Coding has been a big trend in educational toys for several years, and Purdue's 10th consecutive Engineering Gift Guide (released 11/21/2023) didn’t disappoint with two robots, a rover, a microelectronics kit, a book, and a plush doll included in the guide. The annual guide is produced by the nonprofit INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering, which is a research center within the Purdue School of Engineering Education dedicated to integrating engineering into pre-college classrooms, and promoting participation of students from groups underrepresented in engineering.

The Purdue College of Engineering’s trailblazing role in enriching how engineers are prepared took center stage when the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) named the newest members of its Hall of Fame. Seven of the 22 individuals and three teams added to the circle of standouts that have affiliations with Purdue’s pioneering School of Engineering Education (ENE), and no other university appears more than once on the new inductee list.

Do global study and work abroad programs really make a difference for engineering students and, if so, how? An NSF award will allow Purdue ENE Assistant Professor Kirsten Davis to partner with the Office of Professional Practice on a study to gain new insights into global career outcomes in engineering, the nature of global engineering work, and the ways in which engineers engage in lifelong global learning.

Champion for engineering education efforts in Southeast Asia Khairiyah Mohd Yusof, a Purdue University Professor of Engineering Education, was honored this fall with the International Society of Engineering Pedagogy’s highest award: the Nikola Tesla Chain for international outstanding achievements in the field of engineering pedagogy.

A Purdue ENE assistant professor is studying how interaction with Legos and other building toys may help to enhance the spatial skills and shape the early engineering identities of young children. Ruth Wertz' National Science Foundation-funded project will use building toys such as Lego sets to examine the interactions between participants' expressed attitudes, family environment, and observed play behaviors.

An interdisciplinary team continues to investigate ways to enhance student learning and engagement in large lecture STEM courses. With NSF funding, Purdue ENE's Muhsin Menekse and colleagues from Purdue Polytechnic, the Department of Psychology, Google, and the University of Pittsburgh are developing and optimizing CourseMIRROR, a digital learning system that enables students to reflect in-situ via mobile devices, and helps instructors to capture the gist of reflections effectively via natural language processing.

Serving as the only faculty representative for the past two years on the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, Purdue ENE's Interim Head Edward Berger recently concluded his term. As a strong advocate for students and faculty at Indiana’s institutions, he brought to the commission his passion for classroom engagement as well as facilitated opportunities for experts to share best practices.

Purdue ENE Associate Professor Morgan Hynes co-organized a program this summer with Ivy Tech to boost high school students' interest in the semiconductor industry. 55 Greater Lafayette area high school students spent two weeks learning how to train on integrated chip fabrication, build a wearable sensor and program a robot, and design and fabricate their own printed circuit boards to measure the state-of-charge of a battery, and solder electronic components onto the boards.

The NSF-funded AAAS-IUSE initiative is pushing for an increase in XR (extended reality) learning environments in high school and college STEM courses. Purdue ENE's Assistant Professor Jason Morphew and his physics colleague argue that embedding XR platforms like the free MARVLS apps in STEM education can enhance students’ spatial reasoning and keep them interested in the sciences.

Purdue engineering students will get the chance to explore the liberal arts through experiential learning opportunities and invited speakers thanks to a new National Endowment for the Humanities-funded program aimed at better integrating the humanities and engineering. Purdue ENE Assistant Professor Kirsten Davis and colleagues from SLA and GEARE are developing the program, which will include three new courses: Humanities-Informed Engineering Projects; Engineering in a Global Context; and Technology, Science, and Humanities.

It is with great pleasure to present our 2022 recipients of the Engineering Education Outstanding Alumni Award, John Babb, Tamara Moore, and Roger Shively, graduates of the former Division of Interdisciplinary Engineering (now part of the School of Engineering Education).

What’s it like to be in the middle of developing a new framework for learning? This conversation between Dr. Ruth Streveler and Dr. Emily Dringenberg took place during the development of a socially-embedded framework for learning.

"I'm an EMT and First Responder. Can I help?" Those words came from First-Year Engineering student Lee Haglid from Ridgewood, New Jersey, who knew exactly what to do when classmate Aytaj Aslanli was injured by a fallen tree branch last week. Lee jumped into action and helped Aytaj until Purdue paramedics arrived on the scene.