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

可以说，作为一名工程师，从来没有比这更令人兴奋的时刻了。除了大多数工程专业强劲的就业前景外，快速的技术变革、日益加剧的全球化趋势、新的跨学科互动、人口结构变化和组织结构的变化，都在不断重塑工程职业生涯。为了应对这些趋势，Abet，Inc.、国家工程院(NAE)和国家科学基金会(NSF)等组织正在带头改进工程教育，使其与不断变化的专业实践需求保持一致。然而，尽管有这些改革，人们对工程实践的多样化和多方面的现实以及如何利用这些知识来改进职业生涯阶段的工程师的教育和培训知之甚少。由该奖项支持的研讨会评估了工程实践方面的研究现状，同时努力培育和发展一个新兴的、充满活力的学术社区，该社区处于有利地位，能够在学术和行业环境中对工程教育项目进行基于证据的转变。参与者将包括研究人员、教育工作者、政策制定者和雇主，他们投资于使用工程实践的理论和研究来重新想象和改变工程教育和劳动力。为期两天的研讨会将汇集约25-30名参与者的不同小组，共同讨论和调查工程实践研究。研讨会将在2018年10月教育前沿(FIE)年会之前举行，并与之同时举行。演讲、小组讨论、网络会议和小组讨论将被用来共同加深对工程实践的理解。然后，参与者将在互动会议中应用这一理解，重点是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，以便在有关未来工程实践研究的决策中向关键利益攸关方提供信息。其次，参与者和促进者将共同创建一份文献、主题、站点、合作伙伴、方法和理论的简编，供参与者和其他研究人员在他们自己的工作中参考。第三，研讨会是一个独特的机会，让教育、政策和行业的合作伙伴参与讨论如何利用工程实践研究使工程教育和专业工程工作更紧密地结合在一起。最后，研讨会将促进与工程实践相关的新的研究合作、项目和资金建议。讲习班活动将包括对文献中缺少的声音和背景的讨论，以确定支持扩大参与的未来研究的关键领域。预期成果包括一篇关于工程教育研究现状和未来研究的可行指导方针的社论或立场文章，一本编辑过的由工程教育和实践论文或评论组成的期刊卷或特刊，以及一份研讨会总结报告。2018年FIE大会期间还计划举行一次特别会议，分享研讨会的亮点，就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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.