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1. Democratizing the Practices of Design and Innovation through Transdisciplinary Coursework

   Thorne, S.; Strimel, G. (June 2023, Review directory American Society for Engineering Education)

   In the face of today's complex challenges, it is clear that the convergence of academic disciplines in the support of creating innovative solutions is more important than ever. To enable this convergence, universities can adopt transdisciplinary learning experiences that promote the integration of different academic fields. One common method for integration is the application of design thinking methods and the development of cross-cutting innovation-focused skills. The Mission, Meaning, Making (M3) model is an example of a transdisciplinary educational model that aims to transform traditional undergraduate learning experiences by combining the strengths of different academic units. The M3 model includes co-teaching and co-learning from faculty and students across different academic units/colleges, as well as learning experiences that span multiple semesters to foster student learning and innovative ideas. This collaborative initiative is designed to reach the broader campus community, regardless of students' backgrounds or majors. Therefore, the study presented in this paper explores how student participation in this transdisciplinary learning model and their perceptions of their innovation skills may vary regarding major and gender. This exploration can be important as 1) the model may or may not be meeting the needs of participants across areas of study and 2) perceptions of abilities may influence a sense of belongingness for people within the model’s programming. This paper will first highlight the details of the M3 model and its coursework and then provide the details related to the statistical analysis of 119 post- and retrospective pre-survey responses from students across diverse majors as well as any implications for the results. 

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2. Moving Toward Transdisciplinary Learning Around Topics of Convergence: Is it really Possible in Higher Education Today?

   Strimel, G.; Pruim, D.; Briller, S.; Martinez, R.; Lucas, D.; Kelley, T.; Sohn, J. (June 2023, Review directory American Society for Engineering Education)

   There have been numerous demands for enhancements in the way undergraduate learning occurs today, especially at a time when the value of higher education continues to be called into question (The Boyer 2030 Commission, 2022). One type of demand has been for the increased integration of subjects/disciplines around relevant issues/topics—with a more recent trend of seeking transdisciplinary learning experiences for students (Sheets, 2016; American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2019). Transdisciplinary learning can be viewed as the holistic way of working equally across disciplines to transcend their own disciplinary boundaries to form new conceptual understandings as well as develop new ways in which to address complex topics or challenges (Ertas, Maxwell, Rainey, & Tanik, 2003; Park & Son, 2010). This transdisciplinary approach can be important as humanity’s problems are not typically discipline specific and require the convergence of competencies to lead to innovative thinking across fields of study. However, higher education continues to be siloed which makes the authentic teaching of converging topics, such as innovation, human-technology interactions, climate concerns, or harnessing the data revolution, organizationally difficult (Birx, 2019; Serdyukov, 2017). For example, working across a university’s academic units to collaboratively teach, or co-teach, around topics of convergence are likely to be rejected by the university systems that have been built upon longstanding traditions. While disciplinary expertise is necessary and one of higher education’s strengths, the structures and academic rigidity that come along with the disciplinary silos can prevent modifications/improvements to the roles of academic units/disciplines that could better prepare students for the future of both work and learning. The balancing of disciplinary structure with transdisciplinary approaches to solving problems and learning is a challenge that must be persistently addressed. These institutional challenges will only continue to limit universities seeking toward scaling transdisciplinary programs and experimenting with novel ways to enhance the value of higher education for students and society. This then restricts innovations to teaching and also hinders the sharing of important practices across disciplines. To address these concerns, a National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education project team, which is the topic of this paper, has set the goal of developing/implementing/testing an authentically transdisciplinary, and scalable educational model in an effort to help guide the transformation of traditional undergraduate learning to span academics silos. This educational model, referred to as the Mission, Meaning, Making (M3) program, is specifically focused on teaching the crosscutting practices of innovation by a) implementing co-teaching and co-learning from faculty and students across different academic units/colleges as well as b) offering learning experiences spanning multiple semesters that immerse students in a community that can nourish both their learning and innovative ideas. As a collaborative initiative, the M3 program is designed to synergize key strengths of an institution’s engineering/technology, liberal arts, and business colleges/units to create a transformative undergraduate experience focused on the pursuit of innovation—one that reaches the broader campus community, regardless of students’ backgrounds or majors. Throughout the development of this model, research was conducted to help identify institutional barriers toward creating such a cross-college program at a research-intensive public university along with uncovering ways in which to address these barriers. While data can show how students value and enjoy transdisciplinary experiences, universities are not likely to be structured in a way to support these educational initiatives and they will face challenges throughout their lifespan. These challenges can result from administration turnover whereas mutual agreements across colleges may then vanish, continued disputes over academic territory, and challenges over resource allotments. Essentially, there may be little to no incentives for academic departments to engage in transdisciplinary programming within the existing structures of higher education. However, some insights and practices have emerged from this research project that can be useful in moving toward transdisciplinary learning around topics of convergence. Accordingly, the paper will highlight features of an educational model that spans disciplines along with the workarounds to current institutional barriers. This paper will also provide lessons learned related to 1) the potential pitfalls with educational programming becoming “un-disciplinary” rather than transdisciplinary, 2) ways in which to incentivize departments/faculty to engage in transdisciplinary efforts, and 3) new structures within higher education that can be used to help faculty/students/staff to more easily converge to increase access to learning across academic boundaries. 

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3. Exploring Students’ Attitudes and Intentions in a Student-Staff Led Research Initiative

   Steffano Oyanader Sandoval, Andrea Arce-Trigatti (November 2022, The journal of educational innovation partnership and change)

   The purpose of this work is to explore how the experiences of two Hispanic-Latino graduate students acting as members of a Directorship Team (DT) that led an extracurricular, undergraduate research program called the Holistic Foundry Undergraduate Engaged Learners (FUEL) program influenced their attitudes and intentions with respect to this student-staff partnership. The Holistic FUEL program and the experiences of the DT were guided by the Renaissance Foundry Model (herein the Foundry) an innovation-driven learning platform. This provided a unique opportunity to evaluate how this Foundry-guided program shaped the attitudes and intentions of the two graduate student coordinators working with faculty within a student-staff partnership. As part of this case study, an inductive analysis of secondary data —including graduate coordinators’ post-program reflections, recruitment announcements prepared by the coordinators, and meeting notes— provide preliminary themes and insight into the ways in which their experiences influenced attitudes and intentions regarding partnerships with staff. Lessons learned offer insight into the internal personal transformations and type of relationships that support student-staff partnerships for implementing similar undergraduate programs. 

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4. The Role of Mentors in Student Innovation Competitions and Programs

   Prince, Alexa J.; Kulturel-Konak, Sadan; Konak, Abdullah; Schneider, David R.; Mehta, Khanjan (November 2022, ASEE Middle Atlantic 2022 Fall Conference)

   Many students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields seek to expand their technical knowledge, develop an innovative mindset, and build teamwork and communication skills. To respond to this need, many higher education institutions and foundations have broadened their co-curricular program offerings to include design challenges, hackathons, startup competitions, customer discovery labs, and pitch competitions that are designed to support and benefit student innovators. Faculty mentors are responsible for being available to students to answer questions, guide student thinking, and advise student teams to facilitate learning. For these students to gain crucial knowledge and at least be educationally successful in these programs, a mentor possessing key traits and using certain strategies is proven to be highly influential. While much research supports the importance and benefit of STEM students’ participation in these programs, literature discussing the effective strategies for mentoring students participating in these programs remains limited. Exploring the best mentoring practices will provide insight into how to support and prepare students for innovation competitions and their upcoming careers as well as catalyze their entrepreneurial minds for future success. Based on a series of interviews with experienced mentors of innovation competitions and programs, this paper presents a set of best practices for mentoring student innovation teams. 

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5. Building a Sustainable University-Wide Interdisciplinary Graduate Program to Address Disasters

   Paretti, M.C.; Deters, J.; Webb, M.; Menon, M. (July 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Disasters are becoming more frequent as the global climate changes, and recovery efforts require the cooperation and collaboration of experts and community members across disciplines. The DRRM program, funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship (NRT), is an interdisciplinary graduate program that brings together faculty and graduate students from across the university to develop new, transdisciplinary ways of solving disaster-related issues. The core team includes faculty from business, engineering, education, science, and urban planning fields. The overall objective of the program is to create a community of practice amongst the graduate students and faculty to improve understanding and support proactive decision-making related to disasters and disaster management. The specific educational objectives of the program are (1) context mastery and community building, (2) transdisciplinary integration and professional development, and (3) transdisciplinary research. The program’s educational research and assessment activities include program development, trainee learning and development, programmatic educational research, and institutional transformation. The program is now in its fourth year of student enrollment. Core courses on interdisciplinary research methods in disaster resilience are in place, engaging students in domain-specific research related to natural hazards, resilience, and recovery, and in methods of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. In addition to courses, the program offers a range of professional development opportunities through seminars and workshops. Since the program’s inception, the core team has expanded both the numbers of faculty and students and the range of academic disciplines involved in the program, including individuals from additional science and engineering fields as well as those from natural resources and the social sciences. At the same time, the breadth of disciplines and the constraints of individual academic programs have posed substantial structural challenges in engaging students in the process of building interdisciplinary research identities and in building the infrastructure needed to sustain the program past the end of the grant. Our poster and paper will identify major program accomplishments, but also draw on interviews with students to examine the structural challenges and potential solution paths associated with a program of this breadth. Critical opportunities for sustainability and engagement have emerged through integration with a larger university-level center as well as through increased flexibility in program requirements and additional mechanisms for student and faculty collaboration. 

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