2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engagement in Practices: Online Handbook for Engineering Research Center’s Best Practices for Pathways and Mentoring

Presented at Community Engagement Division (COMMENG) Technical Session 1

The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) play an important role in advancing interdisciplinary research and preparing the future engineering workforce. Through collaboration across multiple institutions and disciplines, ERC members work to address critical societal challenges while also providing professional development opportunities for students. At the same time, ERC leaders often face difficulties in building collaborative research environments, running effective mentoring programs, supporting clear student pathways, and securing the resources needed to sustain their work. These challenges are further complicated by NSF’s funding period, which supports ERCs for a maximum of ten years and may limit opportunities to share barriers and lessons learned across centers.

To respond to these challenges, we created a Best Practices Online Module for Pathways and Mentoring that presents recommendations for mentoring, student professional development, and strategic knowledge dissemination. Leaders and faculty members can adapt the module’s practical examples and guidance to their own centers. This paper demonstrates the module’s purpose, details its design and refinement process, and underscores its primary content areas. We conclude by discussing how program leaders might use the module and ways it could be further developed to strengthen ERC practices.

Overall, this paper emphasizes the importance of sharing both challenges and opportunities related to student learning in ERCs. It also shows how the Best Practices Online Module for Pathways and Mentoring can support ERC sustainability while helping students’ professional development.

Authors

Dr. Hwangbo Bae http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9556-982X University of Michigan [biography]

Dr. Hwangbo Bae is a research specialist in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. He works with Dr. Joi Mondisa, manages multiple research projects, and mentors graduate students. He has expertise in qualitative research design, engineering workforce development, retention and recruitment, and students' career pathways. He received a Ph.D. degree in civil and coastal engineering at the University of Florida in 2022. He received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Dr. Joi-Lynn Mondisa http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-3959-6548 University of Michigan [biography]

Joi Mondisa is an Associate Professor in the Industrial & Operations Engineering Department and Graduate Program Director of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on mentoring practices, programs, and experiences as well as professional development in STEM. Prior to her graduate studies, Dr. Mondisa spent 10 years working as a professional in manufacturing, operations, technical sales, and publishing. During that time, she also taught engineering technology courses at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, for seven years. She earned a B.S. in General Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, an M.B.A. from Governors State University, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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