2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

BOARD # 349: Cultivating Curiosity: Faculty Insights on Mentoring S-STEM Undergraduate Researchers

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

Most first-year engineering students are initially paired with non-engineering advisors and typically only enroll in one engineering course during their first year. However, undergraduate research is vital for enhancing critical thinking skills and boosting STEM persistence. Recognizing this gap, we initiated "Sprouting Research from Day 1," which paired S-STEM scholars during their second semester of college with engineering faculty research mentors. Faculty mentors met bi-weekly with their mentees to discuss individual research interests and then every other week as part of a group session about broader research concepts. To gain insights into the motivations and expectations of the faculty mentors, a focus group was conducted at the end of the semester. The transcript of that meeting was analyzed using the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (Kaplan & Garner, 2017). Findings suggest mentors were motivated by the DEIB nature of this initiative, a modest financial incentive, and a desire to build deeper connections with scholars. They viewed the program primarily as a teaching opportunity, expecting scholars to be self-motivated and research inclined. Mentors noted that a better alignment of research projects with student aspirations and a more focused semester-end deliverable (e.g. REU application) would enhance the program's structure. Finally, the need for professional development for faculty was identified as crucial to scaling up the initiative. That suggestion led to the development of a five-part professional development workshop series on how to better engage first-year students in research which is currently being delivered. Feedback from this series will be analyzed and used to help foster a stronger research culture from the start of a student’s undergraduate engineering education.

Authors

Dr. Ryan Scott Hassler Penn State University Berks Campus [biography]

Teaching Professor of Mathematics

Research Interests: First Year Engineering Student Success (summer bridge programs); Mathematics retention of underrepresented minority students; Role Identity & Persistence (low-income undergraduate students); Conceptual Understanding (mathematical situation models); Hybrid learning (instructional technology); Early Algebra (textbook analysis)

MS Applied Statistics
PhD Mathematics & Science Education
Dr. Rungun Nathan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0651-1448 Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus [biography]

Rungun Nathan, a professor and founding program chair for the mechanical engineering, joined the faculty at Penn State Berks in 2007 as an assistant professor and was promoted in 2012 to associate professor. He subsequently was promoted to Professor in 2021. He has over 30 combined years of increasing responsibilities in industry and in academia, including at the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), a telecommunications technology arm of the Indian government, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bangalore, and Villanova University, PA.
Nathan received his BS from the University of Mysore, a postgraduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Science, an MS from Louisiana State University, and a PhD from Drexel University. He worked in electronic packaging in C-DOT and then as a scientific assistant in the robotics laboratory at IISc. in Bangalore, India, and as a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania in haptics and virtual reality. His research interests are in the areas of brain traumatic injury, unmanned vehicles, particularly flapping flight and Frisbees, mechatronics, robotics, MEMS, virtual reality, and haptics, as well as teaching with technology. He has ongoing research in brain traumatic injury, flapping flight, frisbee flight dynamics, lift in porous material, and wound therapy. He is an active member of APS (DFD), ASEE, ASME, and AGMA, and is a reviewer for several ASME, IEEE, ASEE, and FIE conferences and journals. He is co-editor for ASEE publication Computers in Education.
Nathan has been a very active member of both the Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering Divisions of ASEE since 2006. He started as a member at large and then rose to chair the Mechanics Division in 2012–2013. He currently is chair of the Mechanical Engineering Division after starting as member at large in 2017. Nathan also has been an active member of ASEE’s Engineering Technology, Computers in Education, Educational Research Methods, Multidisciplinary Engineering, Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies, and Systems Engineering Divisions. He also serves as a Program Evaluator for EAC and ETAC with ABET.
Dr. Marietta Scanlon Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus [biography]

Dr. Marietta Scanlon holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and an SM and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering. She is a Teaching Professor in the Division of Engineering, Business and Computing at Penn State University, Berks Campus and serves as Program Chair of the Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology program.
Dr. Catherine L. Cohan The Pennsylvania State University [biography]

Catherine Cohan, Ph.D. has been a research psychologist for over 20 years. Her areas of expertise include engineering education, retention of underrepresented students, measurement, and assessment. She is currently an Assistant Research Professor and coor

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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