Studying the Impact of Humanitarian Engineering Projects on Student Professional Formation and Views of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Though strong efforts have been made to attract women and minorities to the engineering field, diversity still lags in most disciplines. A variety of organizations and governing bodies in engineering have made calls to change this, but progress is slow. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups continue to face barriers and challenges in the engineering workplace. This project seeks to shift the focus from simply attracting underrepresented groups to the engineering field to instead finding ways to create a more inclusive workplace culture. As inclusiveness in the workplace improves, naturally, an increase in diversity should follow as well as less barriers for women and minorities in the field. More specifically, this project hypothesizes that involvement in humanitarian engineering projects (HEP) provides unique professional formation for students, specifically with respect to their views of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The research team will examine the immediate impact of involvement (and non-involvement) in HEP on students as well as the long-term impacts using alumni responses. Data from students and alumni will be collected from a predominantly undergraduate institution with a 15-year history of completing HEP. Through questionnaires and interviews with current students and alumni, the research will explore what impacts HEP have on student professional formation around their views of DEI as well as professional responsibility. Results from this study will inform engineering education practices to create more inclusive engineering professionals with the broader impact of increased diversity in the field. This Work-in-Progress paper will detail the background and current progress of a 2-year National Science Foundation Professional Formation of Engineers: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (NSF PFE:RIEF) project including the project framing, team formation, research training, and questionnaire development.