Enculturation of Diverse Students to the Engineering Practices through First-Year Engineering College Experiences

Abstract

Associate in Aerospace Engineering @ Texas A&M since 1/03. His research is focused on computational plasma modeling using spectral and lattice Boltzmann methods for studying plasma turbulence and plasma jets. His research has also included fluid physics and electric propulsion using Lattice-Boltzmann methods, spectral element methods, Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO), etc. Past research includes modeling single and multi-species plasma flows through ion thruster optics and the discharge cathode assembly; computer simulations of blood flow interacting with blood vessels; modeling ocean-air interaction; reacting flow systems; modeling jet engine turbomachinery going unstable at NASA for 6 years (received NASA Performance Cash awards). Dr. Richard also conducts engineering education research. Dr. Richard also studies how emerging technology can impact engineering education (e.g., eTextbooks with embedded simulations) and the complex correlation between instructional material and student development. Dr. Richard is involved in many outreach activities: e.g., tutoring, mentoring, directing related grants (for example, a grant for an NSF REU site). Dr, Richard is active in professional societies (American Physical Society (APS), American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), etc.), ASEE, ASME. Dr. Richard has authored or co-authored about 25 technical articles (21 of which are refereed publications). Dr. Richard teaches courses ranging from first-year introductory engineering project design, fluid mechanics, to space plasma propulsion. Dr. Wickliff has been honored with University of Houston's Distinguished Young Engineering Alumni Award, the Black Engineer of the Year Career Achievement Award for New Emerging Leaders and featured in several publications. She has presented keynote addresses, facilitated workshops and given motivational presentations at numerous civic and corporate forums domestically and internationally. She is a contributing author to Tavis Smiley's book, "Keeping the Faith", with her inspiring life story. She believes that her life's calling and thus career quest is to be a catalyst of signicant, positive change and growth for individuals and entities. However, through it all, Dr. Wickliff gives top priority to her relationship with God, her husband Oscar Smith and her three sons -Jamar Dugat, Raymond Wickliff and Cortlan Wickliff. Her work centers on P-16 engineering education research as a psychometrician, program evaluator, and institutional data analyst. As a psychometrician, she revised the PSVT:R for secondary and undergraduate students, developed the TESS (Teaching Engineering Self-efficacy Scale) for K-12 teachers, and rescaled the SASI (Student Attitudinal Success Inventory) for engineering students. As a program evaluator, she evaluated the effects of teacher professional development (TPD) programs on elementary teachers' attitudes toward engineering and students' STEM knowledge through a NSF DRK-12 project. As an institutional data analyst, she is investigating eng...

Enculturation of Diverse Students to the Engineering Practices through First-Year Engineering Experiences

“…Teamwork and communication skills appeared in student responses to all three questions, in various degrees. This supports an earlier study (Richard et al, 2016) that sought to quantify any correlation between teamwork and communication skills and engineering enculturation and some earlier observations. Cavenett and Rawson (2013) observed the importance of team or group work and interaction, especially group identity, and not just individual identity, to engineering.…”

“…This paper presents the analysis of engineering enculturation of a diverse group of students into engineering practices. Enculturation is defined in this study as the process by which an individual learns the traditional content of a culture and assimilates its knowledge, practices, and values (KPV) (Richard et al, 2016). We gathered information about students and their expectations regarding the process to becoming an engineer, by their learning of engineering culture (knowledge, practice, and values) through the engineering foundation course, interaction with faculty, teaching assistants, and peers, and other activities at a southwestern institution (Mendoza Diaz et al, 2017;.…”

First-Year Engineering Students' Perceptions of their Abilities to Succeed

“…In support of that goal, professors from that university are pursuing research to study the enculturation of students to the engineering profession. Enculturation is the process by which an individual learns the traditional content of a culture and assimilates its practices and values (Richard et al, 2016). In the study, we began by being mindful of the culture, norms and behaviors of the university and engineering department.…”

“…In studying the culture of the engineering profession and the expected ABET Engineering Student Outcomes at the southwestern university, the following key enculturation factors were identified and incorporated into the FYE experience (Richard et al, 2016…”

“…As a subset of the overall Engineering Enculturation research being performed by the faculty at the southwestern university (Mendoza Diaz et al, 2017;Richard et al, 2017), the primary purposes of this study are two folded: (a) to analyze students' perceptions of their current ability and corresponding academic success of the students in the foundation of engineering; and (b) to find any subgroup differences by gender and majority/minority status in their perceptions of current ability. The student participants were asked to self-report on their perceptions of their ability to perform the engineering student outcomes as set forth by ABET which align with the engineering enculturation outcomes that are taught in the FYE foundation courses.…”