Every student deserves to thrive in an educational environment. The unjustified need for conformity in the current pre- and post-secondary education systems is causing significant damage to the mental health and self-efficacy of our non-traditional learners, specifically neurodiverse populations like those with ADHD, dyslexia, and autism, amongst others. Sadly, our education system follows the deficit-based paradigm used in the medical model, which stigmatizes neurodivergent learners and overlooks their unique potential for contributing to the technological advancement of the nation.

Dr. Redd will discuss how APLU, a higher education association with a membership of 244 public research universities, helps catalyze institutional transformation. She will provide lessons learned from her different projects that focus on improving undergraduate STEM education, diversifying the professoriate, building networks and partnerships, advancing open science, and broadening what counts for impactful work by faculty and staff.

As the need for engineers in society continues to increase, there remains a critical national priority to broaden participation in engineering. This research focuses on strategies to more effectively integrate engineering opportunities at home.

Our iUSE project is the culmination of several projects that we desired to bring to a larger university community. In Psychology, Project Knowledge (PK) was an intensive near-peer mentoring program that identified student academic skills and behaviors needed for academic success.

The Journal of Engineering Education (JEE) reflects our academic community as it fulfills its mission is to cultivate, disseminate and archive scholarly research in engineering education. Scholarly research is shaped in large part through peer review; peer reviewers are liaisons between a journal and members of its professional community and are thus crucial for creating an equitable and inclusive experience for authors. However, there is little preparation or training for peer reviewers in critiquing manuscripts or writing thorough and constructive reviews.

In this seminar, I plan to discuss the importance of incorporating the voices of our students in our teaching practices.

Every year, newly graduated engineers enter the workforce to begin their engineering careers. During the school to workplace transition, significant learning occurs even for well-trained new engineers. New employees must socialize to the workplace, a critically important developmental task.