Background: There is a well-known gender disparity in the engineering field. Three of the most important factors related to the participation of women in engineering are differences in perceived societal relevance, technical self-efficacy, and tinkering self-efficacy. Purpose/Hypothesis: Soft robotics is a relatively new engineering application…

The current study examined the neural correlates of spatial rotation in eight engineering undergraduates. Mastering engineering graphics requires students to mentally visualize in 3D and mentally rotate parts when developing 2D drawings. Students' spatial rotation skills play a significant role in learning and mastering engineering graphics.…

Formally describing and assessing the difficulty of learning and teaching material is important for quality assurance in university teaching, for aligning teaching and learning activities, and for easing communications among stakeholders such as teachers and students. This paper proposes a novel taxonomy to describe and quantify the difficulty…

Black men experience numerous systemic challenges in pursuit of their education, yet they also possess strength to achieve academic goals. The purpose of this autoethnographic study is to describe the meaning of my experiences at an undergraduate engineering program at a historically White institution to increase awareness of the ways that Black…

First-year STEM students often interpret academic challenges as diagnostic of belonging. Studies demonstrate that a social-belonging intervention helps undergraduates reframe belonging uncertainty as temporary and universal. We implemented this intervention with first-year engineering majors. In Study 1 (N = 284), we analyzed data from engineering…

The emergence of machine intelligence, which is superior to the best human talent in some problem-solving tasks, has rendered conventional educational goals obsolete, especially in terms of enhancing human capacity in specific skills and knowledge domains. Hence, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a buzzword, espousing both crisis rhetoric…

A shortage of science and engineering professionals has led to an effort to engage and retain higher education students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors in the United States. School reformers call on faculty members to shift their teaching practices towards evidence-based instructional strategies that involve…

This thesis contains two areas of research. The first part contributes to the field of engineering mechanics. This research investigates the thermomechanical shape memory behavior of shape memory alloy (SMA) springs. As SMA springs undergo stress- and/or temperature-induced phase transformation, they experience varying combinations of axial,…

The recent changes taking place in the European higher education systems leads to less stable, less secure and less attractive working conditions for academic teachers. Nonetheless, it is observed that the academic profession is attractive for young talented people. The research was aimed at studying educational biographies of engineers who took…

Science and technology are so intertwined that "technoscience" has been argued to more accurately reflect the progress of science and its impact on society, and most socioscientific issues require technoscientific reasoning. Education policy documents have long noted that the general public lacks sufficient understanding of science and…

Across disciplines, male faculty spend more time on research than female faculty. Yet, women tend to teach and mentor students more hours than men (Misra et al. in Glob J Eng Educ 14(1):119-131, 2011). These disparities play pivotal roles in tenure and promotion decisions wherein research and leadership roles are most valued (Green in J Soc Work…

One effort to reducing air pollution and global warming in recent years has centered on the replacement of fossil-fuel-burning vehicles with alternative energy options such as electric-powered transportation. In fact, electric vehicle technology is one of the fastest-growing, and ever-evolving, sectors of the energy industry (TR Fastenings, 2019).…

The final year design project is one of the most important components of any undergraduate engineering program. Fair and efficient project allocation procedures can be vital in ensuring a great student experience and exceptional learning out of these projects, which then could contribute in shaping students' future prospects. In this paper, we…

Young children engage in pre-engineering thinking and play in their day-to-day activities. However, early childhood teachers often miss opportunities to facilitate and extend this type of play. In order to support teachers in this undertaking, the current study aimed to answer the question: What does pre-engineering thinking look like in…

The purpose of this article is to challenge the idea of incompatibility between links to research and links to professional practice in engineering education. The concept of 'academic drift' is introduced, both related to drift towards theory and towards research links in the curriculum. Empirical data were collected through a case study conducted…