2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper shows how “research translation” (RT) can become an established practice in engineering education to provide necessary connections between graduate research and undergraduate learning and explicit social relevance of graduate research. RT has been defined by USAID as “a co-design process between academics and practitioners, where research is intentionally applied to a development challenge, and embedded in the research project from the beginning so that the result is a tested solution adapted for use as a product, practice, or policy.” While the concept has a history in the health sciences and in commercialization of technology, RT remains undertheorized and underapplied in engineering, especially in engineering for community development programs. In this paper, we will review the literature on RT to identify barriers and opportunities for the development and implementation of RT in graduate engineering education, especially for those students interested in community development. Then we will present four case studies of graduate students in [name of program] engineering who have used RT to connect their research with undergraduate engineering education and with the communities they want to serve. The first case study will show how research on gold processing plants in ASGM has been translated to teach engineering students how engineering is ultimately a sociotechnical practice and how it can be disseminated so ASGM communities understand the power dimensions affecting their work. A second case-study will describe how RT can be used to teach undergraduate engineering students community-based research methods and to empower communities at the intersection of ASGM and agriculture to evaluate environmental risks. A third case study will show how research on electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) recycling has been translated to teach students about engineering and community development and to empower communities to recycle e-waste in safer and more profitable conditions. A fourth case study will show how research on construction and demolition waste (C&DW) has been translated to teach freshmen engineering students about design for community and to empower communities near C&DW sites how to recycle these materials to diversify their incomes. The paper concludes with recommendations for how to make RT a more central feature of graduate engineering research.