2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Mapping the Leaky Pipeline: Visualizing Black Female Persistence in Electrical Engineering

Presented at Women in Engineering Division (WIED) Technical Session 3

This paper builds upon prior research that examined the lived experiences of Black female students in undergraduate electrical engineering (EE) programs at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), with a focus on identity development, resilience, and systemic barriers to persistence. That earlier work, grounded in intersectionality and STEM identity theory, utilized direct student narratives and thematic mapping to illuminate how multiply marginalized students navigate engineering spaces. In the present study, we extend that inquiry by shifting from qualitative narrative to quantitative visualization—constructing a data-driven pipeline model that traces the educational trajectory of Black female students from K–12 STEM exposure through EE degree attainment.
Using publicly available datasets from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and organizational reports from the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), we identify key drop-off points along the EE pathway. These include disparities in early STEM access, intent-to-major gaps, enrollment bottlenecks, and persistence challenges within engineering curricula. The resulting Broadening Participation Pipeline Tracker employs Sankey diagrams to visualize student flow through each stage, quantifying attrition and highlighting where targeted interventions could yield the greatest impact.
This work supports institutional and policy-level efforts to broaden participation in engineering by making visible the systemic leaks that disproportionately affect Black women. It offers a replicable framework for mapping marginalized student trajectories in other STEM disciplines. By integrating national data with insights from prior qualitative research, the paper bridges the gap between narrative and numeric, offering a holistic view of the structural dynamics that shape engineering education. Ultimately, it contributes both a methodological innovation and a strategic tool for equity-centered research, grant development, curriculum design, and outreach programming.

Authors

Dr. Janne Hall Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Janne Hall is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Morgan State University, where she teaches undergraduate courses in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and emerging technologies. She earned a BS in Electronic Engineering and an MS in Computer Science from Texas Southern University, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Jackson State University.

Dr. Hall began her career as a Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer in the cellular communications industry, specializing in network optimization, signal strength analysis, and performance evaluation of large scale cellular infrastructures. Her engineering background informs her current work at the intersection of critical infrastructure security, cloud native architectures, and industrial control systems.

She is a member of the inaugural cohort of the NSF–ASEE eFellow Postdoctoral Fellowship program, hosted at Morgan State University. In this role, she conducted research on evidence based pathways to advance racial equity in STEM, focusing on identity formation, resilience, and the structural barriers affecting the participation and success of underrepresented groups across academia and industry.

Dr. Hall’s current research centers on cybersecurity for U.S. critical infrastructures, with emphasis on containerized ICS/SCADA environments, compliance driven security validation, and AI assisted anomaly detection. She develops reproducible Kubernetes based testbeds, educational laboratories, and lightweight monitoring tools, most recently Scada-Guard, a platform designed to support compliance mapping, event capture, and future industry aligned monitoring capabilities.

Her broader scholarly vision integrates technical innovation with educational impact, advancing both cybersecurity research and workforce development through scalable, standards aligned curricula.
Temberlenn donald ashton hall [biography]

Temberlenn attends Northwestern Oklahoma State University. He is double majoring in psychology and theater. His research interest includes examining the impacts social perspective, historical and systemic influences have on the experiences of Blacks and on their mental health. Also, focusing on experimental research to address societal and psychological issues affecting Black communities.

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