Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 3: Identity, Professionalization, and Belonging II

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Appelhans, Lafayette College; Rebecca Thomas, Bucknell University; Jenny Tilsen, Bucknell University; Alan Cheville, Bucknell University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

” to help us conceptualize the variations amongstthe students in our department, which were derived from interview data with two cohorts of graduatingseniors. These personas have three levels: 1) Origins, to understand variations in students’ backgrounds,2) Identities, to explore variations in student interests and motivations, and 3) Trajectories, to explorevariations in what students hope to do with their engineering degrees. We intend to use these personaswithin the department to help faculty support non-traditional or “alternative” identities and pathways inengineering. We also intend to use them to help students better articulate what kind of engineers theywant to be and to recognize themselves as full members of the engineering

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 4: Sociotechnical Integration

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lydia Wilkinson, University of Toronto; Alan Chong, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

deeper shifts in mindset, including greater reflexivity,improved awareness of the social context for engineered solutions, capacity to grapple withethical complexity and the ability to understand and harness multiple epistemologies. But whilewe can develop educational experiences that facilitate this integration, engaging the communityof engineering students that we wish to empower can be a challenge. As Pawley argues,“…boundary work is bigger than simply differentiating one academic discipline ororganizational arm from another: the metaphor of a boundary prompts consideration of the ideasof inclusion and exclusion, as well as how various material and immaterial groups aredifferentiated.” [1]This case study shares an example of this type of

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 2: Identity, Professionalization, and Belonging I

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jessica Mary Smith, Colorado School of Mines; Juan C. Lucena, Colorado School of Mines; Junko Munakata Marr, Colorado School of Mines; Jeffrey C Shragge, Colorado School of Mines; Jonah Klemm-Toole, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

encourages sociotechnical thinking and practice. The second usedan FOK approach to bring together welding students from a community college andundergraduate metallurgical engineering students to work together on a shared design project.We find that the project helped the engineering students appreciate the FOK of the weldingstudents, laying the groundwork for greater mutual understanding and respect.IntroductionEngineering remains a profession that is dominated by white, able-bodied heterosexual men,despite decades of efforts to broaden participation and support the success of students from otherbackgrounds [1]. Enhancing minoritized students’ senses of belonging – in both engineering as afield and in its educational institutions – is frequently

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 5: Decoloniality and Indigenous Knowledges

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amani A AL-Mqadma, Islamic University of Gaza; Bill Guariento, University of Northumbria; Caroline Burns, Northumbria University; Rachid Khoumikham, Northumbria University Newcastle/ and The University of Essex ; Hatem A Elaydi, Islamic University of Gaza

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

governance practices in higher education. His research interests include renewable energy, females in engineering, and quality assurance and governance. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025Female engineering academics in the Global North and South: An exploration oflanguage of instruction, using Story Circles and Focus GroupsAbstractSustainable and inclusive development would benefit from an increase in female visibilityand leadership in the field of engineering. Particularly in the Global South, engineering iscrucial to development, and increasingly attractive to female students, but intersectionalbarriers restrict employment / career advancement. Our earlier research, published by ASEEin 2016 [1

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 7: Interdisciplinarity

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vanessa Tran, Utah State University; Cassandra J McCall, Utah State University; Maimuna Begum Kali, Florida International University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

its importance, limited research focuses on improvingengineering students' problem-solving skills. One reason for this is the demanding technicalcurriculum that fills much of students’ schedules, leaving little time for targeted development ofproblem-solving strategies. As a result, problem-solving is often included as part of broaderengineering courses rather than being explicitly taught and practiced as a specific skill.At the same time, research has shown that engineering students face higher stress levels, puttingthem at significant risk of mental illness compared to the general population [1], [2]. For thisreason, mindfulness has been integrated into engineering education, initially to support mentalwell-being. Subsequent studies have

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 6: LEES Works in Progress

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brian P Kirkmeyer, Miami University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

, as well as its ability to provide critical analysis of anotherwriter’s work. The altered essay assignments address a specific prompt designed to connectdirectly to the course’s Learning Outcomes, so the expectation is that it contributes to studentsmeeting those Outcomes. The requirement for students is to (1) write their own essay responseto the assignment’s prompt, (2) develop their own prompt to ask one or more GenAI chatbots towrite an essay about, (3) examine the GenAI-written essay in comparison to their essay, and (4)critique the GenAI essay to discuss quality and accuracy of information. This paper will presentanonymized student critiques in a qualitative way, and draw conclusions as to the effectivenessof this basic approach to

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 9: Collaboration and Community

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Todd Nicewonger, Virginia Tech; Lisa D. McNair, Virginia Tech

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

interviewees citedin the paper explain: “My colleagues outside of Alaska are always amazed at how complicated it is to build homes in rural Alaska,” explained Stefan, an Alaskan housing expert and head of one of 14 regional housing authorities in Alaska. “I know,” agreed Julie, an anthropologist working on affordable housing. 1 “It’s really perplexing to people who don't understand how different tribal, state, and federal governments work up here. I tell people from the lower 48 about how over a dozen agencies worked with one tribal council that had been trying to get a 3-mile road built for over 20 years. Even the agencies couldn’t keep track of which permit, or study was needed

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 3: Identity, Professionalization, and Belonging II

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dhinesh Radhakrishnan, Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE); MaeRianna Artang, Purdue Engineering Education; Lauren Elizabeth Graves, Indiana University - Purdue University in Indianapolis; Iori Honzawa; Jennifer Deboer, Purdue University – West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

a Localized Engineering in Displacement (LED) ProgramAbstractThis work-in-progress paper explores how queer youth experiencing housing insecurity navigateidentity and agency through participation in an alternative engineering education program calledLocalized Engineering in Displacement (LED). This study stems from a three-year Design-BasedResearch (DBR) initiative that developed the LED curriculum, integrating community-drivenproblem-solving, digital tools, and microelectronics to empower LGBTQIA+ youth experiencinghousing insecurity. Drawing on Holland et al.'s [1] theory of figured worlds, we investigate howthe LED program creates a space where queer identities are not only welcomed but also informengineering engagement. Using semi

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 4: Sociotechnical Integration

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark J. Povinelli, Syracuse University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

, economic, and governance structures. Within thisinterplay, human capacities for love and compassion influence our priorities, inform how wedefine and frame problems, and guide our approaches to interpersonal relationships andengineering challenges—including those that extend beyond purely human interests.As a result, engineering outcomes—contingent on period, context, and scale—can sometimesaddress immediate problems while deepening environmental and social challenges. This paradoxis especially evident in contemporary, profit-driven models that prioritize technical and economicgoals, often under the banner of human-centered design, while marginalizing ethical andrelational concerns [1]–[6]. These models constrain inquiry by privileging narrow

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 7: Interdisciplinarity

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Romkey, University of Toronto; Robert Irish, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

integrating, teaching and assessing sociotechnical thinking skills inengineering programs. They found a strong emphasis on integrating social considerations withintechnical courses, and various studies examining the use of particular pedagogical strategies tobuild understanding of sociotechnical complexity and the role of social justice. Morespecifically, key themes identified include: 1) barriers to developing STT; 2) students’development of STT; 3) engineering identity, culture and STT; 4) characteristics of STT; 5)challenges in teaching STT; 6) opportunities for teaching STT; 7) incorporating prior knowledge;and 8) creating emotional connections. The STT literature explored offers many importantinsights about student and instructor experiences

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 5: Decoloniality and Indigenous Knowledges

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jessica N. Tran, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Jessica Wolf, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Jillian Seniuk Cicek, University of Manitoba

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

, universitieshave increasingly undertaken Indigenization, reconciliation, and decolonization initiatives [1],[2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. In Canada, many such efforts have especially emerged following thecreation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2015 and its report of 94Calls to Action [8]. The Calls to Action urge policy and institutional changes, such as ineducation, health, and justice, that redress the injustices of residential schools in Canada and theongoing colonial violence faced by Indigenous peoples. As engineering students, researchers,and faculty engaged in what is often institutionally referenced as ‘EDI.I’ (equity, diversity,inclusion, and Indigeneity) work in education, we find ourselves necessitating a ‘pause

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 4: Sociotechnical Integration

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cathryn Carson, University of California, Berkeley; Lisa Yan, University of California, Berkeley; Ari Edmundson, University of California, Berkeley; Alexander Strang, University of California, Berkeley

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

. 1IntroductionSociotechnical integration is a compelling framework for addressing the demands of educatingfuture engineers and similarly situated practitioners [1]. One of its most exciting opportunitiescomes when a new field is emerging and new educational programs can be designed from theground up. This paper analyzes UC Berkeley’s experience with sociotechnical integration in thecase of a new interdisciplinary undergraduate engineering discipline: data science. It reports onexperiments in collaborative curricular design and implementation by an interdisciplinary teamof instructors that currently achieves impact at the scale of several thousand students each year.Sociotechnical integration draws from the field of STS (science and technology studies) andrelated

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 5: Decoloniality and Indigenous Knowledges

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brainerd Prince, Plaksha University; Mhonbeni E Humtsoe; Satya Swaroop Nune, Plaksha University; Ananya Singla; Tanu Adhikari; Nandini Goyal; Yuven Blowria, Plaksha University; Pehar Jhamb, Plaksha University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

teaching and learning of STEM subjects can be enhanced withthe incorporation of IKS [1]. Incorporating a local knowledge system within engineeringeducation will not only help engineering students from non-Western societies to learnengineering better, but they will also be able to use their engineering skills in the localcontext more efficiently.Background of Engineering Education in IndiaThe origin of engineering education in India dates back to the British, majorly forinfrastructural development [2]. During the colonial rule, ‘the superintending engineers weremostly recruited from Britain from the Cooper's Hill College, and this applied as well toforemen and artificers; but this could not be done in the case of lower grades - craftsmen,artisans

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 7: Interdisciplinarity

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anna Fay Booker, Whatcom Community College; Tyler L Honeycutt, Whatcom Community College; Pat Burnett, Whatcom Community College; Eric Davishahl, Whatcom Community College; Anna Wolff, Whatcom Community College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

. The project culminates in Week 10 with a multi-media presentation evaluating aspects of the cumulative impacts of 150 years of developmentand alteration of an engineered shoreline. For the history portion, students do original research atthe regional archives to identify changes to the landscape over time and evaluate historicalsources to determine the causes of these alterations. In the process, students develop historycourse outcomes, including (1) analyzing primary and secondary sources to evaluate historicalarguments for credibility, position, perspective, and relevance; (2) locating sources in theirhistorical context; and (3) identifying the ways political economy have shaped land and resourceuse in the region. The blending of

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 5: Decoloniality and Indigenous Knowledges

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Robert Bruce, University of Ottawa

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

teach sustainability in engineering through a bell hooks lensIntroductionA review of the characteristics of classroom dynamics is presented in contrast to a specificcourse designed to act as an introduction to sustainability for multidisciplinary engineeringdesign students.Correlating pedagogy to presenceInterdisciplinary collaboration and innovative teaching methodologies can effectively bridgetheoretical sustainability concepts with practical engineering applications, ultimately preparingfuture engineers to address complex global environmental challenges and design moresustainable technological solutions [1]. Reviews of this topic highlight that to effectivelytransform engineering education, institutions must develop adaptive

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 7: Interdisciplinarity

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathryn A. Neeley, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

vision ofeducation extended beyond the confines of his own professional career in rhetoric. He saw aworld that integrated all areas of human knowledge. . . .[and] owned a conceptual scheme thatembraced the whole of rhetoric, giving meaning to all the bits and pieces upon which hiscontemporaries focused” (pp. 1-2). Their comprehensive biography reveals many of theexperiences that contributed to the breadth and depth of his knowledge, for example, his work asan assistant librarian tasked with cataloguing the items in a large library on political economy.Those experiences put him in a position to meet one of the most important tasks polymaths take

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 6: LEES Works in Progress

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary P. Halada, Stony Brook University; Lori Scarlatos, Stony Brook University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

separatepresentation and paper at this conference.These modules can be summarized as:  Module 1 (Orientation – concepts and approach): Through foundational readings, discussions, and AI-integrated gamified collaborative activities, participants get to know each other while exploring theories and principles behind course and play the “It Takes a Village” game and reflect on its experience. The key readings for this module include “Does STEM stand out? Examining racial/ethnic gaps in persistence across secondary fields” by Riegle-Crumb, et al.15 as well as several articles from recent periodicals and news sites.  Module 2: Reviewing and updating a course syllabus: Exploring AI tools’ limitations against and potential for

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 2: Identity, Professionalization, and Belonging I

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard A House, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Jessica Livingston, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

---made statements during the attack and in his suicide noteindicating unequivocally his misogynist, antifeminist motives. He entered the classroom with asemi-automatic weapon and ordered the men to leave before opening fire on the women. In hissuicide note, he blamed feminists for ruining his life, and before he opened fire, he calledthe women feminists. Some of them protested, "We're not feminists, we're girls who likescience," and "we're just women studying engineering, and we've never fought against men" [1].Donna Riley and Gina-Louise Sciarra brought the shootings into the engineering educationliterature in 2006, observing that they had to date been taught in social science courses but not inengineering-a textbook case of what science

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 9: Collaboration and Community

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jacqueline Rose Tawney, California Institute of Technology; Morgan L Hooper, University of Toronto; Harly Ramsey, University of Southern California; Maria Jose Azcona Baez, California Institute of Technology; Meredith Hooper, California Institute of Technology; Matthew Alexander Langley; Nina Mohebbi, California Institute of Technology; Micah Kalaihi Kushi Nishimoto, California Institute of Technology; Kay T Xia, California Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

- dered if there was a way to validate and promote these discussions at the intersection of engineering, community, and identity as an integral part of STEM education and practice, when in their experience, they had often remained at the fringe or relegated to courses outside of the technical curriculum.Background and motivationScenario #0 above marks a turning point in the development of a course titled Effective andEnduring Advocacy: Leading with Compassion in STEM, catalyzing its transition from an earlyconcept into a fully supported Pilot Course [1]. We now offer the present work, a CollaborativeAutoethnography (CAE), which explores the impacts of the course on both students andfacilitators.Development of the Pilot Course

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 6: LEES Works in Progress

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ymbar Isaias Polanco Pino, Tufts University; Luis Federico Suarez, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach; Greses Perez P.E., Tufts University; Koral Melissa Nuñez Javeir; L. Clara Mabour, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach; Taisha Pierre, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach; Mia Jimenez, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

ofcommunities while introducing foundational engineering concepts. Drawing on culturallysustaining pedagogy and positionality theory, this study analyzes how the identities of instructorsshaped lesson design and delivery, and how students’ engagement with engineering wasinterpreted through a multimodal and multilingual lens. Data sources included instructorjournals, field notes, and community conversations. The thematic analysis highlights (1) theinfluence of instructors’ own definitions of engineering on classroom interactions; (2) the role ofheritage language use in building trust; and (3) students' creative engagement with materials,which surfaced localized forms of engineering not always recognized in traditional curricula.This WIP illustrates the

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) Technical Session 10: Institutions and Structures

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy Slaton, Drexel University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

women’s participation in STEM, and related topics grew steadily from the 1970s onward [1],[2]. In the last two decades or so, an investment in programs that support broadeningparticipation with a lens of diversity, equity and inclusion has been prioritized in these and otheragencies. The 2024–2026 vision for NSF (produced in 2022) explicitly calls for “A nation thatleads the world in science and engineering research and innovation, to the benefit of all, withoutbarriers to participation” [3]. The NSF strategic plan further articulates core values which arethen specified within the agency’s individual programs: 1) Scientific leadership 2) Diversity andinclusion 3) Integrity and excellence 4) Public service and 5) Innovation and collaboration [3