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Women in Science and Engineering: A Framework for an Honors Undergraduate Curriculum

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 4

Tagged Division

Women in Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

7

DOI

10.18260/1-2--31256

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/31256

Download Count

428

Paper Authors

biography

Angela M Kelly Stony Brook University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-1393-1296

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Angela M. Kelly is an Associate Professor of Physics and the Associate Director of the Science Education Program at Stony Brook University, New York. She attended La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she received her B.A. degree in chemistry, and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in science education (2000 and 2006, respectively) and her Ed.M. degree in curriculum and teaching (2007) at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. She is the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2016); the Provost’s Faculty Recognition Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Research from Lehman College, City University of New York (2010); and the Outstanding Teaching Award from Teachers College, Columbia University (2006). Her research has been rooted in a commitment to equity in precollege and university science and engineering.

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Doreen Aveni Stony Brook University

biography

Monica Bugallo Stony Brook University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-2963-1474

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Monica Bugallo is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Faculty Director of the Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) Honors program at Stony Brook University. She received her B.S., M.S, and Ph. D. degrees in computer science and engineering from University of A Coruna, Spain. She joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University in 2002 where she is currently a Professor. Her research interests are in the field of statistical signal processing, with emphasis on the theory of Monte Carlo methods and its application to different disciplines including biomedicine, sensor networks, and finance. In addition, she has focused on STEM education and has initiated several successful programs with the purpose of engaging students at all academic stages in the excitement of engineering and research, with particular focus on underrepresented groups. She has authored and coauthored two book chapters and more than 150 journal papers and refereed conference articles.

Bugallo is a senior member of the IEEE, serves on several of its technical committees and is the current chair of the IEEE Signal Processing Society Education Committee. She has been part of the technical committee and has organized various professional conferences and workshops. She has received several prestigious research and education awards including the award for Best Paper in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine 2007 as coauthor of a paper entitled "Particle Filtering," the IEEE Outstanding Young Engineer Award (2009), for development and application of computational methods for sequential signal processing, the IEEE Athanasios Papoulis Award (2011), for innovative educational outreach that has inspired high school students and college level women to study engineering, the Stony Brook University Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) Latino Faculty Recognition Award (2009), and the Chair of Excellence by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid-Banco de Santander (Spain) (2012).

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Abstract

This paper presents a framework for a newly developed undergraduate honors curriculum for the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Honors Program at Stony Brook University. The curriculum, one of the first of its kind to be implemented simultaneously in a college of engineering and a college of arts and sciences, was designed based upon student and faculty interest in designating WISE as an honors program with students graduating with distinction upon completing their undergraduate STEM degrees. Curricula were differentiated for various STEM majors, but they share a common 20-credit, four-year sequence featuring courses in undergraduate research, service learning, women's leadership in STEM, and teaching, research, and internship practicum. The core of the WISE Honors Program curriculum emphasizes not only academic excellence in STEM, but service and leadership with a deep and rigorous research and career focus.

The research-based theoretical principles upon which the curriculum was based include a sociocognitive theory of career choice and persistence - the theory of planned behavior - where students develop self-efficacy and controllability of goal attainment based upon early exposure to research and community service. This theoretical foundation was complemented and broadened by the community of practice approach, where students participate in collaborative research and service opportunities with like-minded peers and practicing engineers and scientists. Preliminary findings suggest that the WISE Honors Program provides undergraduate women with strong self-efficacy, confidence in completing their degrees, and academic integration in a network of peers with congruent aspirations. Future research will explore changes in these variables as they relate to post-collegiate aspirations, and compared through cross-case analysis with academically advanced students who did not participate in the curriculum.

Kelly, A. M., & Aveni, D., & Bugallo, M. (2018, June), Women in Science and Engineering: A Framework for an Honors Undergraduate Curriculum Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--31256

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