CAREER: Advancing Adaptive Expertise in Engineering Education

Utah State University, Logan UT

Investigators

Abstract

This CAREER award investigates whether challenge-based curricula are widely adoptable in engineering education and whether the innovation and efficiency gain in challenge-based educational experiences transfer to innovative performance in professional engineering settings. The PI will conduct a five-year program of developmental and comparative research organized into two concurrent, interrelated strands. Strand 1 involves classroom research and addresses how undergraduate-level engineering faculty innovate in their teaching to adopt Challenge-Based Instruction. Strand 2 investigates the transfer of innovation from engineering learning environments to the world of engineering work. The two main research questions are: Does Challenge Based Instruction increase retention rates of underrepresented students so that they stay in the pipeline toward an engineering career and successful employment in professional engineering? This work leverages the NSF's investment in the VaNTH ERC (Vanderbilt, Northwestern, University of Texas, and Harvard/MIT Engineering Research Center). In addition, this work will benefit society more broadly by producing engineers who are ready for the challenges of their field in the future, and who can innovate in the global economy. This award is co-funded by the Directorate for Engineering, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources.