2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Technical Skill Development in Vertically-Integrated, Team-Based Engineering Courses: Promoting Equity Across Genders

Presented at Women in Engineering Division (WIED) Technical Session 8: Leadership and Persistence

The ability to work on teams is one of the outcomes that is sought by ABET and a wide range of industries. The help cultivate those abilities, many programs work in teams especially design teams within engineering. While there are many benefits of team experiences, the dynamics within engineering teams can promote or create inequities. This study examines whether equitable access to technical skill development is available across genders within two large team-based engineering courses at a large institution and seeks to investigate motivations and barriers to access. Team-based courses are commonly employed to help students develop professional and technical skills in the classroom while providing a bridge to professional practice, but the team structure’s dependence on different team members taking on different roles and responsibilities creates the possibility that gender biases may arise in role selection and/or assignment, resulting in inequitable skill development. In particular, there is some data that suggests that female students may be less likely to have ‘technical’ roles when compared to their male peers. One opportunity to mitigate this issue is to provide opportunities for individual skill development outside the team structure. Both of the programs in this study are large-scale, multidisciplinary, and vertically-integrated, and both provide opportunities for individual skill development by conducting Professional Development sessions across a variety of professional and technical topics. This study employs both a quantitative analysis of utilization of professional development and thematic analysis of student focus groups to investigate differences across genders. This study has implications for a wide range of engineering programs looking to create equitable opportunities for students.

Authors

Mr. Andrew Pierce Purdue University [biography]

Andrew Pierce is the Assistant Director for the EPICS program at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He received his bachelor's and master of science degrees in biomedical engineering from Purdue University. He spent five years as a development engineer in the medical device industry, designing a number of commercial medical devices and generating ten patents before returning to West Lafayette to help lead the EPICS program. In his ten years with EPICS, he has developed extensive experience in the administration of community-engaged design programs. As part of the leadership team, he has led the EPICS program to be recognized with numerous awards, including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award and Outstanding Experiential Education Program by the Society of Experiential Education.
Nichole Ramirez Purdue University [biography]

Nichole Ramirez is the Assistant Director of the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program at Purdue University. Her research focuses on experiential education and mental health in engineering. She received her Ph.D. in Engineering Education and M.S. in Aviation and Aerospace Management from Purdue University,
Dr. Carla B. Zoltowski http://orcid.org/0009-0003-1391-6800 Purdue University [biography]

Carla B. Zoltowski is an associate professor of engineering practice in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and (by courtesy) the School of Engineering Education, and Director of the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program within the College of Engineering at Purdue. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education, all from Purdue. Dr. Zoltowski’s research interests include the professional formation of engineers, diversity, inclusion, and equity in engineering, human-centered design, and engineering ethics.
Dr. William "Bill" C. Oakes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6183-045X Purdue University [biography]

William (Bill) Oakes is the Assistant Dean for Experiential Learning, a 150th Anniversary Professor, Director of the EPICS Program, Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University, and a registered professional engineer. He is one of the founding faculty in the School of Engineering Education having courtesy appointments in Mechanical, Environmental and Ecological Engineering and Curriculum and Instruction. He was the first engineer to receive the U.S. Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning and a co-recipient of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering’s Bernard Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. He is a fellow of NSPE and ASEE and elected to the ASEE Hall of Fame.

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