2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering Wellness: Curriculum for Engineering Students to Change the Narrative of Surviving to Thriving

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

This Level 1 Engaged Student Learning project explores how wellness education can be effectively integrated into the engineering curriculum through studying the perspectives of students and instructors. National data suggest high rates of mental health challenges for undergraduate students. In engineering, a culture of normalized high stress at the cost of wellness may impact student help-seeking and decisions to remain in engineering programs. We propose that there is a critical need for proactive interventions to support student wellness that equip students with the necessary tools to support their thriving during their undergraduate years and beyond. The team has developed a first-year design course, Engineering Wellness, that has been offered at [redacted for review] for three years. Engineering Wellness delivers a research-based curriculum that supports students’ wellness through a hands-on design course, teaching them about the accelerating field of wearable health sensors and associated at-home wellness technologies. Engineering Wellness is motivated by the rapidly evolving capabilities of sensors and data processing, such as artificial intelligence, that can be leveraged to analyze increasing amounts of health data. The curriculum purposefully integrates physiology, sensor technology, application, and research-based strategies to support student wellness. The project asks the overall research question: How can proactive, wellness-based curricular interventions support undergraduate engineering students to thrive? The project includes (1) qualitative research that engages students and instructors and (2) curriculum development informed by research findings with a robust translational plan to widely share resources for maximal impact. The project design with integrated research and curriculum is synergistic, ultimately changing the narrative from surviving to thriving for engineering students. Social Cognitive Theory guides the research to inform not only what curriculum is supportive of student wellness, but also how to deliver this curriculum in a student-centered way. Findings from instructor and student interviews are being leveraged to translate the Engineering Wellness curriculum to reach a larger number of students through different modalities. In this poster, we will describe the Engineering Wellness curriculum and share our preliminary results from instructor and student interviews.

Authors

Dr. Karin Jensen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9456-5042 University of Michigan [biography]

Karin Jensen, Ph.D. (she/her) is an assistant professor in biomedical engineering and engineering education research at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include mental health and wellness, engineering student career pathways, and engagement of engineering faculty in engineering education research.
Dr. Robin Fowler http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6161-0986 University of Michigan [biography]

Robin Fowler is a Technical Communication lecturer and a Engineering Education researcher at the University of Michigan. Her teaching is primarily in team-based engineering courses, and her research focuses on equity in communication and collaboration as well as in group design decision making (judgment) under uncertainty. She is especially interested in how power relationships and rhetorical strategies affect group judgment in engineering design; one goal of this work is to to understand factors that inhibit full participation of students who identify with historically marginalized groups and investigate evidence-based strategies for mitigating these inequities. In addition, she is interested in technology and how specific affordances can change the ways we collaborate, learn, read, and write. Teaching engineering communication allows her to apply this work as she coaches students through collaboration, design thinking, and design communication. She is part of a team of faculty innovators who originated Tandem (tandem.ai.umich.edu), a tool designed to help facilitate equitable and inclusive teamwork environments.
Fatima Albrehi University of Michigan [biography]

Fatima Albrehi , PhD, is a technical communication instructor at the University of Michigan. She co-teaching introductory engineering and technical communication courses, and standalone upper division technical communication courses.
Isabel Miller http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-9774-5812 University of Michigan [biography]

Isabel Miller (she/her) is a Research Investigator at the University of Michigan in the Biomedical Engineering department. She received her PhD in Engineering Education Research at the University of Michigan in 2025. She received her BS and MS degrees in Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include accessibility in engineering education and disability.
Eileen Johnson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8324-0568 University of Michigan [biography]

Eileen Johnson received her BS and MS in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She previously worked in tissue engineering and genetic engineering throughout her education. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. After teaching an online laboratory class, she became interested in engineering education research. Her current research interests are in engineering student mental health & wellness with a focus on undergraduate experiences with stress and engineering culture.
Neorah Oommen University of Michigan
Faith Gacheru University of Michigan
Sabina Cumming University of Michigan

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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