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In 2019, a National Research Traineeship (NRT) grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation seeded the establishment of a new model for graduate education at Ohio State University – a large, public, land-grant R-1 university in the U.S. Midwest. This grant application involved faculty from eight different colleges within this university (education; engineering; public affairs; arts and sciences; food, agriculture, and environmental sciences; business; law). The Ohio State EmPOWERment Program in convergent graduate training for a sustainable energy future enrolls Ph.D. students studying any aspect of energy from degree programs any college in Ohio State and engages them in several curricular and co-curricular elements that are designed to dovetail with their Ph.D. degree program requirements in ways that do not extend their time to graduate. The Ohio State EmPOWERment Program established at Ohio State an energy Student Community of Practice and Engagement (SCOPE), a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization (GIS), and an undergraduate Research in Sustainable Energy (RISE) summer research experience. Over time a JOULE energy seminar series (JOULE) was added to elevate intellectual engagement in for trainees in The Ohio State EmPOWERment Program and broaden their engagement with researchers across this university. This paper investigates the development and accentuation of innovation capacities of Ph.D. trainees in The Ohio State EmPOWERment Program relative to other Ph.D. students who enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines at Ohio State and did not participate in the Ohio State EmPOWERment Program. This work considers three different constructs for each of three scales (i.e., Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Cognitive). Of the nine different constructs, six pass assumption tests and pre-test scores for innovation self-concept, proactivity, social networking, risk-taking or tolerance, creative capacity, and intention to innovate are significant predictors of post-test capacities. Overall, participating in The Ohio State EmPOWERment Program appears to be beneficial and may increase innovation self-concept, proactivity, creative, and intention to innovate capacities.
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Importance of Undergraduate Research: Efficacy and Student Perceptions
Undergraduate research has emerged as a high-impact approach that can be used to enhance student engagement and to enrich student learning experiences. It is observed in the literature that undergraduate research can have an impact on student retention, and possibly attract women and ethnic minorities to science-related disciplines while playing an important role in the determination of career paths for participating students. While there are multiple studies on the impact of undergraduate research in social sciences and sciences, there is limited literature in the engineering disciplines. The limited volume of literature may be attributed to multiple reasons such as a significant emphasis on mathematics and science in the first two years of engineering curriculum, a strict sequential degree path, and a lack of flexibility in the program requirements. Engineering students often report difficulty in relating the theoretical content of the first few semesters to actual engineering applications. This study proposes the introduction of undergraduate research as a possible means of overcoming these student perceptions by introducing students to well-defined research projects at an early stage of their undergraduate degree program. The primary focus of this study is to understand student perceptions about the efficacy of undergraduate research in the engineering and engineering technology disciplines. Survey results from twenty six students involved in undergraduate research as part of the requirements for a scholarship program are presented and evaluated. Subjective evaluations from a few faculty members involved in mentoring some of these undergraduate researchers are also discussed. Although both students and faculty mentors agree that undergraduate research can be a highly valuable experience, it is commonly acknowledged that there are quite a few factors that are crucial in making the experience meaningful.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1355872
- PAR ID:
- 10067332
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/p.25599
