Distributed Microsystems Laboratory

1
Distributed Microsystems Laboratory
Empowering the Engineering Undergraduate In the
Era of Economic Globalization Linda Lee,
Graduate Research Assistant Lisa Hansen, Graduate
Research Assistant Denise Wilson, Associate
Professor Department of Electrical
Engineering University of Washington
2
Empowering The Undergraduate In the Era of
Economic Globalization

• Our Story
• Relevance
• Empowerment
• Economic Globalization
• Motivation
• Structure of Study
• Results
• Survey
• Interview
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements

3
Empowering The Undergraduate Our Story

• Context
• Lack of alumni connection is a major concern at
  college/department level
• Objective
• Improve students ability to make their own lives
  (and careers) better
• ISEE/CAEE
• A supportive, facilitating environment to start
  out research in education
• Prompts M.Ed. Program in Cognitive Studies
  (Educational Psychology)
• Yeah!!! With a positive attitude, lets go!
• Ah-ha (hmmm) moments of note
• Supporting students to greater quality of life
  and self/situational awareness is neither linear
  nor straightforward
• We have to accept many compromises in our efforts
• Oh, by the way, faculty peers may not be
  supportive (at first).

4
Empowering The Undergraduate Relevance

• Empowerment student rather than
  curriculum/industry centered
• Lack of empowerment disenfranchised from a
  group
• Disenfranchised the prevalence of the evil
  THEY
• Self-labeled non-participants no best
  education is possible
• Lack of connection alumni dropout
• Economic Globalization
• Impacts engineers in many ways
• Chaotic and unstable workplace engineers must
  pave their own way
• With empowerment sustainable, creative,
  self-defined career path where lifelong learning
  skills are exercised to maintain competitiveness
• Without empowerment spiral into unsustainable
  cycle of overwork, potential layoffs, and catch
  up to the next job
• Paths to fulfillment increasingly require
  Empowerment along with a basket of skills
  necessary to keep pace with changing technology,
  cultural context, and marketplace demands.

5
Empowering The Undergraduate Motivation

• Alumni drop-out rate at Univ of Washington is
  high in engineering
• Hypothesis empowerment, fulfillment, and
  connection to the University
• Do not improve (or decline) during the
  engineering experience
• Are poor upon graduation
• Additional challenge
• Teaching empowerment skills explicitly can be
  perceived as touchy, feely and may encounter
  substantial resistance and recruitment barriers
• Research/Curriculum Improvement Process
• Preliminary Study
• Define success and fulfillment from the students
  perspective
• Evaluate barriers to connection with the
  University
• Evaluate limits to fulfillment in the
  undergraduate engineering education
• Offer Interventions
• Savvy Sessions topics such as course strategy,
  personal purpose portfolio development,
  developing effective relationships with
  instructors/Tas, etc to improve self/situational
  awareness and to build confidence toward a more
  empowered approach to individual education

6
Empowering The Undergraduate Structure of Study

• Mandatory surveys (optional consent) given to
  first year electrical engineering students in
  EE215 (Introductory Circuits)
• Follow up surveys given to second and third year
  engineering students in EE332 (Microelectronic
  Circuits) and EE484 (Sensors Sensor Systems)
• Savvy Sessions offered in extra-curricular
  interactive format to randomly selected group in
  surveyed section of EE215 and non-surveyed
  section.
• Follow-up interviews with randomly selected
  students (juniors and seniors) conducted 3-6
  months after initial study/intervention.
• Surveys
• Collect demographic data
• Define (in close-ended and open-ended form)
  success, fulfillment, and confidence
• Assess areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction
  with the curriculum.

7
Survey Results Perceptions of Experience

• Contradicting responses were quite common!
• 49 felt overworked
• 24 felt insecure
• 53 felt fulfilled
• Many students responded with sometimes across
  all attributes, suggesting that feelings of
  uncertainty were common.

8
Survey Results Perceptions of Experience

• Students were most ambivalent about feelings of
  frustration
• A majority of students expressed feelings of
  fulfillment but also felt overworked.
• This contradiction reappeared in an open-ended
  question addressing the same issue
• Intrigued and stressed
• Excited and confused
• Confident and not comfortable
• Curious and bored

9
Survey Results Gender and Demographic Variations

• Men are three times as likely to be never
  insecure than women
• Men are almost twice as likely as women to be
  often fulfilled
• Caucasians are four times as likely as Asian
  students to be never insecure
• Caucasians are almost twice as likely as Asian
  students to be often fulfilled

10
Survey Results Perceptions vs. Performance

• 7 of 17 insecure responses were from women
• The mean GPA of the insecure group was 3.26
  (lower than the class average), but
• The mean GPA of women in the insecure group was
  3.5
• This result is coincident with previous research
  studies.

11
Empowering The Undergraduate Interview Description

• General Questions
• Why are you interested in your field?
• What do you plan to do after you graduate
• Academic Experiences
• Describe your undergraduate experience.
• Based on your experience, what does it take to do
  well in your technical classes?
• Fulfillment Questions
• What does fulfillment mean to you?
• Is fulfillment and purpose important to you?
  Explain.
• Is what you are studying now fulfilling?
• What is exciting about what you are doing now?
• What is difficult about what you are doing now?
• Empowerment Questions
• What do you feel that you have control over in
  your technical classes?
• What would you like to have control over in your
  technical classes?

12
Empowering The Undergraduate Interview Results
Summary

• Major Negative Feedback
• Overwork and
• Lack of relationship
• Are prevalent and major barriers to fulfillment
  in the educational process
• Pose potentially significant barriers to
  empowerment in the workplace
• Effective career strategy and empowerment
  REQUIRES connection!
• General Observations
• Students are remarkably self-aware
• Assistance for personal/professional growth is
  inaccessible due to workload
• Major Positive Feedback
• Inherent fulfillment in technical course content
• External failure is not necessarily internalized
• General Resentment
• Things that dont work
• Lack of application and relationship

13
Empowering the Undergraduate In the Era of
Economic Globalization

• About the Students
• Women have incorrect and lower perceptions of
  themselves than men
• Contradictory responses suggest deeper underlying
  barriers to fulfillment
• Relationship is highly valued
• Hostile attitude to surveys (disconnected
  inquiry) is barrier to assessment
• About the Professors and the Curriculum
• Connecting to students is essential
• Technical content is highly valued
• Extracurricular personal/professional content is
  often inaccessible
• Less laboratory content is better than
  non-working content
• Acknowledgements
• This work was supported by the National Science
  Foundation grant ESI-0227558, which funds the
  Center for the Advancement of Engineering
  Education (CAEE).