2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Relationships between Biometric Indicators and Psychological Experiences of Thriving

Presented at Military and Veterans Division (MVD) 1 - Access and Integration

This Work-in-Progress presents for feedback our proposed methodology of analyzing veteran students’ undergraduate engineering education experience. This study focuses on investigating relationships between undergraduate veteran engineering students’ psychological and physiological experiences of thriving. The goal of this study is to combine both survey and biometric data in efforts to find the strongest indicators of thriving in the veteran undergraduate engineering student population. This study also builds on prior work on engineering thriving, which is broadly defined as the process by which engineering programs facilitate the environments for students to develop optimal functioning in engineering programs.
We designed a proof-of-concept study that utilizes Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) in which veteran students wear a Garmin Vivosmart 4 watch for the duration of a semester and complete the Engineering Thriving Survey(ETS) 3 times. We propose to combine the biometric data from the Garmin watch and the survey data from the ETS into a LMEM (linear mixed effect model) which predicts the outcome of the ETS based on the biometric data. The questionnaire scores are entered into the LMEM by the 10 categories of the questionnaire such as open-mindedness, problem solving, communication, etc. The standardized categorical scores are used as the dependent variable in the model, and the fixed effects of the model consist of four different Garmin biometric reports: Heart rate, sleep, steps, and intensity minutes.
We anticipate finding stronger relationships between the physiological and physiological experience of the veteran student, and more research is required to further investigate these established relationships at scale.

Authors

Noah Pointer Biologically Inspired Design for Resilience(BID4R) lab. [biography]

Noah Pointer is a first generation college student and veteran of the United States Army. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor's of Science in Software Engineering and is a recipient of the SAGE-STEM scholarship. He plans on pursuing an accelerated Master's of Science in Software Engineering and continuing research throughout his academic career.
Julianna Gesun http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0084-951X Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach [biography]

Julianna Gesun, Ph.D., is currently a postdoc researcher at Embry-Riddle. Her research broadly focuses on understanding and supporting the process by which engineering programs facilitate the environments for students to develop optimal functioning in undergraduate engineering programs. Her research interests intersect the fields of positive psychology, engineering education, and human development to understand the intrapersonal, cognitive, social, behavioral, contextual, cultural, and outcome factors that influence thriving in engineering.

Prior to joining Embry-Riddle, she was a National Science Foundation/American Society for Engineering Education engineering postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Hampshire. She received her Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Purdue University, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and the winner of Purdue's 2021 Three Minute Thesis competition for her work in developing research and courses on engineering thriving. She also received dual bachelor's degrees in Industrial Engineering and Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her prior work experiences include product management, consulting, tutoring, marketing, and information technology.
Bryan Watson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2222-6716 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach [biography]

Bryan Watson, PE earned his Ph.D. at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Systems Engineering at the United States Naval Academy in 2009. After graduating, Bryan joined the nuclear Navy, serving as a submarine officer onboard the U.S.S Louisville and at the Naval Prototype Training Unit from 2009-2017. Significant milestones include earning the Master Training Specialist Certification (the military’s highest instructor accreditation), Nuclear Professional Engineer Certification, two Naval Achievement Medals, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and a Naval Commendation Medal for his work troubleshooting and repairing the Moored Training Ship 635’s reactor and electrical distribution faults. Following his transition from active duty, Bryan earned his PhD as a member of both the Computation and Advancement of Sustainable Systems Lab, where he developed a new method for distributed system demand estimation, and at the Sustainable Design and Manufacturing lab, where his work focused on increasing System of System resilience. Bryan’s work has been published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Journal of Mechanical Design, and IEEE’s Systems Journal.

At Embry-Riddle, Bryan’s current work is focused on investigating the use of biologically inspired design to increase the resilience of modern system. The goal of their work is more reliable services to users, increased user safety, and increased sustainability for connected manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure systems.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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For those interested in:

Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology
engineering
undergraduate
veterans