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Onboarding Engineering Graduate Students from Non-Engineering Undergraduate Majors

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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

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 1: Onboarding and Community Building in Graduate Education

Tagged Division

Graduate Studies Division (GSD)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/47813

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Paper Authors

biography

Lindsay Corneal Grand Valley State University

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Lindsay Corneal is a Professor in the Padnos College of Engineering and Computing at Grand Valley State University. She received her B.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Windsor, a M.B.A. from Lawrence Technological University, and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Materials Science and Engineering.

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Sanjivan Manoharan Grand Valley State University

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Sanjivan Manoharan is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University.

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Samhita Rhodes Grand Valley State University

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Dr. Samhita Rhodes is Professor of Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, and the Graduate Program Director of the School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University. Dr. Rhodes' expertise is in biomedical signal modeling and advanced image processing.

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Abstract

Various government agencies forecast a shortage of engineers caused by a combination of factors including an increase in job opportunities, attrition in the STEM pipeline, and exits from the labor force for various reasons. While efforts have been made by many institutions to address the high dropout rates in STEM fields at the undergraduate level, some are implementing measures to facilitate graduate education in engineering for students with non-engineering undergraduate backgrounds through the establishment of bridge programs. Although these initiatives are not the primary driver of the graduate student population, they have led to a rise in enrollment of students from non-engineering backgrounds in graduate engineering programs. At Grand Valley State University (GVSU), there has been a similar increase in applicants with undergraduate degrees in physical sciences (Math, Physics, or Chemistry), given their common interest in math, who would like to pursue a master’s in engineering. Consequently, the Graduate Committee began looking into the feasibility of making the graduate engineering program more accessible to meet the growing demand for engineers in West Michigan. Notably, this initiative has enabled GVSU to partner with Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs) that do not have engineering degrees to provide pathways for graduates from these institutions to pursue a graduate degree in engineering at GVSU. This paper will outline the general program plan developed for the onboarding of students from non-engineering majors into the GVSU MSE program, along with insights from both students within HBCU pipeline and those outside of it.

Corneal, L., & Manoharan, S., & Rhodes, S. (2024, June), Onboarding Engineering Graduate Students from Non-Engineering Undergraduate Majors Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://strategy.asee.org/47813

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