Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs: Does Combining Engineering Focus Areas with Courses outside of Traditional Engineering Add Value to Students’ Degree and Career Pathway?

Robert Lijun Wang; Malinda S. Zarske

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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: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 3
Tagged Division: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 21
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--43694
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/43694
Download Count: 255

Paper Authors

biography

Robert Lijun Wang University of Colorado, Boulder

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Robert Wang is currently an Integrated Design Engineering student at the University of Colorado Boulder. His primary areas of study are mechanical engineering and Chinese language and culture. With his studies, Robert is striving towards building a more sustainable future along with connecting engineers’ ideas around the world. Outside of school, he also loves exercising, reading, and listening to music.

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biography

Malinda S. Zarske University of Colorado, Boulder

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Dr. Malinda Zarske is the current Chair of the ASEE Board of Director's Commission on P-12 Engineering Education and a faculty member and Associate Director of the Engineering Plus program at the University of Colorado Boulder. She teaches undergraduate engineering core and product design courses. Her primary research covers the effects of intrateam segregation on engineering teams and the impacts of project-based service-learning on student identity and perseverance in P-12 through undergraduate engineering education.

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Abstract

The demand for engineers and other STEM related occupations is increasing, yet universities are currently having difficulties with the recruitment and retention of students to their engineering programs. Currently there is limited research concerning how and why students choose certain engineering degrees, which becomes an issue as universities compete to draw in more students through innovative engineering programs. Recently at a few universities, there has been an emergence of new engineering majors which incorporate additional science and liberal arts education with traditional engineering curricula. These new types of multidisciplinary engineering degrees have the potential to increase the number of students that enter into the engineering field and stay in their selected major. Despite the possible benefit of increased retention, few universities currently offer these multidisciplinary programs, with limited published literature concerning the success of these engineering majors. Studying multidisciplinary engineering students’ rationales as to why they pick their certain combinations will give insight into what engineering programs can adjust to better serve the intentions and expectations of the students.

This research paper uses a mixed-methods approach to examine why students combine traditional engineering fields with other certain areas of study (e.g. science, economics, linguistics, etc.). Factors that will be examined include the student’s interest in their engineering field and outside area of study, the student’s past experiences that influenced their decision to choose their engineering field and outside area of study, the student’s characteristics and relationships (e.g. family, mentors, peers) that influenced their decision to combine an engineering field and outside area of study, and how the student’s projected future outcomes influenced their decision. Additionally, this paper will address how well multidisciplinary engineering programs are meeting the needs of their students by querying how their engineering field and outside area of study will help them in their future career goals. The students will be asked to consider whether or not they feel prepared as engineers by incorporating the additional field of study.

This study will employ two data collection techniques: aggregating online attitudinal survey data as well as analyzing data from focus groups. The results of the surveys will be quantitatively analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical comparison to evaluate trends in the students’ responses. The focus groups will then allow for additional qualitative context to clarify the survey data on the students’ decisions for choosing multidisciplinary engineering and their engineering field and outside area of study. Combining the results from the survey questionnaire and focus groups will allow for a detailed analysis into the questions posed by the study. This analysis will help reveal important patterns about studying engineering concurrently with other fields that can then be used to support other engineering colleges to grow their multidisciplinary offerings and increase recruitment of talented students.

Citation
Format

Wang, R. L., & Zarske, M. S. (2023, June), Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs: Does Combining Engineering Focus Areas with Courses outside of Traditional Engineering Add Value to Students’ Degree and Career Pathway? Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43694

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The demand for engineers and other STEM related occupations is increasing, yet universities are currently having difficulties with the recruitment and retention of students to their engineering programs. Currently there is limited research concerning how and why students choose certain engineering degrees, which becomes an issue as universities compete to draw in more students through innovative engineering programs. Recently at a few universities, there has been an emergence of new engineering majors which incorporate additional science and liberal arts education with traditional engineering curricula. These new types of multidisciplinary engineering degrees have the potential to increase the number of students that enter into the engineering field and stay in their selected major. Despite the possible benefit of increased retention, few universities currently offer these multidisciplinary programs, with limited published literature concerning the success of these engineering majors. Studying multidisciplinary engineering students’ rationales as to why they pick their certain combinations will give insight into what engineering programs can adjust to better serve the intentions and expectations of the students.

This research paper uses a mixed-methods approach to examine why students combine traditional engineering fields with other certain areas of study (e.g. science, economics, linguistics, etc.). Factors that will be examined include the student’s interest in their engineering field and outside area of study, the student’s past experiences that influenced their decision to choose their engineering field and outside area of study, the student’s characteristics and relationships (e.g. family, mentors, peers) that influenced their decision to combine an engineering field and outside area of study, and how the student’s projected future outcomes influenced their decision. Additionally, this paper will address how well multidisciplinary engineering programs are meeting the needs of their students by querying how their engineering field and outside area of study will help them in their future career goals. The students will be asked to consider whether or not they feel prepared as engineers by incorporating the additional field of study.

 This study will employ two data collection techniques: aggregating online attitudinal survey data as well as analyzing data from focus groups. The results of the surveys will be quantitatively analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical comparison to evaluate trends in the students’ responses. The focus groups will then allow for additional qualitative context to clarify the survey data on the students’ decisions for choosing multidisciplinary engineering and their engineering field and outside area of study. Combining the results from the survey questionnaire and focus groups will allow for a detailed analysis into the questions posed by  the study. This analysis will help reveal important patterns about studying engineering concurrently with other fields that can then be used to support other engineering colleges to grow their multidisciplinary offerings and increase recruitment of talented students.

AU  - Robert Lijun Wang
AU  - Malinda S. Zarske
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs: Does Combining Engineering Focus Areas with Courses outside of Traditional Engineering Add Value to Students’ Degree and Career Pathway?
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/43694
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--43694
ER  -