2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Knowledge-Capturing Environment to Enhance Research Writing for Engineering Educators

Abstract:
Research writing presents a persistent challenge for engineering educators and researchers, due to the iterative, nonlinear, and exploratory nature of research progress. Contemporary theories of writing characterize scholarly writing as a recursive, knowledge-transforming process, motivating the need for environments that support flexible organization and revision. This paper presents a knowledge-capturing integrated design environment framework for STEM research writing that extends prior work on knowledge capture in engineering problem solving. The proposed system adopts a Card–Deck–Board architecture that enables modular organization of research ideas, literature, and evolving arguments. Implemented as a cloud-based platform using online writing software NovelPad, the environment supports persistent online knowledge capture and real-time collaborative writing. The framework is designed to support research paper development, proposal writing, and graduate thesis work across STEM disciplines