The Impact Of Bio Engineering: Part I: Do Bio Engineering Students Differ From Other Engineering Students? Preliminary Results.
- Conference
- Location
-
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
-
June 22, 2008
- Start Date
-
June 22, 2008
- End Date
-
June 25, 2008
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Women in Engineering
- Page Count
-
9
- Page Numbers
-
13.1234.1 - 13.1234.9
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--3723
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/3723
- Download Count
-
361
Paper Authors
Moshe Hartman Retired
Moshe Hartman (B.A., Hebrew University of Jerusalem; M.A. and Ph.D., University of Michigan) is retired Professor of Sociology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His research has centered on gender and engineering, demography, stratification, and Jewish studies. His articles have been published in American Journal of Sociology, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Population Research and Policy Review, Journal of Contemporary Religion, and others. With Harriet Hartman, he wrote Gender Equality and American Jews (SUNY Press, 1996).
Harriet Hartman Rowan University
Harriet Hartman (B.A., UCLA; M.A., University of Michigan; Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is Professor of Sociology at Rowan University. Her research interests include sociology and science, gender roles, and Jewish studies. She is currently President of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. Together with with Moshe Hartman, she coauthored articles on gender and engineering appearing in Sex Roles, the Journal of Engineering Education and the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, and their paper won the Best Paper Award from WIED and PIC IV at ASEE, 2005. She is currently guest-editing the 2009 volume of Research in Social Problems and Public Policy on bridging between the social sciences and other sciences, technological, and engineering fields.
Jennifer Kadlowec Rowan University
Jennifer Kadlowec is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University. She received her BS in physics at Baldwin-Wallace College and her MS and PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. Her current research interests are injury biomechanics and engineering education. She has been actively and regularly publishing at ASEE and has served in officer roles in the Mechanics and ERM Divisions.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
The Impact of Bio-Engineering: Part I: Do Bio-Engineering Students Differ from Other Engineering Students? Preliminary Results. Abstract The under-representation of women in engineering is of particular concern nationally, both because there is a national need for more engineers, and because women’s access to a lucrative and growing occupation is desirable. In research on recruitment into engineering, one of the explanations of women’s under-representation in the undergraduate major is their preference for a profession that contributes to the social or societal good more clearly than engineering is traditionally perceived to do. Not only are they less likely to enroll in engineering for this reason, they also may leave the engineering major before completion because they do not see themselves making enough contribution to the societal good as they would in another profession. One field in engineering that has consistently attracted a disproportionately high percentage of women is bioengineering or biomedical engineering. While intuitively it seems that bioengineering and biomedical engineering are inherently female-friendly, little systematic research has demonstrated whether the women attracted to such programs differ in any way from women attracted to more traditional engineering disciplines, either in terms of who is recruited or how they experience the undergraduate program. The recent introduction of a bioengineering concentration at a mid-Atlantic public university provides us the opportunity to begin to fill this vacuum. At this university, on-going survey research enables us to compare the students enrolled in this new concentration to students in the more traditional engineering disciplines, perception of fit in engineering, engineering self-confidence, satisfaction with the program, expectations from completion of the degree (what kind of job they expect to attain), plans for future education and employment. Compared to the rest of the students, the bioengineering students tend to be quite confident in many engineering-related competencies, but they are less confident in others, suggesting that the field may be attracting some students not traditionally in the field. Compared to the rest of the students, more of the bioengineering students expect to make a contribution to society and to have a job they like doing, and are less concerned with the security of the job or having time for outside interests. These findings are presented and discussed in terms of their insight into ways bioengineering might be effecting change in the culture of engineering. As some have feared, more bioengineering than non-bioengineering students intend to finish a degree other than engineering, and less than a third expect to be working as an engineer ten years after the survey. Suggestions for continued research are discussed in the conclusions. Introduction The under-representation of women in engineering is of particular concern nationally, as the decreasing supply of qualified engineers perpetuates a national shortage as well as it reflects limited opportunities for women and minorities in a lucrative, developing and essential occupation3,4. In research on recruitment into engineering and attrition from it, one of the explanations of women’s under-representation in the undergraduate major is their preference for a profession that contributes to the social or societal good more clearly than engineering is traditionally perceived to do11. Not only are they less likely to enroll in engineering for this reason, they also may leave the engineering major before completion because they do not see themselves making enough contribution to the societal good as they would in another profession.11. One field in engineering that has consistently attracted a disproportionately high
1
Hartman, M., & Hartman, H., & Kadlowec, J. (2008, June), The Impact Of Bio Engineering: Part I: Do Bio Engineering Students Differ From Other Engineering Students? Preliminary Results. Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3723
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2008 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015