Senay Purzer

Associate Head of Graduate Programs; Professor of Engineering Education Professor of Engineering Education
Mailing Addresses
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
WANG HALL, 4545
516 NORTHWESTERN AVENUE
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN 47906
Office: ARMS ARMS 1343; Research Lab WANG 3583
Phone: (765) 496-1684
Email: purzer@purdue.edu
Personal Page

Biography

Senay (Shen-eye) Purzer is the Associate Head of Graduate Programs for the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University, a Professor of Engineering Education, and Director of Assessment Research at the INSPIRE Institute for Pre-College Engineering Research. She is an engineering educator renowned for her expertise on design reasoning fluency and her leadership on the integration of engineering in pre-college education. Dr. Purzer developed the Honeycomb of Engineering framework, demarcating diverse inquiries of engineering aligned with engineering philosophy and practices. She also developed the Socially Transformative Engineering Pedagogy (STEP) to promote engineering reasoning for sustainable, conscientious, and ethical design. She has published 49 peer-reviewed journal articles, 15 book chapters, and hundreds of peer-reviewed conference proceedings. Her expertise is recognized and a global leader and a Fulbright Specialist and has given invited seminars across the world including in Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, Taiwan, and Turkey. She has received numerous research awards, including an NSF CAREER award, and led research projects of more than $9M. Her research team of graduate and undergraduate students conduct research in the Engineering Learning Observatory (ELO) using video-recordings, smart-pencast, and discourse analysis methods.

Hometown

Mersin, Turkey

Education

Ph.D., Science Education, Arizona State University
M.A., Science Education, Arizona State University
B.S.E., Engineering (concentration in mechanical systems), Arizona State University
B.S., Physics Education, Hacettepe University

Research Interests

Dr. Purzer's research interests are in design education and assessment at the interaction of critical thinking and creative thinking. Central to this scholarship are aspects of design such as innovation (i.e., ability to move design ideas from concept to production) and decision-making (i.e., ability to seek and use information for making design decisions). Her research team of graduate and undergraduate students conduct research in the Engineering Learning Observatory (ELO) using video-recordings, smart-pencast, and screen capturing as students solve design problems in teams, dyads, or individually. As part of INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering, she conducts research on design learning and assessment at pre-college settings and promote the integration of science and engineering education research.

Selected Publications

Purzer, S., Fila, N. & Nataraja, K. (2016). Evaluation of current assessment methods in engineering entrepreneurship education. Advances in Engineering Education, 5(1), 1-27.

Vieira, C., Goldstein, M. H., Purzer, S., Magana, A. J. (2016). Using learning analytics to characterize student experimentation strategies in the context of engineering design. Journal of Learning Analytics, 3(3), 291-317.

Purzer, S., Goldstein, M., Adams, R. Xie, C., & Zhang, H., (2015). An exploratory study of informed engineering design behaviors associated with scientific explanations. International Journal of STEM Education, 2(9). doi:10.1186/s40594-015-0019-7.

Purzer, S. (2011). The relationship between team discourse, self-efficacy, and individual achievement: A sequential mixed-methods study. Journal of Engineering Education, 100(4), 655-679.

Purzer, S., Strobel, J., & Cardella, M. (2014) (Eds). Engineering in pre-college settings: Synthesizing research, policy, and practices. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.

Awards & Honors

  • Best Research Paper (1st place), Entrepreneurship and Engineering Innovation Division, American Society for Engineering Education Conference (along with Nick Fila, Todd Fernandez, and Austin Spencer Bohlin (June 2016).
  • Favorite Faculty, Purdue University Residences. (April 2016)
  • Helen Plants Award for Best Non-Traditional Session, IEEE Education Society/IEEE Computer Society/ASEE ERM Division (along with Jonathan Hilpert) (October 2012)
  • NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (January 2012)
  • College of Engineering Faculty Team Excellence Award, awarded to INSPIRE by Purdue College of Engineering (April 2011).
  • NAE/CASEE New Faculty Fellow, awarded by Frontiers in Education Conference in Arlington, VA (October 2010)

Experience

  • Professor, School of Engineering Education (May 2020-Present)
  • Associate Professor, School of Engineering Education (May 2015-May 2020)
  • Program Chair (ERM), IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (October 2014-October 2015)
  • Director, Assessment Research, The Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning (INSPIRE) (Aug 2011-Present)
  • Founder & Chair, NARST Engineering Education Research Interest Group (2013-2015)
  • Director, American Society of Engineering Education, Educational Research Methods Division (2012-2013)
  • Courtesy Faculty, Department of Curriculum and Instruction (Aug 2009-Present)
  • Co-Director, Assessment Research, The Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning (INSPIRE) (Aug 2009-Aug 2011)
  • Assistant Professor, School of Engineering Education (Jan 2009-May 2015)