The Middle School Students' Attitude to Mathematics, Science and Engineering Survey was developed to measure students' attitudes to engineering and knowledge about engineering careers as part of a program to enlarge the future pool of engineers because students' attitudes have been found to be an important predictor of whether students pursue careers in engineering. The program focuses on using pre-engineering curricula in middle and high schools, and informing students, teachers, parents, and school counselors about careers in engineering because most students do not know what engineering is or what engineers do and therefore do not explore engineering as a career option or prepare for it academically in the critical middle or high school years. Continued use of the survey with younger students indicated that the language used in some of the questions was too sophisticated for some middle school students and the survey has been revised. A study was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the revised survey with a large sample of academically diverse middle school students. Comparisons among groups of students exposed to pre-engineering concepts in various different ways in their science and mathematics classes have been made to explore the extent to which the exposure may have affected students' attitudes to engineering and knowledge of engineering careers.

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The Center for Pre-College Programs at New Jersey Institute of Technology sponsors a series of summer enrichment programs designed to increase academically talented students' interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Programs such as these can be instrumental in informing young students about careers in engineering and technology and helping ensure they receive the academic background required to prepare for these careers in college. One of the programs has been designed specifically for young girls in an effort to increase the number of women interested in engineering and other technological careers. Although there is much debate about the relative effectiveness of female-only programs, previous research comparing aspects of our female-only program to equivalent mixed-gender programs has shown that they can be particularly effective in reaching young girls, influencing their perceptions of engineers and attitudes toward engineering as a career. The addition of equivalent male-only programs has prompted additional research comparing changes in students' perceptions of engineers and attitudes toward engineering, as well as increases in learning and content knowledge. The three different gender grouped programs (female-only, male-only and mixed-gender) were identical in content. The single gender programs within the same grade were taught by the same teacher. Although the mixed gender programs were taught by a different teacher the curriculum was exactly the same. In addition to objective measures of effectiveness, teachers were interviewed to collect qualitative data about the climate in the classroom and students' interactions within the three different gender groupings. Results show differential effects among the programs, not only in terms of perceptions, attitudes and learning, but also in the classroom climate and students' interactions in the classroom.

Rearrangeable Clos networks have been studied in the literature in connection with telephone switching and communication networks. This paper examines the applicability of matching and edge-coloring in bipartite graphs to the rearrangement problem in these networks. A survey of various matching and edge-coloring algorithms is given, and these algorithms are evaluated for their suitability and effectiveness. It is shown that no single matching or edge-coloring algorithm reported in the literature performs well over all Clos networks. It is further shown that the time complexity of the looping algorithm for BeneS networks is at least as good as any routing algorithm that can be obtained from matching or edge-coloring.

Kimmel has been a leader in the area of precollege programs from the inception of the Center in 1980. He has directed in-service training programs for pre-college teachers for 35 years that are designed to improve the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in secondary and elementary schools, and to improve and enrich science and mathematics curricula and the implementation of standards-based instruction in K-12 classrooms. Kimmel has had numerous NSF grants and state grants focusing on professional development, curriculum, and assessment. In addition, he is a member of the assessment committee for chemical engineering.