2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Native American students were recruited annually from five Tribal Colleges and two research universities in North Dakota to participate in a five-week, National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) summer program (2019-2022). In 2019, Native American student participants traveled to Beijing, China to learn Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled technology at the Beijing University of Technology (BJUT). In 2020 and 2021, training for student participants was placed on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, public limitations related to Covid-19 had eased in the United States due to vaccine availability; however, fluctuating global travel restrictions created the need to domestically relocate the IRES training program to Mobile, Alabama.

In 2022, a cohort of 12 students – 5 new Native American students from North Dakota, 5 traditionally underrepresented engineering students from southern Alabama, and 2 previous Native American students from the 2019 Cohort (serving as senior mentors) – were trained on wireless sensor network design, energy harvest design, edge-AI design, and new technologies, such as memristors, for IoT-enabled environmental monitoring systems at the University of South Alabama (USA) in Mobile, Alabama. Engineering-based learning content in the program remained consistent with instructional material taught to the 2019 cohort, apart from technical updates; however, changes in sociocultural learning experiences were adjusted for the new program location. Learning activities and dialogues were expanded to incorporate aspects of the south Alabama culture – comprising of a multilayered history involving White Southern, Black Southern, and Poarch Band of Creek Indian populations – with Chinese and the Northern Great Plains Native Americans cultures.

Program training effectiveness and student experiences were evaluated through student skill assessments, student engagement observations, formative and summative participant surveys, training observations, feedback from group discussions, and individual interviews. Results indicate that student participants grasped key quantitative and technical skills through the combination of instructional guidance, peer-mentoring, and hands-on experiences. Nearly all students experienced positive and unexpected encounters in cultural learning and perceived the overall experience as positively impacting their academic training, career development, and cultural understanding.

Changing an academic training program from being in a ‘study-abroad’ to a ‘study-domestic’ setting because of a global pandemic has unique challenges; however, gaining unexpected insight into how diverse student populations navigate, adapt, and experience different training environments and cultures is invaluable. This NSF-funded IRES program revealed essential concepts that make Native American students feel welcomed, valued, and heard. Listening and adapting to student needs through a flexible, genuine, and culturally-aware curriculum empowers students and is essential for lifelong learning and successful integration of underrepresented students into engineering-based disciplines.