Conference Session

Themes in Renewable Energy and ET

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Chiou, Drexel University; Radian G Belu, Drexel University (Tech.); Michael G Mauk P.E., Drexel University; M. Eric Carr, Drexel University; Tzu-Liang Bill Tseng, University of Texas, El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

students, staff, and sponsors all played a role in the projectsuccess. Finally, the paper explores how participation in these interdisciplinary projectsinfluenced students in their subsequent career choices. 1. IntroductionSociety is increasingly calling for professionals across government, industry, business and civilsociety to be able to problem-solve issues related to climate change and sustainable developmentas part of their work1. The Energy Information Administration predicts that U.S. energyconsumption will increase at a rate of 1.1 percent annually, but that U.S. energy production willonly increase at a rate of 0.9 percent annually, from now through 20301-3. These projections arebased in part on current usage of renewable energy sources

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alexander Ganago, University of Michigan; Hongwei Liao

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, in Lab 2 they build a light-activated control circuit with aphotocell as a light sensor and a MOSFET as electronic switch, which automatically turnsOn/Off the actuator (lamp or motor).Before offering the new course structure in the Fall, many innovations were tested in theSpring 2012 (34 students enrolled). In the Fall 2012 semester, 156 students were enrolled,including 90 juniors and 64 seniors, with the most represented majors listed in Table 1. Table 1. The demographics of students enrolled in Fall 2012 Engineering Major Enrolled Percentage Mechanical 61 39.1 Aerospace 43 27.6

Conference Session

Issues of Outreach and Interest in Engineering

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susannah Sandrin, Arizona State University; Connie M Borror, Arizona State University West

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

versus female participation. The pilot phase of the survey (administered to the FYC population) asked students fortheir gender and age, but it did not ask them for their race/ethnicity. During the second phase ofthe survey study (administered to grades 6-12), students were asked to share their race/ethnicityin addition to their gender and grade. In terms of race and ethnicity, the secondary schoolpopulation was representative of the population in this part of the country, but it was not diversecompared to the national population (Table 1). Participation across grade level was spread ratherevenly across the range of grades, but slightly dominated by high school students.Approximately 75% of the students were high school students in grade

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ryan N. Fries P.E., Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville; Brad Cross, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville; Mark P. Rossow, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville; Daniel M Woehl, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

researchers in educational psychology andcontained detailed explanations of every step in the solution process. Students were assigned anexample to study and then had to solve an online homework problem which was 1) sufficientlysimilar to the example problem that the student knew the general approach to take, but 2)sufficiently different from the example problem that the student could not rely on thoughtlesspattern matching to obtain an answer. Figure 1 shows a representative worked example andFigure 2 shows the paired online homework problem. Page 23.1103.2 2. The spring balance reads 500 N. Determine the tensions in cords

Conference Session

Visualization tools and uses in graphics

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathy Schmidt Jackson, The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence; Conrad Tucker, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Gül E. Okudan Kremer, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Design Graphics

solutions is dependent upon their ability to manipulate objects (either physically orvirtually). In this paper, we offer preliminary evidence on the comparison of tactile to virtuallearning as perceived by our students and share instructional issues that students feel either helpor hinder their ability to learn.1 IntroductionGiven that there are numerous ways to define engineering design, it follows that there are manypedagogical approaches to teaching design. While most agree that “design, above all else,defines the difference between an engineering education and a science education” 1, design Page 23.1105.2experiences in the curriculum are

Conference Session

Activities and Assessment for “Awkward ABET Outcomes”

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Norb Delatte P.E., Cleveland State University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

. Places the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context. Prerequisite: none. Class meets twice a week for 1 hour and 50 minutes – see schedule Class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 – 11:50 am in SH 268 Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 1 – 2 pm. Other times by appointment. Generally speaking, the best way to ask me a question is by email if you can’t come by the office.Lesson Day Date Topics Reference1 Tuesday 1/17 Introduction, the ancient engineers Handouts Thurs, Tues 19, 24 No class Handouts2

Conference Session

Outreach Along the K-12 Pathways to Engineering

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Liesl Hotaling, University of South Florida-St. Petersburg; Susan Lowes, Teachers College/Columbia University; Rustam Stolkin; Peiyi Lin

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”: (1) Defined outcomes; (2) Sustained commitment;(3) Personalization; (4) Challenging content; and (5) Engaged adults.III. SENSE ITA. Overview of the SENSE IT projectUsing SENSE IT materials, students build, calibrate and test a set of sensors and circuits in orderto measure water quality parameters (temperature, conductivity, turbidity and depth). Whendeciding what kind of sensors the students would build, care was taken to create sensor designsthat were accurate enough for students to make meaningful measurements, but also simpleenough that high school students could understand what they were building and how it worked

Conference Session

Mathematics Division Technical Session 4

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Murray Teitell, DeVry University, Long Beach; William S. Sullivan, DeVry University, Long Beach

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

success,preparedness, and overall achievement of the outcomes of their degree program.Introduction Metrics are used to make measurements about performance in order to evaluate andcompare.1 They are widely used in sports to compare the performance of athletes in a game (e.g.batting averages and slugging average).2 Likewise, Metrics are used to compare the performanceof a task. 3 Software metrics are applied to measure the efficiency of the software/algorithm bymeasuring parameters such as speed and storage use.4, 5 A simple metric can measure how long ittakes to perform a task in actual time or man-hours (quantity), the number of resources required(quantity) and the quality of the outcome. A metric therefore usually measures quantity and

Conference Session

Engineering Libraries (ELD) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sara M. Samuel, University of Michigan; Natsuko Hayashi Nicholls, University of Michigan; Leena N Lalwani, University of Michigan; David S. Carter, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Paul F. Grochowski, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Libraries

between indexes, table of contents, and chapters. Some participantsnoted that “moving through e-books was cumbersome and slow.”1 Noorhidawati & Gibb askedstudents about other features and found that students highly rated the usefulness of doing a full-text search across a collection of e-books, as was the ability to personalize the experience bycreating a “bookshelf.”12 Levine-Clark conducted a survey asking students and faculty abouttheir use of e-books, and they summarized one part of their findings saying that “it is clear thatrespondents value convenience (the convenience of not having to go to the library and theconvenience of not having to wait for a print volume) and the ability to search within the text.”10E-book vendors Springer and

Conference Session

Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hanjun Xian, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Krishna Madhavan, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

the retained group. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the firstattempt to study scholar retention at large scale and also the first quantitative effort to measurescholar retention based on bibliometric data within engineering education research.1. IntroductionOver the past two decades, Engineering Education Research (EER) has drawn the attention ofscholars from a variety of disciplines. From 1993 to 2002, it has been reported1 that Journal ofEngineering Education (JEE) authors primarily came from engineering disciplines but no singlediscipline dominated. Also, among all JEE authors, 23.9% of them have no engineering orcomputer science background1, 2. A recent study3 describes the opt-in process of how scholars,especially

Conference Session

Minority Student Success

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer O Burrell, Howard University; Afiya C Fredericks, Howard University; Lorraine N. Fleming, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

’ matriculation byfocusing on African Americans at PWIs, to a great extent, education and psychological researchexcludes the experiences of African American male students persisting at HBCUs.Although the significant and positive impact of attending HBCUs is well established16, this paperargues that racially homogenous education settings such as HBCUs are not devoid of deficitintellectual stereotyping of African American male students. Further, the nature and function ofwithin-race and gender based ideas about students’ work ethic and skills may operate uniquely inracially homogeneous settings. Therefore, the purposes of the paper are to 1) elucidate thepresence of within-race stereotypes of Black engineering students (African American andinternational

Conference Session

Issues in Engineering Technology Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher R Conty, Editor On Behalf of You

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

; Technicians; only in health occupations are "Technologists" listed. 2 b) ET has far fewer programs nationally: 100 4-year colleges & universities in the U.S. offer ET (per ASEE) vs. 350 in engineering, 3 most being ABET-accredited. Of 104 ABET- accredited 2-year ET programs, over a third are at those same 100 4-year colleges. Most original (1950’s) 2-year College ET programs were in Mid-Atlantic & Great Lakes states. c) The average ET program enrolls fewer students than the average Engineering program; also, each Engineering School has more recognized or accredited programs (usually several) than each College with ET programs (often just 1 or 2 accredited ET programs, with few offered anywhere beyond

Conference Session

Global Competency and What Makes a Successful Engineer

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Holt Zaugg, Brigham Young University; Alan R Parkinson, Brigham Young University; Spencer P. Magleby, Brigham Young University; Randall Davies, Brigham Young Univeristy

Tagged Divisions

International

collaborate with other cultures in a variety of settings [1]. Preparation for thesecollaborative opportunities occurs as students move through the rigors of engineering universitycourses prior to entering the workforce. Traditionally university programs focus on study abroadand cross-cultural internships to provide students with these global experiences [2]. However,the costs in terms of money and time prevent many students from participating in study abroadactivities. In an effort to provide a cost-effective, meaningful, cross-cultural experience thatmodels the real world trends, many universities are turning to global virtual (GV) teams [3, 4]. However, in using GV teams, students develop a modified set of interaction skills asvirtual

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering (ME) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Juan C Morales, Universidad del Turabo; Michael J. Prince, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

possible solution to a problem identified in therecent research literature: despite decades of efforts dedicated to the improvement of engineeringeducation, and despite the many advances that have been well-researched and are readilyavailable in the literature, the faculty are not readily adopting them because the time required todevelop them exceeds substantially the normal course preparation. There are several positiveindicators that the summer immersion program is working; however, it is still too early todetermine if it has achieved “systemic and sustainable change”, and if there is an effect onretention rates, graduation rates, and employer satisfaction. The study has also uncovered twoprincipal weaknesses that must be resolved: 1

Conference Session

Teaching Materials Science Using Innovative Methods

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Surendra K. Gupta, Rochester Institute of Technology (COE)

Tagged Divisions

Materials

. Page 23.1115.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2013 Supplementing Instruction with Pencasts created with a SmartPenTwo years ago, I bought an Echo SmartPen developed by LiveScribeTM. The package1 included a4GB pen with two ink cartridges, two caps, a micro USB cable, and a starter dot paper notebookas shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Echo SmartPen Package1 from LiveScribeTMFigure 2 shows the major components of the pen. Ink cartridges are available in both fine andmedium points in black, blue and red colors. A tiny high speed infrared camera is focused at thetip of the ink cartridge to capture everything I would write or draw. The embedded dualmicrophones record the audio in the

Conference Session

Teaching Materials Science Using Innovative Methods

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michelle Rushe, Granta Design; Arlindo Silva, Granta Design

Tagged Divisions

Materials

introductory materialsscience to capstone design courses, and go on into MSc and PhD levels; but also include the useof TRW in pre-university courses. Figure 1 depicts the countries from where contributions werereceived. Several case studies of active users of TRW in a number of higher educationinstitutions in several countries are presented and discussed in Silva et al. (2012). The sectionbelow offers an overview of their thoughts and uses of TRW.Figure 1. The countries from which institutions contributed to this paper. The map was drawn inCES EduPack with a database of “States of the World” available from the Teaching ResourcesWebsite. Page

Conference Session

K-12 and STEM Programs in Engineering Technology

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Tillman, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

illustrate what idiosyncraticfrustrations might occur during the DIY interactive digital whiteboard building process.The common features point to a possible roadmap of expectations regarding other similarundertakings by teachers to build a DIY interactive digital whiteboard.IntroductionWhile some K-12 teachers in the U.S. have been given access to interactive digitalwhiteboards in their classrooms, many others have not.1 This paper describes a proposedline of research inquiry addressing this problem, as well as the results from a pilot studythat was conducted in order to determine if the proposed line of research is feasible. Inthis proposed line of inquiry we intend to examine K-12 teachers building and using do-it-yourself (DIY) interactive

Conference Session

Software Engineering Pedagogical Approaches

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John C. Georgas, Northern Arizona University

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

component design and architecture consists of a total of four and a half contacthours, with three of these contact hours devoted exclusively to the study of architectural styles—follow-on modules focus on other aspects of design, such as object-oriented design patterns.After smaller scale initial deployments, we currently use the game activity we present in thispaper throughout these three contact hours as the core element of our approach to the instructionof architectural styles (except in cases of evaluative studies, as will be discussed in Section 4).The time needed to introduce, setup, and run through the game activity ranges between 10 and 15minutes per architectural style: Student selection will consume about 1 minute and ourexperience is

Conference Session

Distance Learning and Online Teaching Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Fallon, Southern Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

fulfill a partial residency,such as attendance at weekend labs conducted at the host school.The purpose of this survey has been to determine and present the means by which variousinstitutions have addressed the remote laboratory component of their distance learningprograms. Potential advantages and disadvantages related to technologies and techniquesused to implement these remote laboratories are discussed.IntroductionAccording to the ninth annual survey of online education, “Going the Distance: OnlineEducation in the United States, 2011,” published by Babson Survey Research Group 1 “The10% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 2% growth in the overall highereducation student population.” As of fall 2010 6.1 million students had

Conference Session

State of Manufacturing

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Nutter, Ohio Northern University; Robert L. Mott P.E., University of Dayton; Carl R Williams, University of Memphis; Mark J. Stratton, Society of Manufacturing Engineers

Tagged Divisions

Manufacturing

technology programs. Academic programs can benefit byassessing their effectiveness to fulfill the needs and expectations of manufacturing industries,gaining insights for appropriate curriculum revisions to enhance the job-readiness of students toserve these ‘customers’ of our academic services. Page 23.1120.2The paper ends with a summary of observations, conclusions, and recommendations for use ofthe results. Among others, some significant outcomes are: 1. The Four Pillars of Manufacturing Knowledge model is a useful tool for informing a wide set of populations, both industry professionals and educators, about the breadth

Conference Session

Visualization tools, modeling abilities and grading models

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hosein Atharifar, Millersville University of Pennsylvania; Faruk Yildiz, Sam Houston State University; James Richard Knapp Sr., Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Design Graphics

curricula for drafters and design engineers were best fit for their jobfunctions.CADD software has been continuously evolving; the engineering design process has becomelean in the sense that many stages of the design and development can be accomplished with asingle CADD software that can be set up on a single pc station. Figure 1, for example,demonstrates different capabilities exist in Creo Parametric software. Page 23.1121.3 Figure 1 – Engineering design stages covered in Creo Parametric CAD software 2As depicted in Figure 1, many stages of

Conference Session

General Topics in Graduate Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert M. Brooks, Temple University; Mehmet Cetin, Temple University; Jyothsna Kavuturu

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

United States will come from clean energysources by 20352.Most trips in almost all of the metropolitan regions in the country are driven by the owners of thecars with ridership ratio of 1:1 (between the number of riders and the cars). This process is notonly costly to individuals and society but also leads to air pollution and congestion. There areseveral solutions to this complex problem. One of the solutions is sharing cars. This is a moreefficient, but less convenient method. The objectives of this method are (1) to reduce traffic byreducing the number of cars needed by households and (2) allow commuters to bike, walk, and Page 23.1122.2use

Conference Session

Sustainability and engineering education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alexandre David Wing, Colorado School of Mines; Cristal Hibbard, Colorado School of Mines; Jennifer Strong, Colorado School of Mines; Jörg E Drewes, Colorado School of Mines; Junko Munakata-Marr, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

assessment.Prof. J¨org E Drewes, Colorado School of Mines J¨org E. Drewes is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of Research for the NSF Engineering Research Center on Reinventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt). He also serves as Co-Director of the Advanced Water Technology Center (AQWATEC) at the Colorado School of Mines, which he co-founded in 2007. Prof. Drewes’ research and scholarly activities have been in four areas for which he is internationally and nationally recognized and which are closely related based on the common thread of drinking water augmentation with water of impaired quality: (1) design and operation of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) systems including riverbank

Conference Session

Distance Education and Engineering Workforce Professional Development

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Soma Chakrabarti, University of Kansas; Zachary Gredlics, University of Kansas; Kevin Curry, University of Kansas; Kara D Lynch, University of Kansas Continuing Education

Tagged Divisions

Continuing Professional Development

projecttitled Development of Accreditation in Engineering Training and Education or DAETE3,established a self-assessment matrix especially suited for continuing education activities. Thematrix is based on the European Foundation for Quality ManagementTM (EFQM®)4 model(Figure 1) that allows the lifelong learning organizations to clearly focus on five Enablerscriteria and four Results criteria of the continuing education activities. The self-assessmentmatrix is also extended to a benchmarking process that enables each CE organization tocompare itself with similar organizations. While the benchmarking capability was an addedattraction, the primary reason behind choosing this tool was its simplicity and relevance to theneeds of CEIPE. This paper will

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nizami Z Vagidov, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; Vladimir Mitin, University at Buffalo, SUNY; Athos Chariton Petrou; Joseph L Zawicki Zawicki

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. Athos Chariton PetrouDr. Joseph L Zawicki Zawicki Page 23.1125.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2013 Synergy of Educational Tools in Teaching of a New Lecture/Lab Course on Electromagnetic Fields and WavesAbstractElectromagnetic Fields and Waves (EFW) courses for undergraduate students are usually taughtin traditional lecture style. The instructors that teach EFW courses using this conventionalmethod encounter several problems including these:1. There is disconnect between the mathematics used to describe electromagnetic phenomenaand the physics, even when one or

Conference Session

Systems Engineering Education Research

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Howard Eisner, George Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Systems Engineering

applieddirectly to current and future curricula in the fields of systems and software engineering andarchitecting.Systems Engineering ArchitectingAn extraordinary technical leader who set the stage for architecting large-scale systems was E.Rechtin. His book on architecting established the fundamentals, which included his articulationof the four basic approaches, namely1: 1. The normative (pronouncement) methodology 2. The rational (procedural) method Page 23.1126.2 3. The argumentative approach, and 4. The heuristic approachA few years after Dr. Rechtin’s book appeared, the Department of Defense came out with itsC4ISR Architectural Framework

Conference Session

Programs in Support of Systems Engineering Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi, University of Rhode Island; Colleen Grinham; manbir sodhi, University of Rhode Island

Tagged Divisions

Systems Engineering

students to pursue engineering as a career.1 Many efforts havefocused on developing improved curricular materials for K-12 engineering education,2, 3 andsome of these studies have specifically looked at systems engineering and systems thinking inthe K-12 classroom.4, 5 Many K-12 educators encourage certain students to pursue engineeringdegrees, but do not necessarily incorporate engineering concepts into their normal classroomlessons and do not always include different types of engineering, such as industrial and systemsengineering.A two-day workshop was planned, including a plant trip and several activities that explained anddemonstrated systems engineering. The funding was provided through a grant from NASA, sothroughout the workshop the

Conference Session

Programs in Support of Systems Engineering Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael C Smith, University of Virginia; Barry Horowitz, University of Virginia; Thomas S. Brett, Dept of Systems Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science

Tagged Divisions

Systems Engineering

)#sponsored#a#workshop#in#April,#2009#in#which#participants#identified#needs#and#opportunities#and#laid#out#principles#and#strategies#for#assisting#eligible#veterans#to#obtain#the#education#needed#to#transition#into#advanced#technology#careers#in#government#and#industry.###The#workshop#findings#are#available#in#the#report#“Veterans’#Education#for#Engineering#and#Science”#posted#on#NSF’s#web#site#at#www.nsf.gov/eng/eec/VeteranEducation.pdf.1####The#University#of#Virginia#offers#a#customized#pilot#Accelerated#Masters#Program#in#Systems#Engineering#for#Veterans#(AMPFV);#a#program#based#upon#an#existing#program,#but#modified#along#the#lines#of#the#principles#established#at#the#NSF#workshop#for#tailoring#educational#programs#toward#the#career#development

Conference Session

Simulation and Programming

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carrie Steinlicht, South Dakota State University; Byron G. Garry, South Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Manufacturing

thinking heuristics, post-modern systems thinking, and total systems intervention, will broaden the education ofengineers.An example of system thinking being taught in a course, but not using the direct tools of theSystems Engineering community, is reported by Aung at Lamar University in a Capstonecourse.1 They describe the process of integrating system thinking, reasoning, and decision-making skills into a Capstone-type course.Systems Thinking for Operations ProfessionalsManufacturing operations are systems that are emphatically interdisciplinary. Manufacturingoperations bring together a wide variety of people, equipment, and processes that must worktogether to build products. They are highly complex adaptive systems that can change quickly.The

Conference Session

Issues in Advising and Mentoring

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nathan Dolenc, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

of science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM)1. Students involvedin robotics activities and competitions show an increase in attitude toward science2 and possess agreater awareness of engineering careers3. The largest high school robotics competition focusedon inspiring students in STEM areas is the FIRST Robotics Competition. An important part ofthe FIRST program is mentoring. In general, mentoring is believed to lead to high levels ofsuccess in both personal and professional endeavors4. With respect to FIRST, mentoring is givena high level of importance and is attributed with a large part to the program’s success5. This study investigates the role of mentors in eleven different robotics teams participatingin the FIRST