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1. Mapping industry workforce needs to academic curricula – A workforce development effort in model‐based systems engineering

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sys.21745  

   Akundi, Aditya; Ankobiah, Wilma (February 2024, Systems Engineering)

   Abstract Model‐based systems engineering (MBSE) is rapidly gaining popularity among U.S. industries. Though industry practitioners and academic researchers have identified several advantages in transitioning to MBSE, several adoption challenges of MBSE in industries, such as insufficient tool knowledge, lack of skilled personnel, and resistance in organizations toward a shift to MBSE, are observed. Attesting to the challenges in industry adoption of MBSE, a previous research study by the authors characterized the adoption challenges as tools‐based, knowledge‐based, cultural, political, and cost‐related, and customer understanding and acceptance of MBSE practices. This study is motivated to explore further and address the challenge of low MBSE tool knowledge and lack of skilled personnel with MBSE knowledge for industry adoption. This paper presents a two‐phased research approach framed by an overarching question of the extent to which the MBSE academic curriculum is aligned with industry workforce requirements. In Phase 1 of the study, we survey industry professionals from Defense, Aerospace, Automotive, and other industry clusters to identify MBSE tools, languages, and concepts preferred by industry professionals in a candidate for hire. This is followed by Phase 2 of the survey targeted at academic institutions with Systems and MBSE programs to analyze the extent to which MBSE curricula reflect industry workforce hiring requirements. Further, we also identify the challenges reported in academic institutions in training the Workforce on MBSE. The contributions of this paper are two‐fold: providing a pathway for academic institutions to align their curricula to MBSE industry workforce requirements and triggering discussion in the broader MBSE community to identify strategies for addressing MBSE adoption challenges and training future model‐based systems engineers. 

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2. Competence of Faculty, Staff, and Administrators in Hispanic Culture: Evidence from Three Surveys of Personnel and Students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

   Preuss, M. (December 2019, International Journal of Research in Education and Science)

   Noroozi, O (Ed.)

   Survey data were gathered from college and university faculty, staff, and administrators at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) regarding Hispanic culture and Hispanic students as part of an NSF-funded investigation that focused on the characteristics and programming of HSIs as well as the background and experiences of their students. Two surveys of students were also conducted. A minimum of 44 HSIs in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado were represented in the 393 usable responses gathered from faculty, staff, and administrators. Fourteen HSIs in New Mexico and Texas were represented in student survey data gathered in 2018 and three in north Texas in a survey completed in 2019. Responses from 213 Hispanic students were isolated from the 2018 student survey and 307 from the 2019 data. This material was used to verify and expand on the findings from the survey of faculty, staff, and administrators. A consistent and strong difference of opinion was found between Hispanic faculty, staff, and administrators at the HSIs and their non-Hispanic peers regarding information available to higher education professionals about Hispanic culture, the elements of Hispanic culture, and the characteristics and background of Hispanic students. Survey responses of Hispanic students confirmed, at many points, that the perspective of the Hispanic faculty, staff, and administrators was accurate. It appears, based on this information, that the non-Hispanic employees at the HSIs were less well informed about Hispanic culture and a major portion of their student population than would be desirable. The findings, while from the south-central United States, can inform multiple academic and support services at Hispanic-Serving Institutions and other colleges and universities as they include information about how Hispanic culture is understood by Hispanics, detail gaps in competence regarding Hispanic culture among faculty, staff, and administrators at HSIs, and describe characteristics and the cultural orientation of Hispanic students attending the HSIs in the sample. 

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3. White-box Fuzzing in the Wild: A Chaos Engineering Module for DevOps Security Education

   Rahman, Md Mostafizur; Rashid, Md Bajlur; Barek, Md Abdul; Riad, ABM Kamrul; Rahman, Md Abdur; Shahriar, Hossain; Rahman, Akond; Wu, Fan; Francia, Guillermo; Faruk, Md Jobair; et al (July 2025, IEEE)

   In today’s fast-paced software development environments, DevOps has revolutionized the way teams build, test, and deploy applications by emphasizing automation, collaboration, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD). However, with these advancements comes an increased need to address security proactively, giving rise to the DevSecOps movement, which integrates security practices into every phase of the software development lifecycle. DevOps security remains underrepresented in academic curricula despite its growing importance in the industry. To address this gap, this paper presents a handson learning module that combines Chaos Engineering and Whitebox Fuzzing to teach core principles of secure DevOps practices in an authentic, scenario-driven environment. Chaos Engineering allows students to intentionally disrupt systems to observe and understand their resilience, while White-box Fuzzing enables systematic exploration of internal code paths to discover cornercase vulnerabilities that typical tests might miss. The module was deployed across three academic institutions, and both pre- and post-surveys were conducted to evaluate its impact. Pre-survey data revealed that while most students had prior experience in software engineering and cybersecurity, the majority lacked exposure to DevOps security concepts. Post-survey responses gathered through ten structured questions showed highly positive feedback 66.7% of students strongly agreed, and 22.2% agreed that the hands-on labs improved their understanding of secure DevOps practices. Participants also reported increased confidence in secure coding, vulnerability detection, and resilient infrastructure design. These findings support the integration of experiential learning techniques like chaos simulations and white-box fuzzing into security education. By aligning academic training with realworld industry needs, this module effectively prepares students for the complex challenges of modern software development and operations. 

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4. Demographic Data Collection on LGBTQ+ Identities: Barriers and Motivations

   Sanchez, Daniel; Chavela Guerra, Rocio; Farrell, Stephanie (January 2022, ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings)

   Although recent studies highlight the unique difficulties that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) engineering professionals face in their careers, the availability of data concerning this underserved population remains scant. Postsecondary educational institutions play a critical role in the collection of LGBTQ+ demographic data related to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) among students, faculty, and staff. Such data can be utilized to measure retention and success of LGBTQ+ individuals. However, many institutions choose not to collect these data for various reasons, which can potentially further the marginalization of LGBTQ+ individuals in academic settings. This study explores the motivations behind academic leaders—which includes facilitators of the demographic information collection process and advocates for the collection of SOGI data—along with the barriers that hinder efforts to make the collection of SOGI data a standard practice. We first administered a nation-wide survey to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Engineering Deans Council to determine what types of SOGI data, if any, these institutions collect. Among the 46 respondents, we found that three institutions collect some type of SOGI data for students, faculty, or staff. Survey respondents were then invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to discuss their insights into institutional practices with respect to SOGI data collection. In total, six institutions are represented through the perspectives of the 6 interviewees. We analyzed the transcripts from the interviews and identified themes within two categories: barriers and motivations. Although SOGI data collection is in nascent stages, this study provides insight into the critical conversations academic leaders navigate to better serve the LGBTQ+ community, which may aid further efforts to implement SOGI data collection in academia. 

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5. Context Matters: Social Psychological Factors That Underlie Academic Performance across Seven Institutions

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-01-0012  

   Salehi, S.; Berk, S. A.; Brunelli, R.; Cotner, S.; Creech, C.; Drake, A. G.; Fagbodun, S.; Hall, C.; Hebert, S.; Hewlett, J.; et al (December 2021, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Price, Rebecca (Ed.)

   To enhance equity and diversity in undergraduate biology, recent research in biology education focuses on best practices that reduce learning barriers for all students and improve academic performance. However, the majority of current research into student experiences in introductory biology takes place at large, predominantly White institutions. To foster contextual knowledge in biology education research, we harnessed data from a large research coordination network to examine the extent of academic performance gaps based on demographic status across institutional contexts and how two psychological factors, test anxiety and ethnicity stigma consciousness, may mediate performance in introductory biology. We used data from seven institutions across three institution types: 2-year community colleges, 4-year inclusive institutions (based on admissions selectivity; hereafter, inclusive), and 4-year selective institutions (hereafter, selective). In our sample, we did not observe binary gender gaps across institutional contexts, but found that performance gaps based on underrepresented minority status were evident at inclusive and selective 4-year institutions, but not at community colleges. Differences in social psychological factors and their impacts on academic performance varied substantially across institutional contexts. Our findings demonstrate that institutional context can play an important role in the mechanisms underlying performance gaps. 

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