Faculty and Stakeholder Perspectives from a Workshop on
Electricity Access Education

Henry Louie; Pritpal Singh; Susan M. Lord; Scarleth Vanessa Vasconcelos

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: June 26, 2024
Conference Session: Assessment and Curriculum Development
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer Engineering Division (ECE)
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--47456
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47456
Download Count: 94

Paper Authors

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Henry Louie Seattle University

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Dr. Henry Louie received the B.S.E.E. degree from Kettering University, the M.S. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2008. He is currently a Professor in the ECE Department at Seattle University.

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Pritpal Singh Villanova University

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Dr. Pritpal Singh is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Villanova University. He received a BSc in Physics from the University of Birmingham, UK in 1978, and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Sciences/Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware. He joined Villanova University in 1984 and has been faculty member there ever since. He has served as the Chair of the Middle Atlantic Section of ASEE, Zone 1 Chair, and has organized and hosted three regional ASEE conferences at Villanova University. Dr. Singh has published papers regularly at the ASEE Annual Conference and currently serves Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee of the IEEE Education Society on Diversity and Inclusion. In 2022, Dr. Singh was recognized with the IFEES Duncan Fraser Award for Excellence in Engineering Education.

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Susan M. Lord University of San Diego orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-5626

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Susan Lord is Professor and Chair of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. She received a BS from Cornell University in Materials Science and Electrical Engineering (EE) and MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University. Her research focuses on the study and promotion of equity in engineering including student pathways and inclusive teaching. She has won best paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, and Education Sciences. Dr. Lord is a Fellow of the IEEE and ASEE and received the 2018 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. She is a coauthor of The Borderlands of Education: Latinas in Engineering. She is a co-Director of the National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI).

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Scarleth Vanessa Vasconcelos Villanova University

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Abstract

Electricity access refers to the provision of electricity to populations that do not have access to the electrical grid, usually in under-resourced settings. Over 700 million people do not have access to electricity. Interest, investment, and activity in this sub-field of Humanitarian Engineering has grown considerably over the last 15 years. Yet, there is very little coverage of this topic in U.S. universities. This critical challenge can motivate students to pursue electrical engineering studies and inspire engineering students to engage with curricular and extra-curricular activities related to electricity access, making it a pivotal area for educational focus. In 2022 and 2023, the National Science Foundation sponsored two workshops with the goal of identifying approaches to enhance and expand electricity access education at the undergraduate engineering level in the U.S., primarily within the electrical engineering discipline. In this paper, we summarize and synthesize the insightful discussion from the second workshop, supplemented by results from in-workshop polling of the participants. We identify perceptions of the state of electricity access education in the U.S., and identify needs and barriers for improving related curricular and extra-curricular activities. Finally, we propose a road map of activities for further discussion. An initial gathering of about 25 engineering educators, field practitioners, and non-profit organization representatives participated in a first-of-its-kind NSF-sponsored workshop in June 2022. A goal of this workshop was to identify innovative approaches to enhance and expand electricity access education at the undergraduate engineering level in the United States.

Following the success of the pioneering event, an expanded workshop on this topic was held in October 2023. About 40 attendees, including engineering faculty members, students, and field practitioners participated. The two-day program of sessions comprised two international keynote speakers, moderated panels, and themed discussions, all focused toward enhancing how electricity access is taught in the classroom, how to improve the student experience in-community electricity access projects, and ways for faculty to overcome barriers in teaching electricity access. This paper will describe the second workshop in detail along with survey findings, discussion summaries, and a roadmap for further discussion.

Citation
Format

Louie, H., & Singh, P., & Lord, S. M., & Vasconcelos, S. V. (2024, June), Faculty and Stakeholder Perspectives from a Workshop on Electricity Access Education Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47456

TY - CPAPER
AB - Electricity access refers to the provision of electricity to populations that do not have access to the electrical grid, usually in under-resourced settings. Over 700 million people do not have access to electricity. Interest, investment, and activity in this sub-field of Humanitarian Engineering has grown considerably over the last 15 years. Yet, there is very little coverage of this topic in U.S. universities. This critical challenge can motivate students to pursue electrical engineering studies and inspire engineering students to engage with curricular and extra-curricular activities related to electricity access, making it a pivotal area for educational focus. In 2022 and 2023, the National Science Foundation sponsored two workshops with the goal of identifying approaches to enhance and expand electricity access education at the undergraduate engineering level in the U.S., primarily within the electrical engineering discipline. In this paper, we summarize and synthesize the insightful discussion from the second workshop, supplemented by results from in-workshop
polling of the participants. We identify perceptions of the state of electricity access education in the U.S., and identify needs and barriers for improving related curricular and extra-curricular activities. Finally, we propose a road map of activities for further discussion.
An initial gathering of about 25 engineering educators, field practitioners, and non-profit organization representatives participated in a first-of-its-kind NSF-sponsored workshop in June 2022. A goal of this workshop was to identify innovative approaches to enhance and expand electricity access education at the undergraduate engineering level in the United States.

Following the success of the pioneering event, an expanded workshop on this topic was held in October 2023. About 40 attendees, including engineering faculty members, students, and field practitioners participated. The two-day program of sessions comprised two international keynote speakers, moderated panels, and themed discussions, all focused toward enhancing how electricity access is taught in the classroom, how to improve the student experience in-community electricity access projects, and ways for faculty to overcome barriers in teaching electricity access. This paper will describe the second workshop in detail along with survey findings, discussion summaries, and a roadmap for further discussion.

AU - Henry Louie
AU - Pritpal Singh
AU - Susan M. Lord
AU - Scarleth Vanessa Vasconcelos
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Faculty and Stakeholder Perspectives from a Workshop on
Electricity Access Education
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47456
DO - 10.18260/1-2--47456
ER -