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To What Extent Does Gender and Ethnicity Impact Engineering Students’ Career Outcomes? An Exploratory Analysis Comparing Biomedical to Three Other Undergraduate Engineering Majors

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

Big Picture Questions in BME

Tagged Division

Biomedical Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--33442

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/33442

Download Count

509

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Paper Authors

biography

Alexis Ortiz-Rosario Ohio State University

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Alexis Ortiz-Rosario is a assistant professor of practice in the department of biomedical engineering at The Ohio State University. He holds a B.S. in industrial engineering from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, and a M.S. and PhD in biomedical engineering from The Ohio State University. His current position entails teaching measurements and instrumentation courses, leading micro and nano educational labs, as well as mentoring students in their senior capstone projects. His current projects include industry integration in the curriculum, undergraduate professional development, and entrepreneurial minded learning in the classroom.

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biography

Amena Shermadou Ohio State University

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Amena Shermadou is an Engineering Education graduate student at The Ohio State University. She received her Bachelors and Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio. Her experience with teaching first-year engineering students has led to research interests in curriculum development, student empowerment and the development of holistic engineers through the collaboration with engineering stakeholders.

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biography

David A. Delaine Ohio State University

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Dr. David A. Delaine is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University Department of Engineering Education. Within this newly formed department he strives to creatively impact engineering education and society through investigating community-based learning and its potential impact on students and communities. The goal of this research is to establish knowledge in how STEM CBL can support broadening participation and promote social justice and citizenship through evidence-based approaches.

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Tanya M. Nocera Ph.D. Ohio State University

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Tanya M. Nocera, PhD earned a BS in Physics from Allegheny College and a MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering (BME) from The Ohio State University (OSU), before joining the OSU BME Department as an Assistant Professor of Practice in 2014. Her roles include designing and teaching undergraduate BME laboratory courses, and mentoring multidisciplinary senior capstone teams on rehabilitation engineering and medical device design projects. She also leads K-12 engineering outreach events, and is pursuing scholarship in student technical communication skills and preparing BME students for careers in industry.

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Abstract

Understanding and addressing the diversity gap in engineering is of critical importance to the current and rapidly growing U.S. workforce needs. This is particularly true within Biomedical Engineering (BME), a field that is amid a 10-year estimated 23% employment growth (2014-2024). Gender and ethnic diversity in particular have been studied to develop interventions aimed to support, graduate, and retain a larger and more diverse population into the engineering workforce. Despite these efforts, diversity in both the biomedical and the general engineering workforce as a whole has remained low. This paper aims to further the knowledge of the diversity gap by exploring the relationship between diversity and career outcomes for undergraduate engineering students upon graduation. More specifically, we aims to gain insight on the extent of the impact gender or ethnic identity have on the career outcomes of Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students at a large Midwestern research university, compared to three other engineering majors. Identifying potential diversity- and major-based inequities could provide further insight for how to improve retention and maintain appropriate pathways into the growing engineering workforce.

Ortiz-Rosario, A., & Shermadou, A., & Delaine, D. A., & Nocera, T. M. (2019, June), To What Extent Does Gender and Ethnicity Impact Engineering Students’ Career Outcomes? An Exploratory Analysis Comparing Biomedical to Three Other Undergraduate Engineering Majors Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33442

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