HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Paradigm for Sustainability and Resilience Engineering: A Transdisciplinary, Learner-Centered, and Diversity-Focused Approach

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，这一轨道2：IEP旨在在波多黎各大学马亚格斯分校开设一个新的辅修可持续发展工程专业，作为在该领域建立完整学士学位课程的先导。显然，在地方、国家和国际层面上，解决“可持续性”问题是21世纪的首要挑战。拥有一支在可持续发展方面接受过广泛培训的工程师队伍，对于确保今世后代的生活质量至关重要。今天，在美国，“可持续发展”的本科学位课程有两种类型：不授予工程学学位的跨学科课程和不涉及可持续发展的环境工程课程。然而，美国没有全面面向可持续发展的本科工程学位课程。因此，需要一种新型的工程课程，以补充而不是取代现有的可持续性教育和工程教育方法。为此，该项目将与利益攸关方合作创建一个新的次要计划，该计划将包括积极招聘、身临其境的夏令营、新课程、实践社区和合作学习体验，以促进波多黎各与当地合作伙伴的劳动力发展。该辅修专业将采用一种将工程学与人文科学相结合的社会技术方法，并将挑战学生与脆弱社区的不同成员合作，作为共同设计师，最终的愿望是“培养专业人员，在人民、繁荣、地球、伙伴关系与和平范式下工作，努力促进人类福祉与生物圈的平衡”。这一积极的社会责任框架将有助于从其他代表性不足的人群中招募女性和学生。该项目将调查与可持续工程有关的心态和能力，利用德尔福与广泛的利益相关者池进行的研究，以确定和排名什么是“可持续工程”的关键。与此同时，利用现有的调查工具作为基础，将定性和纵向地研究学生在自我效能、工程和技术、可持续性概念、多样性、公平和包容性四个领域的思维方式的演变；这将通过访谈、课程活动和作业中的反思活动以及在计划活动中的观察来实现。一项平行的项目评估将由一名外部评估员领导，以衡量该项目对学生概况的影响，特别是对女性招聘的影响。该项目的战略预计将导致在妇女人数最少的工程方案中，特别是在与计算和电气工程相关的领域，女性入学人数大幅增加。总的来说，这项工作将产生衡量下一代“可持续发展工程思维模式”的新工具，以及相应的招聘和课程设计模式。作为思维定势研究的延伸，该项目将有助于使大学的多样性、公平性和包容性做法正常化，包括提供收集和维护人口数据的新做法。将通过与主要利益攸关方的伙伴关系，特别是通过与主要利益攸关方的伙伴关系，对新的双语拉美裔学生进行广泛培训，使其能够在波多黎各从事有意义的、注重可持续发展的工作。通过直接预算支助以及与训练有素、注重可持续发展的工程师队伍的互动，这些伙伴将能够加强和扩大其企业，为波多黎各新兴的循环经济和生态系统提供资金。总而言之，该项目将支持HSI计划的目标，该计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育和HSIS的能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP aims to create a new Minor of Sustainability Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, as a precursor to the creation of a full Bachelor’s degree program in this field. Clearly, addressing “Sustainability” is an overarching challenge for the 21st century at local, national, and international levels. Having a cadre of engineers who are broadly trained in sustainability is vital to ensure the quality of life for current and future generations. Today in the United States, undergraduate degree programs in “Sustainability” are of two types: interdisciplinary programs that do not grant engineering degrees, and Environmental Engineering programs that do not broadly address sustainability. However, there are no undergraduate engineering degree programs in the US that are comprehensively oriented around sustainability. Therefore, a new type of engineering program is needed – to complement, not substitute – the existing approaches to sustainability education and engineering education. Toward this end, this project will work collaboratively with stakeholders to create a new Minor program that will feature active recruitment, an immersive summer camp, new courses, a community of practice, and cooperative learning experiences that will promote workforce development in Puerto Rico with local partners. The Minor will take a socio-technical approach that mingles engineering with the humanities, and will challenge students to work with diverse members of vulnerable communities as co-designers, culminating with the aspiration “to develop professionals to work under the People, Prosperity, Planet, Partnership and Peace paradigm that strives to foster human well-being in balance with the biosphere”. This positive, social responsibility framework will be instrumental for recruiting women and students from other underrepresented populations.The project will investigate mindsets and competencies that relate to sustainable engineering, using a Delphi study with a broad pool of stakeholders to identify and rank what is essential for “sustainable engineering”. In parallel to this, using existing survey instruments as a basis, the evolution of student mindset in four domains — self-efficacy, engineering and technology, the conception of sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion — will be studied qualitatively and longitudinally as students progress through the program; this will occur through interviews, reflective activities embedded in course activities and assignments, and observation in program activities. A parallel program evaluation will be led by an external evaluator to measure the impact of the project on student profiles, particularly on the recruitment of women. The strategies of the project are anticipated to lead to measurable increases in female enrollment in the engineering programs in which women are least represented, particularly in fields related to Computing and Electrical Engineering. In aggregate, this work will result in new instruments for gauging a next-generation “sustainability engineering mindset”, and a corresponding model for recruitment and curricular design. As an extension of the mindset research, the project will serve to normalize diversity, equity, and inclusion practices at the University, including informing new practices for collecting and maintaining demographic data. A new cadre of bilingual, Hispanic students, with increased representation of women, will be broadly trained for meaningful, sustainability-focused employment in Puerto Rico, particularly through partnerships with key stakeholders. Through direct budget support, as well as interaction with a pool of highly-trained, sustainability-focused engineers, these partners will be able to strengthen and expand their enterprises, feeding into the emerging circular economy and ecosystem in Puerto Rico. In summary, the project will support the objectives of the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.