2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engagement in Practice: Historical Investigation and Methodology Development of University STEM Outreach for K-12 Collaboration and Next-Generation Engineers

Presented at Community Engagement Division (COMMENG) Poster Session

This paper presents mid-stage findings from a dual-focused study on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) outreach at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-Dearborn): a systematic review of 66 years of archival records (1959–2025, since the university's establishment) and a survey of 30 STEM faculty members (specializing in computer science, engineering, and related technical fields) regarding K-12 community outreach activities. The core research question is: How can UM-Dearborn’s historical outreach legacy and faculty input inform practical, scalable K-12 STEM engagement strategies tailored to STEM faculty’s strengths, workload constraints, and institutional resources?
Historical analysis of 74 valid records identified three evolutionary phases, with key trends including a deliberate shift from adult technical education to K-12-focused workshops, sustained engagement with tech-driven, hands-on activities aligned with the university’s STEM expertise, and growing reliance on student volunteer support to reduce faculty burden. The faculty survey (30 responses collected) explores resource sharing feasibility, specific participation barriers, evaluation needs, and actionable ideas for scalable models, which addresses the practical challenges faced by STEM faculty balancing teaching, research, and outreach. As a work in progress, this paper integrates granular historical insights with survey design to lay the groundwork for actionable, faculty-centric outreach strategies. Future steps include conducting surveys with K-12 STEM students and teachers as the second focus, aimed at developing student-centric outreach strategies. Eventually, we will build an actionable and scalable STEM outreach model for regional universities with limited resources that incorporates two-way perspectives (i.e., those of university faculty and K-12 students).

Authors

Christian Ebube Nwobu University of Michigan - Dearborn
Zhalgas Tileumuratin University of Michigan - Dearborn
Hannah Zmuda University of Michigan - Dearborn
Zheng Song University of Michigan - Dearborn [biography]

Dr. Song received his second PhD in Computer Science (with a focus on distributed systems and software engineering) from Virginia Tech USA in 2020, and the first PhD (with a focus on wireless networking and mobile computing) from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications China in 2015. He worked as a software engineer at Sina for one year after I graduated as a master from China Agriculture University in 2009. He received the Best Paper Award from IEEE Edge in 2019.
Prof. Xiao Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7392-3477 University of Michigan - Dearborn [biography]

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where I lead the TAI (Trustworthy AI-driven IoT) Lab and serve as the advisor of the student club ICC (Immersive Computing Club). Before joining UM-Dearborn, I was a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in the Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University, my M.S. degree at Northwestern Polytechnical University and B.E. degree with honor at Taiyuan University of Technology. I am looking for highly self-motivated students (Ph.D., D.Eng., master, undergraduate, visiting, intern, and high school) to join my group. If you are passionate about related research topics, please email me with your CV, transcripts, and several sentences about your research interests.

My current research interests are mobile computing, AIoT, Cyber Physical Systems, AI-assisted sensing/localization, and HCI. My previous work focused on exploring spatial-temporal diversities in Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) for its improved communication performance and enabled sensing/localization. My vision is that light can provide the secure and location-aware communication for Internet-of-Things and human-centered mobile computing. With explored OWC's spatial-temporal diversities and machine learning, we can use light as promising medium for next-generation wireless networks with broad applications (e.g., LiFi, V2X networks, underwater navigation, digital health, smart city, smart classroom, smart manufacturing, HCI, AR/VR, and digital twins).

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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