Engineering Major Selection: Impacting Factors and Facilitating Classroom Strategies

Shaghayegh Abbasi; Jordyn Wolfand; Kathleen Bieryla

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 9: Student Growth & Professionalization
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs Division (FYP)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47288

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Paper Authors

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Shaghayegh Abbasi University of Portland

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Shaghayegh (Sherry) Abbasi received her B.S. in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She continued her education in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department of the University of Washington where she received her M.S. in 2007 in the field of self-assembly of electronic devices and earned a Ph.D. in 2011 in electrical and computer engineering with an emphasis in novel metal deposition techniques. Her current research interests are related to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), specifically investigating treatment outcomes through a combination of FEM simulation and clinical data analysis. Sherry has worked in industry in the role of a senior system design engineer at Lumedyne Technologies, where she developed a software model for a time-based MEMS accelerometer. She then gained significant academic experience through six years of teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego. Sherry has been collaborating on a bioengineering research project with the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego since 2016. In addition to technical research, she conducts engineering education research related to project based learning. Sherry aims to apply her knowledge and experience towards creating a dynamic learning environment for students, utilizing a variety of active learning techniques in her classroom and laboratories.

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Jordyn Wolfand University of Portland orcid.org/0000-0003-2650-4373

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Jordyn M. Wolfand earned a B.S. degree in environmental engineering from Tufts University and an M.S. and Ph.D. degree in environmental engineering from Stanford University. She joined the faculty at University of Portland in 2020 and her research interests are in water resources engineering and urban hydrology.

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Kathleen Bieryla University of Portland

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Kathleen Bieryla is an associate professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering in the Shiley School of Engineering at the University of Portland.

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Abstract

Engineering major selection is one of the most impactful and consequential decisions that students need to make either before entering college or during their first year of studies. It is therefore crucial to include enough information and guidelines regarding different engineering majors in their first-year education. In addition, it is important to understand the factors that impact students’ decisions the most. This will allow for creating an environment where all students have freedom of choice and are not limited by factors such as socioeconomic status, race, gender, and lack of parental encouragement or role models. The aim of this work is to: 1) Investigate the factors that are most important for students in selecting their engineering major, and 2) Include the information and guidelines necessary for an informed decision in their first-year education. Specifically, this research is conducted in a first-year course titled “Introduction to Engineering”. Data was collected at the beginning of the semester and will be collected again at the end of the semester for comparison through student surveys. There is a total of 126 students in 5 sections of the course. The survey is designed to collect data on both the impacting factors for major selection, and the change in students’ understanding of different majors after taking the “Introduction to Engineering” course. There are a total of 15 questions in the survey (excluding demogrpahics questions). Questions designed to evaluate factors impacting major selection ask students to rate the importance of ten different factors in their decision making process on a Likert scale (1: Not at all important – 5: Extremely important). Some examples of these factors include personal interest, salary level, and opportunity to serve the society. Questions designed to compare students’ understanding of different majors before and after taking the course ask for student definition of their major, as well as the type of jobs they are aiming for after graduation. Some modules included in the course aimed at familiarizing students with engineering majors are: hands-on labs on each major available in the engineering school of this university (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Computer Science), research and presentation assignments where students study and explain several job titles related to engineering, real-world applications of different engineering majors, and a hands-on final project combining their knowledge on all engineering majors, as well as computer science. A total of 121 surveys were collected at the beginning of Fall 2023 semester, and surveys will be administered again at the end of the semester. The collected data from student surveys will create a roadmap for the material required in first-year education of engineering students to guide them in their major selection decision and will help the university and the educators create a more inclusive environment and ensure students’ major selection is not negatively impacted by limiting factors outside of their control.

Citation
Format

Abbasi, S., & Wolfand, J., & Bieryla, K. (2024, June), Engineering Major Selection: Impacting Factors and Facilitating Classroom Strategies Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47288

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Engineering major selection is one of the most impactful and consequential decisions that students need to make either before entering college or during their first year of studies. It is therefore crucial to include enough information and guidelines regarding different engineering majors in their first-year education. In addition, it is important to understand the factors that impact students’ decisions the most. This will allow for creating an environment where all students have freedom of choice and are not limited by factors such as socioeconomic status, race, gender, and lack of parental encouragement or role models. 
The aim of this work is to: 1) Investigate the factors that are most important for students in selecting their engineering major, and 2) Include the information and guidelines necessary for an informed decision in their first-year education. Specifically, this research is conducted in a first-year course titled “Introduction to Engineering”. Data was collected at the beginning of the semester and will be collected again at the end of the semester for comparison through student surveys. There is a total of 126 students in 5 sections of the course. The survey is designed to collect data on both the impacting factors for major selection, and the change in students’ understanding of different majors after taking the “Introduction to Engineering” course. There are a total of 15 questions in the survey (excluding demogrpahics questions). Questions designed to evaluate factors impacting major selection ask students to rate the importance of ten different factors in their decision making process on a Likert scale (1: Not at all important – 5: Extremely important). Some examples of these factors include personal interest, salary level, and opportunity to serve the society. Questions designed to compare students’ understanding of different majors before and after taking the course ask for student definition of their major, as well as the type of jobs they are aiming for after graduation. Some modules included in the course aimed at familiarizing students with engineering majors are: hands-on labs on each major available in the engineering school of this university (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Computer Science), research and presentation assignments where students study and explain several job titles related to engineering, real-world applications of different engineering majors, and a hands-on final project combining their knowledge on all engineering majors, as well as computer science.
A total of 121 surveys were collected at the beginning of Fall 2023 semester, and surveys will be administered again at the end of the semester. The collected data from student surveys will create a roadmap for the material required in first-year education of engineering students to guide them in their major selection decision and will help the university and the educators create a more inclusive environment and ensure students’ major selection is not negatively impacted by limiting factors outside of their control.
AU  - Shaghayegh Abbasi
AU  - Jordyn Wolfand
AU  - Kathleen Bieryla
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Engineering Major Selection: Impacting Factors and Facilitating Classroom Strategies 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/47288
ER  -