More Like this

1. Update on is it Rocket Science or Brain Science? Developing an Approach to Measure Engineering Intuition

   Miskioglu, Elif; Carberry, Adam; Martin, Kaela; Kavale, Sanjeev; Bolton, Caroline; Aaron, Caitlyn; Roth, Madeline (August 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Engineering problem solving has become more complex and reliant on technology making engineering judgement an increasingly important and essential skill for engineers. Educators need to ensure that students do not become rote learners with little ability to critically analyze the result of solutions. This suggests that greater focus should be placed on developing engineering judgement, specifically engineering intuition, in our students who will be the future engineering workforce. This project is focused on the following four research questions: 1) What are practicing professional engineers’ perceptions of discipline specific intuition and its use in the workplace? 2) Where does intuition manifest in expert engineer decision-making and problem-solving processes? 3) How does the motivation and identity of practicing professional engineers relate to discipline-specific intuition? 4) What would an instrument designed to validly and reliably measure engineering intuition look like? Literature from the fields of nursing (Smith), management (Simon), and expertise development (Dreyfus) suggest intuition plays a role in both decision making and becoming an expert. This literature is used to support our definition of engineering intuition which is defined as the ability to: 1) assess the feasibility of a solution or response, and 2) predict outcomes and/or options within an engineering scenario (Authors). This paper serves as an update on the progress of our work to date. The first three research questions have been addressed through interviews with engineering practitioners at various stages in their careers, from early career to retired. Emergent findings have allowed us to construct a modified definition of engineering intuition, while also identifying related constructs. In Spring 2021, we created and tested an instrument to measure intuition. This instrument was re-deployed in Fall 2021. Preliminary results from the project’s qualitative and quantitative efforts will be presented. Our ultimate aim of this project is to inform the creation of classroom practices that improve students’ ability to develop, recognize, and improve their own engineering intuition. Select References: Authors (2020). Dreyfus, Stuart E., and Hubert L. Dreyfus. A five-stage model of the mental activities involved in directed skill acquisition. No. ORC-80-2. California Univ Berkeley Operations Research Center, 1980. Smith, Anita. "Exploring the legitimacy of intuition as a form of nursing knowledge." Nursing Standard (through 2013) 23.40 (2009): 35. Simon, Herbert A. "Making management decisions: The role of intuition and emotion." Academy of Management Perspectives 1.1 (1987): 57-64. 

   more » « less
2. Lessons Learned About Designing and Conducting Studies From HRI Experts

   https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.772141  

   Fraune, Marlena R.; Leite, Iolanda; Karatas, Nihan; Amirova, Aida; Legeleux, Amélie; Sandygulova, Anara; Neerincx, Anouk; Dilip Tikas, Gaurav; Gunes, Hatice; Mohan, Mayumi; et al (January 2022, Frontiers in Robotics and AI)

   The field of human-robot interaction (HRI) research is multidisciplinary and requires researchers to understand diverse fields including computer science, engineering, informatics, philosophy, psychology, and more disciplines. However, it is hard to be an expert in everything. To help HRI researchers develop methodological skills, especially in areas that are relatively new to them, we conducted a virtual workshop, Workshop Your Study Design (WYSD), at the 2021 International Conference on HRI. In this workshop, we grouped participants with mentors, who are experts in areas like real-world studies, empirical lab studies, questionnaire design, interview, participatory design, and statistics. During and after the workshop, participants discussed their proposed study methods, obtained feedback, and improved their work accordingly. In this paper, we present 1) Workshop attendees’ feedback about the workshop and 2) Lessons that the participants learned during their discussions with mentors. Participants’ responses about the workshop were positive, and future scholars who wish to run such a workshop can consider implementing their suggestions. The main contribution of this paper is the lessons learned section, where the workshop participants contributed to forming this section based on what participants discovered during the workshop. We organize lessons learned into themes of 1) Improving study design for HRI, 2) How to work with participants - especially children -, 3) Making the most of the study and robot’s limitations, and 4) How to collaborate well across fields as they were the areas of the papers submitted to the workshop. These themes include practical tips and guidelines to assist researchers to learn about fields of HRI research with which they have limited experience. We include specific examples, and researchers can adapt the tips and guidelines to their own areas to avoid some common mistakes and pitfalls in their research. 

   more » « less
3. Work In Progress: Experts’ Perceptions of Engineering Intuition

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--35633  

   Miskioğlu, Elif; Martin, Kaela M.; Carberry, Adam R. (July 2020, 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)

   This work in progress paper describes preliminary findings from interviews intending to develop a definition of and method for measuring “engineering intuition.” Engineers are asked regularly in their profession to judge situations and predict or estimate results in order to minimize the potential for error. The need for this ability has been amplified with the pervasiveness of computer-aided problem solving in engineering. It is now mandatory for practicing engineers to quickly and accurately evaluate software results as part of the problem-solving process. We hypothesize that the ability to undertake such actions is heavily influenced by discipline-specific intuition, which has been previously explored in the disciplines of nursing and business management. The following study presents preliminary results attempting to define the construct of “engineering intuition.” Semi-structured interviews with practicing nurses, business managers, and engineers were conducted using: 1) implicit discussion around intuition informed by literature, and 2) critical incident technique, i.e., explicit discussion around the concept of intuition. Each interview sought to identify practitioner decision-making and problem-solving processes on the job. The combined dataset and supporting literature are planned to be used as the basis of our future work, which ultimately aims to develop a psychometrically tested instrument capable of accurately measuring engineering intuition. Dissemination of these preliminary results are intended to elicit feedback on our methodologies and findings before moving to the second phase of our research study. 

   more » « less
4. A Review of the State of LGBTQIA+ Student Research in STEM and Engineering Education

   Jennings, Madeleine; Roscoe, Rod; Kellam, Nadia; Jayasuriya, Suren (January 2020, ASEE annual conference)

   The purpose of this critical literature review was to generate awareness of the LGBTQIA+ engineering student experience and research on this community, while also highlighting areas that are lacking or receiving insufficient attention. This work is part of a larger project that aims to review engineering education research with respect to LGBTQIA+ students, higher education faculty and staff, and industry professionals. This literature review was conducted in two phases. First, works from non-engineering disciplines were reviewed to identify popular threads and major areas of research on the LGBTQIA+ student experience. This phase was not an exhaustive review; rather, it was meant to establish specific themes of importance derived from the larger body of literature on the LGBTQIA+ student experience. Second, a literature review identified how engineering-specific research on the LGBTQIA+ student experience aligned with these themes. We identified several themes in the first phase of the literature review: (1) Climate, (2) LGB Monolith, (3) Intersectionality, and (4) Identity Development. Engineering and engineering education literature demonstrated similar themes, although this body of work was unique in the exploration of LGBTQIA+ coping strategies and the use of the technical/social dualism framework. Overall, the engineering education literature on LGBTQIA+ student experiences seemed relatively underdeveloped. 

   more » « less
5. Using Cognitive Task Analysis to Observe the Use of Intuition in Engineering Problem Solving

   Ugenti, Natalie; Busato, Joselyn Elisabeth; Miskioğlu, Elif; Martin, Kaela (June 2024, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) PEER)

   This work-in-progress research paper describes the pilot work in a study seeking to gain further insight on the relationships between intuition, expertise, and experience through a better understanding of how intuition is applied in engineering problem solving. Individuals who have attained a high level of expertise, exhibit characteristics of intuitive decision making (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1980). The development of expertise (Dreyfus &; Dreyfus, 1980; Seifert et al., 1997) and intuition (Authors, 2019; Authors, 2023) are heavily influenced by experience. Engineering intuition can be summarized as a subconscious problem-solving skill that is based on previous experience (Authors, 2023). In this work, we will be using Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) to examine the use of intuition in engineering problem solving. CTA is a class of observational protocols that surface tacit knowledge through engaging experts with a task (Crandall, 2006). The purpose of CTA is to capture how the mind works through three primary aspects: knowledge elicitation, data analysis, and knowledge representation. As best CTA practices use multiple methods, we will use three methods for this analysis, 1) Simulation Interviews where participants are given a simulated engineering problem and asked to speak out loud to describe their process in approaching the problem, 2) Critical Decision Method (Klein, 1989) where a retrospective interview probes the decisions made during the simulation interview, and 3) Knowledge Audit Method (Taheri et al., 2014) which further guides our probing questions to identify types of knowledge used, or not used, during the simulated problem solving experience. These three techniques are applied to collect data on participants' problem solving. To develop the problems for the Simulation Interviews, we have first conducted pilot work using just the Critical Decision Method and Knowledge Audit Method. As part of the Critical Decision Method, participants will select a non routine problem-solving incident, construct an incident timeline, identify decision points for future probing, and then probe these decisions using the Knowledge Audit Method. This method allows us to determine realistic, practice-based problems for the Simulation Interview, why the participant makes certain decisions, and how their educational background and on the job training influenced their decision making process. The anticipated outcomes of this research are to expand engineering education through a better understanding of engineering intuition and to provide a foundation for the explicit application of intuition in engineering problem solving. These insights can be beneficial for creating educational interventions that promote intuition development and introduce real-world engineering practices in the classroom. This in turn can promote metacognition in engineering students by creating pathways to expertise development, as well as boost confidence and support retention (Metcalfe & Wiebe, 1987; Bolton, 2022; Authors, 2021; Authors, 2023). Additionally, insights into intuition can be beneficial in onboarding new hires who may have more expertise development, agility, and adaptability to the technical landscape in the engineering workforce. References: Authors. (2021). Authors. (2019). Authors. (2023). Bolton, C. S. (2022). What Makes an Expert? Characterizing Perceptions of Expertise and Intuition Among Early-Career Engineers [Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Bucknell University]. Lewisburg, PA. Crandall, B., Klein, G. A., &; Hoffman, R. R. (2006). Working minds: A practitioner's guide to cognitive task analysis. MIT Press. Dreyfus, S. E., & Dreyfus, H. L. (1980). A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition. Klein, G. A, Calderwood, R., and Macgregor, D. (1989). Critical decision method for eliciting knowledge, IEEE Transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, 19(3), 462-472. https://doi.org/10.1109/21.31053 Metcalfe, J., & Wiebe, D. (1987). Intuition in Insight and Noninsight Problem Solving. Memory & Cognition, 15(3), 238-246. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197722. Seifert, C. M., Patalano, A. L., Hammond, K. J., & Converse, T. M. (1997). Experience and expertise: The role of memory in planning for opportunities. In P. J. Feltovich, K. M. Ford, & R. R. Hoffmanm (Eds.), Expertise in Context (pp. 101-123). AAAI Press/ MIT Press. Taheri, L., Che Pa, N., Abdullah, R., & Abdullah, S. (2014). Knowledge audit model for requirement elicitation process. International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation, 8(2), 452-456. 

   more » « less