2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 389: Strengthening Student Motivation and Resilience through Research and Advising

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

At XXX University (XXXX), a Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI) and a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI), 67% of engineering students are from ethnic minority groups, with only 27% of Hispanic students retained and graduated in their senior year. Additionally, only 14% of students reported full-time employment secured at the time of graduation. To improve the situation, XXXX, in collaboration with two local community colleges, XX and XXXXX Colleges, was recently funded by the National Science Foundation through an HSI Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program to enhance undergraduate engineering education and build capacity for student success. This project will use a data-driven and evidence-based approach to identify the barriers to the success of underrepresented minority (URM) students and to generate new knowledge on the best practices for increasing students’ retention and graduation rates, self-efficacy, professional development, and workforce preparedness. Three objectives underpin this overall goal. The first is to develop and implement a Summer Research Internship Program together with community college partners. The second is to establish an HSI Engineering Success Center (ESC) to provide students with internships, networking opportunities with industry, and career development tools. The third is to develop resources for the professional development of faculty members, including Summer Faculty Teaching Workshops, an Inclusive Teaching and Mentoring Seminar Series, and an Engineering Faculty Learning Community. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to assess the project outcomes using a survey instrument and interview protocols developed by an external evaluator.

In this paper, the project preparation and the first-year experience will be shared. The focus will be placed on the design and implementation of the several main project components, namely the Engineering Success Center, Summer Research Internship Program, and Faculty Summer Teaching Workshop. The evaluation results, demonstrating a great success of these strategies, will also be discussed.

Authors

Dr. Zhaoshuo Jiang http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-4931-1622 San Francisco State University [biography]

Zhaoshuo Jiang graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering. Before joining San Francisco State University as an assistant professor, he worked as a structural engineering professional at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) LLP. As a licensed professional engineer in the states of Connecticut and California, Dr. Jiang has been involved in the design of a variety of low-rise and high-rise projects. His current research interests mainly focus on Smart Structures Technology, Smart Connected Health, Structural Control and Health Monitoring and Innovative Engineering Education.
Dr. Xiaorong Zhang San Francisco State University [biography]

Dr. Xiaorong Zhang is an Associate Professor in Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University (SFSU). She is the Director of the Intelligent Computing and Embedded Systems Laboratory (ICE Lab) at SFSU. She has broad research experience in human-machine interfaces, embedded systems, and engineering education. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award to develop the next-generation neural-machine interfaces (NMI) for electromyography (EMG)-controlled neurorehabilitation. She is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She has served in the professional societies in various capacities including the Chair of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) San Francisco Chapter (2018-present), an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (2020-present) and IEEE Inside Signal Processing E-Newsletter (2016-2018), organization and program committee members of various international conferences, and a regular reviewer of a variety of journals and conferences in related fields.
Fatemeh Khalkhal San Francisco State University [biography]

Dr. Khalkhal is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at San Francisco State University (a primarily undergraduate and Hispanic-serving Institution). Her research experience is in developing structure-property relationships in complex fluids and polymer composites, broadening the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering, and understanding the relationship between teamwork experience and team disagreements in the formation of engineering identity among diverse students.
Dr. Jenna Wong San Francisco State University [biography]

Dr. Wong is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Her research interests focus on traditional and sustainable structural resilience and engineering education. Her doctorate research at UC Berkeley investigated the applicability of seismic isolation and supplemental viscous damping to nuclear power plants with focus on seismic resilience and safety. After receiving her PhD, Dr. Wong began a post-doctoral fellowship at Lawrence National Laboratory focusing on computational analysis for nonlinear seismic analysis of Department of Energy nuclear facilities and systems. She has established an active research lab at SFSU with a diverse group of undergraduate and Master's level students. For her engineering education research, she is interested in exploring how to use technology such as virtual reality and 3D printing to enhance student engagement. She is an active member of ASCE, ASEE, and SEAONC.
Dr. David Quintero http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3400-9535 San Francisco State University [biography]

Dr. David Quintero received B.S. degree from Texas A&M University, a M.S. degree from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas all in mechanical engineering. He is now an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at San Francisco State University. He teaches courses in control systems and mechatronics. His current research interests include design of hybrid actuators for wearable robots, rehabilitation engineering, biomechanics, assistive robotics, and biomechatronic systems.
Dr. Yiyi Wang San Francisco State University [biography]

Yiyi Wang is an assistant professor of civil engineering at San Francisco State University. In addition to engineering education, her research also focuses on the nexus between mapping, information technology, and transportation and has published in Accident Analysis & Prevention, Journal of Transportation Geography, and Annuals of Regional Science. She served on the Transportation Research Board (TRB) ABJ80 Statistical Analysis committee and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) panel. She advises the student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at SFSU.
Dr. Wenshen Pong, P.E. San Francisco State University [biography]

Wenshen Pong received his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He joined the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University in 1998. He teaches courses in Civil/Structural Engineering. He has received many grants from NSF, Department of Education and NASA.
Dr. Robert Petrulis [biography]

Dr. Petrulis is an independent consultant specializing in education-related project evaluation and research. He is based in Columbia, South Carolina.

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