2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

GIFTS: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Foster Students’ Sense of Belonging in Engineering

Great Ideas for Teaching (and Talking with) Students (GIFTS): When students have a strong sense of belonging in engineering, they are more likely to persist in their degrees. We opted to leverage the current movement toward incorporating interdisciplinary approaches earlier in the curriculum to create a learning experience for incoming students from all disciplines that fosters their sense of belonging and engineering mindset within the context of a Hispanic Serving Institution. The underlying assumption driving this reframing was the research-informed belief that fostering a sense of belonging would motivate students to learn foundational engineering ways of thinking, knowing, and doing. In doing so, we sought to increase student retention and improve the learning environment.

To achieve this goal, we created a working group to develop a new first-year Engineering Design Experience course. Through this course, the faculty sought to foster students’ sense of belonging in four intersecting areas: community/culture, course, college/engineering discipline, and university. Six sections of the course were offered during Fall 2024, during which first-year engineering students completed three cycles of a product redesign.

This GIFTS paper will share the pedagogical approach used to foster a sense of belonging in incoming students. Here we share the motivation for why we focus on these four levels, the associated activities, current assessment methods, and future evaluation plans. This paper also includes a reflection from the instructor team on their experiences throughout the interdisciplinary collaboration, including recommendations for others considering similar collaborative change efforts.

Authors

Dr. Nichole Ramirez University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Dr. Nichole Ramirez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education and Leadership at the University of Texas at El Paso. Previously, she served as the assistant director of Vertically Integrated Projects at Purdue University. Her research focuses on engineering education and the stigma surrounding mental illness. Dr. Ramirez also worked as a research data analyst in Purdue's Department of Institutional Data Analytics & Assessment. She earned her doctoral degree in engineering education and a master’s degree in aviation and aerospace management from Purdue University, along with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama.
Dr. Meagan R. Kendall http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9940-4405 University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

An Associate Professor at The University of Texas at El Paso, Dr. Meagan R. Kendall is a founding member of the Department of Engineering Education and Leadership. With a background in both engineering education and design thinking, her research focuses on how Latinx students develop identities as engineers and navigate moments of identity interference, student and faculty engineering leadership development through the Contextual Engineering Leadership Development framework, and promoting student motivation. Dr. Kendall is the Past Chair of the Engineering Leadership Development Division of ASEE.
Dr. Lucas Galey http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0139-135X University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Lucas Galey is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Engineering Education and Leadership department at the University of Texas at El Paso. He earned his PhD and MS in Biomedical Engineering from UTEP and his BS in Biomedical Engineering from LeTourneau University. His research focuses on cost-effective prosthetic knee systems, integrating machine learning and adaptive control to improve mobility for amputees. He has led multidisciplinary teams in developing intelligent prosthetics, combining biomechanics, mechanical design, and data-driven control. He is also dedicated to inclusive engineering education, mentoring students from diverse backgrounds through hands-on research in biomedical innovation.

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