2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Reframing Mathematics as Foundational Infrastructure in Engineering Education: Developing the Engineering Math Resource Center

Mathematics constitutes both the epistemic infrastructure and the cognitive architecture of engineering practice, yet for many undergraduates it persists as a disciplinary threshold—one that demands not only procedural competence but the cultivation of analytic reasoning, representational fluency, and epistemological awareness. This paper presents the formative stages of a university-wide effort to reconceptualize mathematics as an integrated, practice-oriented dimension of engineering education through the institutionalization of the Engineering Math Resource Center (EMRC) at a large public land-grant institution. The EMRC is intentionally positioned not as an auxiliary tutoring service but as an embedded, systemic mechanism for aligning mathematical understanding with the cognitive and professional frameworks of engineering.

Currently, the EMRC supports more than 600 students per semester through peer-led sessions that interweave mathematic analysis with authentic engineering applications. Its design situates student engagement at the confluence of conceptual learning, applied reasoning, and reflective practice. Trained peer facilitators guide learners through structured inquiry that foregrounds physical intuition, symbolic translation, and iterative sense-making. The resulting environment extends beyond content remediation, modeling the habits characteristic of engineering thought and supporting students in internalizing mathematics as an operational language. Preliminary evidence from participation trends, performance outcomes, and reflective interviews suggests that students engaged with the EMRC exhibit measurable gains in mathematical self-efficacy, integrative understanding, and disciplinary identity. These findings are consonant with ABET-aligned competencies emphasizing the ability to formulate, model, and solve complex engineering problems. Moreover, qualitative data indicate that sustained engagement fosters a perceptual shift—mathematics emerges not as an external barrier but as an interpretive tool for design reasoning and system conceptualization.

Building on these foundations, ongoing work seeks to further embed the EMRC within the institution’s educational infrastructure and to examine its broader influence on learning, culture, and professional formation. Through sustained collaboration among faculty, students, and administrators, the initiative advances a durable alignment between mathematical reasoning and engineering practice while investigating how this integrated model shapes retention, cognitive transfer, and identity development across the curriculum. In this evolving framework, the EMRC redefines mathematics in engineering education as a domain of integration rather than remediation—articulating a pedagogical, institutional, and cultural model in which mathematics functions as both a foundation for persistence and a catalyst for innovation.

Authors

Sydney J. Perkins Utah State University [biography]

Sydney J. Perkins is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education and an M.S. candidate in Aerospace Engineering at Utah State University, where she leads programmatic development and instructional initiatives within the Engineering Math Resource Center (EMRC). Her research investigates how contextualized mathematics instruction influences retention, identity development, and problem-solving transfer among engineering undergraduates. Drawing on her background in aerospace systems modeling and mathematics pedagogy, she explores how integrating mathematical reasoning with authentic engineering applications can improve conceptual understanding and persistence in gateway courses. In her role with the EMRC, Sydney leads initiatives that connect foundational math concepts to engineering contexts through peer-supported learning environments, curricular alignment, and faculty partnerships. Her broader professional experience includes systems engineering work with MITRE Corporation, where she focuses on model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and data architecture for defense applications. Through her combined technical and educational expertise, Sydney seeks to advance institutional strategies that treat mathematics as foundational infrastructure for engineering innovation, professional formation, and equitable student success.
Emily Fitzpatrick Utah State University [biography]

Emily Fitzpatrick is a graduate student at Utah State University, pursuing an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a USU Presidential Doctoral Research Fellow. She received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Christian Bolander http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7754-192X Utah State University [biography]

Christian recently joined the Engineering Education Department at Utah State University (USU) as a Professor of Practice in Engineering Mathematics. He just graduated with his doctorate from Utah State in Mechanical Engineering where his research centered on supersonic civilian aircraft and bio-inspired flight. He has taught, or will teach courses, in Compressible Fluid Mechanics, Statics, and Dynamics, two of which are first-year engineering courses at Utah State. He is also the director of the Engineering Tutoring Center and Engineering Math Resource Center, which he founded in 2022 under the direction of the College of Engineering. He is passionate about teaching and mentoring students of all disciplines and walks of life and strives to create an atmosphere of respect and curiosity in his classrooms and in the resource centers of the Utah State College of Engineering.

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

For those interested in:

engineering
undergraduate