This research paper examines the transformative shift in the construction industry with the adoption of Construction 4.0 technologies, particularly robotics, and how these advancements impact the professional work values of construction personnel. The study employs a qualitative methodology, conducting semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of construction personnel, including both management and tradespeople, during a workshop where they interacted with construction robots. The effect of Construction 4.0 on professional work values in the construction industry has been insufficiently explored. The study provides new knowledge on the dual impacts of robot integration in construction, highlighting both the enhancement of certain professional work values and the challenges posed to others. Understanding these impacts is crucial for developing strategies that support both technological innovation and worker preparation. The study addresses the following research questions: How do construction personnel identify and describe the positive and negative impacts of robotic integration on specific professional work values? In what ways do participants perceive robots altering workplace dynamics and interpersonal relationships within the construction industry? What strategies do construction personnel suggest or foresee as necessary to mitigate the challenges posed by robotic integration? Using a qualitative research design, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with construction personnel who participated in a hands-on workshop with robots. Content analysis, incorporating both inductive and deductive coding, was used to identify key patterns and categories. Limitations include the small sample size, limited demographics, and the specific context of the workshop setting. The integration of robots positively influences professional work values such as professional development, work productivity, mutual vision for work, control of work schedules, and work conditions by reducing physical strain and enhancing efficiency. Conversely, it negatively impacts values related to the interactive work environment, effective communication, sense of belonging, and job security, primarily due to reduced human interaction and fears of displacement. These findings highlight the critical need for industry leaders and educators to develop strategies that balance technological advancements with the preservation of positive work values. Comprehensive training programs, continuous professional development, and fostering an inclusive, adaptive work culture are essential. This study advances our understanding of the human side of technological integration and provides actionable recommendations for creating a balanced and resilient future workforce.

Academic belonging is an important construct essential for student success in engineering. It involves a sense of connectedness, acceptance, and identification within the learners' academic environment. Students may disengage and ultimately drop out of their program of study where the sense of academic belonging is lacking. This work in progress bridges the gap by examining the correlates of academic belonging in order to understand the processes by which graduate engineering students develop a sense of belonging within their chosen programs. 227 graduate students from six universities in the United States completed the Postsecondary Student Engagement (PosSE) survey. Using Pearson Correlation, we evaluated the relationships between major valuing, achievement striving, major satisfaction, peer interaction, positive faculty relations, passion, perseverance, and academic belonging. The results show that major satisfaction has a positive strong relationship with academic belonging, while major valuing and positive faculty relations have a significant positive medium relationship with academic belonging. It was noted that achievement striving, and peer interaction has small positive but significant relationships with academic belonging. The theoretical and practical implications of this study will be discussed.

This Innovative Practice Paper describes the process and strategies employed by a discipline-based engineering education researcher that led to creating a sustainable research group supporting the continuing professional development of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. One challenge faced by early-career faculty situated within research-intensive universities is developing and sustaining a robust research enterprise that includes recruiting, funding, mentoring, and graduating students and postdoctoral researchers. For faculty involved in a new and/or developing research area (e.g., engineering education), the challenge increases exponentially with limited research support and ambiguous metrics of success. The paper uses a model of workforce sustainability as a lens through which the engineering education community can view approaches to developing graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The model of workforce sustainability includes eight attributes to define a workforce and its sustainability: nurturing, diversity, equity, health and well-being, connectivity, value, community, and maturity. In this paper, it is shown how the model guided the creation of a five-step process (with associated practices) to support the development of a sustainable research group: (1) Defining Goals and Values: Goal setting and reflection, (2) Onboarding Personnel: Retreat and Orientation, (3) Labeling Experience: Scholar Development and Faculty Practicum, (4) Uncovering Norms: Director Accessibility and Facilitation of Access, and (5) Informing Progress: Performance Evaluation. The primary goal of this innovative practice paper is to present a description and reflection that explain how the process and strategies have been used to create a sustainable research group in an emerging field like engineering education. Since the model provides an overview of key components of a process, this paper contributes an understanding of how to apply the model to maintain consistency and a rationale for practices, and how to attach individual practices to achieve stated outcomes or adapt the model to fit individual environment/context and desired outcomes.

This full research paper explores undergraduate construction and civil engineering (CCE) students' perspectives on the skills they need to be successful in their future careers. Previous research has identified important outcomes and attributes for engineering students to inform curriculum development. However, discrepancies between skills emphasized in the curriculum and those valued in industry have been reported. This potential disconnection raises questions regarding what students are trained to prioritize through their formal education and professional socialization, which has implications for their workforce development. This study explores what skills students believe they need and how/where they learned the importance of these skills. This work aims to connect these perspectives with those expressed by industry. The theoretical framework underpinning this research is a set of competencies that recent graduates need when entering the workforce, as identified by experienced professionals in CCE.This study employed a qualitative approach to explore student perceptions through semi-structured interviews. In 2019, 13 undergraduate CCE students at four U.S.A. institutions completed an interview. The transcripts were analyzed with a combination of inductive and deductive coding.At least one participant described 15 of the 19 competencies included in the guiding framework. The greatest number of students identified Communication, Humility, and Teamwork as important for success in their future field. Emergent competencies were Personal Persistence and Passion for Work. Students expressed that they primarily learned the importance of these skills and practiced them in internships and out-of-class activities. Although a few participants mentioned the classroom, the results indicate an opportunity for engineering educators to better emphasize these competencies in their courses and provide opportunities to foster their development. This research contributes an understanding of where expectations of students already align with industry perspectives, what gaps still need to be closed, and how engineering educators can help prepare students for the realties of the workforce.

Despite calls to increase diversity in engineering education and the professional workforce, there are persistent issues of underrepresentation for female and minority students. This challenge warrants consideration of underrepresented students' experiences both inside and outside the classroom and how they can contribute to persistence. Engagement in out-of-class activities has been linked to positive academic and interpersonal outcomes. However, access to, and impact of, these activities can vary for different groups of students. This session leverages an ongoing National Science Foundation CAREER project to explore out-of-class participation disaggregated by student demographics to provide a more nuanced profile of engagement and offer strategies for advising undergraduate engineering students.

Higher education institutions often describe goals for the student experience as a whole as well as define and guide the academic requirements to earn a degree. This paper seeks to ignite discussions on how lean engineering principles can improve the collegiate student's academic or educational experience. We explain how the principles that drive lean engineering can be operationalized in the context of engineering student success centers (ESSC) to obtain data driven evidence on aspects of its program, improve retention focused initiatives of the center, and reduce waste which allows for a more efficient use of resources. In this paper, the term `engineering student success centers' includes both minority and women in engineering programs as well as similar programs that provide academic services to undergraduate students, often underrepresented, in engineering. Recognizing that each of these programs offer a diverse and unique set of services, the conceptual approach described in this paper can be applied either directly or with minor modifications to their operations. We consider the student as the customer of these programs who seeks true value from his/her college experience. Therefore, lean engineering principles are advocated with the goals of improving student (customer) value, minimizing waste, and promoting efficiency and productivity.

We present an analysis of the influence of co-curricular experiences on the development of communication, professionalism, lifelong learning, teamwork, and reflective behavior skills for African-American engineering students. Astin's Inputs-Environments-Outputs, or I-E-O, model and the modifications made by Terezini and Reason provide the conceptual framework for this study. This framework supports out-of-class experiences as environments that develop student outcomes. While many studies have shown that co-curricular experiences are linked to student outcomes, this research offers specific insight into outcomes on African-American engineering students. With pervasive calls for diversity, investigating student outcomes for specific ethnic groups is imperative for educators to ensure that all students are properly prepared to enter the workforce. Driven by the National Academy of Engineers' Engineer of 2020 recommendations, our research utilizes two distinct data sets to investigate students' perceptions regarding five learning outcomes. This research offers nuanced insight into co-curricular experiences given broad categories of involvement (e.g. university-level organizations) and specific experiences (e.g. National Society of Black Engineers, NSBE). Results show that students who only participate in one type of experience may miss opportunities to develop additional skills. Additionally, results suggest that skill development enhances as the level of involvement increases.

Higher education and student affairs literature have detailed the impact of Black Greek Organizations (BGOs) on African American students' educational experiences. However, our work is the first examination of BGO membership in terms of impact on engineering students' educational experiences, and specifically skills deemed valuable by the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century. In our earlier study, results pointed to the many advantages of African American student participation in BGOs on their engineering educational experiences. Further, the data suggested that BGO membership has the potential to provide unique contributions to African American engineering students' persistence, academic achievement, and career paths. This paper builds on our previous work by examining how students' BGO experiences influence the development of specific skills described by the Engineer of 2020. Results of this qualitative study point to the potential advantages of African American engineering students participating in BGOs, particularly equipping them to succeed in the engineering workforce by instilling qualities of The Engineer of 2020. The significance of the work is also highlighted by the focus on BGOs, which have been a staple of the African-American culture and educational community for over 100 years.