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Developing Professional Identity: Integrating Academic and Workplace Competencies within Engineering Programs

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

7

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41974

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41974

Download Count

200

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Paper Authors

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Betul Bilgin The University of Illinois at Chicago

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Betul Bilgin is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Betul received her M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University. Betul’s interests include engineering education, team-based learning, and biotechnology.

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James Pellegrino The University of Illinois at Chicago

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Cody Mischel The University of Illinois at Chicago

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Lewis Wedgewood The University of Illinois at Chicago

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Vikas Berry The University of Illinois at Chicago

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Abstract

Chemical engineering education needs a new rational approach commensurate with the evolution and expansion it has undergone via the inclusion of key elements from several fields: pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, biotechnology, and food and consumer products, among others. With the expansion of industry and growing needs for communication and leadership skills in the 21st century, practicing engineers are expected to be technically knowledgeable and professionally skillful. However, the typical chemical engineering undergraduate core curriculum has not adapted to prepare students for the multiple needs encompassed by the chemical industry. Lack of industry-relevant examples/topics and applications in the course contents results in less motivated and/or engaged students. Students therefore often struggle to identify with the profession and are not ready for the workforce when they graduate. This NSF PFE: RIEF project examines a unique experience where a student-faculty-industry integrated community is created to help bridge the gap between industry needs and the competencies developed within chemical engineering programs. The project's main goal is to better understand how implementing up-to-date industry problems into one of the sophomore chemical engineering courses impacts students’ engineering identity formation and self-efficacy development. To analyze the impacts of the intervention, this project employs design-based research (DBR) approach to guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of materials and methods reflecting the proposed synergistic model for a course and program design. Implementing up-to-date industry-relevant problems into the course will foster student-industry-faculty engagement (PI, engineering Co-PI, and course instructor), develop student knowledge, skills, and abilities needed in the chemical engineering world today and in the future, and support professional identity formation. Moreover, industry-student engagement through the methods proposed will develop students' societal and environmental awareness. This paper provides findings from Spring 2021 that will be presented in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grantees Poster Session during the 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

Bilgin, B., & Pellegrino, J., & Mischel, C., & Wedgewood, L., & Berry, V. (2022, August), Developing Professional Identity: Integrating Academic and Workplace Competencies within Engineering Programs Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41974

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