2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Let Us Teach to Fail—And Watch Students Succeed

Presented at Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) Technical Session 7: Navigating Failure, Bias, and New Ideas

Abstract
Traditional engineering education has conditioned students to fear failure rather than see it as a stepping stone to mastery. The current system promotes exam-driven success, emphasizing grades over deep understanding, memorization over critical thinking, and correctness over exploration. However, real-world engineering does not reward those who never fail—it rewards those who fail, learn, and adapt.
This paper challenges the outdated mindset that failure is a sign of incompetence. Instead, it presents a new paradigm for engineering education: structured failure as a teaching tool. By shifting from a grade-based evaluation to a problem-solving-driven model, we can create engineers who do not just score well in exams but succeed in real-world challenges.
We propose a framework where failure is normalized, analyzed, and used as a tool for deeper learning, ensuring that students gain resilience, innovation, and real engineering skills. The paper outlines challenges in implementing this shift, presents a roadmap for change, and describes the impact of creating engineers who thrive beyond exams.

Authors

Dr. Ragavanantham Shanmugam http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4160-5167 Jacksonville State University [biography]

Dr.Ragavanantham Shanmugam, the author who presented abstract for this research, is currently working as Tenured Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Engineering at Jacksonville State University, Alabama, United States of America. Previously, he was working as an Associate professor and Department Head of Engineering Technology, WV and Program Director of Advanced manufacturing at Navajo technical University, New Mexico, USA. He obtained his bachelors in mechanical engineering from College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, masters in Computer aided Design from Madras University and again his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University.
He has 25+ years of teaching, research and administrative experience in Engineering Education. So far he has published 50+ research articles in peer reviewed international Journals and authored chapters in 7 books in the domine of Advanced manufacturing.
At present he is involved in 12 projects, as principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator and these projects are being funded by NASA, National Science Foundation, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy in United States. The total value of the projects is approximately 10 million USD, i.e., 88 crores of Indian rupees.
He has served and serving as Board of study member, Curriculum and syllabus committee member and External PhD Supervisor for Hindustan University, Vel Tech University and Bharath University, India. He has given key note speech in many of the international conferences in Advanced manufacturing and Industry 4.0.
He has given more than 50 guest lectures in various international universities and universities in India in topics in design and manufacturing. He has also trained Engineering faculty through several training programs at National Institute for technical Teacher Training in Tharamani, India.
He was awarded as BEST Innovative Teacher by Bentham Science in the year 2021.
He has also been awarded with a title “Diverse Business Leader - New Mexico, 2022 in Higher Education” for fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion among native American Students in his workplace.
He was also nominated for “IEEE- Outstanding Engineering Educator and Mentor Award” for Western USA- region 6, which comprises 8 states in United States for this year for the innovative teaching methodologies he has introduced in STEM Education.
Recently, in 2024, he received “The Best Teacher Award” from Anna University, India for his excellent service during his tenure at College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University.
Dr. Peter L Romine Navajo Technical University
Raguraman Munusamy
Dr. Raihan Quader Jacksonville State University

Download paper (638 KB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session