2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Natural catastrophes brought on by extreme weather events and other natural hazards are causing communities throughout the United States to face increasing levels of financial losses and human suffering. To ensure community safety and well-being in the face of these challenges, infrastructure must be equipped with climate-resilient features. However, marginalized groups disproportionately endure the social, economic, health, and environmental effects of these disasters due to decades of discriminatory policies and biases embedded in infrastructure planning. This study focuses on investigating the perceptions of marginalized architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) students about incorporating equity considerations while developing sustainable and resilient infrastructures. For this study, the relevant underrepresented populations are African American, Hispanic American, and Native American. It is imperative to investigate how engineering graduate students including students from marginalized communities understand the connections between social justice and the infrastructure systems, given the growing importance of these concerns in our society. The study aims to address the following research objectives: (1) Understand the level of awareness of AEC marginalized students about societal inequalities within resilient infrastructure systems; (2) Highlight the perceptions regarding infrastructure resilience inequality among AEC students from various socio-demographic backgrounds; and (3) Understand the interest of marginalized students about promote systemic change as future engineering professionals. Surveys measuring students’ awareness of inequity in infrastructure systems, their motivation to promote equity and relevant demographics were used to gather data for the study in a minority-serving institution. The study included 19 marginalized AEC students who were enrolled in a sustainable approach to construction course in the Fall 2023 semester. The results showed that the majority of the students were aware of infrastructure disparities. Moreover, the student demonstrated a moderate to high level of agreement on various infrastructure inequity issues as well as indicated a higher motivation to work toward systemic change. The findings of this study would motivate educators to develop tailored educational strategies for increasing awareness of infrastructure inequality and preparing the forthcoming construction workforce including marginalized construction professionals with the skills required to ensure an equitable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure system.