Engineering Education Research for Workforce Development

Dr. Jessica Deters

MECHANICAL & MATERIALS ENGINEERING

The Engineering Master’s Workforce: Leveraging Natural Language Processing Techniques to Understand Employer Demands and Student Goals 

Significance: Master's-level engineers are critical for the technology workforce as the nation seeks to advance national health, prosperity and welfare and to secure national defense. While there are four times as many engineering master's recipients as PhDs in the U.S., most prior research on engineering graduate students has focused on doctoral students. As a consequence, almost nothing in known about the experiences, motivations, career planning, and skills required by industry of master's degree students. This project will advance novel applications of natural language processing (NLP) coupled with interview research to understand the skills and benefits of terminal engineering master's degrees. This research will help identify potential strategies for recruiting more students to engineering master's programs, in particular domestic students, which is a critical need for the future workforce. Findings will better inform students, employers, administrators, and those considering master's degrees about the skills desired and expected of mechanical engineering master's recipients. 

Student Participation: The REU participant(s) will analyze qualitative interview data from 20 current master’s students. They will learn to qualitatively code interview data to participants’ reasons for pursing a master’s degree and desired skills. Participants will then compare the results of their coding to the skills identified through the NLP portion of the project. This comparison will reveal alignments and misalignments between student goals and employer demands. 

Dr. Heidi Diefes-Dux

BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Analyzing Assessments for Virtual/Augmented-Reality-Based Discipline Exploration Rotations (VADERs)

Significance: Ultimately, having engineers prepared for the workforce relies on students maintaining interest during the first two years of their degree program. Early program Architectural Engineering and Construction (AE/C) students often lack access to worksites due to safety, cost, and distance issues. Virtual/Augmented-Reality-Based Discipline Exploration Rotations (VADERs) provide students with a platform to explore AE/C and its subdisciplines through virtual, mock-up healthcare spaces and interactions. VADERs are open-ended, human-computer interactions informed by the Model of Domain Learning (MDL, Kulilowich & Hepler, 2018) framework to help students visualize themselves in their chosen careers and enhance resiliency against the challenges of an engineering degree program. VADERs are embedded into courses through assignments to allow students to better link concepts learned in the classroom to realistic work examples. The overarching research question guiding this work is: Do VADERs positively impact student interest and self-efficacy in engineering? Data will be available from two architectural engineering departments and multiple courses over a four-year period. 

Student Participation: The REU participant(s) will analyze structured assessments and self-reflections aligned to Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT, Lent et al., 1994) to gauge the impact of VADERs on (1) students’ interest, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations with attention to general statistical trends, (2) differences across subject demographics, and (3) emerging themes across multiple exposures to VADER modules. 

Dr. Grace Panther

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Supporting a Range of Visuo-Spatial Skills in Civil Engineering through Classroom Observations and Student Interviews 

Significance: Many groups have indicated a need to increase participation in the engineering workforce to address the world’s grand challenges and keep the U.S. globally competitive. One approach to increasing participation in engineering has been focused on training students that lack certain skills with the expectation that this support will help them to remain in engineering. One of the skills that students lack that has been identified in EER is the skill to visualize and understand space. Most research has focused on identifying students who struggle with these skills and providing them with training to improve. Instead, this project focuses on the skills that students come with to engineering to better understand what changes to how engineering is taught can be made to support students with a range of skills to visualize and understand space. 

Student Participation: The REU participant(s) will analyze engineering student interviews or classroom observation data (ethnographic data) from civil engineering. REU students will learn to apply an a priori coding scheme informed by prior literature. Analyses of single courses/years and differences across the engineering curriculum in the use of gestures and language (observation data) and student experience is possible.   

Dr. Logan Perry

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Advancing Construction Safety Through Evidence-Based Pedagogy in Engineering Education

Significance: The engineering workforce faces persistent challenges related to safety, particularly in high-risk environments such as construction sites. Despite advancements in construction methods and safety standards, injuries and fatalities related to high-energy hazards (e.g., falls, electrical contact, heavy equipment) remain a major concern. EER has developed a growing body of evidence-based pedagogical practices shown to enhance engagement, retention, and comprehension in technical learning environments. However, these strategies are rarely integrated into safety training for the construction workforce. This project bridges that gap by exploring how EER principles can be applied to safety training, with the goal of improving worker understanding, decision-making, and ultimately saving lives. This project exemplifies how engineering education can directly contribute to national priorities in occupational safety and professional preparedness. 

Student Participation: The REU student will support the redesign of construction safety training by integrating evidence-based pedagogical practices from EER. They will review literature, analyze existing training materials, and help develop or evaluate revised modules focused on high-energy hazards. This work will provide hands-on experience in applying educational research to real-world engineering challenges.