Research Initiation: Analyzing inequities in undergraduate workforce opportunities between biomedical and other engineering disciplines

与其他工程专业相比，生物医学工程专业的学生转学到其他工程专业的比例更高，实习和职业就业机会的比例更低，平均起薪也更低。这些本科生劳动力机会的不平等对生物医学工程师的专业形成产生了不利影响。本研究旨在通过调查中西部一所大型大学的生物医学工程师和其他三个工程专业之间的劳动力机会，对大学到工业管道的挑战进行表征。本科生物医学工程专业通常有很高比例的女学生，因此需要识别不平等，提高保留率，并保持适当的进入劳动力市场的途径。这项研究为进一步扩大生物医学工程的参与提供了背景，并建立了基础，在此基础上，进一步的工作可以为减轻负面影响的干预措施提供信息。运用社会认知职业理论的理论视角，对现有数据进行多元回归分析，比较大学生就业机会和学生概况的不同因素。通过社会认知职业理论，研究了学生自我效能感、结果期望、环境支持和障碍对学生选择工程专业和毕业后计划的影响。通过对现有社会认知职业理论的测量方法和职业选择模型的调整，建立了一个有效的、可转移的调查工具，以适应本科工程劳动力机会的问题域。自我效能感、结果期望、支持和障碍是社会认知职业理论的构念，它们将构成所开发的评估工具中的自变量。现有的工具将根据这些结构进行调整和验证，以深入了解学生对工程专业和毕业后计划的兴趣（因变量）。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。

Biomedical Engineering majors have been shown to exhibit higher rates of transfer to different engineering majors, lower rates of internship and career employment offers, and lower average starting salary compared to other engineering majors. These inequities in undergraduate workforce opportunities are having adverse effects on the professional formation of Biomedical Engineers. This study seeks to initiate a characterization of the challenges in the university-to-industry pipeline through investigating workforce opportunity between biomedical engineers and three other engineering majors at a large Midwestern University. Undergraduate biomedical engineering programs commonly have a high percentage of female students, therefore identifying inequities, improving retention, and maintaining appropriate pathways into the workforce is required. This research provides context upon which broadening participation in biomedical engineering can be furthered, as well as establishes foundations upon which further work can inform interventions designed to mitigate negative impacts.Through a theoretical lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory a multivariate regression analysis is implemented on existing data to compare different factors of undergraduate workforce opportunity and student profiles. Through Social Cognitive Career Theory, student self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and contextual supports and barriers that influence students' interests in their chosen engineering majors and post-graduation plans are investigated. A validated, transferable survey tool is established by adapting existing Social Cognitive Career Theory measures and adapting the model of career choice to the problem domain of undergraduate engineering workforce opportunity. Self-efficacy, outcome expectation, and supports and barriers are the Social Cognitive Career Theory constructs that will comprise the independent variables within the developed assessment tool. Existing instruments will be adapted and validated for each of these constructs to provide insight into students' interests (dependent variable) in engineering major and post-graduation plans.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.