the recipient of several awards for his innovative teaching and excellence in research mentorship. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Trust me, I’m an Engineer: Exploring Engineering Identity and Concepts of Expert Versus Novice in the Aerospace Engineering IndustryAbstract In this work in progress, we explore what skills and experiences help engineeringgraduates transition from novices to expert engineers in industry. To achieve success in industry,recent engineering graduates may rely on applying tools from their undergraduate educationrelated to problem recognition and asking questions when they lack expertise. By contrast, seniorengineers emphasize that soft (professional
fortrailblazing undergraduates. The CIRCUIT program involves multilevel mentoring by providing aneeded community for trailblazing graduate students as they support each other in their work withCIRCUIT and as they progress in their individual graduate journeys 42 .TA mentorship guides the students through the technical aspects of their projects, and also servesas representation that students may never ordinarily see in their undergraduate studies. It is knownthat students with a strong sense of scientific identity are more likely to persist within STEM 4 .This TA representation, in part, allows CIRCUIT fellows to build their scientific identity by seeingthemselves as scientists and engineers. TAs serve as existence proofs; showing CIRCUIT fellowsthat
engineeringeducation [1], [10]. Yet, students struggle to satisfactorily develop these skills during their timeas undergraduates, as stated in recent feedback from over 500 employers who hired entry-levelengineers [2].Despite the implementation of project-based educational learning models, the skill gap betweenwork expectations of employers and the performance of engineering graduates persists in subsetsof professional skills, such as contextual application of engineering design solutions,communication, motivation, and self-management [2], [3], [5]. A focus on collaboration withindustry in the education of engineers has been shown to boost, not only design thinking withreal-world complexity [1], but also to increase contextual understanding of design
, scholarships provided studentswith more time to pursue resources, such as mentorships and internships, which helped themdevelop their skills and provided them with networking opportunities. c. intentional community-building activitiesIntentional community-building activities can help retain undergraduate students by creating asense of belonging and connectedness among students. The program accomplishes this through aweekly 1-hour seminar that includes various activities including resume critiques, mockinterviews, discussions with engineering professionals, and a book report assignment. Inaddition, students participate in an annual 3-Day start-up weekend hosted by the university’sinnovation hub. The students form teams with others from across the