Asee peer logo

BOARD # 357: ECR: Core. Identity Intersections of Indigenous Engineers and Computer Scientists

Download Paper |

Conference

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Publication Date

June 22, 2025

Start Date

June 22, 2025

End Date

August 15, 2025

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session II

Tagged Topics

Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

6

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/55727

Download Count

2

Paper Authors

biography

Nuria Jaumot-Pascual Ph.D. TERC

visit author page

Nuria Jaumot-Pascual, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist at TERC. She leads studies on the experiences of people of color in STEM education and careers through creative methods and meta-synthesis, methods that she provides professional development on. She is Co-PI in four NSF-funded projects and a Spencer Foundation project, two of which focus on the experiences of Native students and professionals in STEM. She has a Ph.D. in Qualitative Research Methodologies from the University of Georgia.

visit author page

author page

Maria Ong

author page

Tiffany Smith American Indian Science & Engineering Society

Download Paper |

Abstract

This paper explores how the identities of Indigenous computer scientists and engineers intersect with their cultural values around their motivations to be in these disciplines and around how they approach their work. This paper draws from a larger study funded by the National Science Foundation and is based on a set of fourteen photo elicitation interviews with Indigenous engineers and computer science students and professionals. Participants shared photographs and reflected on supports, challenges, and motivations due to the lived intersections of their identities as computer scientists and engineers and as Indigenous individuals. We found that the values of giving back and Nation building and the integration of traditional Indigenous knowledge with western disciplinary training are among the main motivators for Indigenous computer scientists and engineers to be in their disciplines. We recommend integrating Indigenous values and knowledges and western training to support the development of positive identities of Indigenous students and professionals in engineering and computing.

Jaumot-Pascual, N., & Ong, M., & Smith, T. (2025, June), BOARD # 357: ECR: Core. Identity Intersections of Indigenous Engineers and Computer Scientists Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55727

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2025 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015