2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Supporting Graduate Women in Engineering: The Approach and Findings of a Year-Long Program at UIUC

Presented at Student Division (STDT) Technical Session 4: Minoritized Student Experiences

Personal experience of the authors and multiple prior works (Collins et al., 2020; Fouad et al., 2016) have shown that gender minorities in engineering graduate school experience microaggressions, stereotype threat, and imposter syndrome. The transition from undergraduate to graduate education is considered one of three critical points in a woman’s engineering career, defined as a time when significant numbers of women leave the field (Betz, 1994). The present work hypothesizes that a targeted, year-long orientation program in the first year of graduate education can improve success of gender minorities in engineering graduate school, where success is defined both emotionally and professionally, through three main intervention strategies. The orientation program should provide opportunities to build a cohort or feeling of community within the engineering gender minority members, learn successful strategies from older graduate students for success in graduate school, and learn about resources for professional development within graduate school. The present work implements such a program and studies the impact of the program on the graduate population at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

The GrOW (Graduate Orientation for Women and gender minorities in engineering) initiative at UIUC is led by a team of graduate students and a faculty mentor (authors). The project comprises of 7 events spanning the Fall’22-Spring’23 semesters, and are specifically catered to first-year graduate students identifying as any of the minority genders in engineering (cis-women, transgender, non-binary, etc). The impact of these events on student success is assessed through three anonymous surveys that contain both self-reflection questions and quantitative questions to evaluate "success". The self-reflection questions judge adjustment to graduate school and feelings of belonging and self-worth using a 5-point Likert scale. The qualitative questions gather metrics such as GPA, number of publications, and fellowships earned. A control group, consisting of graduate women who have not participated in any of the GrOW events, will also be given two of these surveys. The following outcomes will be reported on in the paper and presentation. (i) Analysis of the impact of an orientation program for graduate women in engineering (ii) Comparison of results to existing similar programs for undergraduate students (iii) Lessons learned along the way of this students-lead initiative (iv) Recommendations for future endeavors.

To date, 3 out of the 7 planned events have been held and were attended by a total of 115 new graduate students. 1 out of 3 surveys have been circulated to the attendees. 70% of the survey participants agreed that they were anxious about graduate school, 96% felt that GrOW helped them feel welcome at the university, and 100% agreed that they supported the continuation of GrOW for the benefit of future graduate gender minorities in the engineering college.

The GrOW initiative and this research are funded by the Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA) GIANT grant and IBM-Illinois Discovery Accelerator (IIDA) Institutes at UIUC. IRB approval has been obtained (#23254).

Authors

Ms. Aadhy Parthasarathy University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Aadhy Parthasarathy is a Ph.D. candidate in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her Ph.D. research is focused on understanding the effects of spatially- and temporally-varying pressure gradients on turbulent boundary layers. She is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and is involved with various related efforts around the UIUC campus.
Rupal Nigam http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7318-5099 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Rupal is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Aerospace Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received her BSE in computer science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests include human-machine teaming and bio-inspired learning for adaptive autonomy. She is also committed to and actively participates in DEI efforts on campus. Overall, she aspires to help improve and sustain society through collaborative and inclusive autonomy.
Aanchal Gupta University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Aanchal Gupta is a graduate student pursuing PhD under Dr.Magdi Ragheb and Dr.Rizwan Uddin at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research is in the field of nuclear space reactor, it includes comprehensive analysis of a compact fail-safe nuclear fission reactor power system for extraterrestrial, low-gravity and in-space applications. Through her research, she intends to fulfill her dream of helping launch humans into deep space and interplanetary missions. Apart from academics she is also involved with different organizations that are focused towards the betterment of the community as a whole. She is currently serving as president for Aerospace Graduate Student Advisory Committee (AeroGSAC) which maintain a healthy relationship and open contact between aerospace department and graduate student. Being an advocate of women empowerment, she is also a graduate board member of Women in Aerospace (WIA) which provide support resource and foster a sense of community for women in field of aerospace engineering.
Ms. Tove Elisabeth Kopperstad University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Tove is a 3rd year PhD student in the Aerospace Department at the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign. Her work in applied aerodynamics as an experimentalist focuses on rotors design and optimization, rotor-wing integration, and distributive propulsion. During her time at UIUC she has engaged herself in graduate student community building and welfare through the Aerospace Graduate Student Advising Committee and the Women in Aerospace student organization.
Ani Pirosmanishvili University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Ani Pirosmanishvili is a Master's with Thesis student in Aerospace Engineering Department at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is working on building a UAV capable of transition flight as well as developing the control laws for that UAV.
Theresa Ann Saxton-Fox University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Theresa Saxton-Fox is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Masters and PhD from Caltech and did her postdoctoral research at Princeton University, prior to starting at the University of Illinois in January 2019. Her research focuses on wall-bounded turbulent flows. She is the Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the American Physical Society: Division of Fluid Dynamics. She was awarded the Young Investigator Program award from the Office of Naval Research in 2021 and the Centennial prize for best thesis in the Mechanical and Civil Engineering department at Caltech in 2018. She won the College Award for Leadership or Institutional Impact in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023.

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