Engineering Education

The CBEE engineering education research group focuses on creating learning environments and inclusive culture that prompts students and faculty to meaningfully connect school experiences to professional practice and to social contexts. We address a major need of society — to develop engineers from diverse backgrounds ready to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Focus Areas

Engineering Thinking

We take a broad and systems-level perspective of understanding the many ways it means to think, do, and know as an engineer — and look to understand how those ways of engineering thinking relate to conceptual, material, and social aspects of engineering practice.

Social Justice and Inclusivity

The goal of our social justice and inclusivity work is to improve our graduates’ abilities to effectively impact outcomes and form partnerships in their careers, including the communities in which they serve. Inclusive teaming activities and social justice content are incorporated into curriculum and outcomes are assessed through self, peer, and instructor metrics.

Education and Curricular Systems

We work toward developing learning systems that are student-centered and inclusive, and which promote deep cognitive and social thinking. This work has led to innovative approaches such as our Studio 2.0 classroom structure, professional development of near-peer undergraduate learning assistants, and innovative uses of technology that deliberately position learners in ways to collaboratively sense-make, including virtual laboratories and the Concept Warehouse.