Critical thinking is widely recognized as essential for education and professional practice, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI) transforms engineering education and work. This paper examines the relationship between AI and critical thinking in engineering through Mejía's three-sphere framework: intelligent tool use, comparative analysis of methods, and socio-technical impacts. We propose a research methodology to evaluate how generative AI can enhance critical thinking capabilities among engineering students. The study employs a mixed-methods approach across two engineering courses, with a framework that focuses on engineering-specific cognitive processes while integrating technical and sociotechnical considerations throughout the engineering lifecycle.

The involvement of women in engineering academia is essential for promoting diverse viewpoints and enhancing the research environment. Although gender inequalities in STEM fields have been extensively researched, engineering poses specific challenges that require focused attention as it still remains a discipline with low representation of women faculty and high attrition rates. This study employs the Capability Approach framework to investigate the research development experiences of ten female engineering faculty members at different career stages. It examines their capabilities and functionings, emphasizing available resources, conversion factors that impact their ability to transform these resources into capabilities, and the outcomes they achieve in research. The findings indicate that while overt gender discrimination has decreased, subtle institutional biases continue to affect those with family responsibilities. Success largely hinges on personal qualities such as determination and adaptability, as well as access to mentorship and professional networks. This study enhances the existing literature by exploring how the unique aspects of engineering academia, including its technical demands, dependence on experimental work and research funding, and traditionally masculine culture, present distinct challenges to women's research development compared to other STEM disciplines.

Competence-based curriculums are a global trend in engineering education. The ethical competence is relevant in the curriculum due to the impact engineers have on society. Assuring the quality of engineering student outcomes is often complex, and it is more so for ethical competencies due to its nature and the way it is developed. The objective of this research is to evaluate the perception of ethical competence in engineering students during their internships. To do this, the conation and action components of ethical competence are operationalized so they can be observed by supervisors. Ethical competence is measured through rubrics that evaluate interns performance and behaviors in day-to-day job activities. This five-year study was conducted at the School of Industrial Engineering, where 850 students were evaluated. Results allowed for the design and implementation of activities to help students improve their achievements in components in which they obtained lower marks. This study also provided feedback on the curricular design of the undergraduate industrial engineering program.

This study seeks to identify the effect that in-class teamwork activities have on the technical roles assumed by female engineering students in computer programming courses. During 2018 and 2019, a mixed methodology research was conducted in 2 phases. First, a qualitative study that consisted of 15 in depth interviews with current and former female engineering students. In addition, the research team conducted non-participatory observations in 2 courses, to identify elements of group dynamics in mixed gendered classes. This qualitative phase informed the quantitative study designed in the second phase. The quantitative phase took place in two computer programming courses associated to an undergraduate engineering program: Course A, which uses traditional lecture classes, and Course B, which uses project-based learning as the teaching methodology. In course B, a questionnaire (91 responses) was applied to identify the dynamics of role assignment in their teams. A self-efficacy questionnaire on computer programming was applied to courses A (n=33) and B (n =46) to compare the experience of women in the modality of individual and group work. The results indicate that women in course B tend to assume roles of coordination and work management, unlike men who define themselves as programmers or designers. The non-parametric tests applied indicate that when comparing the start and end of the course, the men and women of both courses significantly increased their overall self-efficacy. However, if only items that include execution tasks are considered, women in course B do not significantly improve their self-efficacy, unlike men from course B and both women and men from course A. Pedagogical recommendations are presented to improve self-efficacy of female engineering students in group-work based courses in computer programming subjects.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, most of the countries have achieved gender parity in educational attainment. Furthermore, Latin America and Europe have more women than men enrolled in tertiary education. The problem arises when those numbers are analysed by degree studies. There is a gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), with a low number of women enrolled in those programs and even lower numbers of graduates. The universities have a key role to steer new conceptions and understanding of the females in STEM. The higher education institutions have to define measures and policies to reduce the gender gap in the careers of the future. This work aims to provide a proposal to analyse the gender equality gap in STEM as a first step to define gender equality action plans focused on processes of attraction, access and retention and guidance in STEM programs. The proposal was applied in ten Latin American universities from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico, and five European universities from Finland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom.