2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper will present an education research and assessment perspective regarding design activities incorporated into a summer engineering program. The _______ College of Engineering at ________ University has conducted a 3-week long Summer Bridge Program (SBP) for four years (2020 through 2023) as part of an NSF Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) 5-year grant. Hispanic students at community college, university, and graduate levels face challenges to persistence, as has been noted in higher education research. Hence, the primary objective of the SBP is to improve student motivation and retention for underclassmen students. The SBP was conducted entirely in virtual mode in 2020 and 2021, and then in a hybrid mode (both virtual and in person participants) in 2022 and 2023. This paper presents the outcomes for students based on their participation in one of the SBPs held during the past four years at our Hispanic-majority institution. Team-based design projects were one of the major components included in each year of the SBP. These short design projects centered around participating faculty disciplines of chemical, civil, mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineering and computer science.
Student learning from and perspective of the SBP were determined based upon online pre- and post-participation surveys administered for each year. Survey queries completed by 37 participants in 2020, 49 participants in 2021, 41 participants in 2022, and 36 participants in 2023 addressed learning achieved and involvement in group work. The retention of SBP participants post-program was evaluated for those students who were already _____ University students prior to program participation or transferred to _____ University after attending the SBP. Based on this portion of the SBP population for each year of the program, the percentages for retention are as follows: 91.7% of the 2020 cohort has graduated with an Engineering degree or is still enrolled, while the 2021 cohort is at 90.0%, 2022 is at 95.2%, and 2023 is at 100%. Analysis of the survey data supports a conclusion that the SBP is effective as a learning and skill advancement platform for prospective and early career Engineering students. The statistically significant differences in student responses regarding their understanding and capability for all survey queries in the combined four-year data set presents a strong case for efficacy. Additionally, positive impacts are evident at a statistically significant and higher level for Hispanic/Latinx students as compared to their non-Hispanic peers. This work was funded by National Science Foundation grant #YYY
KEYWORDS: summer engineering program, minority engineering students, student persistence