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In this paper, we report on a series of research projects that together motivate a larger idea: the design of lightweight, scalable, and relational learning experiences for overcoming system-level challenges in education. We start by discussing Exploratory Reading Groups, a program designed to expose students to the creative aspects of computer science and to enhance intrinsic motivation and purpose for learning through exploratory reading of research papers. Unlike traditional graduate student reading groups which focus on depth, our reading groups are designed for a broad exploration of ideas. More importantly for this paper, they are designed to be lightweight in time commitment, to be scalable and student-driven, and to foster supportive peer relationships. As we ran this program, we found that these design parameters not only led to our original goal of supporting creative exploration, but also resulted in the unexpected emergent benefit of facilitating student entry into undergraduate research experiences. There were three reasons for this. First, the lightweight nature of the program (~1-2 hours a week for 4 weeks) lowered entry barriers for busy students. Second, the scalable and student-driven nature of the program circumvented the obstacles of limited faculty time or staff resources common to many programs. Third, the relational nature of the program facilitated knowledge sharing and relational networks that helped to overcome the many systemic misalignments at the root of faculty-perceived barriers to undergraduate research, findings that came out of a series of interviews we conducted with STEM faculty on barriers to undergraduate research. We conclude by proposing that the design of lightweight, scalable, and relational learning experiences may be an effective approach to overcoming system-level challenges in education and discuss a few examples of what that might look like and future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the proposed quantitative analyses of phosphate along selected sites of the Yangtze River (the Shanghai tributary). Phosphates are major nutrients in the eco-system; consequently, excessive phosphates result in algal bloom that changes dissolved oxygen levels in the aquatic system. The research initiative identifies five sites selected for their differences in population densities and land utilization. Samples from each site will be analyzed for phosphate content to ascertain if there are correlations between population densities and land utilization with respect to phosphate content. Samples were acquired from sparsely populated environments, industrial environments, and densely populated area. The samples were en-route to the United States; consequently, analyses of the sample started early February and have been performed for phosphates during February which are included in this paper. The early research projects of this nature / type during the freshman year of the student college-years motivates and increases the student's interest in science and engineering disciplines and encourages them to pursue further education in these fields. This paper will focus on the Preliminary Phosphate Study (FIA) and discuss the results of the experiments and the detection conditions performed. Future work would involve measurement of other nutrients such as nitrate and potassium levels and comparisons made to see if there is correlation between the nutrients and the sites tested so far in this work. Also future paper would discuss and present how this type of early research study increases interest, teamwork, leadership abilities in the freshman minority and international students. Background: The study presented in this paper discusses the research performed by an international student dealing with the data collected from his hometown, while studying science and engineering at a College in the USA, performing the research under the direction and guidance of the faculty at the college in the USA. The research project involves an international student from China, studying the amount of phosphates and any other toxic material in Zhejiang River (within 10-20 miles of Shanghai, China) and its environmental impact on rural and urban areas, and any other possible unforeseen and unexpected impacts. Food and its availability is of major concern in various regions of the world, especially in the underdeveloped communities. Furthermore if the water is used downstream for farming, there might be additional concerns. This also impacts the quality and life of aquatic creatures (especially fish) and wildlife. The water samples are taken at various locations of the river. They are then shipped to the college in the USA. The laboratory experiments are performed to analyze each sample at this college. The laboratory results are analyzed and conclusions are drawn based on the data from the lab experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To gain a deeper understanding of the career decisions of undergraduate engineering students, this research paper explores the differences between students who show a high degree of career certainty and those who are rather uncertain about what their professional future should look like. These analyses were based on a dataset from a nationwide survey of engineering undergraduates (n=5,819) from 27 institutions in the United States. The survey was designed with an interest in understanding engineering students' career pathways. For the purpose of this study, students were designated as either "career uncertain" or "career certain" according to their survey answers. Those two groups were then compared against a variety of background characteristics, past experiences and personality variables. The results suggest that career uncertain and career certain students do not differ on background variables such as gender, age or family income. However, when it comes to students' past experiences, the percentage of students who had already gained internship experiences during their time in college was significantly higher among career certain students as compared to career uncertain students. As expected, seniors were more certain about their professional future than juniors. Similarly, a higher percentage of career certain students reported talking about their professional future with other students or faculty members more frequently. Furthermore, career certain students were significantly more likely to show a higher level of innovation self-efficacy and engineering task self-efficacy. In addition, career certain students were more likely to have career goals that involved innovation and they also considered several job characteristics as more important than did uncertain students. On average, career certain engineering students were also more certain about staying in engineering one, five and ten years after graduation. Overall, the results of this research suggest that more hands-on experiences and fostering stronger beliefs in their engineering skills can contribute to undergraduates becoming more certain about their future professional careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the University of Central Oklahoma we have successfully embedded undergraduate students in research projects; these projects often result in conference papers and other products with these students as lead and co-authors. Here we discuss our overall environment of embedding students early in their engineering curriculum through their senior design course. Our focus has been on exposing students to core research skills, open-ended problem-solving and design, and every possible venue for student practice of communication skills. The end result over seven years has been a strong string of senior design projects, research productivity, and employment and/or graduate school acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of undergraduate general education courses (GeDC) is to develop a wide range of skills in a student beyond the student's chosen field. However, a GeDC class generally comprises students with different levels of interest, preparation, prior knowledge, work style and ethics. Hence, teaching a GeDC urges a different pedagogy from what is required in teaching a course in a student's major discipline. This paper presents an approach, "Connect to you" (Connect2U) to teach a GeDC for the natural science requirement based on a twelve semester period of teaching experience with the course, Introduction to Water Resources Management. Introduction to Water Resources Management has been taught for fifteen years as a GeDC in the traditional textbook based teaching and evaluation. The fundamentals of hydrology were taught with an introductory level book. The students were evaluated with the textbook assignments, three closed book examinations and class participation. In this approach, six drawbacks were identified: 1. Although students learned the concepts of hydrology, they lacked the stimulating learning of their practical applications; 2. They did not get enough information about the emerging water issues pertinent to them; 3. Students had limited opportunities to learn about the social, economic, administrative and legal issues related to water resources management (WRM); 4. Many students were inclined to think of the course as an imposed GeDC rather than taking the opportunity to connect it to their major field of study for creating unique expertise; 5. They lacked simple laboratory experiences to visualize the concepts and field trips to provide knowledge about how water works and how related careers develop; and, 6. The assessment methods did not facilitate the students to develop enough inquiry, research and communication skills. Connect2U was developed on a collaborative instructing-learning concept to minimize these drawbacks and implemented in gradual steps for six years. The success of the approach was assessed based on student performance indicators. In Connect2U, topics on water resources applications, and the social, economic, administrative and legal issues related to WRM were included within the curriculum. Since no single appropriate textbook was found, additional teaching materials were developed by the instructor and his colleagues. Simple laboratory demonstrations and field trips were added. Current water issues and emerging water problems were learned in the class 'icebreaker minutes' and through documentary review assignments. Important assignments and teaching materials were posted on Blackboard. Students were guided to research and gather water related information relevant to their neighborhoods. They were encouraged to work on a term paper topic that could either connect water resources to their majors or be based on a water issue. Student enrollment in the course increased after the implementation of the Connect2U approach. The grading system and the data gathering assignments made the students work more than their predecessors for achieving the passing grade, while making them understand the water related issues pertaining to them. The students found that the term papers can be connected to their own field of study or to a contemporary issue so that they could be actively engaged. However, given the low number of students in the WRM department, the instructor was unable to make a comparison between the Non-WRM majors and WRM Majors. In a nutshell, it was evident from the evaluation that the Connect2U approach stimulated student interest and raised awareness concerning water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impact of the REU Program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) on the success of Participants in industry or graduate school. The REU Program titled "Research Experience for Undergraduates in UAV Technologies" has been funded by the NSF's EEC Program. The main goal of the Program is to increase undergraduate students' participation and interest in research on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) technologies. Undergraduate students from 2- and 4-year institutions have been involved in a multidisciplinary research projects at Cal Poly Pomona. The REU Site has so far hosted a total of 43 diverse group of students for 8-10 weeks of summer research since 2017, with the projects focusing on research on the Dynamics and Control of UAVs, Collision Detection and Avoidance System for UAVs, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Navigation in GPS-Denied Environments, application of UAVs for search and rescue missions, object detection and tracking, and Flight Test experience. Another goal of the Program is to attract students from community colleges to STEM programs at 4-year institutions and encourage the participants to pursue their studies for graduate degrees. The Program has been tracking the past Participants. Most of the participants are now pursuing their educational or professional career in the area of UAVs and other related areas. The program has also been successful in motivating the Participants to graduate degrees in STEM disciplines. Some of the participants are already pursuing their studies for Master's or PhD degrees or are planning to do so. Information about the Participants' current employment or graduate school enrollment and relevance of current work to aerospace and/or UAV technology was gathered using a follow-up survey that also included open-ended qualitative feedback from the Participants about the long-term impact of the Program on their career. The paper presents the results obtained from the data collected from the Participants of the first three cohorts of the Program who were hosted during summers of 2017 to 2019. The paper focuses on the impact of the Program on the Participants' career choice, career advancement, and motivation for graduate degrees. The paper also presents written feedback/comments from the Participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data Science plays a vital role in sciences and engineering disciplines to discover meaningful information and predict the outcome of real-world problems. Despite the significance of this field and high demand, knowledge of how to effectively provide data science research experience to STEM students is scarce. This paper focuses on the role of data science and analytics education to improve the students' computing and analytical skills across a range of domain-specific problems. The paper studies four examples of data-intensive STEM projects for supervised undergraduate research experiences (SURE) in Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical science, Quantum Physics, and Cybersecurity. The developed projects include the applications of data science for improving additive manufacturing, automating microscopy images analysis, identifying the quantum optical modes, and detecting network intrusion. The paper aims to provide some guidelines to effectively educate the next generation of STEM undergraduate and graduate students and prepare STEM professionals with interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and competencies in data science. The paper includes a summary of activities and outcomes from our research and education in the field of data science and machine learning. We will evaluate the student learning outcomes in solving big data interdisciplinary projects to confront the new challenges in a computationally-driven world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near-peer mentoring is a common teaching practice where a senior learner guides a junior learner. The proximity of skills and experiences of near-peer mentors generate a deep level of relation and understanding of mentee needs, allowing mentors to provide effective learning strategies. This connection between mentor and mentee enhances mentee learning, confidence, and motivation. However, the benefits of near-peer mentoring for the mentors are less clear. To understand the benefits of near-peer mentoring for mentors, we collected data from near-peer mentors who participated in a Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics summer camp. The summer camp was a weeklong remote paper mechatronics camp designed for incoming seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students. Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary field that combines electronics, computation, and mechanics and thus provides a high ceiling for creative design. In contrast, paper mechatronics focuses on inexpensive paper components and craft parts to create a low barrier for student entry. The camp was grounded in culturally sustaining pedagogy to promote learning, identity development, and sense of belonging to STEM. It consisted of two key components: near-peer mentors and storytelling. Near-peer mentors were the primary facilitators for the students. The mentors were two undergraduate engineering students responsible for designing the project curriculum, testing, developing student support, and facilitating most of the sessions throughout the summer camp, with supervision from faculty members. The students created two machines, the Walking Jansen and the Up-and-Down Crank. Furthermore, students were encouraged to use their personal experiences and identities to tell stories through their projects. To assess the benefits of near-peer mentoring, we asked What did near-peer mentors gain from creating and facilitating the summer camp? We collected two forms of data to address the research question 1. Daily journals kept by the mentors during the camp, and 2. Semi-structured interviews. The analysis reveals considerable benefits for the mentors: Mentors developed essential teaching skills, their belonging to STEM improved, and mentors practiced consolidation. The results highlight the extensive benefits of near-peer mentoring. Near-peer mentoring is a valuable enrichment opportunity to supplement undergraduate core engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site program conducted through virtual working environment. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, REU 2021 activities were conducted online through Canvas and Zoom communication platforms. The major aim of this program is to provide undergraduate students with experiences in engineering education research (i.e., education research in the context of engineering). This paper provides an overview of the program, and briefly describes the virtual working environment, and students' research experiences during the 10-week program. A total of 11 undergraduate students, seven graduate mentors, and seven faculty mentors have actively participated in the program. The program is conducted in two phases: Phases 1 (i.e., Weeks 1-2) and 2 (i.e., Weeks 3-10). Phase 1 consists of preparatory and foundational work that is delivered to participants and will allow them to begin Phase 2 with some educational research foundation already established. The results of the project evaluation show that the program has made a positive impact on increasing education research skills and communication skills of the participating REU students. The participating REU students reported that the research projects they worked on increased their motivation and confidence for continuing to engage in engineering education research. Four participants (i.e., 36.4% of the total participants) suggested that, if available, they would prefer face-to-face over a virtual REU program. Another four participants (i.e., 36.4%) felt that both face-to-face and virtual would offer the same quality of research experiences, and 3 participants (i.e., 27.2% of the total participants) voiced their preference of virtual over face-to-face REU program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systems engineering management (SEM) focuses on designing, integrating, and managing systems over time using different skills and business concepts to improve the system's performance. System engineering management skills are essential when improving the performance and efficiency of the system. Systems engineers use knowledge from many different disciplines when working with people and companies to enhance the performance of a system. Various aspects of management in systems engineering include planning and control, risk management, configuration management, decision management, project management, quality management, and information management. Some of these techniques are performed individually; however, others may be applied collaboratively in a group setting. In this paper, we will assess undergraduate students' (UG) "systems engineering management skills (SEMS)" based on a newly designed valid, and reliable instrument. First, we assess why it is imperative to develop effective management skills for undergraduate students. Second, we introduce a newly developed instrument that could appraise undergraduate students' state of systems engineering management skills. Finally, the validation and reliability assessment of the instrument was performed followed by multiple group statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work-in-progress paper describes engineering students' experiences in an NSF-funded project that partnered undergraduate engineering students with pre-service teachers to plan and deliver robotics lessons to fifth graders at a local school. This project aims to address an apparent gap between what is taught in academia and industry's expectations of engineers to integrate perspectives from outside their field to solve modern societal problems requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Working in small teams over Zoom, participating engineering, education, and fifth grade students designed, built, and coded bio-inspired COVID companion robots. The goal for the engineering students was to build new interprofessional skills, while reinforcing technical skills. The collaborative activities included: (1) training with Hummingbird BitTM hardware (e.g. sensors, servo motors) and coding platform, (2) preparing robotics lessons for fifth graders that explained the engineering design process (EDP), and (3) guiding the fifth graders in the design of their robots. Additionally, each undergraduate engineering student designed a robot following the theme developed with their preservice teacher and fifth grade partners. The intervention took place in Spring 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating the investigators to make critical decisions to address challenges of implementing the intervention in an online setting. This paper describes those decisions as it investigates how the cross-disciplinary, mixed-aged collaboration with preservice teachers and fifth graders impacted undergraduate engineering students' learning and investment during the design process of their robots. Preliminary results of a regression analysis revealed a relationship between the engineering students' robot rankings and post-scores on the design process knowledge survey (r = 0.92). Consistencies and a few anomalies in this pattern were explained using qualitative reflections which were analyzed to determine students' level of investment in the project, overall perceptions, and the extent to which they focused on the fifth graders' ideas in their designs. In general, robot quality was linked to both undergraduate engineering students' level of investment and whether they focused on the fifth graders' ideas in their designs. Engineering students' overall perceptions of the project were generally positive, appreciating the role of cross-disciplinary and mixed-aged collaborations in their learning to brainstorm innovative solutions and interact effectively with professionals outside of engineering as they embark on tackling societal problems in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper covers the important aspects of new research methodologies, including the methods and tools, for undergraduate students at a Civil Engineering program. It aims to improve the research competencies of civil engineering students through immersing the students in different types of research exercises. The activities have been exploratory, experimental and theoretical. The focus of the new approach is on developing soft skills, gaining practical and hands-on skills, research management and planning, and presenting the results in an optimum manner. Six undergraduate students from two departments were involved in various components of a research project related to the post-tensioned concrete structures. The core project started in a company specialized in post-tensioning industry. Initially, the learning objective was to gain a deep understanding of the mechanical properties of concrete and steel as well as the post-tensioning of the concrete slabs. However, the main objective was to get students involved in designing effective test platforms from scratch, to perform experiments with concrete blocks and a special compressible material used in industry. One of the goals was to investigate the friction coefficient of connection between the concrete slab and walls in Post-Tensioned construction. The research involved testing the resistance of concrete blocks against applied loads in variety of conditions. Furthermore, students were to explore the behavior of a compressible material that is used to wrap rebar, as a release detail, for slab and walls in Post-Tensioning construction. The goals were achieved by establishing a unique testing rig to apply lateral load to the poured concrete specimens that contained the foamwrapped steel dowel (rebar), which extended into a poured concrete slab. Consequent research projects have been conducted to construct a model of concrete-foam-rebar media and simulate it using the Finite Element Analysis with ABAQUS© package. The objective has been to refine the model and material characteristics, until a nonlinear analysis and simulation produces valid and comparable results to the laboratory prototype. Structured and neat research methods were tabulated to teach the students as how to conduct research in a more passionate, productive, and useful way. These were conducting the extensive literature review, establishing the complex test rigs, evaluating the sophisticated mesh configurations and performing non-linear analysis. The most important outcomes of the new research methods were; students' eagerness and enthusiasm to establish the test platforms, learning all the necessary hands-on skills despite obstacles and limitations, learning new simulation packages, and presenting in various conferences and symposiums in a professional way. The reflections provided by students demonstrated their extraordinary satisfaction of this life-long learning experience, and the importance of their gained skills in future graduate programs and/or high-level industry positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work-in-progress research paper explores faculty's experiences during their own undergraduate programs, as well as the role of health and wellbeing in their success as students. The culture of stress and hardship promoted in engineering education has been scrutinized as negatively affecting students, especially those from marginalized groups. However, little is currently known about the interactions among multiple actors in the engineering education ecosystem and their contributions to perpetuating such culture. Faculty directly impact students' experiences in engineering programs through first-hand interactions with students. These interactions can propagate professional beliefs and attitudes that our graduates instill and further propagate. Thus, faculty may be re-enacting attitudes that they learned through their own experiences as students. Therefore, their beliefs might bring insights into elements that have been persistent in the engineering education narrative. In this work in progress paper, we use the model of engineering thriving to analyze interviews with four engineering faculty and analyze the transcripts using inductive and deductive thematic analysis. This study is part of a larger project to contribute to the efforts to evolve engineering's current culture of hardship and suffering to one that recognizes health, wellbeing, and thriving permeating essential academic spaces like the classroom. In this project, we seek to understand faculty conceptualizations of health and well-being that developed through their undergraduate and graduate experiences. Our preliminary results show that the undergraduate experiences of faculty included elements of thriving and well-being such as self-knowledge and self-control. Some identified key turning points in realizing their best strategies to maximize their well-being and academic success, which enhanced their decision-making abilities. Furthermore, some participants achieved academic success despite poor well-being and thriving outcomes, which raises questions about the cultural and systemic factors that promote such dualism. In terms of the messages they received about well-being, faculty recognized the absence of explicit messages but acknowledged the existence of institutional structures that could support them if necessary (such as counseling services or professional societies). Finally, when comparing their experiences with those of current undergraduates, faculty identify issues with excessive technology, imposter syndrome, low extracurricular engagement, and low functionality among the elements against the newer generation's wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper explores engineering experts' perceptions of the most important factors of thriving for undergraduate engineering students. Faculty, staff, and members of the engineering education system play a vital role in creating environments, and forming relationships with students conducive to thriving. The study in this paper builds upon prior work on engineering thriving that identified 147 factors developed from a literature review, refined with expert consultation. Out of the long list of factors, little is known regarding the most important factors that can serve as a starting point for engineering experts with limited resources to create environments and relationships that support more thriving engineering students. In this paper, we analyze ranked order data to investigate the most important internal thriving competencies. Participants include 47 engineering experts i.e., engineering administrators, professors, staff, and advisers. To find which competencies were perceived as most important to engineering thriving, each expert was asked to generate and define up to ten competencies that they considered to be most important, then rank these competencies in order of importance. During data analysis, ranked competencies were scored on a reverse ordinal points basis, with the most important rankings receiving 10 points and the least important rankings receiving 1 point. Overall, the top five most important competencies were Communication/Listening Skills (overall score = 104), Help-seeking/Resourcefulness (overall score = 104), Teamwork (overall score = 97), Time Management (overall score = 96), and Resilience (overall score = 95). Findings from this study highlight the importance of intrapersonal, social, and behavioral competencies, providing a starting point for future work developing a survey of thriving for engineering students. Furthermore, these findings provide a greater insight into which high-impact competencies engineering faculty, staff, and administrators can focus on when creating environments conducive to student thriving and interacting directly with students when teaching, supporting, advising, and mentoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an update of a Work-in-Progress presented at the ASEE 2021 virtual conference [1] and includes new data from after the 2021 paper was accepted for publication. An undergraduate research experience was developed in response to an Office of Naval Research program seeking to develop "innovative solutions that directly maintain, or cultivate a diverse, world-class STEM workforce in order to maintain the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' technological superiority." During the fall 2020 semester, nine students were recruited to participate in a UAS cybersecurityfocused undergraduate research experience. Three faculty members each identified a small topic area for undergraduate students to pursue. The three areas are: 1. Small UAS (sUAS) Vulnerability and Threat Assessment and Mitigation 2. Effects of Cyber Attacks on Communication in UAS Swarms with Distributed Swarm Control 3. Enhancing Security of Cloud-Connected UAS Services. Students were placed onto teams based on their prior course experiences and the project requirements. Common resources were provided for all students to train them in conducting research. Teams were then tasked with developing a more comprehensive research plan for their specific project and carrying out that plan throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. A no-cost extension was granted to enable six students who had not graduated to continue into the Fall 2021 semester with the goals of completing their work and publishing the results in an academic outlet. Three students continued into the Spring 2022 semester finishing their publication work. Year 1 of the program was assessed by having students take a pre-, mid-, and post-survey and conducting a brief interview about their experiences. Students took a pre-survey at the start of the project and a mid-project survey shortly before the winter break. They completed the post survey and interview during the final week of the Spring semester in Year 1. Five students who remained with the project in Year 2 also completed a "final year" survey at the end of the Fall term in year 2. The surveys were a combination of project specific skills questions as well as relevant questions from the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (URSSA), an NSF funded assessment tool to measure student gains in research skills. This paper will describe the broader project, the individual student team projects and the outcomes of those projects, and results from the surveys and interviews. The purpose of this paper is to provide an example approach for future undergraduate research programs looking for practical approaches to implementing undergraduate research programs, particularly those in the cybersecurity area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This evidence-based paper will review the outcomes of a recently developed summer research program for undergraduate students. The Center of Transportation Research & Implementation (CTRI) at Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSUM) created a remote research program for Summer 2020. Along with others across the United States, MSUM went under COVID-19 lockdown for the unforeseen future during the Spring 2020 semester. The university cancelled access to most campus laboratories and brought a halt to all experimental research conducted in these facilities. Moreover, a significant number of undergraduate students lost their internships for Summer 2020. With these two substantial changes, CTRI created the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. CTRI contacted a donor who donated a funding for a single undergraduate research project (pre-COVID) and asked to make changes in the funding process to benefit multiple students. With the adaptation approved by the donor, the research center asked the faculty to submit proposals for undergraduate research projects that the researchers can conduct at their homes. The proposals requested projects to employ 1 - 4 undergraduate students with a limited, supplies-only budget (<$500). The supplies of the approved proposals were mailed to the students mid-May. The students worked on their projects throughout the summer at their homes with online guidance from their project advisor. In Summer 2020, five research projects that were related to transportation, utility, and energy infrastructure were funded. Each project had a unique theoretical background. An important selection criterion was the potential for the project to be expanded upon into a full undergraduate research project in the 2020-21 Academic Year and that may lead students presenting at the virtual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2021. The initial findings of the project were presented to the research center via a Zoom conference call at the end of Summer 2020. Moreover, the groups that concluded their projects on time also presented in national platforms, including NCUR. The impact of the SURE program on undergraduate researchers were assessed via follow-up survey and meetings. This paper focusses on the impact of the SURE program on the students' technical ability, communication skills, educational experience, and future professional experiences. Additionally, the advisors provided positive feedback on their experience with the projects and undergraduate researchers. The initial success of the first SURE program caught the attention of the Undergraduate Research Center (URC) of the MSUM. URC adopted SURE as a permanent program and funds summer research projects, especially from disciplines that typically receive limited financial support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research is the process intended to create new or improved technology that can provide a competitive advantage at the business, industry, or national level. The future economic progress of any country will be driven by the invention and application of new technologies. The emphasis on funding in universities is misleading and understates the actual importance of research at the university and its importance in student formation. Successful research programs involve undergraduate students, graduate students, and informed faculty. Research prepares students to identify problems and solve them in innovative ways and can be measured by how students' knowledge, thinking patterns, skills and attitudes are changed. Involvement in research, for either students or faculty, addresses the need to develop curiosity and the ability to ask the right question. This paper will emphasize the importance of research to the economy and higher education. It will then introduce the importance of research to student formation and reinforce the importance of exposing students early to the concepts of research. This paper will then show the connection between research and Entrepreneurially Minded Learning (EML) and describe three projects, supported by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) and the Kern Foundation, intended to expose undergraduates to research early in their academic careers. The first project was part of KEEN's initial "EML through Research" workshop given in Nov 2019. The project, entitled "Research and EML: Helping Students (and Faculty) See and Understand the Value of Research" grew from a desire to involve more undergraduate students in research. The vision was to expose undergraduates to research and then determine how to teach them basic skills. While the scope of the project was limited, it led to the second project. The second project, entitled "Understanding the Importance of Research in Student Formation and Value Creation," was to develop three short videos intended to inform undergraduates about research. The three videos were filmed and associated instructor guides developed for topics concerning undergraduate research. The broad topics were "What is Research?", "Undergraduate Research," and "Product Commercialization." The third project is just beginning and aims to further expose undergraduates to research and reinforce the importance research in student formation. It is entitled "An EM-Driven Framework for Undergraduate Research" and involves six institutions from across the KEEN network. The areas being developed are Early Exposure, Student Research Training, Faculty & Mentor Training, and Assessment. This project is just starting and will be ongoing for three years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper presents methods by which researchers can harvest data from social media forums as a way to gain insight on sensitive issues or populations. In the present research, we are interested in studying doctoral attrition, which is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that poses practical significance to funding agencies, advisors, and students themselves. Sampling non-completers is difficult, and researchers generally find it difficult to collect nationwide narratives of attrition. This paper presents a novel method for studying attrition using the publiclyavailable online forum Reddit.com to collect first-hand accounts and authentic narratives of attrition. These often-anonymous online discussions offer a unique view into the authentic thoughts of engineering graduate students considering leaving their program, throughout the decision-making process. This paper proposes a method to efficiently collect and parse opensource information into coherent narratives across "posts" or "threads" of conversation using data mining tools. The underlying methodology developed is based on achieving a holistic view of the discourse patterns and authentic narratives surrounding attrition, which in turn allows researchers to capture meaningful, authentic, and credible emergent themes unbiased by social response. We present a short summary of results to show the dominant narratives of attrition achieved through this method; however, the main focus of this paper is to present the method itself, which has the potential to be extended and modified to aid in other large data mining efforts to answer other research questions related to sensitive topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background - There is a body of information literacy (IL) literature applied to undergraduate engineering students, much of which discusses different methods for teaching, such as classes/one-shots, online tutorials, gaming, and other interventions. It is important for librarians to know which methods of teaching engineering information literacy (EIL) are most effective for student learning, in order to make efficient and effective use of student and librarian time. Purpose/Hypothesis - The authors reviewed the existing literature to find indications of the most effective methods for teaching and/or integrating EIL, both in face-to-face and online instruction. Design/Method - The authors have completed the first stages of a systematic literature review (SLR), through the creation of the final dataset. The initial searches generated a set of 1224 papers prior to duplicate removal. Duplicate removal and multiple rounds of review, using authors-created inclusion and exclusion criteria, narrowed the final dataset to 13 papers. Scope/Method - The lessons learned in the process around searching, tools for data evaluation, and articulation of criteria are presented. As a result of this portion of the SLR process, the authors identified characteristics of the undergraduate-focused EIL literature that are shared. Results/Discussion - A brief summary of the process to arrive at a final dataset of 13 papers, the challenges in the process, and the refinements made at each step are outlined. Conclusion - There are several preliminary conclusions to be drawn, many of which will not be surprising to the engineering librarian community. The dataset came down to just 13 items because much of the EIL literature is based on student self-report data on how the class went, or was it enjoyable, rather than on actual student learning gains. As such, these papers did not meet the criteria for demonstrated learning gains as a measure of effectiveness. In addition, some papers were excluded for lack of clarity about methods. In these studies it is not evident how either the intervention and/or the assessment was conducted, with regard to timing, instrument used, etc. Some additional papers were excluded because a control or comparison group was not included to establish "effectiveness" of the intervention. Overall, the authors note the EIL literature frequently reports descriptive statistics, showing that data has been gathered, but sometimes falls short of a full analysis that allows the researchers to draw meaningful/wellgrounded conclusions from the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This evidence-based practice paper aims to report last five year's experiences of both authors in engaging undergraduate students in field-specific hands-on research by utilizing small internal grants designed for undergraduate research. This study also aims to focus on how engaging in hands-on research impacted the students' learning experiences, their professional development and even their academic results and achievements. In teaching focused universities, the opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved in externally funded research are limited. However, a small grant from the universities can support involvement of both undergraduate and faculty in research activities. In the last five years, the authors have supervised more than 10 undergraduate students in the areas of architecture and manufacturing. It has been observed that engaging students in the hands-on research can greatly improve students' critical thinking. Participation in research enhances student's presentation skills by allowing them opportunities for presenting their research at regional and national conferences, as well as provides them information on the recent developments in areas of their field of study. It was also observed that students who were engaged in research with faculty often were more successful than their peers in getting job offers or admission to graduate schools of their choice. This study will discuss the university strategies and specific strategies taken by both authors to involve and enhance undergraduate students' participation in hands-on research in the areas of architecture and manufacturing. The study will also provide brief descriptions of each project including student learning outcomes and research outcomes from the project. This study aims to discuss students' professional development by comparing the students' academic achievements and professional development before and after engaging in faculty-led research projects. Finally, a section discussing possible strategies that could be taken for enhancing participation in undergraduate research at teaching focused universities will be included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity plays an important role in engineering problem solving, particularly when solving an ill-structured problem, and has been a topic of increasing research interest in recent years. Prior research on creativity has been conducted in problem solving settings, predominantly focusing on undergraduate engineering students, including how faculty can foster creativity in engineering students, how engineering faculty perceive their students' creativity, and how to measure it. However, more work is needed to examine engineering faculty and practitioner perspectives on the role of creativity when they solve an engineering problem themselves. Since engineering students learn problem solving, at least initially, mainly from their professors, it is essential to understand how faculty perceive their own creativity in problem solving. Similarly, given that practitioners solve ill-structured engineering problems on a regular basis in the workplace and that most of the students go on to work in the engineering industry when they graduate and ultimately become practitioners, it is also important to explore practitioner perspectives on creativity in problem solving settings. As part of an ongoing NSF-funded study, this paper investigates how engineering faculty's and practitioners' creativity influences their problem solving processes, how their perspectives on creativity in a problem solving environment differ, and what factors impact their creativity. Five tenure-track faculty in civil engineering and five practitioners were interviewed after they solved an ill-structured engineering problem. Participants' responses were transcribed and coded using initial coding. This paper discusses their responses to semi-structured interview questions. The findings suggest that faculty and practitioners feel more creative when they are familiar with the subject area of a problem. If they are aware of a particular solution that has been developed and used before or have access to resources to look them up, they may not necessarily embrace creativity. The findings indicate differences not only across faculty and practitioners but also within the faculty and practitioner participants. Similarities and differences between faculty and practitioners in creative problem solving and the themes that emerged are discussed and recommendations for educators are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During times of local and national quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities had to close campuses and expediently convert operations and services from face-to-face to virtual learning environments, including virtual classrooms, learning communities, offices, and meeting/advising rooms. Many engineering faculty and students experienced personal, technical, and psychosocial challenges associated with this dramatically altered reality, which may have significant and unprecedented effects on their personal and academic lives. The current study presents results from a needs assessment survey examining the perceptions of 157 engineering students majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering about the strengths and challenges exhibited by their professors/instructors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we describe the instructional efforts and approaches taken by faculty to resolve the practical challenges because of the pandemic. Student perceptions of faculty effectiveness and support were examined by analyzing means and frequencies of survey items. Results revealed that on average, engineering students were positive in their perceptions of the effectiveness and resources/support provided by their professors/instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative data from an open-ended question where coded and quantified. The theme that emerged most frequently reflected engineering students' need for professors/instructors to demonstrate flexibility/leniency with assignments, quizzes, exams, and deadlines. This short paper provides critical assessment of the gaps in institutional services and resources and provide the required feedback, while informing the institution and the research community about the ways to develop a resilient support network for engineering students in the times of crisis. Future work will consider how student responses change under the altering societal and work/academic conditions with or without COVID-19 pandemic being present at that time. Results from the current study also provide recommendations for effective online instruction in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This National Science Foundation (NSF) project focuses on creating an immersive international summer research experience for students enrolled in a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI). Over the course of a three-year grant period, this research seeks to: (1) train and mentor 18 diverse undergraduate students from PUIs in Southern California in bioinformatics research in a collaborative and international setting; (2) disseminate the research outcomes at conferences and in peer-reviewed journals; (3) encourage and prepare undergraduate students from PUIs for enrollment in graduate programs in bioinformatics, bioengineering, or related fields; (4) foster existing collaborations and develop new research collaborations between the PI at the University of San Diego (USD) and scientists at the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) in Sweden; and (5) develop a diverse cohort of globally engaged scientists/engineers that seek career opportunities and collaborators throughout the world. This paper reports on the first year of the grant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe an NSF-TUSE funded project, which seeks to expose a broad group of undergraduate students to data science methods via already existing introductory undergraduate STEM classes (as opposed to through the creation of entirely new classes). A key component is a novel process, described here, to develop data science modules that naturally fit into such existing STEM classes. This novel process takes most of the development burden off the instructor's shoulders and instead employs collaborative teams of undergraduate and graduate students as well as the PIs in consultation with the instructor. The outcomes of this process are data science modules ready to be infused throughout the undergraduate STEM curriculum. We describe best practices and lessons learned about the module development and deployment process as well as several of the modules and their fit into the curriculum. In this paper we furthermore describe data science experiential learning opportunities for students at more advanced stages of their education. We finish by outlining the methods by which we will be evaluating the effectiveness of both the modules as well as the experiential learning opportunities in exposing students to data science methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to show how graduate engineering students working on Engineeringfor-Community-Development (ECD) projects and theses 1) acquire socio-technical education that prepares them to critically engage with community development (formation); 2) propose to translate their academic scholarship into formats and language that lead to effective engagement and appropriation by the communities they want to serve (translation); and, from this translation, 3) extend their scholarship into curricular opportunities for undergraduate engineers interested in ECD (extension). Traditional graduate engineering training often lacks education about understanding engineering as a socio-technical endeavor while graduate engineering research is often for graduate advisors to be presented in professional conferences, published in academic journals, and eventually contributing to the output of a research lab. Even when graduate engineering education is complemented with ancillary "social" topics like research ethics or professional communication, it often lacks a concerted effort to view engineering as a sociotechnical endeavor, which, as we propose, is a necessary precondition for effective community engagement. Even when the research topic could be relevant to communities or undergraduate engineering students interested in ECD projects, graduate students rarely translate their results into formats and languages understandable by different audiences. For the process of formation, we will outline how graduate students in the Humanitarian Engineering and Science (HES) Program at Colorado School of Mines (Mines) receive education and mentoring in epistemic decolonization where they learn to question the assumptions, knowledge, and methods that engineers from the Global North have used to engage communities from the Global South and the processes through which students frame their research questions, methods, and community engagement. For the process of translation, we will review the literature on "research translation" and propose models for research translation specific to the community contexts in which they are working: recyclers of electronic and construction waste, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities, and houseless communities in need of clean water. For the process of extension, we will review the literature on graduateundergraduate mentoring related to engineering design projects and propose curricular opportunities for involving other engineering students in community development generated from the graduate student research and translation activities. With an increasing number of ECD-related graduate programs appearing in the horizon, there will be an increasing need for effective models for formation, research translation, and extension like those proposed in this paper. This paper hopes to contribute to these emerging needs and the future development of these crucial areas of graduate engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ableism is a barrier to accessible engineering education. Although Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mandates equal access to postsecondary institutions for people with disabilities, there has been continuous pushback. Improvements have been made through laws, research, and activism, but there are still many steps we must take to further the accessibility of education and inclusion of disabled students. Disabled people make up between 13-26% of the US population, but only 6% of undergraduate students, and 7% of doctoral students with an engineering degree (NCSES). This underrepresentation of disabled students in engineering is likely due to a combination of factors. Studies have shown that disabled students face systemic barriers ranging from a general lack of support to negative views from faculty members. Resources about accessible and inclusive education practices related to the disability community are limited, and educators identified this limitation as a barrier to the support process. There is a clear and present need to ensure that support is implemented in our classrooms and that faculty have the resources to adapt their courses to an accessible format. The goal of this paper is to provide a guide to professors and students on accessible education. This guide will summarize resources and findings from both disability and education research into one cohesive space. I will discuss 10 guidelines, as follows: 1) Provide instructor- and course-specific accessibility and accommodations statements, 2) Meet with students privately about their accommodations, 3) Do not ask students to disclose their disabilities, 4) Consider the implications of language used, 5) Apply principles from Universal Design for Learning in the classroom, 6) Proactively provide accessible materials, 7) Upload notes and class slides and/or recordings, 8) Remove attendance requirements, 9) Solicit feedback from students on how accommodations are working in your class, and 10) Include content from those in the disability community in the curriculum. Adopting these guidelines is just the first step in starting to create a more inclusive and accessible educational environment. In conclusion, accessible education for all is within our power, but resources are needed for 1) disabled individuals and 2) educators. This paper provides guidelines and resources backed by disability and education literature to assist in making education accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is verified that undergraduate students learn through research. A short project was designed and performed to assist the understanding of interdisciplinary ethics, political, environmental, economic, and other disciplines in civil and construction engineering projects. It was part of a larger structural design project. The project was a simulation of real-life multidisciplinary aspects of engineering projects. Various ways were tested and developed. Individual and group projects were assigned. An activity of theatrical role presentation was added to the previous methods that included a critical thinking debate. After an initial literature review, they were asked to play their role after the instructor introduced their role in the project. The instructor guided the students in gathering information about their enrolled position during the term. The role positions were in construction or the disciplines participating in the construction. At the end of the term, they presented their research as their role and then discussed and argued it in a town hall with their classmates. Each student explained, debated, and defended their point of view based on their research. They were suggested to manage the situation, find reasonable solutions that other parties might agree to, be ethical and rational, and follow the regulations and legislations even if the discussion results did not match their personal or group role benefits. Each of the students presented their role section even if it was assigned as a team project. Despite the point that all the students participated in the team presentation, their involvement and participation were assessed based on their peers' feedback and the instructor's assessment. The students showed particular interest, enthusiasm, and passion for the project, and the observation of their commitment and involvement was exceptional. This paper presents the project and the reasons for the success of this experience. The pieces of the discussion and arguments of the students are presented. This method and the students' response and feedback conclude that the approach can be adopted and used in courses in different disciplines with higher education learning environments that match the current complicated job conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper describes a case study of the ways that engineering students demonstrate emerging engineering judgment as they make assumptions needed to model and solve an openended, ill-structured engineering science homework problem. Engineering judgment is the set of practices that engineers employ to develop mathematical models to solve the ill-structured problems encountered by professional engineers. Engineering science homework presents an underutilized opportunity for students to develop and rehearse mathematical modeling and engineering judgment by engaging with ill-structured problems. This study unpacks students' emerging engineering judgment as they identify, make, and revise assumptions to develop mathematical models to solve an ill-structured engineering science homework problem. This study asks: How do these students select, evaluate, and revise assumptions while they develop mathematical models? What do these students take into consideration as they make assumptions to develop mathematical models? We took a case study approach to look closely at the ways students made assumptions that served as the bases for mathematical models. This case took place in the context of a Statics course required of second-year engineering students at a large public university. Over fifteen weeks, the focal team of four students worked to model a swimming pool lift capable of assisting a swimmer to enter and exit the water. We identified moments in which students made assumptions that served as the bases for mathematical models. In this paper, we describe and present examples of the ways that these students selected, evaluated, and revised assumptions while solving this problem. Our analysis suggests that to make assumptions, these students considered ways to simplify the problem, the instructor's grading practices, materials availability, and system function. We conjecture that the open-ended nature of the focal problem scaffolded students to make assumptions, and that their assumption-making processes were shaped by their perceptions of the problem as both a "real-world" problem and a "school assignment." This study contributes to understanding the development of engineering judgment and points to the potential for illstructured engineering science problems to support students to develop and rehearse engineering judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This "Innovation in Engineering Teaching Practices" paper focuses on the development of a course module for an undergraduate introductory circuits course that highlights sustainability and life cycles of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The EV battery module leverages circuits course concepts, introduces students to sociotechnical material, and emphasizes the circular economy in electrical engineering. We identify learning objectives for the module, provide pre-class activities and in-class teaching activities for circuits instructors, including discussion prompts and practice problems. We also offer samples of post-class assessments, including reflection and computation questions for homework and exams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In STEM education there can often be a greater emphasis on technical aspects of design and development in comparison to potential social impacts. Yet, it is becoming increasingly urgent to approach design with a socio-technical perspective. Updating STEM education to integrate deep consideration of social factors with technical content, however, remains a significant challenge. This paper presents an approach to capstone course design that explores how Human-Centered Design (HCD) mindsets and practices can be foregrounded in a heavily technology-centric learning experience. We developed a capstone course for undergraduate STEM students that foregrounds human-centered mindsets in a technical project focused on 3D printing prosthetic devices for a participant with a limb difference. We analyzed data collected from the course to shed light on specific challenges in foregrounding a deep human-centered perspective in technical STEM courses, and we provide guidance for educators who also seek a similar reorientation. Our analysis consisted of a thematic coding on written deliverables and instructor observations from the course, using a set of HCD-aligned values and a set of tech-centric values as codes. Our findings suggest that understanding how to de-center one's own goals and center the goals of a participant are reasonable learning objectives for students, that educators should create space for students to articulate and unpack prior expectations, that starting with technical aspects before considering social aspects in learning can make it harder to adopt an HCD-aligned approach, and educators should give repeated opportunities for engagement with HCD topics since the material takes time to digest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary goal of the undergraduate engineering curriculum is to lay the groundwork for the remainder of the students' educational training, as well as prepare them for work in the engineering industry. Traditionally, the curriculum primarily consists of lecture-based courses, with some hands-on work, mostly through demonstration. In recent years, the curriculum has started using more project-based courses. In these updated courses, the theory covered via lecture is merged with hands-on project work. This integrated approach is designed to not only give the students a foundation of the course theory, but to expand on that and give them practical, handson applications of that theory. Additionally, it gives the opportunity to learn skills in design, manufacturing, electronics, controls, and prototyping. This study looks at a mechanics of materials course project that has the students build a tensiletesting device from course-supplied kit to evaluate mechanical properties of a chosen material. Traditionally, this course was mainly taught using a problem-based pedagogy with the addition of a few basic labs and one project in the last few weeks of the course. The project detailed in this paper is an updated version of projects used in previous iterations of this experimental course. Despite the changes, all of these projects share a commonality of requiring the students to combine knowledge from multiple engineering disciplines, including circuits, controls, and mechanics of materials. The effect of this experimental course on the students was analyzed a pre- and post-course selfefficacy survey that looks at how the students' self-perception of their engineering abilities and skills were affected by the application of the project-based course. To study the change in students' self-efficacy, the following hypothesis has been derived: Hypothesis: Students who participate in the experimental project will demonstrate an increased engineering self-efficacy when compared to the onset of the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theory paper focuses on understanding how mastery learning has been implemented in undergraduate engineering courses through a systematic literature review. Academic environments that encourage learning, mastery, and continuous improvement rather than inherent ability can promote performance and persistence. Scholarship has argued that students could achieve mastery of the course material when the time available to master concepts and the quality of instruction was made appropriate to each learner. Increasing time to demonstrate mastery involves a course structure that allows for repeated attempts on learning assessments (i.e., homework, quizzes, projects, exams). Students are not penalized for failed attempts but are rewarded for achieving eventual mastery. The mastery learning approach recognizes that mastery is not always achieved on first attempts and learning from mistakes and persisting is fundamental to how we learn. This singular concept has potentially the greatest impact on students' mindset in terms of their belief they can be successful in learning the course material. A significant amount of attention has been given to mastery learning courses in secondary education and mastery learning has shown an exceptionally positive effect on student achievement. However, implementing mastery learning in an undergraduate course can be a cumbersome process as it requires instructors to significantly restructure their assignments and exams, evaluation process, and grading practices. In light of these challenges, it is unclear the extent to which mastery learning has been implemented in undergraduate engineering courses or if similar positive effects can be found. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review to elucidate, how in the U.S., (1) has mastery learning been implemented in undergraduate engineering courses from 1990 to 2021 and (2) the student outcomes that have been reported for these implementations. Using the systematic process outlined by Borrego et al. (2014), we surveyed seven databases and a total of 584 articles consisting of engineering and non-engineering courses were identified. We focused our review on studies that were centered on applying the mastery learning pedagogical method in undergraduate engineering courses. All peer-reviewed and practitioner articles and conference proceedings that were within our scope were included in the synthetization phase of the review. Twelve studies focused on applying mastery learning to undergraduate engineering courses. The mastery learning method was mainly applied on midterm exams, few studies used the method on homework assignments, and no study applied the method to the final exam. Students reported an increase in learning as a result of applying mastery learning. Several studies reported that students' grades in a traditional final exam were not affected by mastery learning. Students' self-reported evaluation of the course suggests that students prefer the mastery learning approach over traditional methods. Although a clear consensus on the effect of the mastery learning approach could not be achieved as each article applied different survey instruments to capture students' perspectives. Responses to open-ended questions have mixed results. Two studies report more positive student comments on opened-ended questions, while one study reports receiving more negative comments regarding the implementation of the mastery learning method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Electrical Engineering (EE) program at the University of Washington (UW) Bothell, a weighted average score is used as admissions criterion for undergraduate electrical engineering students. The score comprises calculus, physics and chemistry grades, overall student GPA and a rating of the student's personal statement. This paper presents statistical data to show how well student success in electrical engineering is correlated with the admissions criteria. Results of regression analysis show that there is a positive correlation between sophomore-level electrical engineering course grades and the weighted average admission scores. The results also show that calculus grades are the strongest predictors, while the overall student GPAs are the weakest predictors, of electrical engineering courses GPA. The paper sheds light on the results of the study and makes recommendations for improved criterion for admissions in electrical engineering programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing the extent to which first-year undergraduate engineering students identify with engineering may help improve retention. Research suggests that the degree to which students identify with engineering is positively related to their decisions to continue in engineering as a major. Therefore, identity frameworks have proven useful for furthering understanding of engineering retention. However most of the studies examining engineering identity have been conducted using qualitative research methodologies. While qualitative studies provide rich insights into engineering identity, evaluating engineering identity for hundreds or thousands of first-year students requires a quantitative instrument. Therefore, a current project is the development of a quantitative tool for measuring engineering identity. It uses information from six scales to measure different aspects of engineering identity. The scales are: identification, selfassessment, engineering embeddedness, university embeddedness, satisfaction, and retention. Since all six scales are not assessed each time the tool is administered to students, the paper will describe the two given thus far to students in the project: identification and self-efficacy. Further, it presents results responses from approximately 2,000 first-year engineering students at a large public institution. The paper addresses two questions: 1) How do engineering students respond to two scales related to identity frameworks; and 2) What has been learned by giving these two scales to first-year engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For any student in the first year of an undergraduate program, there are an overwhelming number of decisions to make. One of the biggest of these is choosing what to study. This choice is influenced by many complex factors and is difficult to predict or fully understand. A better recognition of why a student opts into and stays in a major could yield a deeper understanding into how students choose a major and what they expect from engineering careers. This paper examines students who chose chemical engineering and completed a set of surveys administered during their first year of study. The surveys contained questions that were both quantitative and qualitative in nature. In total, 32 complete response sets were included in the analysis from students who answered all three surveys and chose chemical engineering as their major in any of the three surveys. These responses were selected to investigate the major selection path of students who opt in and stay in the chemical engineering program by the end of their first year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes steps taken to increase participation and student learning in an undergraduate STEM Summer Research Program at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), a government institution. The paper also describes outcomes related to how the program is helping the students prepare for their futures. These steps are taken during the third year of an ongoing process to transform the undergraduate program. A partnership among AFIT, the LEADER (Launching Equity in the Academy across the Dayton Entrepreneurial Region) Consortium, and the Southwestern Ohio Consortium for Higher Education (SOCHE) was established to assess the students' experiences and to inform future experiences based upon the results of surveys conducted annually since 2012. SOCHE has employed nearly 1,000 STEM students in the past 25 years. In 2012, a formal assessment tool was distributed to the students for the first time to measure the impact of the research experience. Also in 2012, a formal assessment tool was distributed to the Faculty Advisors of the students for the first time to measure the research experience of the students from their advisors' perspective. Following the student survey results in the 2012 Program, we identified the following four broad needs expressed by the students: (1) A desire for mentors with increased organization and communication among SOCHE, AFIT, and the students; (2) A desire for increased interactions with other students; (3) A desire to improve their CV or resume at the beginning of the program; (4) A desire to gain engineering experience, skills, and confidence in research. In the 2013 Program, we introduced and implemented four new voluntary components in response to the student needs. Because of government restrictions, the participation of students in the components is voluntary, and students were encouraged to participate by SOCHE. These transformational components are: (A) A joint orientation process with SOCHE and AFIT Project Leaders; (B) Student cohorts through social activities and STEM-based games; (C) A weekly seminar meeting with outside presentations of general interest; and (D) A Poster Session so that students can present the engineering experiences they have gained. Selected students were awarded 'Posters of Excellence' Certificates in a poster competition. Student response rates in the 2013 Program were low to both a pre-survey administered by SOCHE when the program was in session and to a post-survey following the program (presurvey response rate: 33%; post-survey response rate: 16%). While participation in the Joint Orientation was nearly 100%, student participation in the other 11 one-hour weekly events was low (13%). This paper describes increased student and faculty participation in the 2014 Program. The 2014 Program comprised 49 students and 14 Faculty Advisors. The 49 participating students is the largest number of students since the start of our assessment effort (The 2013 Program comprised 43 students, and the 2012 Program comprised 48 students). SOCHE continues to advertise the research internships conducted at the Federal Government Institution throughout southwestern Ohio. In the 2014 Program, we introduced and implemented a fifth component. This component is: (E) Counseling. This component provides personal interaction among the students and SOCHE at the Government Institution (where the students are pursuing their research projects). In this component, the Director of SOCHE drove to the Government Institution for one day (Wednesday) each week and spent four hours meeting informally with students and answering student questions regarding the Program. Approximately 20 students met the Director each day. In addition to introducing Component (E), we also standardized the location and time of each event in the four components (A)-(D). Each event was held at the same time (noon-1pm) each week in the same location. The consistency of the programming helped the students remember each weekly event and contributed to increased participation. This paper will describe the new component (E) and additional steps taken to increase student participation and student learning in the five components in the 2014 Program. This paper will also describe outcomes related to how the program is helping the students prepare for their futures and steps taken to increase faculty participation in the Faculty Advisor survey. In the 2014 Program, student participation increased in each component. Nearly 100% of the students participated in the Joint Orientation. Thirteen of the 49 students (26.5%) participated in the Kayak trip; 18 students (36.7%) participated in the resume workshop; and 21 students (42.9%) participated in the Poster Preparation Session. Seventeen students (34.7%) prepared 12 posters for the Poster Session, compared with the participation of 9 out of 43 students (21%) who together prepared 7 posters in the 2013 Poster Session (a Poster Session was not held in the 2012 Program). Faculty participation in the 2014 Faculty Advisor survey is 11 out of 13 oncampus faculty (85%) (One faculty transferred out of the country prior to the administration of the Faculty Advisor Survey and was not able to be surveyed). The increased faculty participation rate in the 2014 Program compares favorably to the Faculty Advisor response rates of 56% in the 2013 Program and 61% in the 2012 Program, respectively. Our capability to strengthen the program focuses on incorporating feedback from the students, who are government contractors, and incorporating feedback from the Faculty Advisors in order to inform best practices in workforce development. Additional results and findings of the assessment of the 2014 Summer Research Program will be discussed, and the results and findings will be compared with results from the 2012 Program and 2013 Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers material testing of African wood species, performed by an engineering school in the U.S. on behalf of an international non-government organization (NGO), as research conducted partially by undergraduate students. The material testing program yielded useful information in itself, but the innovative method of international collaboration provides an example for educational institutions and NGOs of sharing resources for common benefits. Engineering Ministries International Uganda (EMI) provides design and construction management services to Christian charities throughout East Africa. Their structural engineers have been using North American timber standards to estimate the strength of similar African wood species, since little published information on the strength of locally-sourced African woods is available. Through the connection of the lead author's involvement with EMI during a recent sabbatical, EMI sent samples of cypress, eucalyptus, musizi and pine to the U.S. Air Force Academy's (USAFA) Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering for testing. Although the number of wood samples tested was small, the results provided EMI more confidence about the actual strength of these wood species used in East African construction, and are presented in this paper. The project also provided opportunities for undergraduate engineering students at USAFA and an EMI intern from Auburn University to participate in meaningful research. More collaboration is possible as Uganda Martyr's University (UMU) Faculty of the Built Environment considers involving its facilities and undergraduate students in continued testing. The testing results proved valuable to EMI, and the students involved gained experience setting up testing procedures and apparatus, conducting tests, recording data, and analyzing results. This unique approach of connecting North American and African universities, NGOs and undergraduate students required almost no funding and could be adopted by other similar organizations to simultaneously facilitate academic research and provide a valuable service not locally available. Many NGOs operating throughout the developing world would be grateful for such technical assistance. University engineering programs could provide this kind of testing and analysis as an opportunity for meaningful research. The level of complexity in such investigations can be appropriate for undergraduate participation with faculty guidance. Students are often drawn to engineering by a desire to benefit mankind. For example, faculty and undergraduate students at the Colorado School of Mines are helping EMI to evaluate the feasibility of small-scale solar-powered UV water disinfection systems. The authors assert that students are motivated to take part in research that helps people in developing countries improve the quality of their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the impact of the Engineering Ambassador Program (EAP), which engages undergraduate engineering students as Ambassadors in K-12 outreach activities, on the stimulation of interest in STEM, self-efficacy, and actual academic attainment of Ambassadors is presented. The collected data over several years reveals that over 2/3 of activity leaders and project coordinators of the EAP at Howard University (HU) expressed higher confidence in their ability in understanding and succeeding in engineering because of their EAP experience. Also, the activity leaders and project coordinators achieved higher major and overall grade point averages (GPAs). Furthermore, improved academic performance in the courses related to the projects that Ambassadors were exposed to such as hands-on earthquake and coastal engineering projects was attained. Lastly, the Ambassadors exhibited a shorter time to degree completion with their peers who did not participate in the EAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International experiences are viewed as important components of undergraduate engineering education. Yet little has been done to define global preparedness, specify alternatives for achieving it, or determine to what degree being globally prepared is the result of personal attributes, prior experiences (including pre-college), or specific educational experiences. A collaboration of investigators from four universities are investigating how the broad spectrum of international experiences both in and outside of formal curricula impact engineering students' global preparedness. Now in its fifth year of research, we have conducted three primary studies to learn more about global preparedness. The first was an extensive Delphi survey with subject matter experts. The second consisted of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of students at our four partner institutions. The third is a much larger survey of engineering students at 13 representative engineering programs across the U.S. This paper focuses on the results of the third study. At each campus we have obtained stratified random samples of freshmen and seniors; in the case of seniors we have subdivided the sample into two cohorts - those who had an international experience while an undergraduate student and those who had not participated in an international activity. All students completed a carefully tested instrument that captured their demographics, experiences and a measure of their global preparedness. To determine the latter, we utilized the nationally normed Global Perspective Inventory developed by Braskamp and colleagues. This has enabled us to identify changes in global awareness, knowledge and thinking over the course of the students' transition from incoming freshman to graduating senior. We report what we have learned from this extensive sample of over 2,500 students. The results of this third study and the two earlier linked studies have resulted in guidelines for engineering administrators and faculty interested in preparing students for the global economy. Similar to our earlier papers, we provide an overview of the updated results of this NSF funded research initiative that has investigated how the various internationally focused learning experiences within engineering (both curricular and cocurricular) impact students' global preparedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this student led undergraduate research paper we present a robotics project using the Robot Operating System (ROS). The purpose of this student paper is to document their learning path and steps taken for a project using three related, yet independent student projects so that others might benefit from the details. The students worked together initially to learn enough about ROS and it's development environment so that they might employ it. Thus far the use of ROS has primarily been focused on graduate studies where improvements to the underlying algorithms and techniques have been made. In this undergraduate approach no such attempts are made in improving the foundation algorithms already developed by top researchers and schools. Rather, the students employed published techniques to provide the foundation of their work. Specifically, the project used the Turtle-bot architecture and modules within ROS to create the components of a cooperative robotic mission. The crux of the mission is for one of the robots to autonomously explore and map an area of the engineering building while leaving bread-crumbs behind for another robot to follow. A third robot comes behind the second and uses the information from the first two to locate tags distributed throughout the building. Each student made a portion of this project, that could stand alone, so that others could use these individual modules and details for their own projects without redoing what had been done here. The three parts were broken into mapping, tag recognition with robot leader follower operations, and object location and RF tag reading. It enabled students to use the existing sensors on the turtlebot, while incorporating new devices to complete their particular missions. In this paper the students detail the learning path that was required to bring their individual technologies for their sub project to fruition. Using their initial code and techniques will enable others to duplicate and expand at a quicker pace. We have already seen this in the second semester as new students are tackling tasks of increased difficulty building on what was done here. Furthermore, the students detail the methods used and the code that they wrote to accomplish the tasks described. Finally, the students identified the technologies required to learn and the research they did as a criteria of merit. Additionally, a series of Youtube instructional videos and a file repository are available for others to use. All of the code developed is given on google drives and GitHub for others to use and is referenced at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the application of 3D printing to enhance the learning of undergraduate students about the mechanisms (linkage, Cam-Follower) on Kinematic and Dynamic of Machinery course. In this course, students will learn how a mechanical mechanism, including linkage and cam-follower mechanism, is working. They will learn how to analyze a mechanism or synthesis of a mechanism to provide a specified task. To enhance their understanding about the mechanism, the project was designed by the instructor for this course. The project has three phases. On phase I, each group, consisting of 4 to 5 students, should select a mechanism to design. They design the mechanism based on what they have learned in the class. On phase II, they make drawing on Solidworks. On phase III, they send the drawing file to the 3D printer facility to print the parts of the mechanism. They assemble the parts and come out with the real mechanism. This project will help them to see how their knowledge can help to build a real mechanical mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disabled people continue to be significantly underrepresented and marginalized in engineering. Current reports indicate that approximately 26 percent of US adults have some form of disability. Yet only 6 percent of undergraduate students enrolled in engineering programs belong to this group. Several barriers have been identified that discourage and even prohibit people with disabilities from participating in engineering including arduous accommodations processes, lack of institutional support, and negative peer, staff, and faculty attitudes. These barriers are perpetuated and reinforced by a variety of ableist sociocultural norms and definitions that rely on popularized tropes and medicalized models that influence the ways this group experiences school to become engineers. In this paper, we seek to contribute to conversations that shape understanding of disability identity and the ways it is conceptualized in engineering programs. We revisit interview data from an ongoing grounded theory exploration of professional identity formation of undergraduate civil engineering students who identify as having one or more disabilities. Through our qualitative analysis, we identified overarching themes that contribute to understanding of how participants define and integrate disability identity to form professional identities and the ways they reshape and contribute to the civil engineering field through this lens. Emergent themes include experiencing/considering disability identity as a fluid experience, as a characteristic that 'sets you apart', and as a medicalized symptom or condition. Findings from this work can be used by engineering educators and administrators to inform more effective academic and personal support structures to destigmatize disability and promote the participation and inclusion of students and colleagues with disabilities in engineering and in our academic and professional communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Summer Academy in Sustainable Manufacturing is an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site that offers unique summer undergraduate research experiences in the challenging field of sustainable manufacturing to national undergraduate students from two and four-year institutions. The objective of the REU Site is to introduce undergraduate students to the forefront of sustainable manufacturing research and to provide participants with the skills and pathways to pursue advanced degrees or careers in sustainable manufacturing. The intensive tenweek summer research and professional development experience hosts ten students per summer and addresses National Science Foundation priority areas such as advanced manufacturing and sustainability. Undergraduate research projects in the REU site address manufacturing process, manufacturing system, and fundamental sustainable manufacturing principles within continuous (e.g. chemical manufacturing) and discrete (e.g. automotive manufacturing) manufacturing systems. Projects are further associated with topics that cross cut the aforementioned thrust areas such as, emerging and environmentally benign materials manufacturing, sustainable process design and control, and life-cycle engineering and value recovery. Traditionally, this REU Site hosts in-person undergraduate researchers to undertake their research projects in a faculty mentor laboratory during the program. However, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated that the REU Site program be held virtually during the summer of 2021. This poster and summary paper detail the steps taken to transition REU Site program activities to a virtual environment and postprogram evaluation results of participant experiences. Evaluation results of the virtual program are compared to evaluation results of prior in-person Summer Academy in Sustainable Manufacturing programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost every career encompasses some form of security and today's students must be introduced to various aspects of security to be effective in their career and daily lives. South Carolina State University (SC State University) has an ongoing Target Infusion Proposal grant from National Science Foundation (NSF) to address the problem of the lack of awareness and participation in cyber security since 2019. The project vision is to create a successful model of institution wide reform for undergraduate cybersecurity education at SC State University using instruction, internships, and seminars. The student should be able to evaluate, make decisions, and take responsible actions in the context of cyber security. This project uses a multi-tier approach to increase capacity in cyber security education, training, and awareness in the undergraduate curriculum The objective of this poster presentation is to share our experiences with various project activities. The findings presented in this paper may be used by interested parties involved in STEM curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software architecture students, often, lack self-confidence in their ability to use their knowledge to design software architectures. This paper investigates the relations between undergraduate software architecture students' self-confidence and their course expectations, cognitive levels, preferred learning methods, and critical thinking. We developed a questionnaire with open-ended questions to assess the self-confidence levels and related factors, which was taken by one-hundred ten students in two semesters. The students answers were coded and analyzed afterward. We found that self-confidence is weakly associated with the students' critical thinking and independent from their cognitive levels, preferred learning methods, and expectations from the course. The results suggest that to improve the self-confidence of the students, the instructors should work on improving the students' critical thinking capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security is a rising concern for organizations hiring undergraduates out of college in computing disciplines. This is reflected in the emerging prominence of cybersecurity related courses, certificates, and degree programs, and reflected in the most recent curricular standards guidelines. Perspectives on security recognize it as both a system discipline, meaning the inclusion of hardware, software, and networking components, and a cross-cutting skill across the major phases on the software engineering lifecycle (requirements, design, verification & validation, construction, and evolution and maintenance). Our conjecture is that there are many open and available resources for the first perspective (system) but few for the second perspective (software engineering). In this paper we share experiences creating a new junior-level security course in secure software engineering as a required course in an undergraduate accredited software engineering degree program. Specifically, and aligned with the latter perspective, we share the challenges we faced when seeking curricular resources, including open courseware repositories and textbooks, to jumpstart the development. We reflect on these experiences by providing a map of curricular resources to cross-cutting software engineering lifecycle phases, examining popular open (and usually federally funded) courseware repositories including the SEED project from Syracuse University and the Cybersecurity Labs and Resource Knowledge-base (CLARK) initiative, as well as ad hoc resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a Research paper. A large number of students never raise their hand during lectures or go to office hours. This is especially the case for large undergraduate classes. It is hypothesized that many students would benefit from more interaction with an instructor or teaching assistant. This study is part of a larger project of implementing oral exams in undergraduate engineering courses with potential benefits including improved assessment and reduction in academic integrity concerns. In addition to these benefits, this study paper explores whether oral exams can increase student motivation to learn and performance in the class. In this study, 560 engineering students in 6 classes were given oral exams and were surveyed about their experience. In one of the classes with 37 students, a controlled trial was performed with students randomly assigned to 3 groups. After the first written midterm one group had an oral exam with the instructor, one group had an oral exam with the Teaching Assistant (TA), and the last group did not have an oral exam. In the second written midterm the group with the instructor increased their grade by 14%, the group with the TA increased by 3%, and the group with no oral exam had a negligible change in performance. Potential reasons for the larger impact of an oral exam with the instructor were explored with one possibility being increased student motivation. A survey question about student motivation was administered to all 560 students in the study for which a majority of the oral exams were administered by TAs or other Instructional Assistants. Overall 338 students responded to the survey question and 70% of them Strongly Agreed or Agreed that the oral exams increased their motivation to learn. A correlation analysis was run using the demographic data of the students. First generation status had a statistically significant correlation with p=.031, where 78% of first generation students indicated that oral exams increased their motivation to learn compared to 66% for students that are not first generation. Other statistically significant correlations occurred with Cumulative GPA (p=.001) and Term GPA (p=.003), but with a negative correlation coefficient. The students that Strongly Agreed that the oral exam increased their motivation to learn had the lowest GPA (Cumulative GPA = 3.23 and Term GPA=2.89). These 3 statistically significant correlations all indicate that students who may likely benefit from more academic support had a larger increase in motivation following an oral exam. Hypotheses are presented for the reasons for student gains following oral exams, and proposals are made for the roles of Instructional Assistants and instructors in future studies and classroom implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the adverse impacts of harassment on career outcomes of women and racial minorities in academic engineering has been increasingly recognized. The way individuals define harassment has important implications for designing prevention programs and the ability of the engineering community to recognize and address this issue. This paper explores how undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty and staff in engineering define harassment in response to open-ended questions. The study is based on semi-structured individual interviews from 102 participants at two research universities in the United States. To build a comprehensive understanding of harassment, content analysis was used to identify themes in participants' responses. We also explored whether and how participants associate harassment with their own identity (e.g., gender, race). Participants recognized three overarching types of harassment: sexual (e.g., unwanted sexual attention), identity-based (e.g., race, gender), and general (i.e., neither sexual nor identity-based). Participants revealed a spectrum of behavioral indicators, including offensive language (e.g., comments, jokes), discrimination, and disrespectful behaviors. Whereas women and men perceived similar behaviors as indicators of harassment, the types of harassment were somewhat related to their social identity and status at the university (e.g., student, faculty). The implications of the findings for future research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]