Through the cooperation and engagement of the Council of HBCU Engineering School Deans, the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will build the engineering education research capacity at eleven HBCUs. Over a three-year period, 99 HBCU faculty (nine per campus) will participant in an intensive program on developing or enhancing capacity to engage in rigorous research on engineering education research that links expertise in engineering content with the theory and methodological base of social science disciplines. Additionally, they will have made useful and productive connections outside the HBCU community. This effort will provide a model for efforts in other disciplinary communities and in other groups of institutions.
The participants will engage in six activities: 1) An orientation meeting of HBCU Deans with prominent engineering education researchers and social scientists to discuss challenges and opportunities in engineering education on HBCU campuses; 2) Create three-person teams drawn from engineering and social science faculty on the HBCU campuses to lead research and innovation activities (e.g., an engineering department head, an engineering faculty member, and a social science faculty member); 3) The three-person teams will attend an intensive one-week training session offered by the Colorado School of Mines; 4) The three-person teams will attend a Project Kaleidoscope Annual meeting to develop campus research and implementation strategies; 5) The three-person team will attend the CASEE Annual meeting to be held in conjunction with the Frontiers in Education conference (sponsored by the Education Research and Methods Division of ASEE, the IEEE Education Society, and the IEEE Computer Society); and 6) The HBCU campuses will develop proposals for funding to various sources to implement their departmental-plans.
Intellectual Merit: This project builds knowledge within HBCU engineering and social science faculty on the conduct, evaluation, and communication of rigorous education research within engineering disciplines. An outcome of this activity will be the development of HBCU campus plans to strengthen curricula and pedagogy at HBCU institutions. It strengthens connections among leadership faculty at HBCUs and enhances linkages with national leaders in engineering education research and practice.
Broader Impacts: This project will enhance linkages between the engineering and social science communities at HBCUs, improve the quality of education within HBCUs engineering programs, provide HBCU faculty with an opportunity to assume leadership in the emerging area of education research, and enhance the cadre of social science professionals experienced in addressing challenges in engineering education. This project also contributes to the intellectual infrastructure that will enhance attainment of national human resource development goals.
