Critical Analyses of Representation and Success Rates of Marginalized Undergraduate Students in Aerospace Engineering

Work In Progress: Implementation of a Skills Based Approach to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Senior Undergraduate Aerospace Capstones

“…Anecdotally, the new DEI module was successful in meeting its goals. Figure 4 provides a snapshot of Penn State's 2022-2023 Aerospace Engineering undergraduates, and it is clear from inspection that these demographics still do not reflect the racial and gender composition of the national average in engineering, although Penn State does have a 4% greater representation of female undergraduates who have declared aerospace engineering as their major when compared to all United States university programs offering that option [26]. In addition to increased awareness, student responses to the microaggression self-reflection were overwhelmingly heartfelt and deeply personal.…”

Expanding Access to and Participation in MIDFIELD (Year 6)

“…Dr. Corin Bowen attended our FIE 2021 MIDFIELD special session and shared that she had used our MIDFIELD work on Aerospace Engineering [13] in her work on Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan as part of her dissertation [14]. She highlighted that our research was the only work she could find that disaggregated by discipline, race, and sex.…”

Work in Progress: Implementing an Orbital Debris Macroethics Lesson in a Junior-Level Spacecraft Dynamics Course

“…Positionality was later explicitly defined as background and experiences [19], along with critical analysis of the effects of power between persons [20]. He commented on student gender, race, and socio-economic status (SES) demographics within aerospace engineering from a large, public, research-intensive university in the Midwest [21]. We added this component of the lesson because some students do not believe in, nor consider important, the disparities in representation that exist within their program.…”