skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Virtually Engineering Community Engagement: Training for Undergraduate Engineers During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Flood mitigation and adaptation measures, among other tools to improve resiliency, will be necessary to sustain coastal communities in the face of climate change. Key to successful adaptation will be engineering projects, and critical to the success of those projects will be community engagement and support. Despite the recognized importance of community engagement when addressing complex issues like coastal flooding on which engineers work, most undergraduate engineering programs offer little to no training in community engagement. In this paper, we describe our experiences working with undergraduate engineering students to develop community-driven designs to address flooding and water quality issues in the Lake Mattamuskeet watershed in eastern North Carolina. Through an interdisciplinary approach, student teams learned to engage with local stakeholders to better integrate local knowledge and address issues identified by community members in their designs. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all community engagement aspects of the project moved to virtual forums, and we discuss the impact this shift had on the engineering designs as well as student learning outcomes and community connections.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1940072
PAR ID:
10409310
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Human Organization
Volume:
81
Issue:
3
ISSN:
0018-7259
Page Range / eLocation ID:
217 to 228
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)
    Community-based research (CBR) is a practice that engages researchers in collaborative, change-oriented, and inclusive projects in the community. One common example of CBR is university-community collaboration in which students and researchers come up with ideas, perspectives, and knowledge at each stage of the project with the goal to address community needs. The community is mainly involved in identifying the research questions for the projects and making decisions about how the results of the research-focused projects will be implemented. This paper presents a replication of a model focused on university-community collaboration, student engagement and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) attraction and retention using three research-focused projects addressing community needs. The three projects are (1) empathic design project aimed at improving quality greenspaces and pedestrian streetscape experience, (2) food justice project to study the disparities in food access between local regions, and (3) analyzing water quality in a local creek. The projects provided a unique opportunity for students to directly experience and contribute to the research process. In addition, students worked closely with their academic peers and community partners who served as collaborators and mentors. The study reports on the impact of the program on student learning and tendency to stay back in the community. The program's collaborative nature and its effect on students' satisfaction while working on specific projects are also examined. Furthermore, the program helped develop and sustain university-community partnerships. The community stakeholders participating in focus groups were satisfied with the process of identifying community projects and also expressed their satisfaction with the students’ work. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)
    Community-based research (CBR) is a practice that engages researchers in collaborative, change-oriented, and inclusive projects in the community. One common example of CBR is university-community collaboration in which students and researchers come up with ideas, perspectives, and knowledge at each stage of the project with the goal to address community needs. The community is mainly involved in identifying the research questions for the projects and making decisions about how the results of the research-focused projects will be implemented. This paper presents a replication of a model focused on university-community collaboration, student engagement and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) attraction and retention using three research-focused projects addressing community needs. The three projects are (1) empathic design project aimed at improving quality greenspaces and pedestrian streetscape experience, (2) food justice project to study the disparities in food access between local regions, and (3) analyzing water quality in a local creek. The projects provided a unique opportunity for students to directly experience and contribute to the research process. In addition, students worked closely with their academic peers and community partners who served as collaborators and mentors. The study reports on the impact of the program on student learning and tendency to stay back in the community. The program's collaborative nature and its effect on students' satisfaction while working on specific projects are also examined. Furthermore, the program helped develop and sustain university-community partnerships. The community stakeholders participating in focus groups were satisfied with the process of identifying community projects and also expressed their satisfaction with the students’ work. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; (, Sage Open)
    Service learning has many documented benefits for students. The benefits to the communities are less clear. This study examines the unfolding of an environmental service-learning partnership from the perspective of one participating community liaison. We examine a new model of university-community engagement, where undergraduate students are paired with a local community to address environmental issues in courses that focus on adaptation and mitigation. We use actor-network theory (ANT) to explore the experiences of one community liaison, focusing specifically on factors that helped build and maintain the partnership and produced benefits for the community. Findings highlight the community liaison’s agency in negotiating partnership goals and determining the definition and treatment of environmental concerns. We conclude by identifying the insights an ANT perspective holds for service-learning and community-engagement research and practice. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; (, Environmental Science & Policy)
    Coastal flooding is a severe and recurring problem, as evidenced by recent disasters that have caused significant damage for coastal communities. A community’s ability to mitigate the effects of coastal flooding depends on the local context and its adaptive capacity. Although past research has highlighted the important role that non-governmental organizations play in building adaptive capacity to support effective adaptation, few studies have focused specifically on rural, community-based nonprofits. To fill this gap, we employ a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the role of the Ingleside on the Bay Coastal Watch Association (IOBCWA), a resident-led, community-based nonprofit, in building adaptive capacity to coastal flooding in the City of Ingleside on the Bay (IOB; pop. 800), located in the Coastal Bend Region of Texas. By applying a grounded theory framework, we show that IOBCWA has improved the adaptive capacity of IOB through five primary activities: engaging in community organizing, boosting advocacy and outreach, implementing evidence-based data collection, building capacity among residents, and developing regional communication networks. Our findings are further examined using the Regional Fingerprint tool (Hirschfeld et al., 2020) to assess progress toward building regional adaptive capacity. We identify a need for more formalized policies, enhanced regional partnerships, and broader inclusion of socially vulnerable groups to address environmental challenges. Overall, this work highlights the important role that small, community-based nonprofits like IOBCWA play in building community adaptive capacity and suggests the need for a more comprehensive regional approach with participation from multiple stakeholders to address challenges related to coastal flooding. 
    more » « less
  5. (, 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings)
    null (Ed.)
    Nanoscience and nanotechnology play a significant role in every field of our society. Nanotechnology is the backbone of high-tech industries and widely used in consumer products and industrial applications. Therefore, it is essential to highlight the importance of nanoscience and nanotechnology to undergraduate students and explain the science behind nanotechnology. For this purpose, an upper-level elective mechanical engineering course, Nanoscale Science and Engineering, is designed and added to the mechanical and mechatronic engineering curriculum. This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of nanoscience and engineering including the areas of engineering, materials science, chemistry, and physics. The topics covered include advanced materials, synthesis, and modification of nanomaterials, properties of nanomaterials, materials characterization, nanofabrication methods, and applications. It has three modules, which are formal lectures, guest speakers, and projects. Projects will help students learn to conduct a literature search, critically review scientific articles, and learn advanced materials characterization techniques on a given topic. They will further have a chance to propose their own ideas for potential applications and asked to give a detailed methodology to execute the project. In this work-in-progress study, we present the impact of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering course on undergraduate mechanical and mechatronic engineering students. Students were invited to complete a survey at the beginning of the semester, which will be also given to the students, at the end of the semester. The survey consists of 15 questions, which are aimed to analyze the pre-existing knowledge of students in nanotechnology-related topics and their interest level to increase their knowledge and advance their career in a nanotechnology-related field. In order to assess the impact of the course on students, the results of the survey will be compared. Student demographics will be included in the results. Possible changes in course content to improve student engagement in nanotechnology will be discussed. The purpose of this course is to introduce undergraduate engineering students to nanotechnology. The inclusion of Nanoscale Science and Engineering course to the undergraduate engineering curriculum has a significant role in the advancement of nanotechnology. Students graduating with a solid understanding of broad applications of nanotechnology and advanced material fabrication and characterization techniques will have a focused start in their graduate research and education or faster adaptation to nanotechnology-related industrial job positions. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email