2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Effective Practices and Emerging Opportunities for Integrating Project-Based Learning with Authentic Work Experiences

Presented at CEED Technical Session 4: Workforce Development, Professional Skills & Industry Partnerships

Continued calls have been made to improve the engineering curriculum by incorporating project-based learning and work-integrated learning experiences [1]. This paper describes and compares the efforts of two undergraduate engineering programs in the United States in integrating project-based learning and authentic work experiences into their respective curricula. Iron Range Engineering (Minnesota) is an established ABET Accredited degree granting program that offers students opportunities to engage in an innovative learning model, allowing them to earn credit while working full-time in engineering internships and co-ops. Students not only gain competencies in technical areas but also are well equipped with skills in design and professionalism. The Greenway Institute (Vermont) is a brand-new engineering college designing a novel program consisting of two years of hands-on project-based learning and two years of work integrated learning. In the development of the Institute, Greenway partnered with Elizabethtown College (Pennsylvania) to host a pilot semester where students engaged with engineering coursework through hands-on projects and a paid work-integrated learning experience with local businesses.

Authors

Prof. Annick J Dewald Greenway Institute [biography]

Dr. Annick Dewald is a founding faculty member of Greenway College. She holds an undergraduate engineering degree from Smith College and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her dissertation research encompassed systems engineering, solar-electric aircraft design, multidisciplinary design optimization, and remote sensing for climate monitoring. Beyond academia, Annick has industry experience at Boeing Research & Technology as well as at Electra.aero, an electric aircraft startup. While working at electra.aero, she expanded upon her dissertation research by leading a team of undergraduate interns to manufacture and flight-test a demonstrator vehicle for the Stratospheric Airborne Climate Observatory System (SACOS). At Greenway College, Annick is integrating her passions for teaching, mentoring, and hands-on engineering experiences to develop and teach Greenway’s reimagined engineering curriculum.
Dr. Yuezhou Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1614-9590 Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Dr. Yuezhou Wang is an Associate Professor in the Iron Range Engineering and Twin Cities Engineering programs at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2008) and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2017). His teaching spans materials science, structural analysis, finite-element modeling, and dynamic systems. His research combines multiscale modeling of nanofibers and carbon-nanotube materials with engineering-education studies that use learning-analytics to assess student motivation and entrepreneurially minded learning.
Sophia Vicente http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1670-0664 Rutgers University [biography]

Sophia Vicente is an engineering education researcher and science policy fellow. She supported research and assessment on the work-integrated learning pilot program with the Greenway Institute. Sophia is passionate about connecting research, practice, and policy. She holds a PhD in Engineering Education and MEng in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech as well as a BS in Industrial Engineering from Penn State.
Hannah Root

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