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

工科学生接受的大部分教育和培训来自工程教授、同行、实习(或类似)经验、学生组织以及他们所在系的课程结构。然而，目前还不清楚学生之间的关系有多好？教育和培训是他们毕业后在工作场所被期望做的事情。虽然已经有关于工作场所中哪些技能和知识有价值的调查，但对工程学教授和学生认为这些技能和知识是什么的调查却很少。例如，许多工程学教授没有在大多数工程学毕业生开始职业生涯的工作类型中工作过，学术界和行业专业人士在培训和经验方面的差异可能会影响教授的授课方式和内容。从未从事过工程工作的学生可能不完全或不正确地知道他们需要什么或在工作场所有什么用处。为了帮助更好地将工程教学与成果(对工程学毕业生有用的技能和知识)联系起来，该项目旨在收集教职员工、学生和在职专业人员的经验、看法和价值观。该项目将特别关注能源领域，因为该领域是国民经济的重要组成部分，能源领域对STEM专业人才的需求日益增长。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，但对工程学教授和学生的观点以及他们对工作场所能力的看法知之甚少。该项目旨在通过将能源工程专业人员在工作场所感受到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职员工对专业能力的看法联系起来，缩小这一知识差距。该项目的目标是：(1)提供工程师进入劳动力市场所需的能力的整体模型，(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)培训工程教授工程教育和社会科学研究方法，以及(4)为未来工程师形成的研究提供基础。这项研究将通过调查能源工程项目并与行业合作伙伴合作，将重点放在能源部门。这些方法包括对教授、学生和行业专业人士的两轮访谈。拟议的项目将提供有关工程职业所需技能和能力的知识，以及工程教育者和学生对相关技能和能力的看法的差异或一致。它同时研究行业专业人员、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能够比较，反映了工程师在能源领域内外如何形成的更全面的观点。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。

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.