018; Solórzano, Ceja & Yosso, 2000), where they could have a sense of belonging and safety while sharing their narratives. Moreover, we wanted to provide participants with a better idea of what academic life is like as a Black engineer and more generally as a Black faculty member. Thus, we expected that these spaces would also foreground the centrality of race and racism as social structures by discussing pertinent social science knowledge, but that they would also serve as counterspaces in which the participants could prioritize and center their personal, experiential knowledge. As the spaces existed virtually, the students were able to participate in their individual doctoral programs while also having this online community where their identities and experiences could be affirmed.One participant explained: “I didn't realize how much that my identity plays into my growth and development as a graduate student. There are so many times that I switch between being a Black engineer or being an engineer who happens to be Black. This helped me see that it is normal to feel this way.” Currently, the landscape of Engineering and Computing for Black faculty lags far behind the representation of other racial groups. Over the past ten years, Black faculty in engineering departments have made up between 2% – 2.7% of the tenured faculty members (Roy, 2019). The goal of this program is to provide the tangible steps necessary for Black PhD students to successfully obtain tenure‐track positions through personalized coaching. In addition to providing students with this critical space for professional development, students are given a form of social support through their peers in the program.Professoriate Bound just completed both its second cohort and an extension of the program that was created to support members of the first cohort as they continued their professional journey. The successes of the program have been detailed through both the professional achievements of our participants and the qualitative data we have collected that speak to the importance of this counterspace.ACKNOWLEDGMENTThis material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. EEC‐1642895.REFERENCESMcGee, E. O., White, D. T., Jenkins, A. T., Houston, S., Bentley, L. C., Smith, W. J., & Robinson, W. H. (2016). Black engineering students’ motivation for PhD attainment: Passion plus purpose. Journal for Multicultural Education. 10(2): 167–193. DOI: 10.1108/JME-01-2016-0007Naphan‐Kingery, D., Ridgeway, M., Brockman, A., McKane, R., Botchway, P. & McGee, E. O. (2019). Investigation of a ‘equity ethic’ in engineering and computing doctoral students. Journal of Engineering Education. 108(3): 337‐354. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20284Ong, M., Smith, J.M. and Ko, L.T. (2018). Counterspaces for women of color in STEM higher education: Marginal and central spaces for persistence and success. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 55: 206‐245. doi:10.1002/tea.21417Robinson, W. H., McGee, E. O., Bentley, L. C., Houston, S. L., & Botchway, P. K. (2016). Addressing negative racial and gendered experiences that discourage academic careers in engineering. Computing in Science & Engineering., 18(2): 29–39. DOI: 10.1109/MCSE.2016.38Roy, J., (2019). Engineering by the numbers. Washington DC: American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved from https://www.asee.org/documents/papers-and-publications/publications/college-profiles/2018-Engineering-by-Numbers-Engineering-Statistics-UPDATED-15-July-2019.pdfSolórzano, D., Ceja, M., & Yosso, T. (2000). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: The experiences of African American college students. Journal of Negro Education, 69(1‐2), 60–73.

Students as Consumers: Retaining Engineering Students by Designing Learner-Centric Courses of Value

The global economy’s dependency upon engineers is exacerbated by a lack of qualified engineers. Most engineering students fail to complete the credential. According to the American Society for Engineering Education (2018), the high dropout rate has been correlated to satisfaction with the learning experience. Investigation of an international accelerated blended distance program designed for adult learners at a large southwestern university requiring a redesign of courses was selected for this study. The researchers wanted to identify the key components of satisfaction and student engagement, then develop an equitable instructional design model. The mixed-methods study utilized the three elements of the Community of Inquiry as the theoretical lens. The study attempted to identify the key course characteristics which could increase satisfaction and reduce dropout rates. Design components, grades, and satisfaction rates were studied. Performance data (grades) were examined and indicated no significant correlation between grades and satisfaction. Six suggested areas for enhancement were faculty interaction, authenticity, student-to-student engagement, feedback, multimedia, and homework. Through an evaluation of the quality of the courses and satisfaction, design standards could be established, resulting in quality-of-life enhancement.

Teaching physics for tomorrow: Equipping students to change the world

Why should engineers have all the fun?

Competencies and Practices in Academic Engineering Leadership Development: Lessons from a National Survey

Traditionally, higher education has relied on recruiting executive leaders based largely on scholarly credibility, expecting leadership competency to develop with “on the job” experience. This approach is risky to organizational success. Building upon research about how institutional leaders identify, select, develop, and support those in succession, this study aims (1) to explore how senior academic leaders in engineering perceive their leadership roles, specifically the importance they attribute to various leadership skills and their self-confidence in exercising those skills, and (2) to discern the prevalence of mentoring and sponsorship practices those leaders use as part of their leadership portfolio. Results of a national survey, distributed in collaboration with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) to leaders in academic engineering in North America, confirm the importance of select leadership skills, including practices related to the mentoring and sponsorship of emerging leaders. However, the reported prevalence of those practices was relatively low in this sample. The authors recommend holding leaders accountable for developing future leaders and present an instrument for self- and organizational assessment of such practices for use in implementing more intentional approaches to leadership development in higher education.

Create an innovative, hands‐on program from scratch

One thing Jenna P. Carpenter, Ph.D. and fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education, likes about being an administrator is that she's in a position to advocate for the faculty and students.

Women Break an Engineering Barrier: While Other Engineering Disciplines Stumble, BME Represents a Success Story in Attracting American Women to a Male-Dominated Field

While the field of engineering as a whole is largely male-dominated, biomedical engineering (BME) is one area poised to overturn this trend. Women in the United States were awarded only 20% of all engineering B.S. degrees in 2015; in BME, however, 40.9% of the degree recipients were women. This stands in stark contrast to the more traditional fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, where women were awarded just 13.2% and 12.5% of B.S. degrees, respectively. This trend toward more female participation in BME continues at both the M.S. and Ph.D. degree levels. In fact, in 2015, BME had the highest percentage of female engineering M.S. degree recipients in the United States of all engineering disciplines, according to the American Society for Engineering Education (Figure 1).

EXAFS of Nickel Oxide in the Ionic Liquid Emic/AlCl3

Introduction Earlier research has shown that nickel metal and nickel alloys can be deposited from nickel chloride dissolved in the IL AlCl3/EMIC but this depended on Lewis acidity of the IL which in turn affects the structure of the Ni ions that form in the solution (1, 2). The structures of several transition metal chlorides have been studied in situ in ILs using EXAFS (3-6). However, the oxides of these metals have not received as much attention. When working with the water and air sensitive ILs, there is always a concern about oxygen and moisture contamination and its effect on the properties of the IL. Many of the transition metal chlorides are studied in the anhydrous state and thus they are also sensitive to oxygen and moisture contamination in the IL. In this study, we examine the structure of the nickel ions that form in the AlCl3/EMIC IL when nickel(II) oxide is added to simulate the effect of oxygen contamination. The structure of NiO was studied with CVs and EXAFS in both Lewis acidic and Lewis basic AlCl3/EMIC ILs. Experimental Solutions were prepared in a Vacuum Atmosphere nitrogen filled drybox. Voltammetric experiments were carried out at ambient temperature. The ionic liquid solutions were sealed in 2 mil thick polyethylene bags and were examined with EXAFS. The electrochemical experiments were conducted with an EG&G PARC model 283 potentiostat controlled with the EG&G PARC PowerSuite software package. The EXAFS experiments were conducted on beamline X-11A at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). All of the EXAFS data were measured at room temperature with the storage ring operating at 2.8 MeV and beam currents in the range of 150 to 260 mA. The EXAFS data were analyzed using the standard XDAP data analysis package. Results and Discussion Data were collected for NiO and anhydrous NiCl2 powder samples for reference standards to be used in the analysis of the IL samples. The Fourier transform for the NiO powder standard shows several shells. The first shell is the nickel - oxygen interaction and the second shell is the nickel - nickel interaction. The shells that are at greater distances are additional oxygen and nickel interactions, but they also include multiple scattering contributions. The Fourier transform of the NiCl2 powder standard shows two primary shells. The first shell is the nickel - chlorine interaction and the second shell is the nickel – nickel interaction. The Fourier transform for NiO dissolved in the N=0.43 basic IL shows a single peak, indicating a single shell around the central nickel atom. The Fourier transform was phase-corrected with both the chloride shell from the NiCl2 standard, and oxide shell from the NiO standard, in order to determine which element was contributing to the backscattering. When the FT is phase-corrected with the correct backscattering atom, the peak in the imaginary part corresponds to the maximum of the positive peak in the magnitude of the FT. The phase corrected FT shows that the backscattering atoms must be primarily from a Ni–Cl interaction where the two peaks are mostly in phase. Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Naval Research Laboratory, the American Society for Engineering Education and the U.S Department of Energy. This research was carried out at the National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Division of Materials Sciences and Division of Chemical Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886.

Towards the STEM DBER Alliance: Why We Need a Discipline-Based, STEM-Education Research Community

Reprinted by permission of the American Society for Engineering Education. This article was originally published in the Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 106 Issue 3, Pages 349–355, July 2017, available in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20168

Towards the STEM DBER Alliance: Why we Need a Discipline-Based STEM Education Research Community

Reprinted by permission of the American Society for Engineering Education. This article was originally published in the Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 106 Issue 3, Pages 349–355, July 2017, available in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20168

Towards the STEM DBER Alliance: Why We Need a Discipline‐Based STEM Education Research Community

Reprinted by permission of the American Society for Engineering Education. This article was originally published in the Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 106 Issue 3, Pages 349–355, July 2017, available in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20168

Trends in Engineering Management Education From 2011–2015

The American Society for Engineering Education provides comprehensive data on enrollment and graduation rates for all engineering fields at the Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD levels. In addition, data are provided on the demographics of the various fields. This information, coupled with Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology data, presents an opportunity to explore the trends in higher education in Engineering Management in the last five years. Contrasts to earlier times and implications for the future are presented as a result of the analysis of these trends.

Trends in Population and Demographics of U.S. Environmental Engineering Students and Faculty from 2005 to 2013

Abstract Although modern environmental engineering was established in the mid 1900s, the field has arguably evolved into its own professional discipline only in the past 3–4 decades. During this time, the number of environmental engineering students, faculty, and practitioners has grown dramatically, and many environmental engineering BS degree programs were established. To better assess this growth, we have conducted an analysis of the demographics of environmental engineering students and faculty using the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Engineering Data Management System. One limitation of the ASEE database is that only students and faculty primarily associated with environmental engineering degrees and programs, respectively, are counted; therefore, students and faculty related to environmental engineering tracks within civil and chemical engineering programs are excluded from this analysis. From 2005 to 2013, the number of BS, MS, and PhD degrees awarded rose by 90%, 27%, and 39%, r...

Introduction to Editorial Board Members: Prof Nicholas A. Peppas

Introduction to Editorial Board Members: Prof Nicholas A. Peppas