Research Initiation: Long-Term Effect of Involvement in Humanitarian Engineering Projects on Student Professional Formation and Views of Diversity and Inclusion

作为应对世界上最大挑战的领导者，工程师需要使他们的劳动力多样化，并认识到他们影响社会变革的专业责任。工程工作场所缺乏包容性，营造了一种不欢迎与该领域白人男性占多数的专业人士的氛围。研究表明，由于普遍存在的歧视、刻板印象以及困扰该领域和整个社会的系统性问题，女性和未被充分代表的少数族裔倾向于离开工程领域。虽然已经做出了巨大的努力来增加女性和少数族裔攻读工程专业的人数，但很明显，吸引这些群体攻读工程专业并不一定等于长期留在该领域。除了这些问题，工程师们还面临着找到具有社会、经济和环境影响的问题的技术解决方案的挑战。工程和人道主义工程中的服务学习是试图解决这些复杂的社会技术问题的新兴学科。工程教育工作者有机会培养为包容性劳动力做好准备并能有效解决这些挑战的工程师。本研究将调查参与人道主义工程项目与学生专业形成之间的联系，特别是他们对多样性和包容性的看法。研究小组提出了以下问题：(1)学生参与人道主义工程项目对专业形成和多样性和包容性观点的感知影响是什么？(2)参与人道主义工程项目如何影响专业工作场所文化以及校友多样性和包容性的观点？这项研究将调查参与过或没有参与过人道主义工程项目的学生和校友。该调查将使用对多样性的态度量表和工程专业责任评估。将选择具有不同经验和观点的参与者进行访谈，以了解他们对多样性、包容性和专业责任的看法，以及因参与人道主义工程项目而产生的观点转变。该研究将利用个人背景和动机，通过研究参与人道主义工程项目对学生专业形成多样性和包容性观点的影响，来调查这三种观点之间的相互联系。一位在社会科学和伦理学方面受过训练的经验丰富的导师将通过监督研究计划并为项目负责人和学生研究人员提供指导来指导这项工作。该项目将包括推广和教育工作，以加强对学生的指导，促进人道主义工程倡议，为未来的研究提供信息，并鼓励包容性的工作环境。该项目的独特之处在于，它将以过去对这些概念之间联系的研究结果为基础，以制定解决方案，使妇女和少数民族继续参与工程职业。增强多样性和提高包容性对工程领域的好处将直接扩展并适用于与这些问题作斗争的其他专业领域。因为传统上代表性不足的群体在专业工作场所的多样性更受重视，他们的职业满意度和保留率可能会因此而提高。研究结果将发表在相关期刊上，以鼓励其他研究人员进一步研究人道主义项目如何对专业形成产生长期影响。将这项研究传播给利普斯科姆工程和工程教育研究人员以外的更广泛的受众，将对工程项目和公司产生重大影响，为该领域代表性不足的群体提供改善工作场所文化的多样性倡议。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。

As leaders in tackling the world’s biggest challenges, engineers need to diversify their workforce and recognize their professional responsibility to effect societal change. The engineering workplace suffers from a lack of inclusion creating a climate that does not welcome professional who do not match the white male majority in the field. Studies show that women and underrepresented minorities tend to leave the engineering field because of widespread discrimination, stereotyping, and systemic issues that plague the field and society at-large. While strong efforts have been made to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities that pursue engineering, it is clear that attracting these groups to engineering does not necessarily equate to long-term retention in the field. In addition to these issues, engineers are challenged to find technical solutions to problems that have social, economic, and environmental implications. Service-learning in engineering and humanitarian engineering are growing disciplines that attempt to address these complex sociotechnical problems. Engineering educators have an opportunity to train engineers that are prepared for an inclusive workforce and can effectively solve these challenges. This research will investigate the connections between involvement in humanitarian engineering projects and student professional formation, specifically their views on diversity and inclusion. The research team poses the following questions: (1) What perceived impact does student involvement in humanitarian engineering projects have on professional formation and perspectives of diversity and inclusion? and (2) How has involvement in humanitarian engineering projects influenced the professional workplace culture and perspectives of diversity and inclusion of alumni? The study will survey students and alumni who were and were not involved in humanitarian engineering projects. The survey will utilize the Attitudes Toward Diversity Scale and the Engineering Professional Responsibilities Assessment. Participants with varied experiences and views will be selected for interviews on their perspectives of diversity and inclusion and professional responsibility as well as shifts in perspective due to involvement in humanitarian engineering projects. The study will leverage the PI’s personal background and motivations to investigate the interconnections among these three ideas by studying the effect of involvement in humanitarian engineering projects on student professional formation of views on diversity and inclusion. An experienced mentor, trained in social science and ethics, will guide this work by supervising the research plan and providing mentoring to the PI and student researchers. The project will incorporate outreach and educational efforts to enhance student mentoring, promote humanitarian engineering initiatives, inform future research, and encourage inclusive work environments. The project is unique in that it will build on the results of past research into the connections between these concepts in order to develop solutions to retaining women and minority involvement in engineering careers. The benefits to the engineering field of enhanced diversity and improved inclusivity will be directly scalable and applicable to other professional fields that struggle with these issues. Because traditionally underrepresented groups are more valued for their diversity in the professional workplace, their career satisfaction and retention will likely increase as a result of this work. Findings from the study will be published in relevant journals to encourage other researchers to further study how humanitarian projects have a long-term effect on professional formation. Dissemination of this study to a broader audience outside of Lipscomb engineering and engineering education researchers will have significant impact on engineering programs and companies by informing diversity initiatives toward an improved workplace culture for underrepresented groups in the field.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.