The Mechanical Engineering Department at a private, mid-sized university was awarded a National Science Foundation RED (Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments) grant in 2017 to study how student identities change when a department makes “revolutionizing” changes.These changes are in four areas research shows are important to culture change: shared vision, reflective faculty, relevant curriculum and pedagogy, and supportive policies. The goal of the changes is to immerse students in a new culture of “Engineering with Engineers.” Cultivating a culture of doing engineering can result in graduates who not only are prepared technically and professionally with a practical, realistic understanding of what it is to be an engineer, but also who identify with and are committed to the engineering profession. The expectation is that immersion in this program will affect students’ identities as they move through the program. This paper focuses on implicit identity data collected via implicit association tests (IATs) during the first full year of the grant. It shows that engineering students implicitly identify with engineering, and that they consider engineering to be a male field. These data serve as a baseline for the ongoing identity research supported by the grant and point to the need for programmatic changes that help females and non-Whites develop stronger identities with engineering.
This project was funded by a grant from NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) through IUSE/PFE: RED.
Kathleen Cook, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in and Chair of the Psychology Department at Seattle University. Dr. Cook received her doctorate in Social and Personality Psychology from the University of Washington, with a minor in quantitative methods and emphases in cognitive and educational psychology. Her research has included classroom learning, person perception, identity, and health perceptions.
Yen-Lin Han is an Assistant Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering at Seattle University. Her research interests include micro-scale molecular gas dynamics, micro fluidics, and heat transfer applications in MEMS and medical devices as well as autonomous vehicles and robotics. She is passionate about Engineering Education and experienced in developing inverted classroom lectures and facilitating students' learning through authentic engineering problems. She is currently the Co- PI for the NSF Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments grant awarded to the Mechanical Engineering department at Seattle University to study how the department culture changes can foster students' engineering identity. Dr. Han received her BS degree in Material Science and Engineering from National Tsing-Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, her PhD degree in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. She is a member of American Society of Engineering Education, American Society of Mechanical Engineering and American Educational Research Association.
Gregory S. Mason received the B.S.M.E. degree from Gonzaga University in 1983, the M.S.M.E. degree in manufacturing automation from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1984 and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in multi-rate digital
http://orcid.org/https:// 0000-0001-8640-1224
Seattle University
[biography]
Professor Teodora Rutar Shuman is the Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Seattle University and an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington. She is the PI on a NSF-RED grant "Revolutionizing a Mechanical Engineering Department through Industry Immersion and a Focus on Identity". Her research also includes NOx formation in lean-premixed combustion and electro-mechanical systems for sustainable processing of microalgae. Her work is published in venues including the Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Bioresource Technology, Chemical Engineering Journal, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, and Combustion and Flame. She is a member of the American Society of Engineering Education, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Algae Biomass Organization. Dr. Shuman recently served as Chair for the ASEE Energy Conversion and Conservation Division.
She received a Dipl.Ing. degree in mechanical engineering from Belgrade University in 1992, an M.S.M.E. from the University of Washington in 1994 and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2000.
Dr. Jennifer Turns is a full professor in the Human Centered Design & Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. Engineering education is her primary area of scholarship, and has been throughout her career. In her work, she currently focuses on the role of reflection in engineering student learning and the relationship of research and practice in engineering education. In recent years, she has been the co-director of the Consortium to Promote Reflection in Engineering Education (CPREE, funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust), a member of the governing board for the International Research in Engineering Education Network, and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Education. Dr. Turns has published over 175 journal and conference papers on topics related to engineering education.
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