2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper describes an effort aimed at understanding and highlighting the relationship between robotics and students underrepresented in engineering in a new setting: undergraduate research. Recently, a unique research community emerged as a result of two previously funded projects: (1) a soft robotics undergraduate research group for students underrepresented in engineering and (2) a robotic wheelchair project, [redacted project acronym]. The [redacted] project has educational goals for undergraduate students and created a dedicated maker lab on campus. Both projects have attracted students with physical disabilities to participate in undergraduate research working on assistive technologies. We aim to use qualitative engineering education research methods developed in the NSF RIEF program, to study this unique cohort to understand supports and barriers for students with physical disabilities to contribute to research. Grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory we set out to understand factors that influence research in human-centered engineering design as a support for career success for students with disabilities. The research design set out to answer the research question, What factors impact self-efficacy and career interest as a result of a human-centered robotics design research experience?