Link to Virtual Booth for presentation (Search School of Engineering Education)

Student Veterans in Engineering Education

Undergraduate education is enrolling an increasing number of veterans and approximately 14% of student veterans major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Veterans leverage skills critical to engineering practice and offer the potential to diversify engineering education because they are typically older and more racially diverse than traditional first time college students. 

In this session, we begin with a brief overview of the national context for veterans in engineering education. We then introduce our five-year study of student veterans in engineering (SVEs) which focused on four research questions:

Why do veterans pursue a Bachelor’s degree in engineering?

How do military experiences shape student veterans’ educational experiences?

What are the experiences of student veterans in engineering education?

How do institutions support veterans in engineering education?  

We use an asset-based approach to frame our research while acknowledging challenges that many veterans face.  We present some of our research findings, and discuss promising practices offered at our four study institutions. We also provide specific tips and feedback for session participants to help encourage veterans to consider engineering as a potential educational pathway.

Bios

Joyce B. Main is Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research examines the impact of educational programs and policies on students’ academic and employment pathways with a focus on the participation of women and underrepresented racially minoritized students in engineering. In 2017, Dr. Main was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER grant to model the longitudinal career pathways of engineering doctorates. Dr. Main is the recipient of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Educational Research Methods Apprentice Faculty Award, the 2015 Frontiers in Education Faculty Fellow Award, the 2018 Violet B. Haas Memorial Fellowship, and the 2019 Betty Vetter Award for Research from the Women in Engineering Proactive Network. 

Susan Lord is Professor and Chair of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego.  She received a BS from Cornell University in Materials Science and Electrical Engineering (EE) and MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University.  Her research focuses on the study and promotion of diversity in engineering including student pathways and inclusive teaching.  She coauthored The Borderlands of Education:  Latinas in Engineering.  She has won best paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education and IEEE Transactions on Education.  Dr. Lord is a Fellow of the IEEE and ASEE and is coPI on “Developing Changemaking Engineers”, an NSF-sponsored Revolutionizing Engineering Education (RED) project.  She received the 2018 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award.  (Her father, Arthur E. Lord, Jr. received his BS and MS in Metallurgy from Purdue University.)

Catherine Mobley is a Professor of Sociology at Clemson University. Dr. Mobley has recently been involved in projects that integrate qualitative and quantitative methods in unique ways to explore the principal research questions guiding the investigations. Her research on the sociology of education focuses on the characteristics and processes of student educational pathways and transitions, particularly in the engineering disciplines. This research area integrates several subfields, including policy analysis, organizational sociology, social psychology, and evaluation research. Her most recent research on STEM education has focused on transfer students in engineering, student veterans in engineering, and Black students in engineering. Much of Dr. Mobley’s research is interdisciplinary as she has collaborated with colleagues from across the university. 

Catherine E. Brawner is president of Research Triangle Educational Consultants. Dr. Brawner provides research, evaluation and consulting services in engineering and computer science. She is a research partner with the Multiple Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD) and currently serves as the Policy Analysis Specialist. Her research efforts include multiple studies of underrepresented students in engineering. As a professional evaluator, she evaluates multiple projects related to diversifying STEM at the undergraduate and graduate level. Dr. Brawner is an Extension Services Consultant with the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), working with community college and university computer science departments to recruit, retain, and increase the meaningful participation of women in computing fields. As part of a team of MIDFIELD researchers, she received the 2013 Betty Vetter Award for Research from the Women in Engineering Proactive Network.