Effective graduate advising relationships are critical to the success of both graduate students and faculty advisors. Despite the significance of strong advising relationships, little work has focused on promoting graduate advising as a mutually beneficial activity that creates value for both faculty and graduate students. In this special session, the facilitators aim to bridge this disconnect by sparking faculty participants' curiosity in discussing and reflecting on their current advising approaches and adapting their current advising practices to be more mutually valuable. The session will cover topics such as scaffolded mentoring, the Situated Expectancy Value Theory of Motivation and its connection to graduate advising, and evidence-based practices for effective advising. The special session is intended for engineering and computing graduate faculty advisors interested in improving their advising practices and is expected to result in revised mentoring strategies and approaches co-constructed with peer and facilitator input. The session will be facilitated by Mayra Artiles, Rachel Kajfez, Holly Matusovich, and Amanda Singer.

This work in progress paper presents baseline data from a study exploring student outcomes from participating in the EWB AU Design Challenge. Findings presented in this paper explore initial student perceptions of the role of an engineer reported prior to participating in the Challenge. This study builds on previous findings, providing richer detail about student understandings regarding what it means to be an engineer. To determine the influence that involvement in the EWB design challenge had on any potential shifts, course sections performing non-service-learning design projects were also surveyed for comparison. The ultimate goal of this work will be to compare pre-/post-surveys from both student groups. In this baseline data the cohorts appear substantially similar at the start of their courses.

This work in progress paper presents preliminary results from a broader study exploring student reflections on the Engineers Without Borders Australia Challenge during its pilot year at a Midwestern technical institution. Students were surveyed using Likert scale questions, as well as short response open-ended reflection questions. Convergent coding methods were used to identify emerging themes within student reflections. Student reflections of the Challenge were overwhelmingly positive. Students also reflected on their perception of the role of an engineer in society, citing the growing importance of empathy and global preparedness, and the need for a broad skill set that prepares the engineer to work in multidisciplinary teams and environments.