Education Commons^™

Engineering Students At Typically Invisible Transition Points: A Focus On Admissions And The Sophomore Year, Elizabeth M. Holloway

Open Access Dissertations

As of 2012, women are approximately 19% of all engineering undergraduate students nationally (American Society for Engineering Education, 2012). Women's representation in engineering has not changed significantly over the last 20 years, despite increased attention, increased funding, and increased programmatic activities intended to encourage more women to become engineers. Research around the world continues to seek identification of the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in engineering. This prior work has focused primarily on two broad areas: recruiting, that is, preparation, socialization, exposure, and experiences prior to college; and retention, that is, experiences in higher education. Retention studies and programmatic …

Student Success: Approaches To Modeling Student Matriculation And Retention, Jien-Jou Lin

Open Access Dissertations

Every year a group of graduates from high schools enter the engineering programs across this country with remarkable academic record. However, as reported in numerous studies, the number of students switching out of engineering majors continues to be an important issue. Previous studies have suggested various factors as predictors for student retention in engineering. To assist the engineering students with timely advising early in their program, an effective prediction model of matriculation and retention in engineering that use available student data are highly desirable.

In the first part of this work, the author developed new prediction models of student retention …

How Engineering Innovators Characterize Engineering Innovativeness: A Qualitative Study, Daniel Michael Ferguson

Open Access Dissertations

The use of science and engineering skills to address the problems of modern society is regarded as an economic strategy in developed countries across the world. However, business and political leaders in the United States feel that we, as a society, do not understand that new global competition can match and even outpace us on innovation. Many of the studies on innovators are not specific to engineers. This study filled a gap in the understanding of what characteristics constitute innovative behavior in engineers.

The purpose of this study was to explore engineers' views of innovation and innovators who create and …