Work in Progress: Designing a First-Year Hands-on Civil Engineering Course to Reduce Students Dropout and Improve the Overall College Experience

Abstract

in Ecuador. MiguelAndres is a civil engineer from USFQ (2009), was awarded a MSc in Civil Engineering -Construction Engineering and Management at Iowa State University (Fulbright scholar, 2012)and his PhD in Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech (2019), as well as two Graduate Certificate in Engineering Education and Future Professoriate. (i) ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE: Miguel Andrés was Project Manager of PREINGESA where he has directed construction projects in the development of urban infrastructure for urbanizations such as earthworks, drinking water works, sewerage, underground electrical cables and fiber optics, roads, aqueducts, water reservoirs, housing construction, among others. He was also a Project Management Associate for a Habitat For Humanity housing project in the USA. (ii) RESEARCH: MiguelAndrés' research focuses on (1) decision-making for the design and construction of infrastructure projects, (2) the planning of sustainable, smart and resilient cities, and (3) the development of engineers who not only have solid technical and practical knowledge, but also social understanding for, through infrastructure, address local and global challenges on humanitarian, environmental, social and equity issues. (iii) EDUCATION RESEARCH: Related to STEM education, Miguel Andrés is developing and applying contemporary pedagogies and tools for innovation and student empowerment to address climate change. Currently, MiguelAndrés is developing teaching and evaluation pedagogy that directs a philosophy of seeking excellence as a pillar to eradicate corruption.