2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This evidence-based practice work-in-progress paper explores engineering students’ perceptions of engineering values to develop classroom interventions that leverage cognitive neuroscience to improve their well-being and identity development in engineering. Engineering students often hold personal values—such as creativity and empathy—that do not always align with perceived standards of success in the field, which often emphasize technical mastery and competitiveness. This mismatch can pressure students to conform to narrow definitions of a “successful engineer”. Such tensions, especially salient for students from underrepresented backgrounds, can undermine self-efficacy, resilience, and well-being. Cognitive neuroscience offers a useful lens for understanding these dynamics through principles such as neuroplasticity, metacognition, and social belonging. Yet, few engineering education interventions explicitly integrate these insights to help students reflect on identity and sense of belonging in engineering.

This study reports findings from a Spring 2025 pilot survey (N=20) conducted on engineering students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution in California. The survey assessed students’ well-being (PERMA-Profiler), academic and general self-efficacy (CASES, NGSE), and perceptions of value alignment in engineering. Students identified traits they personally value in engineers and traits they believe society values most, which were coded into ten categories, including technical skill, resilience, creativity, ethics/social impact. Sixty percent of students demonstrated at least one mismatch between personal and perceived societal engineering values.

Qualitative responses revealed distinct patterns: students generally perceived society as valuing technical mastery and intelligence, while they personally were more likely to value empathy, creativity, teamwork, and ethical responsibility. Upper-division students described stronger pressure to conform to narrow definitions of engineering success, suggesting an increasing identity tension over time. Students with value misalignment tended to report slightly lower self-efficacy (NGSE = 3.6 vs. 4.1) yet slightly higher well-being (PERMA = 5.7 vs. 5.4); however, the trends were modest given the small sample size.

Together, these findings suggest that engineering students experience a measurable gap between how they wish to contribute to the profession and how they believe the field evaluates them. Building on this pilot, a Fall 2025 classroom intervention will introduce neuroscience-informed reflection activities to help students understand how the brain processes sense of belonging, empathy, and value alignment. Through short, in-class guided activities and worksheets, students will explore neuroplasticity, perspective-taking, and metacognitive reframing as tools for managing identity tension and enhancing sense of belonging. Pre/post pulse surveys and qualitative reflections will assess changes in belonging, self-efficacy, and resilience.

This study represents the first phase of a design-based research project integrating neuroscience and engineering education. By translating neuroscience into structured reflection, this approach explores how connecting learning with cognitive neuroscience principles on students’ sense of belonging, academic resilience, self-efficacy as engineers, and well-being. The pilot findings highlight value misalignment in engineering identity formation and suggest neuroscience-informed reflection as a promising path toward more inclusive, emotionally-intelligent engineering education. Future phases will extend these principles to further support students’ mental well-being and identity development in the early stages of their engineering careers.

Key Words: Identity, Self-efficacy, Design-based Research, Student Perception, Metacognition