Examining the Impact of Participation in Engineers Without Borders on Undergraduate Students’ Transition to Practice and Professional Development

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving curricula in engineering education through integration of experiences that equip college graduates to transition to professional practice and develop into leaders within their fields. Increasing experiences beyond traditional classroom lectures has been identified by many researchers as a significant element for improving engineering education to prepare students for their roles as engineers in the 21st century. Transforming curricula to include high impact experiences presents many challenges for faculty and administrators, and evidence of impact is needed for planning and advocating for such changes. This Engaged Student Learning Level I project will provide evidence of impact on graduates who have entered their professional career and participated in a community engagement experience as part of their educational program. The project will investigate engineering graduates who participated in the largest national engineering community-engaged learning program, Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA). Project goals include identifying outcomes and attributes of the program that promote learning and contribute to engineering undergraduate students’ professional development. EWB-USA is a strategic testbed with all projects being authentic design experiences with real users in global or domestic communities. The design teams operate in a variety of contexts as an extra-curricular club, a co-curricular experience connected to courses, or within the curriculum as a course. This allows for data to be gathered to inform a wide array of learning experiences within undergraduate education. EWB-USA is also one of the most diverse engineering programs, with women representing over 40% of the more than 5,000 student members. The project will fill gaps in the literature by answering five research questions. (1) What is the nature of how student participation in EWB-USA may bridge the experiences of formal post-secondary engineering education and professional practice?; (2) What professional competencies do alumni identify as most developed through their EWB-USA student participation relative to other educational activities?; (3) How do variations in the nature of involvement with and/or the structure of EWB-USA programs impact student learning and preparation for professional practice?; (4) How are graduates of EWB-USA perceived by other members of industry, relative to their peers?; and (5) How do the above elements relate to and impact participation and experiences of female versus male students, of students from different races and ethnicities, and among first-generation college students? The project will investigate the research questions with two related studies. The first will study graduates who had EWB-USA experience as undergraduates and the second will study their employers and mentors to provide a more complete picture of their competencies from their undergraduate experiences. Both studies will use a sequential mixed-methods approach, with a survey instrument that will inform the subsequent semi-structured interviews. The data from graduates, employers, and mentors will advance the understanding of community-engaged undergraduate experience and inform faculty and administrators as they seek to improve engineering education. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.