Research Initiation: Faculty, Student, and Employer Understanding of Holistic Engineers in the Energy Sector

工程专业的学生从工程教授、同行、实习（或类似的）经历、学生组织和他们所在院系的课程结构中获得很多教育和培训。然而，目前尚不清楚学生们是如何对齐的？教育和培训是他们毕业后在工作场所要做的事情。虽然已经有关于职场中看重哪些技能和知识的调查，但对于工程学教授和学生如何看待这些技能和知识的调查却很少。例如，许多工程教授没有在大多数工程毕业生开始职业生涯的那种工作场所工作过，学者和行业专业人员在培训和经验方面的差异可能会影响教授的教学方式和内容。从未从事过工程工作的学生可能对他们的要求或工作场所的有用性有不完整或不正确的认识。为了帮助更好地将工程教学与成果（为工程毕业生提供有用的技能和知识）联系起来，该项目旨在收集教师、学生和工作专业人员的经验、看法和价值观。该项目将特别关注能源部门，因为该部门是国家经济的重要组成部分，能源领域对STEM专业人员的需求不断增长。该项目的目标是深化对工程师专业形成的研究，扩大该领域的研究人员群体。虽然对工程师在工作场所所需的知识、技能和态度进行了广泛的研究，但对工程教授和学生的观点以及他们对工作场所能力的看法的认识有限。该项目旨在通过将工作场所的能源工程专业人员所感知的工作场所能力与即将进入工作场所的工程专业学生以及为这些学生做好准备的教师的专业能力联系起来，缩小这一知识差距。该项目的目标是：(1)提供进入劳动力市场的工程师所需能力的整体模型，(2)将该模型与指导学术工程项目和实践者的能力进行比较，(3)在工程教育和社会科学研究方法方面培训工程教授，(4)为工程师形成的未来研究提供基础。该研究将通过调查能源工程项目并与行业合作伙伴合作，重点关注能源部门。该方法包括对教授、学生和行业专业人士进行两轮访谈。拟议的项目将提供有关工程职业所需的技能和能力的知识，以及工程教育者和学生对相关技能和能力的看法之间的差异或一致。它同时研究行业专业人士、教师和学生的综合方法是独一无二的，所创造的知识将使能力模型的比较能够反映出更全面的观点，即工程师是如何在能源领域内外形成的。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。

Engineering students receive much of their education and training from engineering professors, peers, internship (or similar) experiences, student organizations, and the structure of the curricula in their departments. However, it is not clear how well-aligned students? education and training are with what they will be expected to do in the workplace after they graduate. While there have been investigations into what skills and knowledge are valued in the workplace, there has been minimal investigation into what engineering professors and students think these skills and knowledge are. For example, many engineering professors have not worked in the types of workplaces where most engineering graduates begin their careers, and this difference in training and experience between academics and industry professionals may influence how and what professors teach. Students who have never worked in engineering jobs may have incomplete or incorrect knowledge about what will be required of them or useful in the workplace. To help better connect engineering teaching to outcomes (useful skills and knowledge for engineering graduates), this project aims to gather the experiences, perceptions, and values of faculty, students, and working professionals. The project will focus specifically on the energy sector because this sector is a critical component of the nation's economy, and there is growing demand for STEM professionals in the energy field.The goal of this project is to deepen research on the professional formation of engineers and expand the community of researchers in this field. While there has been extensive research on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of engineers in the workplace, there is limited awareness about engineering professors' and students' perspectives and their perceptions of workplace competencies. This project aims to close that knowledge gap by connecting workplace competencies, as perceived by energy engineering professionals in the workplace, to the perceptions of professional competencies of engineering students who will enter the workplace, as well as the faculty who prepare those students. The objectives of the project are to: (1) provide a holistic model of competencies required for engineers entering the workforce, (2) compare this model to the competencies guiding academic engineering programs and practitioners, (3) train engineering professors in engineering education and social science research methods, and (4) provide a foundation for future research in the formation of engineers. The study will focus on the energy sector by investigating energy engineering programs and partnering with an industry collaborator. The methods involve two rounds of interviews of professors, students, and industry professionals. The proposed project will provide knowledge about the skills and competencies required in engineering careers as well as discrepancies or concurrences between engineering educators' and students' perceptions about the relevant skills and competencies. Its comprehensive approach to simultaneously studying industry professionals, faculty, and students is unique, and the knowledge created will enable the comparison of competency models reflecting a more holistic view of how engineers are formed within the energy field and beyond.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.