2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Future is Here: Strengthening Engineering Education Pipelines from High School to University

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 8: Innovative Teaching Approaches for Advanced STEM Topics

The momentum to advance high-quality STEM education—particularly in engineering and technology—across high schools and community colleges is driven by national workforce needs, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing, and increasing global competition. Higher education institutions, in collaboration with industry, play a critical role in preparing a skilled and diverse STEM workforce. This paper presents a multi-year strategic plan by a regional urban university that connects high school and community college students with authentic STEM learning experiences, resulting in measurable growth in STEM enrollment and graduation rates to meet workforce demands.
Key engagement activities include maker labs, hackathons, VR simulations, engineering systems exploration, “Brainy Days” with the Neuroscience Institute, and the all-day “Engineer Your Future” event. The university has developed a strong STEM Ecosystem of faculty and administrators who have successfully secured state, federal, and industry funding to sustain and expand these initiatives. Highlighted projects and “lessons learned” include the State of Florida Capture Project and Careers in Cybersecurity programs; federally funded initiatives such as the Title III HSI STEM Articulation Project, NSF S-STEM Scholarship for the MS in AI, NSF Cyber-Corps, and U.S. Department of Education Promise Neighborhoods; and external partnerships such as Northeastern University’s Women in Computing. Faculty engagement within the South Florida STEM Ecosystem has established enriched pathways with two large urban school districts, expanding opportunities for both high school and community college students. The college has leveraged these initiatives in outreach with regional industry alliances, maximizing impact and ensuring a sustainable STEM pipeline.

Authors

Dr. Ali Zilouchian Keiser University [biography]

Dr. Ali Zilouchian is currently the Director of Applied Engineering program(Flagship Campus) at Keiser University. He is also the Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). His distinguished career in academia and industry has many notable accomplishments focused on research and industry partnerships, and national models of excellence in multi-institutional and sustainable STEM Pipeline.

Dr. Zilouchian’s sustained contributions and research projects total more than $9M with funding sources from the U.S. DOE, the National Science Foundation (NSF), The Florida Board of Governors (BOG), Florida Power and Light (FPL), Motorola Inc., The School Board of Broward County, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and others.

Dr. Zilouchian’ s accomplishments at Motorola Inc. include automation, process control, and computer vision inspection projects. His research accomplishments in academia include developing national models in STEM education across institutions, Peer to Peer(P2P) trading of solar energy, algorithm developments related to maximum power point tracking for solar systems, water management of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, computer modeling investigations in battery technology; and, applications of soft computing (neural network, fuzzy logic, and genetic algorithms) methodologies to several industrial processes including desalination, oil refineries, jet engines, and robot manipulators.

Dr. Zilouchian awards include: the lifetime achievement award (International Conference in Integrated System Design and Technology, 2023), the distinguished FAU Presidential Leadership Service Award in 2017 for his contribution to research and community engagement, College of Engineering Dean’s Awards twice, and Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Awards twice. He has published one book and more than 175 book chapters, scholarly journal papers, and refereed conference proceedings. He has supervised more than 22 Ph.D. and MS students to completion during his tenure, and taught more than forty-eight (48) different courses related to computer and engineering technology. He has been the associate editor of two Engineering and Computer Science Journals. He is currently active in several professional societies and editorial boards and is a senior member of IEEE and ASME and ASEE and AHSIE.
Dr. Nancy Romance http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8449-0187 Florida Atlantic University [biography]

Dr. Romance is Professor of Science Education in the College of Education at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and a graduate faculty member in both the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Science at FAU.Her research interests a

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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