Clinical immersion programs provide opportunities for biomedical engineering (BME) students to observe the clinical environment and medical devices in use, often leading to the identification of unmet clinical needs. Due to hospital restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person clinical immersion programs were generally not possible in…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how youth's engineering identity has changed in the process of productive struggle in Making activities in the Midwestern U.S in a summer program. The researchers conducted focus-group interviews, and also administered an Engineering Identity survey as well as the Draw an Engineer Test to…

Process safety remains an area of importance in chemical engineering education. Process safety incidents are tied to individuals' choices that require exercising judgement in weighing competing criteria. While safety is paramount, we need to acknowledge the competing criteria practitioners need to consider (budget, leadership, personal…

Background: To address complex challenges of modern society, engineering education needs to help students develop sociotechnical perspectives of engineering. Research has documented efforts to incorporate sociotechnical thinking into undergraduate engineering education, but those perspectives must often compete with more dominant technocentric…

This multi-methods study explores changes in engineering interest and identity of middle and high school students (n = 79) attending introductory-level engineering summer camps at a large western land grant university. Middle school is a critical time when student interest, identity, and subsequently career choice begin to emerge and hence it is…

Underrepresentation in engineering disciplines remains a significant issue in higher education and the workforce. This paper presents a quantitative analysis comparing the academic success of participants in an engineering-focused Summer Bridge Program (SBP) to non-participants with similar characteristics. The study evaluates first-year…

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate student motivation before and after the summer internship, in other words, to evaluate whether the summer internship affects male and female motivations differently. Design/methodology/approach: Investigating whether the motivation score predicts grade point average was included by adopting a quantitative…

Conducting K-12 outreach programs on university or college campuses focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is an essential part of the multifaceted effort for preparing future generations of engineers and scientists. However, the lack of structured frameworks to design and deliver activities and programs…

Computational thinking (CT) skills are critical for the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, thus drawing increasing attention in STEM education. More curricula and assessments, however, are needed to cultivate and measure CT for different learning goals. Maker activities have the potential to improve student CT, but…

The Engaged Engineering Program (EEP) project at ABC University is a five-year Track 2 NSF S-STEM that responds to challenges in recruiting and retaining academically talented, low-socioeconomic status students from diverse backgrounds into undergraduate engineering programs. The EEP project has successfully recruited four cohorts of Scholars and…

Integrating humanities and arts into STEM has been suggested to better prepare students for the workforce. Studies have shown that improvisation (abbreviated as improv), an educational program from humanities and arts, can potentially improve engineering pedagogy and learning. However, little is known about improv's impact on developing…

Challenge: The biomedical engineering (BME) capstone design courses are traditionally offered in students' senior year. Students often feel underprepared for the hands-on biodesign and prototyping process. Also, capstone design projects are often provided by BME faculty, without students' input in needs finding and screening. Novel Initiative: A…

A synergetic approach to combine service learning at the university level with a high school outreach program is described. A holistic view is presented by discussing the importance of outreach and service learning, survey results, and outcomes. Overall, it was found that the unique program increased the self-efficacy (belief about one's…

The matriculation, retention, and graduation of students is a critical and ongoing effort in undergraduate engineering education. Implementing measures is vital in increasing student motivation to continue pursuing engineering and is especially important for individuals from low-income and academically talented students. At the University of…

With the rapid growth in the manufacturing industry and increased urbanization, higher amounts of composite material waste are being produced, causing severe threats to the environment. These environmental concerns, coupled with the fact that undergraduate students typically have minimal experience in research, have initiated the need at the UAE…