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This research paper presents an autoethnographic study of a faculty-led community of practice assembled to promote reflection as a process to improve equity in engineering courses. The faculty participants (authors) committed to enact a variety of practices in self-reflection, reflection with colleagues, and reflection with students during one semester to build more equitable teaching and learning opportunities in their courses. This commitment came after participation in a series of DEI faculty development workshops in the previous semester and exploration of reflection practices during the formation of the community of practice. The theoretical framework central to this work is Lave and Wenger’s (1991) communities of practice that emphasizes members’ coming together around a common interest to share experiences, to collaboratively improve their work, and to solve shared problems. Communities of practice are increasingly common as vehicles for faculty development, especially to promote high-quality, equitable instruction (Borboa-Peterson, Ozaki, & Kelsch, 2021; Hoyt, et al., 2020). As such, this paper examines the impact of a community of practice on reflective teaching to advance the authors’ interest in expanding equity-oriented classroom teaching and learning opportunities for all faculty and students. Rooted in autoethnographic methodology (Belbase, Luitel, & Taylor, 2008), the study explores individual narratives and their intersections with the stories of other community members to better understand the experiences of engineering faculty who use purposeful reflection to promote educational equity. The authors construct a shared narrative that grew from the interactions with fellow community of practice members and explore the culture of engineering education at their institution and the opportunities and challenges of advancing more equitable teaching and learning. Findings include prevalent themes of successes and limitations to supporting equitable classrooms, the impact of a reflection-driven community of practice on individual teaching performances, and the strengths and challenges of enacted reflection techniques for engineering educators. 

Soft material robots are uniquely suited to address engineering challenges in extreme environments in new ways that traditional rigid robot embodiments cannot. Soft robot material flexibility, resistance to brittle fracture, low thermal conductivity, biostability, and self-healing capabilities present new solutions advantageous to specific environmental conditions. In this review, we examine the requirements for building and operating soft robots in various extreme environments, including within the human body, underwater, outer space, search and rescue sites, and confined spaces. We analyze the implementations of soft robotic devices, including actuators and sensors, which meet these requirements. Besides the structure of these devices, we explore ways to expand the use of soft robots in extreme environments with design optimization, control systems, and their future applications in educational and commercial products. We further discuss the current limitations of soft robots recognizing challenges to compliance, strength, and control. With this in mind, we present arguments for the future of robotics in which hybrid (rigid and soft) structures meet complex environmental needs. 

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Partnerships (LSAMP) program funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) brings together partner institutions of higher education to promote student success. Teams of regional partners build programs to support their students in academic, research, and career achievement. Developing programs that meet the needs of a cooperative alliance composed of institutions of varying sizes and types requires logistical planning and flexibility. This paper presents a summary of factors that were considered as a new alliance, Southern and Central Illinois LSAMP (SCI-LSAMP), established through a multi-year planning process. The goal of the alliance was to create an integrated LSAMP program that facilitates students' growth within their home institutions and builds connections across the alliance’s partner institutions. Factors considered to build a cohesive program include existing institutional programming, research infrastructure, administrator and faculty workflow, schedules and needs, and conversations with established LSAMP programs. This paper aims to serve as a roadmap for new alliances to consider as they plan for multi-institution collaborations. 

Reflection is often cited as a critical component of effective teaching, but the term itself and its related practices often remain ambiguous. Reflecting on one's teaching is an important exercise to better understand the approaches to and success towards creating inclusive classrooms. Therefore, engineering educators must become aware of reflective practices to be able to employ them in their work. We explored essential elements of highly effective reflection practices for equity-minded educators in a workshop where faculty participants learned about three reflective practices: (i) personal reflection, (ii) reflective engagement with colleagues, and (iii) reflection with students. Through collaboration with others, attendees evaluated various reflection techniques, discussed case studies, and considered supports and barriers to how purposeful reflection can support equity-minded engineering practitioners. From this workshop, a Community of Practice of faculty was formed to analyze individual reflective practices, identify practices applicable to their classrooms, and work together to employ reflection in seven classrooms across our college. In this practice paper, we evaluate each of the above reflective practices and their utility in contextualizing more equitable curricula in a variety of course types. Additionally, we provide an engineering education framework for using reflection to understand the classroom environment educators create and its impact on equitable student learning. This practice paper presents reflections from the workshop and outcomes from the Community of Practice activities to inform equity-minded reflective instruction in engineering. 

Ask your students what they think of when they hear the word robotics. Most students likely imagine a large, clunky machine used in a manufacturing plant or construction site. Other students may mention modern humanoid robots that appear in popular culture like C3PO from the Star Wars franchise. No matter the response, there is a good chance that nearly all students will mention a robot made of hard materials like metal. This article describes the introduction of a new field, soft robotics, into high school classrooms to broaden students’ perceptions of how robots can be used and who works on robotics. Soft robots are made from compliant materials, such as rubber or textiles, and have a wide variety of applications in the medical field, space exploration, and food distribution. This field provides an excellent opportunity to expand students’ view of robotics while learning how to think and design like an engineer.