Board 124: Interpersonal Interactions that Foster Inclusion: Building Supports for Diversity in Engineering Teams

Abstract

Raised in South Florida, born in Mexico. Half Colombian and half Mexican; proud Mexilombian. Héctor acquired an MS in Computer Engineering and is currently pursuing a PhD in Engineering Education, both from Purdue University. His research interests are in investigating the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in engineering, tapping into critical methodologies and methods for conducting and analyzing research, and exploring embodied cognition.

Board 120: Understanding How First-year Engineering Students Create Effective, Collaborative, and Inclusive Teams

“…These results suggest that the experience of working in a diverse engineering team increased the progression of students' knowledge of diversity but reduced sensitivity. Simultaneously, the results also revealed the extent to which engineering culture shaped students' expectations about whether or not discussing diversity and inclusion belong in engineering classrooms [19].…”

“…From the results of our earlier work indicating a social-technical divide and through our qualitative exploration of students' diversity, we sought to understand how recent national events (i.e., the 2016 presidential election) impacted the engineering classroom and students' understanding of diversity [19]. This research focused on depoliticization (i.e., the removal of social issues) in engineering spaces and the effect of recent national events on first-year engineering students' attitudes about their political identity, social welfare, and perspectives of diversity.…”

Interpersonal Interactions in Engineering Teams: Findings from a Multi-year Mixed Methods Study at Three Institutions

“…This focus is especially vital as ABET has made explicit changes to its criteria that make creating an inclusive teaming environment an essential skill for engineers [12]. In response to these calls for change, research has begun to understand how engineering teaming experiences can be more inclusive [13]- [22].…”

Work in Progress: A Framework for an Improv Intervention to Increase Psychological Safety and Sense of Belonging on Student Engineering Design Teams

“…Engineering education has incorporated teamwork as a key component of the curriculum to prepare engineers for industry and to achieve a number of professional learning outcomes, including developing interdisciplinary teamwork skills [19]- [21], cultivating communication skills [22], and improving innovation and creativity [21], [23]. Research on teams in engineering education has shown that there can be both positive and negative outcomes for students working on these teams [24], [25]. It is therefore important to understand how we can ensure that teamwork leads to positive outcomes for students.…”