2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

ECR-EDU Core Research: Student Mental Models of Social-Ecological-Technological Systems and their Capstone Design Projects

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session I

Engineers work within complex social-ecological-technological systems (SETSs), yet little is known about how engineering students conceptualize these systems during design. Capstone design courses, where students undertake authentic projects with external stakeholders, offer a valuable context for studying student mental models of SETSs. However, analyzing qualitative data about mental models at scale remains a significant methodological challenge, and sending sensitive interview data to commercial AI services raises concerns about participant privacy. In this paper, we describe an ongoing ECR-EDU Core Research project studying capstone design students’ mental models and present a novel methodological contribution: an analysis pipeline using locally hosted, open-weight large language models (LLMs) to extract entities from qualitative data, score them along social, ecological, and technological dimensions, and compare across groups. We validated this pipeline using synthetic data designed to emphasize different SETS dimensions, and the pipeline successfully distinguished between groups. Additionally, we report preliminary observations from interviews with 28 capstone design students. These methods and initial findings have implications for researchers studying engineering design cognition and for instructors seeking to understand how students consider broader system impacts in their design work.

Authors

Dr. Andrew Katz Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Andrew Katz is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He leads the Improving Decisions in Engineering Education Agents and Systems (IDEEAS) Lab.
Dr. Marie C. Paretti http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2202-6928 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Marie C. Paretti is a Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech and a founding co-editor-in-chief of Studies in Engineering Education. She holds a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech and Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is PI or co-PI on numerous NSF grants exploring communication, teamwork, design, professional identity, and inclusion in engineering. Drawing on theories of situated learning and identity development, her research explores examines the ways in which engineering education supports students’ professional development in a range of contexts, with a particular focus on the school to work transition.
Dr. Tripp Shealy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4255-3266 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Tripp Shealy is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. He is also the director of the interdisciplinary Sustainable Land Development Graduate Program. His research is focused on helping improve engineering design. He teaches classes about sustainable engineering design, human behavior and infrastructure systems, and adaptive reuse.
Avinash Aruon Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Nathanael Li http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8837-5226 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Nathan is a PhD student in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Using his background in design engineering, renewable energy, and sustainability consulting, Nathan is studying sustainability mindset, engineering ethics, sustainable land development, and corporate social responsibility.

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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