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Outcomes from a Multi-Year Design-Oriented Summer Engineering Program at a Hispanic-Majority Institution

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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

Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) - DEI and Design Education

Tagged Division

Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47825

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Paper Authors

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Matthew Lucian Alexander P.E. Texas A&M University, Kingsville

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Dr. Alexander graduated with a BS in Engineering Science from Trinity University, a MS in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. He worked for 25 years in environmental engineering consulting bef

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Michael Preuss Exquiri Consulting, LLC Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-8659-6164

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Michael Preuss, EdD, is the Co-founder and Lead Consultant for Exquiri Consulting, LLC. His primary focus is providing assistance to grant project teams in planning and development, through external evaluation, and as publication support. Most of his work

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David Hicks

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David Hicks is an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Before joining TAMU-K he served as Associate Professor and Department Head at Aalborg University in Esbjerg, Denmark. He has also held positions in research labs in the U.S. as well as Europe, and spent time as a researcher in the software industry.

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Breanna Michelle Weir Bailey P.E. Texas A&M University, Kingsville

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I am a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. I currently serve as the chair for the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

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Rajashekar Reddy Mogiligidda Texas A&M University, Kingsville

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Rajashekar Mogiligidda is working as a Lecturer in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville since 2016. He graduated from Texas A&M University-Kingsville with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 and currently working on his PhD in Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

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Lihua Zuo Texas A&M University, Kingsville

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Mahesh Hosur

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Mahesh Hosur, PhD
Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Affairs
Mahesh Hosur received his education from India with a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree in Civil Engineering from Karnatak University (1985), Master of Technology (M. Tech.) degree in A

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Abstract

This paper will present an education research and assessment perspective regarding design activities incorporated into a summer engineering program. The _______ College of Engineering at ________ University has conducted a 3-week long Summer Bridge Program (SBP) for four years (2020 through 2023) as part of an NSF Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) 5-year grant. Hispanic students at community college, university, and graduate levels face challenges to persistence, as has been noted in higher education research. Hence, the primary objective of the SBP is to improve student motivation and retention for underclassmen students. The SBP was conducted entirely in virtual mode in 2020 and 2021, and then in a hybrid mode (both virtual and in person participants) in 2022 and 2023. This paper presents the outcomes for students based on their participation in one of the SBPs held during the past four years at our Hispanic-majority institution. Team-based design projects were one of the major components included in each year of the SBP. These short design projects centered around participating faculty disciplines of chemical, civil, mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineering and computer science. Student learning from and perspective of the SBP were determined based upon online pre- and post-participation surveys administered for each year. Survey queries completed by 37 participants in 2020, 49 participants in 2021, 41 participants in 2022, and 36 participants in 2023 addressed learning achieved and involvement in group work. The retention of SBP participants post-program was evaluated for those students who were already _____ University students prior to program participation or transferred to _____ University after attending the SBP. Based on this portion of the SBP population for each year of the program, the percentages for retention are as follows: 91.7% of the 2020 cohort has graduated with an Engineering degree or is still enrolled, while the 2021 cohort is at 90.0%, 2022 is at 95.2%, and 2023 is at 100%. Analysis of the survey data supports a conclusion that the SBP is effective as a learning and skill advancement platform for prospective and early career Engineering students. The statistically significant differences in student responses regarding their understanding and capability for all survey queries in the combined four-year data set presents a strong case for efficacy. Additionally, positive impacts are evident at a statistically significant and higher level for Hispanic/Latinx students as compared to their non-Hispanic peers. This work was funded by National Science Foundation grant #YYY KEYWORDS: summer engineering program, minority engineering students, student persistence

Alexander, M. L., & Preuss, M., & Hicks, D., & Bailey, B. M. W., & Mogiligidda, R. R., & Zuo, L., & Hosur, M. (2024, June), Outcomes from a Multi-Year Design-Oriented Summer Engineering Program at a Hispanic-Majority Institution Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47825

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: © 2024 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