Conference Session

WIED: Pre-College Student Experiences

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jane Andrews, Aston University; Robin Clark P.E., Aston University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Page 24.1367.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2014 What do Schoolgirls think of Engineering? A critique of conversations from a participatory research approachAbstractWhilst statistics vary, putting the percentage of women engineers at between 6%[1] and 9% [2]of the UK Engineering workforce, what cannot be disputed is that there is a need to attractmore young women into the profession. Building on previous work which examined whyengineering continues to fail to attract high numbers of young women[3,4] and starting withthe research question “What do High School girls think of engineering as a future career andstudy choice?”, this paper critiques research conducted utilising a

Conference Session

WIED: Medley

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jane L. Lehr, California Polytechnic State University; Helene Finger P.E., California Polytechnic State University; Alana Christine Snelling

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

social structure of society, the social structure of STEM education andprofessions, and/or the content and application of STEM knowledge. This paper focuses on thepre-college experiences of first year female and male engineering students at ComprehensivePolytechnic State University (CPSU) in semi-rural California and offers lessons for recruitmentbased on comparative analysis of survey data collected in 2013 on 1) when the students decidedto major in engineering, 2) why the students chose engineering as a major, 3) how the studentsmade their decisions about education, and 4) who the students are and how their identitiescompare to dominant images of what it means to be an engineer. This paper builds on previousresearch by the authors, based on

Conference Session

WIED: Curricular Undergraduate Student Programs

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tonya Lynn Nilsson P.E., Santa Clara University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

/steelcomposite column of either concrete reinforced with steel rebar or a steel pipe in-filled withconcrete. However, most college sophomores are not familiar with construction or design withconcrete. Further, the students are not able to personally experience how much a piece of steelwould deform under a given load versus an unreinforced concrete member or how the twomaterials behave relative to each other when they are a composite member.Consider alternatively an E3 developed by EannPatterson, author of the Real Life Examples booklets.17Students are all familiar with smart phone earbuds andthe cables that attach them to the phone, see Figure 1.The cable is a composite material made of copper wirewith a plastic coating. Patterson suggests walking

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela R. Bielefeldt, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

/ engineering to society and thereby increase their interest in thesecareers.22Males tend to have a more positive view of engineering’s impacts on society than women. Forexample, in a fall 1998 study incoming first-year male engineering students had a more positiveperception of how engineers contribute to society than female students at five institutions (withadditional 10 institutions that were higher, but not statistically significant).1 The perception ofengineers as contributing to the welfare of society was also more positive among first year maleengineering students’ in 2006, where male students averaged 4.66 compared to females at 4.29(on a 6-point Likert scale where 4 = agree a little bit, 5 = agree, 6 = strongly agree).2Differences in the

Conference Session

WIED: Pre-College Student Experiences

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amanda S. Parker, University of Colorado Boulder; Beth A. Myers, University of Colorado Boulder; Jacquelyn F. Sullivan, University of Colorado Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

complicated, with many stages inthe engineering recruiting and admissions cycle during which any student, and especiallycoveted female students, can be lost to other universities.The “recruiting funnel” is a well understood college admissions process.1 The top of the funnel(see Figure 1) represents the prospects stage and contains the highest number of students—allthose who have some interest in attending a university. Some of the prospective students apply,becoming applicants. The applicants are reviewed by the admissions department and a portion isadmitted. From those admits, a subset of students decides to attend the university, confirmingtheir intent to enroll and becoming enrollees. The final stage of the funnel is referred to as the“yield” and

Conference Session

WIED: Curricular Undergraduate Student Programs

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jaby Mohammed, Petroleum Institute; Nausheen PashaZaidi, The Petroleum Institute

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

at the PetroleumInstitute.Once students reach the freshmen level there are core courses that have to be completedirrespective of their majors. The core course courses as well as some elective courses requiredfor the engineering programs are offered through the Arts and Science Program (A & S).The six departments within A & S include Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Humanitiesand Social Sciences, Communication, and General Studies (See Figure 1).. Students musttake these required courses in a sequence. Figure 1. The Petroleum Institute Academic Department StructureThe General Studies department offers a sequence of two engineering design coursescalled STEPS, which stands for Strategies

Conference Session

WIED: Pre-College Student Experiences

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jerry Volcy, Spelman College

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

 grouped  into  4  recurring  themes:    1)  Engineering   can   be   largely   trial-­‐and-­‐error   and   not   necessarily   math-­‐intensive.   2)  Engineering  is  highly  demanding  in  terms  of  attention  to  detail.  3)  Engineering  can  have  a   very   large   impact   on   society   4)   Engineering   can   be   an   isolating   discipline   for   the  practitioner.    Suggestions  on  how  this  insight  might  be  used  to  attract  and  retain  more  female  students  to  engineering  are  provided.             Page 24.463.2Introduction

Conference Session

WIED: Faculty and Gender Issues

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sharon Patricia Mason, Rochester Institute of Technology; Carol Elizabeth Marchetti, Rochester Institute of Technology (COE); Margaret B. Bailey, Rochester Institute of Technology (COE); Stefi Alison Baum, Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

to increase the repre- sentation and advancement of women STEM/SBS faculty, widely represented across ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds, by removing barriers to resources that support career success and creating new interventions and resources. An additional emphasis will be upon adapting interventions to address the needs of key sub-populations including women of color and deaf and hard-of-hearing women faculty. The project aims to: 1) refine and strengthen targeted institutional structures; 2) improve the quality of women faculty’s work life; 3) align institutional, administrative, and informal systems of power and resources to support and sustain progress towards the project goal; 4) enhance the working

Conference Session

WIED: Medley

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Keith J. Bowman, Illinois Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

overlap and distinctions from computerscience (CS) offer a very challenging context for generalizations as well as data reporting andtracking. Throughout the remainder of this paper the designation ECE will be used for thecombined data reported under electrical engineering, computer engineering and electrical andcomputer engineering headings by ASEE (2013).Consider the differential outcomes shown in Figure 1 and Table 1 (see also Bowman, 2014).There was approximately one new domestic engineering assistant professor in 2012 for everyfive thousand graduating high school seniors in 2000, a year in which there were about threemillion high school graduates. Broken down by gender, this ratio is approximately 1 to 10,000for females and 1 to 3,000 for

Conference Session

WIED: Medley

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ahmed Imran, Ajman University of Science & Technology, United Arab Emirates (UAE).; Mohamed Nasor M. Kalil; Fahar Ghalib Hayati, Ajman University of Science & Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

study about student attrition suggests that early period after admission isdecisive for a significant majority of students, irrespective of gender.IntroductionGender disparities in engineering programs has been a cause of concern globally. The percentageof women in engineering is generally found to be lower than that of men (1 – 10). Studies have alsoshown that even if women join engineering programs, they may not continue (1, 5, 8, 9). As aconsequence, such disparities in engineering education can lead to inequalities in professionswith related social effects (1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10). Our experience suggests that, in general, the retention ofstudents in undergraduate engineering programs is influenced by several factors, includingprogram admission

Conference Session

WIED: Pre-College Student Experiences

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sruti Modekurty; Judy Fong, UC Davis; Harry H. Cheng, University of California, Davis

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

thedevelopment of these clubs and their participation in RoboPlay Competition. In this paper, thecurriculum and lessons learned through this camp will be presented.1. IntroductionCurrently there is a significant gender gap in engineering and science. A recent article in theNew York Times reported1, even as women make significant headway in fields from law,business, chemistry, and biology, the doors to technology, one of the fastest-growing sectors ofthe economy, remains virtually closed to women. Just 5.7 percent of employed women in theUnited States work in the computer industry, and only about 2 percent of women have a degreein a high-tech field, according to Catalyst2, a prominent research firm studying women andbusiness. If we look at the workforce

Conference Session

WIED: Curricular Undergraduate Student Programs

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristen B. Coletti, Northeastern University; Emily Olina Wisniewski; Rachel Lauren Shapiro, Northeastern University; Paul A. DiMilla, Northeastern University; Rachelle Reisberg, Northeastern University; Melinda Covert, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

out supplemental instruction in a required generalchemistry course and what factors affected whether a student used a form of supplementalinstruction.1 However, data were unavailable to correlate with grades.In order to understand a student’s pre-disposition and ultimate choice to participate insupplemental instruction as well as to determine correlations with grade distribution, honors andnon-honors students in a required general chemistry course were given pre-surveys at thebeginning and post-surveys at the end of the semester. Analysis of pre-surveys allowedidentification of a student’s predisposed “trigger point” at which s/he decides to seek extra helpupon entering college. The availability of data for different types of course

Conference Session

WIED: Faculty and Gender Issues

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jenna P. Carpenter, Louisiana Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

culture, 4) andincorporating and evaluating efforts to increase one’s research self-efficacy beliefs.Not only must one be interested in a career pathway and provided with the optimalconditions to pursue a career pathway, they must be supported in their workenvironments to achieve and maintain a satisfying work life. Lent and Brown13 initiallyproposed a model for work satisfaction that extends their scholarship on SocialCognitive Career Theory11. In this process model, the authors posit that worksatisfaction is influenced by 1) one’s affective traits, 2) participation in goal-directedactivities, 3) environmental supports and resources, 4) work self-efficacy and 5) bothexpected and received works conditions and outcomes. The relationship

Conference Session

WIED: Medley

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ahmed M. El-Sherbeeny, King Saud University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

enrolled in such fields in the years 2008-2012 as compared to almost296,000 males, i.e. an almost 1 to 10 ratio, with an average 1% annual increase according tothese official figures. Furthermore, throughout the years 2007-2011 only 4,000 female engineershave graduated from Saudi universities versus almost 66,000 males, i.e. an almost 1:16 ratio, yetwith an impressive average annual growth rate of 6.1%. This gap is further amplified whenconsidering the number of female students studying abroad throughout the years 2008-2012,totaling 3,300 versus 81,500 males, i.e. an almost 1:25 ratio, yet with a very impressive averageannual growth rate of 48.0%. Justifications. As with the US and Gulf models previously discussed, such under

Conference Session

WIED: Strategies Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kerry Meyers, Youngstown State University; Leo H. McWilliams, University of Notre Dame; Catherine F. Pieronek, University of Notre Dame

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Page 24.675.2undergraduate engineering experience. Many prior studies that have considered these issues in 1  different ways and in different contexts served as critical foundations to the current study and aredescribed in the following paragraphs in terms of their relationship to the current study.Over two decades ago, Astin published the seminal work, Involvement: The Cornerstone ofExcellence, which indicated the critical link between student involvement, engagement andsuccess in undergraduate studies 1. Astin defined involvement in terms of physical andpsychological energy devoted to a specific context, and went on to outline a series of

Conference Session

WIED: Medley

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joanna Wolfe, Carnegie Mellon University; Beth A. Powell, Tennessee Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

teammates’ behaviors, professional engineers used structured,semi-formal procedures and appealed to team and individual goals to drive the conversationforward. They focused on presenting solutions, rather than dwelling on problems, and avoidedmentioning feelings or needs to prevent appearing emotional. We also found that professionalwomen strategically used flattery to accomplish their ends and rehearsed difficult conversations.Such strategies need to be shared with engineering undergraduates to help them develop anddraw upon range of successful interpersonal strategies for handling difficult situations.1. Introduction I think we all start out—we want to communicate in the style that's comfortable for us and what comes natural…I think

Conference Session

WIED: Strategies Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Rae Volpatti, University of Pittsburgh; Cheryl A. Bodnar, University of Pittsburgh; Lauren M. Byland, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

situations that could be construed as SHthrough the provision of a range of “What if…” scenarios. More importantly, it providedstrategies to help female engineering students cope with SH through learning from theexperiences of professional panelists with expertise in this area. On a scale of 1 (poor) to 5(excellent), the overall impression of the workshop according to participants who took theevaluation survey was 4.74. Moreover, 100% of the survey participants felt that the workshopmet their expectations. Furthermore, questions pertaining to perceived informational needsrelative to SH were included in a survey administered to all graduating engineering students of amid-Atlantic university. Almost half of survey respondents indicated that SH was an

Conference Session

WIED: Pre-College Student Experiences

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jessica R. McCormick, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis; Terri L. Talbert-Hatch, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis; Charles Feldhaus, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

wholein the U.S.1 In particular, implementing summer camps that attract high school students for allengineering disciplines has been proven to be a very effective approach to partially addressingthe shortage of engineers.25In addition to combating the decline in the number of U.S. engineers, outreach programs seek notonly to increase engineering enrollment but also to diversify the field of engineering.1 Dave et al.confirm by stating that one way of addressing the lack of engineers is to solve the problem ofunderrepresentation of women.10 Outreach programs have been created and developed tospecifically target women to address this issue. 10 According to Cano, Berliner-Heyman, Koppel,Gibbons, & Kimmel, summer programs have been implemented

Conference Session

Interactive Panel on Advocacy Tips: an Initiative to Provide Individuals the Tools to Advocate for Women and Underrepresented Minorities

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adrienne Robyn Minerick, Michigan Technological University; Roger A. Green, North Dakota State University; Canan Bilen-Green, North Dakota State University; Kristen P. Constant, Iowa State University; Beth M Holloway, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Sandra D. Eksioglu, Mississippi State University; Debra M. Gilbuena, Oregon State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

 Literature:    Like  most  initiatives  to  address  the  underrepresentation  of  women  and  minorities  in  STEM,  the  advocacy  tips  are  drawn  from  a  rich  body  of  literature  and  evidence-­‐based  experiences.    In  a  recent  essay,  Acker  [1]  reflects  on  30  years  of  theorizing  and  researching  gendered  substructures  enacted  in  organizations  and,  while  recognizing  that  recent  research  provides  clearer  understandings  of  why  women  enter  and/or  remain  in  academia,  also  acknowledges  that  “a  number  of  issues  about  how  to  think  about  gender  inequalities  remain  unresolved”  (pg.  214).    Acker  further  notes  that  white  men  generally  dominate  top  organizational  positions  and  that

Conference Session

WIED: Strategies Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cate Samuelson, University of Washington; Elizabeth Litzler, University of Washington; Candice L. Staples, University of Maryland; Paige E. Smith, University of Maryland, College Park; Catherine T. Amelink, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Amelink, Virginia Tech Page 24.872.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2014 Living, Learning, and Staying: The Impact of a Women in Engineering Living and Learning CommunityAbstractA number of studies highlight living and learning communities (LLCs) as a factor contributing tostudent persistence, particularly in STEM programs.1-3 For several years, the University ofMaryland – College Park has housed Flexus: The Dr. Marilyn Berman Pollans Women inEngineering Living and Learning Community. This LLC is solely for first and second yearwomen, who are in vital years of

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Janis P. Terpenny, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

from the fictional character Mary Poppinsare used to describe a variety of approaches and methods that have been developed andimplemented for effective leadership in academia by the author, a woman who is an engineeringdepartment chair (head) and director of a large national industry/university cooperative researchcenter. Following an introduction that includes background and motivation, a brief review of theliterature on academic leadership and gender differences in leadership is presented. Threeprimary approaches are then described, including: 1) know your organization, 2) fostercollaboration, a sense of team and community, and 3) serve as an example of excellence. Detailsof several methods and strategies are provided for implementing each

Conference Session

WIED: Strategies Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kelsey Morgan Irvin, Washington University in St. Louis; Elizabeth Hiteshue, University of Pennsylvania; Mary Yvonne Lanzerotti, Air Force Institute of Technology; Sheldon Hochheiser, IEEE History Center; Michael Geselowitz, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, thereby increasing female participation in STEM.The STEM Education Project combines hands-on STEM research with unique mentoring withdistinguished STEM leaders to provide an environment that is supportive of both the researchand career for the participating female undergraduate students. As background, in 2012, YaleUniversity research showed that “science’s subtle gender biases favor male students.”1 Asrecently as July, 2013, three members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to theGovernment Accountability Office to express concern about the state of female participation inSTEM fields, since “federal money supports about 60 percent of the research performed atuniversities, at a cost of $36.6 billion in 2011, in addition to more than $40

Conference Session

From Industry to the Academy - Female Faculty Boundary Spanners Offering and Gaining Perspective

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary K. Pilotte, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Diana Bairaktarova, The University of Oklahoma; Rachel Louis Kajfez, Ohio State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Valle, Georgia Institute of Technology; John D. Leonard II, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

representative and diverse segment of the overall American population1.In this work we define retention the customary way, that is, by the number of first-time, full-timestudents that graduate from the institution within 6 years. Much past research on retention hasfocused on students who leave engineering (so-called “non-persisters”) and what caused theirdeparture. For example, Marra et al.2 shows students of both genders tend to drop out ofengineering primarily for two reasons: 1) the curriculum is too challenging and the quality ofteaching too poor, and 2) students don’t believe they belong. Page 24.997.2Ohland et al.3 present an extensive analysis of

Conference Session

WIED: Faculty and Gender Issues

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cheryl Cass, North Carolina State University; Lisa G. Bullard, North Carolina State University; Anita R. Vila-Parrish, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

number of women inNTT roles in the academe. West and Curtis (2006, p 9) state that “women are significantly over-represented in these non-tenure track positions, [which are] the least secure, least remunerative,and least prestigious jobs among the full-time faculty” making up 52% of full time faculty in thisgroup.5 Hart (2011) calls for a need to understand the climate for women in these roles in orderto create an environment that cultivates success and respect.4 Chronister and Baldwin (1999)and Baldwin and Chronister (2001) studied the work life of full-time NTT faculty (men andwomen) at four-year institutions through the use of surveys, secondary data (National Survey ofPostsecondary Faculty), and faculty interviews.1-2 Hart (2011) summarized

Conference Session

WIED: Faculty and Gender Issues

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sara Wadia-Fascetti, Northeastern University; Jan Rinehart, Northeastern University; Simon Pitts, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

to fitwithin this suite of development activities at the institution. The suite of programs includes: Page 24.1044.2 • Leadership Academy (four 2 hour meetings, with a project): developed and led by the Provost’s Office, this initiative focuses on administrators new to the university and faculty new in administrative roles (department chair, associate dean). • Leadership Development Program (six 1 day meetings, with a project and executive coaching): led by the President’s Office and Human Resource Management, this program is offered to nominated faculty in administrative positions and senior staff who have been

Conference Session

WIED: Strategies Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raquel Perez-Castillejos, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Priya Radhi Santhanam, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

mentoring program, we plan to keep running it for years to come, increasingthe number of mentees and mentors as well as deepening our surveys and assessment analysis.References:[1] National Science Foundation (NSF): National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), Science and Engineering Indicators 2012—Chapter 2, Arlington, VA (2012). Available online: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/c2/c2s2.htm[2] B. L. Yoder, Databytes: Women in Engineering, ASEE Prism November (2013) 17-18. Available online: http://www.asee-prism.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Databytes-NOV2.pdf[3] L. Reha, M. Lufkin, L.Harrison, Nontraditional career preparation: root causes and strategies, National Alliance for Partnership in Equity

Conference Session

WIED: Curricular Undergraduate Student Programs

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alistar Erickson-Ludwig, Drexel University (Eng.); Alisa Morss Clyne, Drexel University (Eng.)

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

is the largest college within Drexel University, a large urbanUniversity located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The College of Engineering supports studentsin 5 engineering disciplines (Chemical and Biological Engineering; Civil, Architectural, andEnvironmental Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Materials Science andEngineering; Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics). In 2013 nearly 1100 students joined theCollege of Engineering Freshman class. Female students composed approximately 21% of theincoming class and approximately 9% of the incoming class was African American and Hispanicstudents (Table 1). The Summer Diversity program is the only program within the College ofEngineering that specifically targets underrepresented

Conference Session

WIED: Faculty and Gender Issues

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cristina Poleacovschi, University of Colorado, Boulder; Amy Javernick-Will, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

and female. Gender is a social behavior embodying the sex 1. For example,the act of wearing a specific color based on ones sex is a gendered behavior. Sexuality isexpressing erotic desires, practices and identities 2. Generally sex, sexuality and gender havebeen differentiated; however there is no general consensus on how they are used. Beauvoir, whowas one of the first scholars to distinguish gender from sex, stated that gender is a sociallyconstructed identity that both women and men perform but neither are born with gender 1. Thisdistinction implies that sex is a biological category while gender is a social category. However,the distinction of sex and gender has also been argued to be unhelpful 3,4. Recent feminists,starting with Butler 5