Faculty from Purdue’s School of Engineering Education (ENE)—a platinum sponsor of the conference—presented research on such subjects as students’ understanding of complex concepts, how first-year engineering students analyze complex systems, and the use of neural networks to model student success in engineering.

As the field of engineering education research grows, the critical components of an infrastructure to sustain a community of scholars are emerging. In addition to Purdue’s School of Engineering Education, founded in 2004 as the first PhD-granting academic program in the discipline, engineering education centers, departments, and schools are forming on many campuses; professional organizations are growing more supportive through working groups and conference sessions; agencies are providing more funding opportunities; and journals are encouraging more scholarly rigor in their articles.
 
REES’s mission is to serve as the principal independent international forum advancing research in engineering education by providing an opportunity for emerging and established scholars and practitioners in the field to interact and collaborate substantively on their research, and thus leverage their expertise to shape and drive engineering education. For Purdue, says ENE head Kamyar Haghighi, helping to fund, organize, and support the conference is simply a matter of "our doing our share."