This full research paper explores how academics and engineering professionals view the incorporation of DEI into engineering ethics codes. Engineering professional societies have integrated DEI explicitly or implicitly into their codes of ethics. Yet, DEI is contested and even banned in many institutions of higher education in the US. Thus, there is a need to understand the relationship between ethics and DEI in engineering, including how engineering practitioners and scholars view DEI should be canonized in the profession. In this study, we addressed two research questions: (1) “To what extent and in what ways did participants view it to be important to incorporate DEI into an engineering ethics code?” and (2) “How do participants view the incorporation of DEI into the IEEE code of ethics?” The research methodology included a qualitative analysis of interview responses from engineering academics and practicing engineers regarding the integration of DEI into engineering codes of ethics, as well as their perceptions of IEEE's current code of ethics. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 engineering faculty members and 25 engineering practitioners between June 2022 and April 2023. During interviews, we shared the IEEE code of ethics and asked participants to share their perspectives of the code. Participants felt that embedding DEI principles into engineering ethics codes was important to ensure equitable treatment, access, and representation across all levels of the profession. Many participants felt that ethics codes should have a more concerted focus on DEI and DEI principles, whereas some participants questioned whether DEI should be within an engineering ethics code at all. Findings from this study can inform future innovations at the nexus of ethics and DEI. We specifically hope this work will encourage professional societies to continue integrating DEI within engineering codes of ethics with the undergirding confidence that many stakeholders across both engineering and academic communities are supportive of such integration.

Student mental health issues have been on the rise in recent years. Many factors play a role in mental health issues, including culture and climate. Engineering culture is known to be very difficult and oftentimes toxic which can exacerbate mental health issues. This panel will discuss various mental health struggles and the ties between mental health and engineering culture. The goal of this panel is to get audience members thinking about how we can change engineering culture to be one that is more nurturing and places importance on mental well-being.

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) has been a structured program in engineering education curricula and pedagogies for almost three decades. EPICS aims to engage students with real-world and hands-on engineering practices while providing engineering solutions for the needs of communities locally and globally. Participating in EPICS helps engineering students develop their professional skills while applying their theoretical and technical knowledge towards a real-world service project. It also supports undergraduate engineering students' understanding of engineering practices and applications, thus positively impacting their professional formation as engineers. This paper explores how EPICS impacts engineering students' perspectives about their engineering majors based on their experiences in EPICS programs. A total number of 651 engineering students from various engineering majors and class standing responded to the end-of-semester survey. The survey was conducted in an EPICS program in a United States university during the academic years of 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. We conducted a thematic analysis of the student responses to an open-ended survey by inductive coding. They reflected on how their experiences in EPICS impacted their opinion of engineering as a major. Our findings showed that EPICS positively impacted most engineering students' thinking about engineering as their professional field. Some of the emerging themes included students developing a more nuanced understanding of real-world engineering applications, their professional and personal development, how to transfer theoretical knowledge into practice, engineers' impact on societies through projects, the connection between engineering and other disciplines, and developing a passion for engineering work. Understanding the impact of EPICS on students' perception of engineering itself can help us fully characterize the extent to which service-based programs affect students, thereby providing additional motivation to increase such programs' presence in undergraduate engineering education.

In this WIP research study, we depict our approach to investigating how US faculty members in engineering education conceptualize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The recruitment of underrepresented faculty members, retention of these faculty members, and institutional racism are continuing issues in higher education. Implementing DEI initiatives within institutions can help engineering departments effectively respond to the aforementioned issues. Prioritizing DEI in institutional cultures is not only morally necessary, but its incorporation may also affect minoritized individuals' feelings of belongingness and performance in research, teaching practices in classrooms, and service. We argue that is essential to understand faculty members' perceptions and experiences with DEI in order to modify institutional cultures in ways that can wholly realize DEI aspirations. The purpose of this study is to address the research questions, “How do faculty members in engineering conceptualize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?”, “How do faculty members in engineering experience Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in their work?”, and “How do faculty members' conceptions manifest in their experiences with DEI in their work?” We explored faculty members' experiences related to DEI in their work environment and participants unpacked experiences in research, teaching, or service. We collected interviews with 25 faculty members from engineering or philosophy programs who teach engineering students in U.S. universities. We used a purposeful recruitment method to include participants who self-identified across a range of demographic characteristics and who brought expertise in either DEI or engineering ethics. Findings from this study provide administrators, faculty members, professionals, and researchers in engineering education with strategies improve cultures by prioritizing DEI in U.S. higher education institutions and organizations.

This research full paper presents research around the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program that serves two key purposes to: 1) provide a structured approach for engineering students to engage in real-world, service-based projects and 2) provide technical support and expertise that may be critical to local and global community organizations. Hence, EPICS strives to offer a platform that fosters the collaboration of engineering students and communities. EPICS helps develop undergraduate students’ professional skills extending beyond the theoretical knowledge acquired in classrooms. EPICS has been a fixture in engineering education for over 15 years, with a strong focus on curricular and pedagogical interventions to help students gain professional skills. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perspectives of over 650 students who participated in EPICS at a U.S. university during the academic years of 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. We used natural language processing (NLP) to thematically analyze students’ responses to an open-ended survey administered at the end of their semester participating in the EPICS program. Students’ responses reflect their perspectives on the design process, teamwork, real-world experiences, and the challenges they face during the design process related to other people and the program. In our findings, students’ least favorite parts of EPICS were lectures and design reviews, while their favorite parts of EPICS were teamwork and engaging with community partners. Understanding the themes emerging from the data can help us better implement community-based educational initiatives and find ways to better engage students in community service-learning projects. Our research provides implications for practice and research.