2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 203: A Research Study on Assessing Empathic Formation in Engineering Design

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

Design is a prominent aspect of engineering education and developing empathy in engineering graduates through design is becoming an essential part of engineering education. However, we need a robust way to measure empathic development in engineering. The primary objective of this study is to provide the engineering design community with a contextually valid instrument for measuring empathy in undergraduate engineering design contexts. We aims to address three primary objectives, which include: (1) To expand and modify a pilot instrument for assessing empathy in engineering design via co-creation with a diverse group of engineering design instructors and student interviews; (2) To test and validate an instrument for assessing empathic formation in engineering design via a multi-methods research design which includes formative feedback from design educators, a pilot student sample, and a large student sample that includes multiple university sites and disciplines; and (3) To identify changes in empathy types across engineering design when applying the instrument in multiple disciplinary design contexts and by accounting for how instructional design contexts and practices influence empathic formation. At the time of this writing, this project is concluding Year 1, but emergent findings have supported the need for a contextually valid assessment in engineering design. Moreover, this project has started fostering community among a small group of design instructors. Upon completion of this work, this project will generate an instructional tool for assessing empathy in engineering design, new knowledge on best practices for promoting empathic formation in engineering design, and community among design instructors across the nation who are interested in empathy in engineering design.

Authors

Dr. Justin L. Hess http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1210-9535 Purdue University, West Lafayette [biography]

Dr. Justin L Hess is an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Dr. Hess’s research focuses on empathic and ethical formation in engineering education. He received his PhD from Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education, as well as a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science from Purdue University’s School of Civil Engineering. He is the editorial board chair for the Online Ethics Center, deputy director for research for the National Institute of Engineering Ethics, and past-division chair for the ASEE Liberal Education/Engineering and Society division.
Dr. Nicholas D. Fila Iowa State University of Science and Technology [biography]

Nicholas D. Fila is a research assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University. His research interests include empathy, innovation, design thinking, course design, and engineering ethics.
Dr. Corey T. Schimpf http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-2706-3282 University of Buffalo, SUNY [biography]

Corey Schimpf is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at the University at Buffalo, SUNY.
His lab focuses on engineering design, advancing research methods, and technology innovations to support learning in
complex domains. Major research strands include: (1) analyzing how expertise develops in engineering design across the
continuum from novice pre-college students to practicing engineers, (2) advancing engineering design research by
integrating new theoretical or analytical frameworks (e.g., from data science or complexity science) and (3) conducting
design-based research to develop scaffolding tools for supporting the learning of complex skills like design. He is the
Division Chair Elect for the Design in Engineering Education Division for the 2023 ASEE conference
Dr. Allison Godwin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0741-3356 Purdue University, West Lafayette [biography]

Allison Godwin, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. Her research focuses on how identity, among other affective factors, influences diverse students to choose engineering and persist in engineering. She also studies how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belonging and identity development. Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her research earned her a 2016 National Science Foundation CAREER Award focused on characterizing latent diversity, which includes diverse attitudes, mindsets, and approaches to learning to understand engineering students’ identity development. She has won several awards for her research including the 2021 Journal of Civil Engineering Education Best Technical Paper, the 2021 Chemical Engineering Education William H. Corcoran Award, the 2022 American Educational Research Association Education in the Professions (Division I) 2021-2022 Outstanding Research Publication Award, and the 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Research.
Elizabeth A. Sanders Purdue University, West Lafayette [biography]

Elizabeth A. Sanders is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She holds a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2018) and an M.A. in Higher Education (University of Michigan, 2020).

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