2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work-in-Progress: Student Experience and Pathways to Success of "Non-Traditional" Students in Chemical Engineering

Presented at WIP: Student Success & Skill Development

This work-in-progress paper presents the initial phase of a two-year NSF-supported project focused on understanding the experiences of non-traditional students enrolled in a traditional Chemical Engineering (ChE) undergraduate program. ChE curricula are typically characterized by limited flexibility due to small cohort structures, tightly sequenced coursework, and faculty assumptions about standardized professional trajectories. While these curricular constraints affect all students, they may disproportionately impact non-traditional students—including transfer students, veterans, mature students, and part-time students—whose pathways and needs often diverge from the traditional four-year residential model.

In this early stage of the project, we conduct a structured review of literature on the experiences and barriers faced by non-traditional students in engineering, with explicit attention to curricular rigidity as a structural factor. The literature review is being used to map existing knowledge gaps at the intersection of non-traditional student identities and ChE program design. This foundation will directly inform the development of two research instruments for subsequent phases: (1) a survey to capture broad patterns in student experiences, to be administered twice to observe changes over time, and (2) a semi-structured interview protocol designed to elicit rich, narrative accounts of how non-traditional students navigate the ChE curriculum.

As a work-in-progress, this paper reports on the emerging conceptual framing and methodology development process, with the goal of receiving feedback from the ASEE ChE education community to inform subsequent stages of data collection and analysis. The conference presentation will include the finalized data collection instruments and preliminary findings from the first round of survey implementation. Future stages of the project are expected to generate insights that support curricular redesign efforts aimed at increasing structural flexibility in traditional ChE programs and intentionally leveraging the professional, cultural, and experiential capital that non-traditional students bring to engineering education spaces.

Authors

Parker Boggs Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Parker Boggs is an Engineering Education doctoral student and graduate research assistant at Virginia Tech. He earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from West Virginia University.
Dr. Juan David Ortega Álvarez http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6110-0791 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Juan David Ortega Álvarez is a Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech and a Courtesy Affiliate Professor at Universidad EAFIT. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University and an M.S. in Process Engineering and Energy Technology from Hochschule Bremerhaven. Juan has over 10 years of academic teaching experience and 6 years of industry experience in the design and improvement of chemical processing plants. His current research centers on the scholarship of teaching and learning, collaborating with engineering faculty across disciplines to help assess and enhance teaching practices.
Dr. Stephen M. Martin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8557-7866 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. Martin received a B.S.E in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in 1999. He then received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2004 under the direction of Michael D. Ward. He pursued post-doctoral research in the Hatton group at MIT before joining the faculty of Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2006. Dr. Martin’s research focuses on advanced materials and processes for separations, including water purification and carbon capture. The Martin group’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the ACS-Petroleum Research Fund, 3M, and the Office of Naval Research.

Dr. Martin has taught across the chemical engineering curriculum, including Mass & Energy Balances, Fluid Dynamics, and Mass Transfer. He has directed the Chemical Engineering Unit Operations Laboratory at Virginia Tech since 2007. He has been the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and multiple Chemical Engineering Professor of the Year Awards (as voted by the undergraduate students.) He received the Sporn Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education in 2023 and the William E. Wine Award for Teaching Excellence in 2024. In 2022 he was named the W.S. "Pete" White Chaired Professor for Innovation in Engineering Education.
Rochelle Stiles http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2901-9579 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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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