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"Many engineering students from marginalized populations have had negative experiences regarding their identities (race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender expression, etc.) as a result of the culture in engineering. These negative experiences may range from microaggressions regarding a person’s marginalized identity – “It’s impressive for a woman to be in engineering” – to outright discrimination, such as being called a demoralizing slur by a peer. Often associated with these experiences is a lack of support or intervention from faculty, advisors, or staff, as well as difficulty finding mentors that students can identify with. This special session aims to share authentic stories from diverse engineering students to facilitate a discussion of solutions amongst attendees." 

"Abstract—The need for increasing diversity in engineering has paved the road for a rich wealth of literature exploring the experiences of marginalized students in these spaces. Much of this literature utilizes qualitative methodology to understand the experiences of these students, as told through their own words. However, work of this nature can often be influenced by the implicit biases that the researcher carries, as well as the inherent misalignment of power present between researcher and participant. These misalignments may be exacerbated when the researcher is interviewing a marginalized participant, while not identifying as part of a marginalized identity themselves. Students within the LGBTQ+ community may reside at multiple marginalized identities, and as such, the issues surrounding interviewing marginalized identities can be compounded further. Even the most well-intentioned and experienced researcher may find themselves in an interview with a marginalized individual in which implicit biases and unspoken power structures alter the trajectory of the interview. This paper seeks to provide an auto- ethnographic reflection by the first author on the interview of a transgender research participant, while simultaneously providing an opportunity to identify ways in which her interview could have been methodologically improved. This will be accomplished by the first author’s analysis of the interview and meta-data. This analysis is valuable, as the first author identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ engineering community herself." 

This paper explores the ways that students experience university-affiliated makerspaces as captured in interviews and during observations. Our research questions are focused on understanding the ways that engineering students have experienced makerspaces in a variety of institutions and institution-types, and their suggested ways of improving these makerspaces. In particular, we are interested in the ways that students from underrepresented groups have experienced these makerspaces and their suggestions for improvements to the makerspaces. Data collected for this study was gathered using semi-structured interviews with a diverse set of students from seven different institutions. An a priori codebook was developed to analyze transcribed interview data. The codes that are the focus in this study are the following: “experiences that shape identity,” “pathways to engineering,” and “recommendations for makerspaces” and the emergent patterns are around equipment-focused, logistical, curricular, and social recommendations for makerspaces. It was generally found that women and ethnic minorities tended to recommend social change in makerspaces, while men of all ethnicities tended to recommend equipment and technology changes. The implications of this study are to establish student makerspace recommendations in order to create more inclusive and welcoming environments in makerspaces and other engineering spaces.