Collaborative Conference: Research on Engineering Practice: Catalyzing a Scholarly Community

可以说，对于一名工程师来说，从来没有比这更令人兴奋的时刻了。除了大多数工程专业的就业前景良好外，工程职业还不断被快速的技术变革、加剧的全球化趋势、新的跨学科互动、人口结构变化和不断变化的组织结构所重塑。为了应对这些趋势，ABET, Inc.、美国国家工程院（NAE）和美国国家科学基金会（NSF）等组织正在带头改进工程教育与不断变化的专业实践需求的结合。然而，尽管进行了这些改革，人们对工程实践的多样性和多方面的现实知之甚少，也不知道如何利用这些知识来改善工程师在各个职业阶段的教育和培训。该奖项支持的研讨会对工程实践的研究现状进行了评估，同时努力培育和发展一个新兴的、充满活力的学术社区，该社区能够很好地在学术和行业环境中开展以证据为基础的工程教育项目转型。参与者将包括研究人员、教育工作者、政策制定者和雇主，他们致力于利用工程实践的理论和研究来重新构想和改变工程教育和劳动力。为期两天的研讨会将汇集大约25-30名参与者的不同群体，共同讨论和调查工程实践的研究。研讨会将在2018年10月举行的教育前沿（FIE）年会之前召开，并与之同时举行。演示，小组讨论，网络会议和小组讨论将被用来共同发展工程实践的更深层次的理解。然后，参与者将在互动环节中运用这些知识，重点关注如何利用工程实践研究来改变工程教育和劳动力。研讨会有四个主要目标。首先，将定义一个新的全球议程，以告知关键利益相关者有关未来工程实践研究的决策。其次，参与者和引导者将共同创建一个文献、主题、地点、合作伙伴、方法和理论的纲要，参与者和其他研究人员可以在他们自己的工作中借鉴。第三，研讨会提供了一个独特的机会，让来自教育、政策和行业的合作伙伴就如何利用工程实践研究使工程教育和专业工程工作更加紧密地结合起来进行对话。最后，研讨会将促进与工程实践相关的新研究合作、项目和资助提案。讲习班活动将包括讨论文献中缺失的声音和背景，以确定支持扩大参与的未来研究的关键领域。预期的成果包括一篇关于工程教育研究现状的社论或立场文章，以及未来研究的可操作指南，一本由工程教育和实践的论文或评论组成的期刊的编辑卷或特刊，以及一份研讨会总结报告。2018年国际工程工程联合会会议期间还计划举行特别会议，分享研讨会的亮点，为工程实践研究的方法和途径提供初步指导，并进一步扩大更多潜在参与者的兴趣社区。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There has arguably never been a more exciting time to be an engineer. In addition to a strong employment outlook for most engineering specialties, engineering careers are constantly being reshaped by rapid technological change, intensified globalization trends, new cross-disciplinary interactions, demographic shifts, and changing organizational structures. In response to these trends, organizations such as ABET, Inc., the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are leading the charge to improve the alignment of engineering education with the ever-changing demands of professional practice. Yet, despite these reforms, not much is known about the diverse and multi-faceted realities of engineering practice and the ways this knowledge can be used to improve the education and training of engineers across career stages. The workshop supported by this award appraises the current state of research on engineering practice, while working to seed and grow an emerging and vibrant scholarly community that is well positioned to carry out evidence-based transformations of engineering education programs in both academic and industry settings. Participants will include researchers, educators, policymakers, and employers invested in using theory and research on engineering practice to reimagine and transform engineering education and the workforce.A two-day workshop will bring together a diverse group of approximately 25-30 participants to collaboratively discuss and investigate research on engineering practice. The workshop will be convened immediately prior to, and co-located with, the Frontiers in Education (FIE) Annual Conference in October 2018. Presentations, panels, networking sessions, and group discussions will be used to collectively develop a deeper understanding of engineering practice. Participants will then apply that understanding in interactive sessions focused on using research on engineering practice to transform engineering education and the workforce. The workshop has four main goals. First, a new, global agenda will be defined to inform key stakeholders in decisions about future research on engineering practice. Second, the participants and facilitators will co-create a compendium of literature, topics, sites, partners, methods, and theories that participants and other researchers can draw upon for their own work. Third, the workshop represents a unique opportunity to engage partners from education, policy, and industry in conversation about how research on engineering practice can be used to bring engineering education and professional engineering work into closer alignment. Finally, the workshop will catalyze new research collaborations, projects, and funding proposals related to engineering practice. Workshop activities will incorporate discussions of missing voices and contexts in the literature to identify critical areas for future research that supports broadening participation. Anticipated outcomes include an editorial or position piece on the current state of research on engineering education and actionable guidelines for future research, an edited volume or special issue of a journal comprised of papers or commentaries on engineering education and practice, and a workshop summary report. A special session during the 2018 FIE conference is also planned, to share highlights from the workshop, provide preliminary guidance on methods and approaches for research on engineering practice, and further grow the community of interest among a larger number of potential participants.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.