Search

Student, Experiential-Learning, Engineering Competition Teams (SELECT) provide an opportunity for engineering students to practice technical and professional engineering skills. Tremendous academic and financial resources are dedicated to SELECT teams, both from institutions of higher education and from companies that sponsor and support these competitions. Female and minority students constitute a disproportionately small percentage of engineering undergraduates participating in SELECT. This paper stems from a multiple year research project identifying and explaining factors that contribute to cultures of inclusion or exclusion among varied SELECT (NSF DUE STEM Talent Expansion Program #1068453). We use a case study framework to examine the pathways of two female students: Alice and Sarah as they entered Competition Team A, a SELECT. These students came from high schools with similar socio-economics and academic programs. Both Alice and Sarah had a personal connection to an engineer, strong mathematical skills, and high self-efficacy in engineering. We examine how the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status with Team A's culture lead to Alice becoming a team leader, while Sarah eventually abandoned Team A. The comparison between the experiences of these students will show engineering educators and industry supporters of SELECT the sometimes invisible barriers to team participation that inhibit groups of students (e.g. women, racial/ethnic minorities, students with socio-economic disadvantages) from gaining the full benefits of participation in SELECT. By making these barriers visible, we hope to show how educational institutions and companies can work together to make team participation more broadly available. We conclude with suggestions for making SELECT participation more equitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering competition teams provide some students the opportunity to design authentic engineering artifacts, manage budgets and logistics, exercise engineering analysis and decision making, build an engineering artifact and develop and practice professional skills. In a research study examining the cultures, structure, composition, and processes of a variety of Student Experiential Learning Engineering Competition Teams (SELECT), we collected data from teams from multiple institutions and a variety of design competitions. The data from the teams consists of interviews of team members and advisors, team documents, and other public artifacts. This paper examines two SELECT teams from the same institution as representatives of other teams from their particular design competitions. We found differences between the teams in recruiting, team structure and organization, student leadership, faculty advisors, expectations for commitment, integration into academic structure (capstone), and focus on competition success. In spite of the differences in team organization and goals, both teams missed opportunities for students to acquire and practice important professional skills. Neither team provided opportunities for formal learning about leadership and management, nor experience and mentorship for working with a diverse group of peers (e.g. diversity from race, gender, socio-economic status, or major discipline). The most egregious missed opportunity within these teams was, and is for many teams, the vast number of students who are excluded from participation by cultural and structural elements of the teams. This paper offers recommendations to advisors, departments, and engineering educators about the scaffolding necessary to offer more authentic learning opportunities and build teams that are more diverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]