The Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships at UC Santa Barbara serves as a central resource for the education and professional development of current and future scientists and engineers. By implementing activities to increase diversity in STEM and by developing educational programs in STEM fields, CSEP is an irreplaceable resource for faculty and students at UC Santa Barbara. My interest in program evaluation led me to Dr. Lubi Lenaburg, Evaluation and Assessment Program Manager at CSEP in summer 2015, and I have since been supervised by her on a number of engaging projects, listed below.
Workforce Development, American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics)
Summer 2016 - Winter 2017 The Workforce Development (WFD) team of AIM Photonics aims to catalyze the education-to-workforce pipeline by assessment of industry needs, coordinating internships, and promoting photonics outreach programs. As part of the WFD team, I interviewed leaders in the integrated photonics industry to identify workforce needs and skills gaps, wrote grants to fund WFD programs, and evaluated programs to increase undergraduate awareness of the field of photonics. |
Best practices in teaching design in 4-year undergraduate Mechanical Engineering programs
Summer 2016 - Spring 2017 Driven by industry needs and an increasing focus on project based learning, engineering design courses have become increasingly important in undergraduate mechanical engineering (ME) education in the U.S. This study sought to understand the motivation of how four-year design curricula are structured at ME programs in the U.S. For this study, I interviewed faculty at ME departments across the U.S. and synthesized research on engineering design education to determine best practices in structuring a 4-year design curricula. |
Technical writing education in undergraduate Chemical Engineering curricula
Summer 2016 - Summer 2017 Technical communication is a highly valued skill that Chemical Engineering (ChE) students are expected to develop during their undergraduate career. This study measured the impact of changes to specific ChE courses meant to guide the learning trajectory by which ChE students acquire technical writing skills throughout the B.S. curriculum and assessed student attitudes towards the importance of technical writing. This project involved database management using Microsoft Access, data analysis using SPSS, and conducting focus group interviews with students. |
Evaluation of diversity programs at the University of Washington, Seattle College of Engineering
Winter 2016 The University of Washington, Seattle (UW) is committed to improving the diversity of its undergraduate engineering student body through several initiatives, called Diversity and Access Programs. I was employed by UW to assess the effectiveness of these programs by analyzing institutional data to extract relevant numbers such as graduation rates and retention rates. This project involved learning statistical analysis, SPSS data analysis software, and data management software, as well as conducting focus group interviews with students. |
Evaluation of Mechanical Engineering undergraduate design capstone course
Summer 2015 - Winter 2015 Capstone design courses, which typically occur during the senior year, have become a staple of undergraduate engineering programs. Due to the open-ended nature of such courses, it is difficult to assess student learning on design topics. In this study, I surveyed students to identify shortcomings in the course, designed and implemented course improvements to address these shortcomings, and determined the efficacy of the improvements through additional surveys, focus group interviews, and analysis of education literature. This project involved learning PHP programming and interview skills. |