Women\u27s Experiences in the Transition from Capstone Design Courses to Engineering Workplaces

Substantial research over the past few decades has documented the challenges women experience both as students in engineering programs and as professionals in engineering workplaces. Few studies, however, have followed women from one context to the other to explore the ways in which school experiences, and particularly capstone experiences designed to facilitate this transition, do and do not prepare women for their work as practicing engineers. To address this gap, we draw on data from a larger multi-institution study to address the question, “How do women experience the transition from engineering school to engineering work?” Participants for this study are drawn from a larger study across four universities (three mechanical engineering programs and one engineering science program). All participants identified as “female” on a screening questionnaire that included options for transgender and gender-nonconforming, as well as an option to skip the question. The full data set includes interviews with the participants conducted at the end of their capstone design course, responses to open-ended questions sent each week during their first 12 weeks of work, and interviews conducted after three, six, and 12 months of work. To answer the research question, we used purposeful sampling to identify four women whose interviews represented different trajectories across this school-to-work transition; we then used constructed narrative analysis to present their individual stories and identify salient points of similarity and difference for discussion. We also present implications for engineering educators, including that life-long learning should be expected, communication and collaboration are as essential workplace skills as technical competencies, and that gender is not necessarily a homogenizing force. Above all, we emphasize the power of the individual voice in better understanding the experiences of our students

Preliminary Results from a Study Investigating the Transition from Capstone Design to Industry

This study investigates engineering students’ transitions from academic to professional environments by examining the role capstone design courses play in preparing graduates for the workplace. To better understand how capstone design experiences contribute to graduates’ professional preparation, we are collecting data from participants from four different institutions with project-based capstone courses as they begin post-graduation positions in a variety of engineering workplaces. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, our study is designed to collect insights from participants in their first 12 months on the job. Currently we are collecting and analyzing data from the first of two planned cohorts of participants. Preliminary results for the participants in the first cohort point towards interesting trends regarding participants’ frequency of activities and perception of their preparedness. Professional skills such as team meetings were listed most frequently as activities engaged in by participants, and while there were particular areas such as budgeting where participants felt less prepared, overall their perception of preparedness indicates that capstone design courses and the larger engineering curriculum they are housed within are preparing students for professional careers

New Engineers’ First Three Months: A Study of the Transition from Capstone Design Courses to Workplaces

In preparing engineering students for the workplace, capstone classes provide unique opportunities for students to develop their professional identities and learn critical skills such as engineering design, teamwork, and self-directed learning (Lutz & Paretti). While existing research explores what and how students learn within these courses, we know much less about how capstone courses affect students’ transitions into the workplace. To address this gap, we are following 62 new graduates from four institutions during the participants’ first 12 weeks of work. Participants were drawn from three mechanical engineering programs and one engineering science program. Women were intentionally oversampled in the study, with 29 participants (47%) identifying as female. Weekly surveys were used to collect quantitative data on what types of workplace activities participants engaged in (e.g., team meetings, project budgeting, CAD modeling, engineering calculations) and qualitative data on what challenges they experience in their early work experience. In this paper, we present a descriptive analysis of the data to identify patterns across participants. Preliminary analysis of the quantitative data suggests that the most common activities for our participants were team meetings and project planning (mentioned by \u3e70% of participants) compared to formal presentations and project budgeting (mentioned by The results are intended to inform both capstone faculty and industry to identify areas of strength and improvement. Our recommendations target current practices in capstone education including course design and structure as well as industry onboarding practices

Crossing borders: new teachers co-constructing professional identity in performative times

This paper draws on a range of theoretical perspectives on the construction of new teachers’ professional identity. It focuses particularly on the impact of the development in many national education systems of a performative culture of the management and regulation of teachers’ work. Whilst the role of interactions with professional colleagues and school managers in the performative school has been extensively researched, less attention has been paid to new teachers’ interactions with students. This paper highlights the need for further research focusing on the process of identity co-construction with students. A key theoretical concept employed is that of liminality, the space within which identities are in transition as teachers adjust to the culture of a new professional workplace, and the nature of the engagement of new teachers, or teachers who change schools, with students. The authors argue that an investigation into the processes of this co-construction of identity offers scope for new insights into the extent to which teachers might construct either a teacher identity at odds with their personal and professional values, or a more ‘authentic’ identity that counters performative discourses. These insights will in turn add to our understanding of the complex range of factors impacting on teacher resilience and motivation

Reality gaps in industrial engineering senior design or capstone projects

Undergraduate Senior Design or Capstone Projects (SDP) are intended to provide a culminating experience for undergraduate students. In SDP's, students are expected to put into practice their engineering competences to solve a realistic problem. Realism is pursued by setting up boundary conditions that mimic to some extent those found in the corporate world. For example, projects are defined by an external company that acts as a sponsor or client, last between one and two semesters, are carried out in teams, and, in some cases, are vaguely defined. Moreover, students are often requested to complete various stages of the system's life cycle, including formulating the problem, conceptualizing the solution, implementing a solution in part or whole, and presenting the solution to the client. However, while these project conditions provide a decent surrogate of a real industrial problem, students' solutions are purely academic: They lack key elements that any engineering solution to a real problem should have. For example, students' solutions tend to be deterministic, assume seamless implementation and adoption, do not create unintended consequences, and are free of risks. Furthermore, these weaknesses are not identified in the evaluation of projects because assessments remain academic. They focus on evaluating if industrial engineering tools and methods have been properly used, and if the development process described in class has been followed. However, evaluating the value of an engineering solution in the corporate world is driven by the identification of worst- and best-cases, the contextualization of the solution within ranges of expectation, the assessment of impacts of implementing and adopting the solution, and the identification of the solution's potential unintended consequences and resulting risks. In order to contribute to close this gap between industry and academia, we characterize in this paper SDP's in industrial engineering undergraduate programs across the USA. In particular, we identify the aspects of real engineering projects that are captured, and those that are missing, in the problems that students solve, and are exhibited in the solutions they create. Then, we use the results to define a set of guidelines that would contribute to improve the realism of SDP's, both in terms of their problem definition and of the evaluation and assessment of students' solutions

Dmitry's Tanz (Klezmer Klassica)

A Klezmer Klassica recording of an arrangement by Richard Fay which melds a theme from Shostakovich (taken from piano Trio N. 2) with a traditional klezmer tune. Recorded and filmed in March 2023 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation

In Remembrance of Lost Worlds (Klezmer Klassica)

A Klezmer Klassica recording of a composition by Richard Fay. Recorded and filmed in March 2023 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation