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Improving Gender Equity in Engineering—Perspectives from Academia and Literature

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 11

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

28

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43579

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/43579

Download Count

303

Paper Authors

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Brianna N. Griffith University of Arkansas

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Brianna Griffith currently serves as a graduate research assistant at the University of Arkansas while pursuing a M.S. in Engineering Management. She received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Arkansas in May 2022. .

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Eric Specking University of Arkansas Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-0308-0902

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Dr. Eric A. Specking serves as the Assistant Dean for Enrollment Management and Retention for the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas. Specking received a B.S. in Computer Engineering, a M.S. in Industrial Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Arkansas. His research interest includes decision quality, resilient design, set-based design, engineering and project management, and engineering education. During his time at the University of Arkansas, Eric has served as Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator, or Senior Personnel on over 40 research projects totaling over $6.6 Million, which produced over 50 publications (journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, newsletters, and technical reports). He is an active member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) where he has served in various leadership positions.

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Jena Shafai Asgarpoor University of Nebraska, Lincoln

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Jena Asgarpoor has been a faculty at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln since August 2017. She is a Professor of Practice and the Director for the Master of Engineering Management Program in the College of Engineering. Dr. Asgarpoor received her Ph. D. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering, specializing in Engineering Management, from Texas A and M University in College Station, where she had previously earned a B.A. in Political Science (Summa Cum Laude). Prior to UNL, she was a professor at Bellevue University (Bellevue, Nebraska) for 26 years. She has served as an officer in the Engineering Leadership Development (LEAD) and Engineering Management (EMD) divisions of ASEE, currently serving as Program Chair for EMD. She is also active in the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM) and serving as 2022-2023 Secretary for that Society. Her interests lie in scholarship of teaching and learning specifically in asynchronous online space, assessment of learning, engineering management, and quality management.

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Stephanie G. Adams University of Texas, Dallas

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Dr. Stephanie G. Adams is the 5th Dean of the Eric Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas, Dallas and Past President of the American Society of Engineering Education. Previously Dr. Adams served as the Dean of the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University (2016–2019), Department Head and Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech (2011–2016) and held faculty and administrative positions at Virginia Commonwealth University (2008–2011) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1998–2008).

Her research interests include: Broadening Participation, Faculty and Graduate Student Development, International/Global Education, Teamwork and Team Effectiveness, and Quality Control and Management. In 2003, she received the CAREER award from the Engineering Education and Centers Division of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Adams is a leader in the advancement and inclusion of all in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. She has worked with a number of colleges and universities, government agencies and non-profit organizations on topics related to graduate education, mentoring, faculty development and diversifying STEM.

Dr. Adams is an honor graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, where she earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering, in 1988. In 1991, she was awarded the Master of Engineering degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. She received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1998, where she concentrated on Industrial Engineering and Management.

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Meagan C. Pollock Engineer Inclusion

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As an engineer turned educator, through her company, Engineer Inclusion, Dr. Meagan Pollock focuses on helping others intentionally engineer inclusion™ in education and the workforce.

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Adrienne Minerick Michigan Technological University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2382-7831

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Adrienne R. Minerick is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of ADVANCE at Michigan Technological University. She earned her B.S. from Michigan Tech and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. Her administrative experience has included Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Engineering, Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Development, Dean of the School of Technology, founding Dean of the College of Computing, and Interim Dean of the Pavlis Honors College. Adrienne is completing her Presidential terms with the American Society for Engineering (ASEE) in June 2023. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ASEE, and most recently, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). She earned the AES Electrophoresis Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 and was a prior Michigan Professor of the Year Nominee, which illustrate her dual passion for leveraging research and education for student growth and societal advances. While directing the Micro Medical Device Engineering Research Laboratory (M.D. – ERL), she has managed, as PI or co-PI, ~$11 million, yielding 93 research graduates*, a patent, and >100 publications [*12 PhDs (64% women, 18%UR)]. Her favorite quote is by Ray McDermott, “Culture is not a past cause to a current self. Culture is the current challenge to possible future selves.”

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Patrice Nicole Storey

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Abstract

The underrepresentation of women in engineering is well-known and well-documented. Women have experienced harmful discrimination due to bias, stereotypes, and an overall lack of institutional support. This paper aims to provide a platform focused on educating to empower individuals to continue to address gender inequity in engineering and computer science in academia. A structured literature review was conducted to focus on the disparities that exist for women, explore why those disparities exist, and discuss solutions that could help close the gender gap. The results of the literature review are coupled with the discussion outcomes from a panel on gender and racial equity in engineering conducted at the 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. This paper is also meant to serve as a record of the panel and discussion that was generated. The panelist perspectives include faculty, administrative, and student roles in engineering at institutions of higher education who shared their experiences, insights, knowledge, and wisdom on what has contributed to the imbalance and what must be done to overcome it. The common thematic elements between the literature review and the panel are analyzed and discussed.

Griffith, B. N., & Specking, E., & Asgarpoor, J. S., & Adams, S. G., & Pollock, M. C., & Minerick, A., & Storey, P. N. (2023, June), Improving Gender Equity in Engineering—Perspectives from Academia and Literature Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43579

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: © 2023 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