IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2023
Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited ... more Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited understanding of the influence of tangibles with lower perceptual richness on design thinking skills within educational settings. It is speculated that tangibles may ease the visualization and communication of ideas, enhance interactions and collaboration, as well as create a playful experience for participants. With imposing external constraints, tangibles can help students prioritize and focus on essential elements in communication and developing narratives around their proposals, and create a relatively simple platform for thinking and reasoning through different perspectives, replicating what designers do in real-world practice. We initiated a study to explore the use of tangibles in a graduate-level management course at a technical university in Switzerland. Three different tangible activities, using LEGO bricks, were incorporated during earlier phases of the design thinking process, and student groups were encouraged to take advantage of the tangibles. Employing a qualitative case study approach, this study explored the influence of using tangibles concerning design thinking characteristics. While most students demonstrated engagement, collaboration, and playfulness during the activities, the results showed that the explicit benefits of tangibles depend on the type of activity and group dynamics. The primary benefit reported was when students worked on developing problem statements where they co-created meaning by manipulating LEGO pieces. The use of tangibles not only helped students with visualization and communicating ideas; it added flexibility for exploration as ideas emerged through conversational and material practices. Specifically, the findings demonstrated the benefits of tangibles concerning two traits of design thinking: experimentalism and collaboration. In this paper, we elaborate on the underemphasized role of tangibles concerning transversal skills and point out critical criteria for developing and incorporating tangible activities within higher education settings. Reflecting on the results, we argue that using tangibles can facilitate developing collective understanding.
A graduate level engineering ethics course developed by the support of the National Science Found... more A graduate level engineering ethics course developed by the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been offered in the last eight years at a large land-grant university. The course aims to address relationships between engineering, science, and society and incorporates listening exercises, personal reflections, individual and group projects, and case studies within four major units of inquiry: Learning to Listen, Responsible Conduct of Research, Responsible Conduct of Practice, and Witnessing Wrongdoing and the Obligation to Prevent Harm.
We started a project centered around moral imagination in 2019 to enhance the previous curriculum. The major changes included two learning modules, each for two and half hours, developed explicitly to provoke and encourage imagination, which is one of the major goals of ethics instruction. The course provides a context for rather unconventional intervention in the form of these modules, and there is a hope that students will benefit from explicit attention to the concept of imagination by incorporating some philosophical and fiction pieces. Imagination discussed as an essential character of thinking and understanding urges us to pay attention to otherwise obscured patterns of human suffering. The modules make a connection and expand the existing discussion on bias, institutional culture, and power relations. The first module is in connection with everyday decision-making, how we think, and the role of bias. Two readings were considered for the first module: "Moral Insight" by Josiah Royce and an excerpt from I and Thou by Martin Buber. The second module highlights institutional culture and systematic oppression. The intent in this module is to make a shift from negative ethic-- passive role/do not harm-- to a more positive ethic-- active role/add good-- and emphasize the importance of power relations and collective responsibility. Two readings were chosen for the second module: "The Ones Who Walk Away" from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin and "From Cruelty to Goodness" by Philip Hallie.
In this paper, we first discuss the concept of imagination informed by the literature. Then, we present an overview of the course, including a narrative from the perspective of a student, and review the modules and pedagogical methods. Finally, we report on the data collected from students' pre- and post-surveys in 2019 and 2020.
The revolutionary changes in ABET EC 2000 accreditation criteria promoted the address of critical... more The revolutionary changes in ABET EC 2000 accreditation criteria promoted the address of critical thinking in engineering curricula by emphasizing such outcomes as ethics, social and global context, communication, lifelong learning and contemporary issues in addition to technical work in design and problem solving. However, the mainstream notion of critical thinking as used in the educational settings is often connected with the conceptions of reasoning and logic. Critical thinking is often seen as a skill in line with decision making and problem solving applications. The extent and degree of success of addressing critical thinking is still under question.
Liberation as its own field of praxis and theory which has been excluded from formal education, can provide a unique contribution in changing status quo. For the oppressed to get engaged in the process of discovery and transformation, critical thinking is such a crucial component. In this paper, liberation as a program of praxis and theory will be introduced. Then considering different stages in a liberatory process, the role of critical thinking in liberation struggle will be discussed and evaluated. Finally, paper focuses on contribution of liberatory scholars and in particular Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa in addressing promising components of critical thinking such as relation, communication, and imagination. This paper aims to raise awareness regarding liberation scholarship as a resource for researchers and practitioners in engineering education.
Stimulating students’ imaginations and promoting their ability to navigate ambiguities are among ... more Stimulating students’ imaginations and promoting their ability to navigate ambiguities are among some of the major goals of teaching ethics. Yet, often imagination and ambiguity do not get treated as crucial in ethics instruction for engineers. Rather, the primacy of eliminating ambiguities through empirical and reductive methods dominates STEM education paradigms. In this paper, we argue that scholars of liberatory praxis and theory, in particular the approaches outlined by Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa, offer unique contributions for creating an environment that encourages imagination and engagement with ambiguity. Though it remains an open question whether imagination and ambiguity benefit technical aspects of engineering design, learning and practicing ethical reasoning requires imaginal reasoning that supports adaptive responses to ambiguous circumstances. We present our experiences with developing a specific lesson plan aimed at bolstering imaginative modes for an ethics module that has been implemented in a NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in a large land-grant university. The sample ethics discussion session was developed as part of the professional development activities in the program. Some major topics discussed in the session included ethical theory, ethical reasoning, bias, power, oppression, identity, and two case studies on environmental injustice. During the session, students were engaged in several freewrite tasks and reflected on their thoughts and feelings. After the program, students were invited to complete a post-program survey and participate in a focus-group interview. Students reflected on their research experiences, social experiences, and different professional development activities including the ethics discussion session. With regards to the session, our intention was to learn about students’ experiences rather than exploring a particular question or quantifying the effectiveness of the session. Overall, we received positive and unexpected responses from participants that may shed light on the importance and relevance of liberatory praxis and theory as a key resource in bridging conventional STEM design paradigms and ethics.
Research collaborations between faculty members have become a typical practice in higher educatio... more Research collaborations between faculty members have become a typical practice in higher education. Faculty increasingly engage in collaborative work, individually or as part of a team, within their own institution or across institutions. Inter-institutional collaboration, as a form of partnership across domains, disciplines, institutions, and countries (Leachy, 2016), is also becoming more common and funding agencies encourage and in some cases require such practices (Cummings and Kiesler, 2005; Sonnenwald, 2007). Despite uncertainty about the influence on scientific productivity (Lee and Bozeman, 2005) and challenges of coordination and communication (Cummings and Kiesler, 2005), research collaboration between faculty across institutions has grown significantly over the past several decades (Jones et al. 2008). However, when it comes to collaboration across institutions with different identities and missions, the situation is less encouraging. Collaborations among elite schools and research-intensive universities appear to dominate multi-university partnerships and faculty tend to collaborate with individuals who are affiliated with institutions with similar status level as theirs, independent of geographic distance (Jones et al. 2008). Overall, inter-institutional collaborations among Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and research-intensive universities appear far more well supported and likely than between PWIs and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or other minority-serving institutions (MSIs). The Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) at Virginia Tech has deployed a unique seed funding program, the ICTAS Diversity and Inclusion Seed Investment (ICTAS D&I Investment), since 2016 to build direct faculty-to-faculty research partnerships between faculty at Virginia Tech, a PWI, and faculty at HBCUs/MSIs. Research centers and institutes typically provide some level of support for facilitating different research activities, in which collaboration is encouraged (Biancani et al. 2018; Boardman and Corley, 2008). A unique feature of the ICTAS D&I Investment though is its diversity-focused nature that promotes research collaboration across different types of institutions. ICTAS expects the partnerships to result in research proposals and the hope is that collaborative partners at Virginia Tech and HBCUs/MSIs maintain their working relationships beyond the duration of funded partnership. During the last three years (2016-2019), 50 awards of $10k were made to help build and foster collaborative efforts between Virginia Tech faculty and HBCUs/MSIs partners. As a result, twenty-three different HBCUs/MSIs and at a minimum of 38 distinct collaborative pairs were involved in the program. Within Virginia Tech, six colleges and four centers/institutes were involved with the ICTAS D&I Investment, with most of the awards associated with the College of Engineering and the College of Science. This investment has helped faculty by providing resources for travel, joint publications, reciprocal visits to teach and offer guest lectures, and provide access to Virginia Tech facilities to the HBCUs/MSIs faculty as well as exposing students to increased research and education opportunities at both institutions. We initiated a study with the motivation of developing strategies to evaluate the outcomes of the research collaborations resulting from this seed funding program that focuses on the process oriented illustration of inter-institutional collaboration and explores the nature/quality of the collaborations (Jalali et al. 2019). The study’s focus was then shifted and narrowed to explore factors that may influence sustaining faculty research collaborations across universities using a qualitative multiple case study. In reviewing the literature along the way, it was realized that despite the growing collaboration within and across institutions, study of the process and the dynamics of collaboration has remained under explored, specifically in connection with institutions with different missions. This paper aims to catalyze attention to the subject of process-based collaboration and shed light on theories, frameworks, and “thinking tools” that can resolve some of the complexities embedded in engaging in such studies. We first review the literature within engineering education and highlight the limitations. Second, we expand on the concept of the process of (research) collaboration and its importance informed by the literature. Next, we explore different views towards the role of theory in studying research collaboration. Finally, we briefly review the research design and address potential propositions that may provide an account and explain different factors that influence the sustainability of research collaboration.
The HBCU/MSI Research Summit is a collaborative effort initiated in 2016 to facilitate interinsti... more The HBCU/MSI Research Summit is a collaborative effort initiated in 2016 to facilitate interinstitutional partnerships between Virginia Tech, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). Each year, students and faculty from HBCUs and MSIs are invited to Virginia Tech for a two-day program. The major objectives of the summit is to: 1) develop on-campus opportunities for visiting undergraduate and master’s students to learn about advanced degree programs and research opportunities; 2) facilitate in-person interaction among faculty to build relationships and explore potential opportunities to initiate and foster collaborations; and 3) to facilitate discussion about shared degree programs and inter-institutional agreements. As part of the initiative, the program offers several workshops for students to attend and provides a unique context for faculty to engage in discussion on partnerships and explore research and teaching opportunities. Starting in 2018, the program organizers built on the previous efforts and initiated a research study to better understand participants’ experiences at the program, evaluate its effectiveness, and explore the factors influencing the creation and persistence of inter-institutional partnerships. In this paper, we discuss the program as a model for facilitating inter-institutional partnership and some preliminary results that capture the impact of the program with the focus on students’ engagement and recruitment. In what follows, we elaborate on the importance of broadening participation, as one of the major objectives of the program. Then, we present the background and major elements of the summit. Next, we briefly describe the 2018 HBCU/MSI Research Summit, outline the details of our evaluation strategies and present the results for the year 2018. Finally, we reflect on our experience and provide some initial recommendations that can inform the development of similar programs at other institutions.
Engineering educators have used different strategies to incorporate ethics instruction into engin... more Engineering educators have used different strategies to incorporate ethics instruction into engineering curricula, often in response to the ABET requirements on students’ understanding of professional and ethical responsibility. The mainstream pedagogical approaches predominantly are case studies supplemented with moral theory and professional codes of ethics. Despite a greater emphasis on engineering culture, real-world practices, macroethics and the need for collective responses, and social justice in engineering ethics literature, it is still not surprising to see a continual reliance on presupposed “correct” responses for a given case; overemphasis on heroic actions and unusual mistakes without contextual considerations; and overlooking of the importance of society and peer culture in the teaching of ethics. In this paper, we argue that addressing imaginal capacity as a core component in ethics curriculum helps educators to move beyond isolated and product-oriented pictures of engineering ethics instruction and illustrate ways to bridge complexities embedded in how we think and how we relate to one another in society. The process of realization of different, and perhaps opposing, aims in everyday decision making and moving towards realization of another person’s existence and experiences should be a canon of the quality of ethics instruction. How can we then develop a dialogue to help engineers in dealing with ethical challenges? Ethics instruction that raises awareness of an individual’s process of making ethical decisions, presents ethics as a continuum from student experiences to professional ones, and humanizes conflicting perspectives is argued to effectively address higher level ethical decision processes. Student responses to macroethics and social justice decisions beyond the classroom can only be affected if ethics instruction goes beyond raising awareness of issues and instead influences student decision processes. We build on conceptual notions of the moral insight, illustrated by idealist and pragmatist scholar Josiah Royce, and the I-Thou and I-It attitudes, described by philosopher Martin Buber; and move to the resources in liberation theory and praxis and build on the notions used by Royce and Buber in connection with broader context. Then, we present preliminary ideas for converting theoretical perspectives into classroom praxis. Examples of modifications to an ethics curriculum that is currently in use for the senior-level engineering class, Design of Steel Structures, in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States are presented to initiate discussion. This curriculum has implemented a series of assignments that probe ethics development throughout the semester, complementing traditional ethics instruction in a companion course.
6th Iran International Conference on Engineering Education, 2019
The importance of incorporating ethics instruction into engineering curricula has been demonstrat... more The importance of incorporating ethics instruction into engineering curricula has been demonstrated by scholars, engineers, and industrial managers in Iran. However, limited work has been done on strategies for integration of engineering ethics into teaching and learning. This paper aims to address fundamental questions about intents, missions, and visions in teaching engineering ethics and foster attention to some of the complexities embedded in developing curriculum and pedagogy, such as learning objectives and instructional approaches. We hope this study will encourage further discussion on engineering ethics instruction among scholars and policy-makers that can be translated into mainstream engineering education in Iran.
Journal of International Engineering Education, 2024
Despite the increasing number of international programs targeting students’ learning of research ... more Despite the increasing number of international programs targeting students’ learning of research and intercultural skills, there has been limited holistic investigation of students’ experiences employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. In this study, we incorporated several measures to explore students’ experiences in an International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program, which benefited from the existing partnership between Virginia Tech in the U.S. and Shandong University in China. We examined students’ intercultural competence and interdisciplinary research skills and explored students’ stories of their lived experiences across three cohorts, each with five students, who completed the IRES program. Both open-ended survey responses and interview data demonstrate that the experience allowed students to learn skills involving the various tools, methods, and processes needed to conduct experiments and solve interdisciplinary problems. In particular, qualitative data further demonstrated the influence of the program on students’ desire to pursue graduate degrees and navigate the research process. While the behavioral dimension of cultural intelligence did not show a major improvement, student interviews suggested enhanced student abilities in interpersonal interactions, including non-verbal and verbal means for effective communication. We provide explanations for the differences between quantitative and qualitative results. Reflecting on the results, we elaborate on the importance of structural elements necessary for creating international experiences for students and the need to examine students' learning processes using different means of data collection.
Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited ... more Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited understanding of the influence of tangibles with lower perceptual richness on design thinking skills within educational settings. It is speculated that tangibles may ease the visualization and communication of ideas, enhance interactions and collaboration, as well as create a playful experience for participants. With imposing external constraints, tangibles can help students prioritize and focus on essential elements in communication and developing narratives around their proposals, and create a relatively simple platform for thinking and reasoning through different perspectives, replicating what designers do in real-world practice. We initiated a study to explore the use of tangibles in a graduate-level management course at a technical university in Switzerland. Three different tangible activities, using LEGO bricks, were incorporated during earlier phases of the design thinking process, and student groups were encouraged to take advantage of the tangibles. Employing a qualitative case study approach, this study explored the influence of using tangibles concerning design thinking characteristics. While most students demonstrated engagement, collaboration, and playfulness during the activities, the results showed that the explicit benefits of tangibles depend on the type of activity and group dynamics. The primary benefit reported was when students worked on developing problem statements where they co-created meaning by manipulating LEGO pieces. The use of tangibles not only helped students with visualization and communicating ideas; it added flexibility for exploration as ideas emerged through conversational and material practices. Specifically, the findings demonstrated the benefits of tangibles concerning two traits of design thinking: experimentalism and collaboration. In this paper, we elaborate on the underemphasized role of tangibles concerning transversal skills and point out critical criteria for developing and incorporating tangible activities within higher education settings. Reflecting on the results, we argue that using tangibles can facilitate developing collective understanding.
Towards a new future in engineering education, new scenarios that european alliances of tech universities open up
Professional engineering work occurs in dynamic, complex contexts that require engineers to lever... more Professional engineering work occurs in dynamic, complex contexts that require engineers to leverage various skills beyond their technical competencies to work productively with different stakeholders. Problem-solving is not merely a technical endeavor; educators and practitioners have long realized the synergistic connection between technical proficiency and complex personal and interpersonal competencies, such as critical thinking and communication skills. Since the 1990s, the topic of transversal or professional skills has been a common thread in engineering education literature. Engineering accreditation bodies such as Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) and Commission des titres d’ingénieur (CTI), and engineering curriculum models such as the conceive-designimplement- operate (CDIO) have highlighted the importance of various transversal skills in professional engineering work. Today, there is a general agreement among engineering educators and scholars about t...
Yousef Jalali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. H... more Yousef Jalali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.Eng. in Energy Systems Engineering. His research interests include interaction between critical thinking, imagination, and ethical reasoning, interpersonal and interinstitutional collaboration, diversity, equity, and inclusion, systems thinking, and chemical engineering learning systems. Yousef taught chemical engineering courses for a few years in his home country, Iran, and first-year engineering courses for several semesters at Virginia Tech. He has provided service and leadership in different capacities at Lehigh University and Virginia Tech.
IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2023
Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited ... more Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited understanding of the influence of tangibles with lower perceptual richness on design thinking skills within educational settings. It is speculated that tangibles may ease the visualization and communication of ideas, enhance interactions and collaboration, as well as create a playful experience for participants. With imposing external constraints, tangibles can help students prioritize and focus on essential elements in communication and developing narratives around their proposals, and create a relatively simple platform for thinking and reasoning through different perspectives, replicating what designers do in real-world practice. We initiated a study to explore the use of tangibles in a graduate-level management course at a technical university in Switzerland. Three different tangible activities, using LEGO bricks, were incorporated during earlier phases of the design thinking process, and student groups were encouraged to take advantage of the tangibles. Employing a qualitative case study approach, this study explored the influence of using tangibles concerning design thinking characteristics. While most students demonstrated engagement, collaboration, and playfulness during the activities, the results showed that the explicit benefits of tangibles depend on the type of activity and group dynamics. The primary benefit reported was when students worked on developing problem statements where they co-created meaning by manipulating LEGO pieces. The use of tangibles not only helped students with visualization and communicating ideas; it added flexibility for exploration as ideas emerged through conversational and material practices. Specifically, the findings demonstrated the benefits of tangibles concerning two traits of design thinking: experimentalism and collaboration. In this paper, we elaborate on the underemphasized role of tangibles concerning transversal skills and point out critical criteria for developing and incorporating tangible activities within higher education settings. Reflecting on the results, we argue that using tangibles can facilitate developing collective understanding.
A graduate level engineering ethics course developed by the support of the National Science Found... more A graduate level engineering ethics course developed by the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been offered in the last eight years at a large land-grant university. The course aims to address relationships between engineering, science, and society and incorporates listening exercises, personal reflections, individual and group projects, and case studies within four major units of inquiry: Learning to Listen, Responsible Conduct of Research, Responsible Conduct of Practice, and Witnessing Wrongdoing and the Obligation to Prevent Harm.
We started a project centered around moral imagination in 2019 to enhance the previous curriculum. The major changes included two learning modules, each for two and half hours, developed explicitly to provoke and encourage imagination, which is one of the major goals of ethics instruction. The course provides a context for rather unconventional intervention in the form of these modules, and there is a hope that students will benefit from explicit attention to the concept of imagination by incorporating some philosophical and fiction pieces. Imagination discussed as an essential character of thinking and understanding urges us to pay attention to otherwise obscured patterns of human suffering. The modules make a connection and expand the existing discussion on bias, institutional culture, and power relations. The first module is in connection with everyday decision-making, how we think, and the role of bias. Two readings were considered for the first module: "Moral Insight" by Josiah Royce and an excerpt from I and Thou by Martin Buber. The second module highlights institutional culture and systematic oppression. The intent in this module is to make a shift from negative ethic-- passive role/do not harm-- to a more positive ethic-- active role/add good-- and emphasize the importance of power relations and collective responsibility. Two readings were chosen for the second module: "The Ones Who Walk Away" from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin and "From Cruelty to Goodness" by Philip Hallie.
In this paper, we first discuss the concept of imagination informed by the literature. Then, we present an overview of the course, including a narrative from the perspective of a student, and review the modules and pedagogical methods. Finally, we report on the data collected from students' pre- and post-surveys in 2019 and 2020.
The revolutionary changes in ABET EC 2000 accreditation criteria promoted the address of critical... more The revolutionary changes in ABET EC 2000 accreditation criteria promoted the address of critical thinking in engineering curricula by emphasizing such outcomes as ethics, social and global context, communication, lifelong learning and contemporary issues in addition to technical work in design and problem solving. However, the mainstream notion of critical thinking as used in the educational settings is often connected with the conceptions of reasoning and logic. Critical thinking is often seen as a skill in line with decision making and problem solving applications. The extent and degree of success of addressing critical thinking is still under question.
Liberation as its own field of praxis and theory which has been excluded from formal education, can provide a unique contribution in changing status quo. For the oppressed to get engaged in the process of discovery and transformation, critical thinking is such a crucial component. In this paper, liberation as a program of praxis and theory will be introduced. Then considering different stages in a liberatory process, the role of critical thinking in liberation struggle will be discussed and evaluated. Finally, paper focuses on contribution of liberatory scholars and in particular Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa in addressing promising components of critical thinking such as relation, communication, and imagination. This paper aims to raise awareness regarding liberation scholarship as a resource for researchers and practitioners in engineering education.
Stimulating students’ imaginations and promoting their ability to navigate ambiguities are among ... more Stimulating students’ imaginations and promoting their ability to navigate ambiguities are among some of the major goals of teaching ethics. Yet, often imagination and ambiguity do not get treated as crucial in ethics instruction for engineers. Rather, the primacy of eliminating ambiguities through empirical and reductive methods dominates STEM education paradigms. In this paper, we argue that scholars of liberatory praxis and theory, in particular the approaches outlined by Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa, offer unique contributions for creating an environment that encourages imagination and engagement with ambiguity. Though it remains an open question whether imagination and ambiguity benefit technical aspects of engineering design, learning and practicing ethical reasoning requires imaginal reasoning that supports adaptive responses to ambiguous circumstances. We present our experiences with developing a specific lesson plan aimed at bolstering imaginative modes for an ethics module that has been implemented in a NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in a large land-grant university. The sample ethics discussion session was developed as part of the professional development activities in the program. Some major topics discussed in the session included ethical theory, ethical reasoning, bias, power, oppression, identity, and two case studies on environmental injustice. During the session, students were engaged in several freewrite tasks and reflected on their thoughts and feelings. After the program, students were invited to complete a post-program survey and participate in a focus-group interview. Students reflected on their research experiences, social experiences, and different professional development activities including the ethics discussion session. With regards to the session, our intention was to learn about students’ experiences rather than exploring a particular question or quantifying the effectiveness of the session. Overall, we received positive and unexpected responses from participants that may shed light on the importance and relevance of liberatory praxis and theory as a key resource in bridging conventional STEM design paradigms and ethics.
Research collaborations between faculty members have become a typical practice in higher educatio... more Research collaborations between faculty members have become a typical practice in higher education. Faculty increasingly engage in collaborative work, individually or as part of a team, within their own institution or across institutions. Inter-institutional collaboration, as a form of partnership across domains, disciplines, institutions, and countries (Leachy, 2016), is also becoming more common and funding agencies encourage and in some cases require such practices (Cummings and Kiesler, 2005; Sonnenwald, 2007). Despite uncertainty about the influence on scientific productivity (Lee and Bozeman, 2005) and challenges of coordination and communication (Cummings and Kiesler, 2005), research collaboration between faculty across institutions has grown significantly over the past several decades (Jones et al. 2008). However, when it comes to collaboration across institutions with different identities and missions, the situation is less encouraging. Collaborations among elite schools and research-intensive universities appear to dominate multi-university partnerships and faculty tend to collaborate with individuals who are affiliated with institutions with similar status level as theirs, independent of geographic distance (Jones et al. 2008). Overall, inter-institutional collaborations among Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and research-intensive universities appear far more well supported and likely than between PWIs and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or other minority-serving institutions (MSIs). The Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) at Virginia Tech has deployed a unique seed funding program, the ICTAS Diversity and Inclusion Seed Investment (ICTAS D&I Investment), since 2016 to build direct faculty-to-faculty research partnerships between faculty at Virginia Tech, a PWI, and faculty at HBCUs/MSIs. Research centers and institutes typically provide some level of support for facilitating different research activities, in which collaboration is encouraged (Biancani et al. 2018; Boardman and Corley, 2008). A unique feature of the ICTAS D&I Investment though is its diversity-focused nature that promotes research collaboration across different types of institutions. ICTAS expects the partnerships to result in research proposals and the hope is that collaborative partners at Virginia Tech and HBCUs/MSIs maintain their working relationships beyond the duration of funded partnership. During the last three years (2016-2019), 50 awards of $10k were made to help build and foster collaborative efforts between Virginia Tech faculty and HBCUs/MSIs partners. As a result, twenty-three different HBCUs/MSIs and at a minimum of 38 distinct collaborative pairs were involved in the program. Within Virginia Tech, six colleges and four centers/institutes were involved with the ICTAS D&I Investment, with most of the awards associated with the College of Engineering and the College of Science. This investment has helped faculty by providing resources for travel, joint publications, reciprocal visits to teach and offer guest lectures, and provide access to Virginia Tech facilities to the HBCUs/MSIs faculty as well as exposing students to increased research and education opportunities at both institutions. We initiated a study with the motivation of developing strategies to evaluate the outcomes of the research collaborations resulting from this seed funding program that focuses on the process oriented illustration of inter-institutional collaboration and explores the nature/quality of the collaborations (Jalali et al. 2019). The study’s focus was then shifted and narrowed to explore factors that may influence sustaining faculty research collaborations across universities using a qualitative multiple case study. In reviewing the literature along the way, it was realized that despite the growing collaboration within and across institutions, study of the process and the dynamics of collaboration has remained under explored, specifically in connection with institutions with different missions. This paper aims to catalyze attention to the subject of process-based collaboration and shed light on theories, frameworks, and “thinking tools” that can resolve some of the complexities embedded in engaging in such studies. We first review the literature within engineering education and highlight the limitations. Second, we expand on the concept of the process of (research) collaboration and its importance informed by the literature. Next, we explore different views towards the role of theory in studying research collaboration. Finally, we briefly review the research design and address potential propositions that may provide an account and explain different factors that influence the sustainability of research collaboration.
The HBCU/MSI Research Summit is a collaborative effort initiated in 2016 to facilitate interinsti... more The HBCU/MSI Research Summit is a collaborative effort initiated in 2016 to facilitate interinstitutional partnerships between Virginia Tech, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). Each year, students and faculty from HBCUs and MSIs are invited to Virginia Tech for a two-day program. The major objectives of the summit is to: 1) develop on-campus opportunities for visiting undergraduate and master’s students to learn about advanced degree programs and research opportunities; 2) facilitate in-person interaction among faculty to build relationships and explore potential opportunities to initiate and foster collaborations; and 3) to facilitate discussion about shared degree programs and inter-institutional agreements. As part of the initiative, the program offers several workshops for students to attend and provides a unique context for faculty to engage in discussion on partnerships and explore research and teaching opportunities. Starting in 2018, the program organizers built on the previous efforts and initiated a research study to better understand participants’ experiences at the program, evaluate its effectiveness, and explore the factors influencing the creation and persistence of inter-institutional partnerships. In this paper, we discuss the program as a model for facilitating inter-institutional partnership and some preliminary results that capture the impact of the program with the focus on students’ engagement and recruitment. In what follows, we elaborate on the importance of broadening participation, as one of the major objectives of the program. Then, we present the background and major elements of the summit. Next, we briefly describe the 2018 HBCU/MSI Research Summit, outline the details of our evaluation strategies and present the results for the year 2018. Finally, we reflect on our experience and provide some initial recommendations that can inform the development of similar programs at other institutions.
Engineering educators have used different strategies to incorporate ethics instruction into engin... more Engineering educators have used different strategies to incorporate ethics instruction into engineering curricula, often in response to the ABET requirements on students’ understanding of professional and ethical responsibility. The mainstream pedagogical approaches predominantly are case studies supplemented with moral theory and professional codes of ethics. Despite a greater emphasis on engineering culture, real-world practices, macroethics and the need for collective responses, and social justice in engineering ethics literature, it is still not surprising to see a continual reliance on presupposed “correct” responses for a given case; overemphasis on heroic actions and unusual mistakes without contextual considerations; and overlooking of the importance of society and peer culture in the teaching of ethics. In this paper, we argue that addressing imaginal capacity as a core component in ethics curriculum helps educators to move beyond isolated and product-oriented pictures of engineering ethics instruction and illustrate ways to bridge complexities embedded in how we think and how we relate to one another in society. The process of realization of different, and perhaps opposing, aims in everyday decision making and moving towards realization of another person’s existence and experiences should be a canon of the quality of ethics instruction. How can we then develop a dialogue to help engineers in dealing with ethical challenges? Ethics instruction that raises awareness of an individual’s process of making ethical decisions, presents ethics as a continuum from student experiences to professional ones, and humanizes conflicting perspectives is argued to effectively address higher level ethical decision processes. Student responses to macroethics and social justice decisions beyond the classroom can only be affected if ethics instruction goes beyond raising awareness of issues and instead influences student decision processes. We build on conceptual notions of the moral insight, illustrated by idealist and pragmatist scholar Josiah Royce, and the I-Thou and I-It attitudes, described by philosopher Martin Buber; and move to the resources in liberation theory and praxis and build on the notions used by Royce and Buber in connection with broader context. Then, we present preliminary ideas for converting theoretical perspectives into classroom praxis. Examples of modifications to an ethics curriculum that is currently in use for the senior-level engineering class, Design of Steel Structures, in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States are presented to initiate discussion. This curriculum has implemented a series of assignments that probe ethics development throughout the semester, complementing traditional ethics instruction in a companion course.
6th Iran International Conference on Engineering Education, 2019
The importance of incorporating ethics instruction into engineering curricula has been demonstrat... more The importance of incorporating ethics instruction into engineering curricula has been demonstrated by scholars, engineers, and industrial managers in Iran. However, limited work has been done on strategies for integration of engineering ethics into teaching and learning. This paper aims to address fundamental questions about intents, missions, and visions in teaching engineering ethics and foster attention to some of the complexities embedded in developing curriculum and pedagogy, such as learning objectives and instructional approaches. We hope this study will encourage further discussion on engineering ethics instruction among scholars and policy-makers that can be translated into mainstream engineering education in Iran.
Journal of International Engineering Education, 2024
Despite the increasing number of international programs targeting students’ learning of research ... more Despite the increasing number of international programs targeting students’ learning of research and intercultural skills, there has been limited holistic investigation of students’ experiences employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. In this study, we incorporated several measures to explore students’ experiences in an International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program, which benefited from the existing partnership between Virginia Tech in the U.S. and Shandong University in China. We examined students’ intercultural competence and interdisciplinary research skills and explored students’ stories of their lived experiences across three cohorts, each with five students, who completed the IRES program. Both open-ended survey responses and interview data demonstrate that the experience allowed students to learn skills involving the various tools, methods, and processes needed to conduct experiments and solve interdisciplinary problems. In particular, qualitative data further demonstrated the influence of the program on students’ desire to pursue graduate degrees and navigate the research process. While the behavioral dimension of cultural intelligence did not show a major improvement, student interviews suggested enhanced student abilities in interpersonal interactions, including non-verbal and verbal means for effective communication. We provide explanations for the differences between quantitative and qualitative results. Reflecting on the results, we elaborate on the importance of structural elements necessary for creating international experiences for students and the need to examine students' learning processes using different means of data collection.
Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited ... more Despite the importance of using artifacts during the design thinking process, there is a limited understanding of the influence of tangibles with lower perceptual richness on design thinking skills within educational settings. It is speculated that tangibles may ease the visualization and communication of ideas, enhance interactions and collaboration, as well as create a playful experience for participants. With imposing external constraints, tangibles can help students prioritize and focus on essential elements in communication and developing narratives around their proposals, and create a relatively simple platform for thinking and reasoning through different perspectives, replicating what designers do in real-world practice. We initiated a study to explore the use of tangibles in a graduate-level management course at a technical university in Switzerland. Three different tangible activities, using LEGO bricks, were incorporated during earlier phases of the design thinking process, and student groups were encouraged to take advantage of the tangibles. Employing a qualitative case study approach, this study explored the influence of using tangibles concerning design thinking characteristics. While most students demonstrated engagement, collaboration, and playfulness during the activities, the results showed that the explicit benefits of tangibles depend on the type of activity and group dynamics. The primary benefit reported was when students worked on developing problem statements where they co-created meaning by manipulating LEGO pieces. The use of tangibles not only helped students with visualization and communicating ideas; it added flexibility for exploration as ideas emerged through conversational and material practices. Specifically, the findings demonstrated the benefits of tangibles concerning two traits of design thinking: experimentalism and collaboration. In this paper, we elaborate on the underemphasized role of tangibles concerning transversal skills and point out critical criteria for developing and incorporating tangible activities within higher education settings. Reflecting on the results, we argue that using tangibles can facilitate developing collective understanding.
Towards a new future in engineering education, new scenarios that european alliances of tech universities open up
Professional engineering work occurs in dynamic, complex contexts that require engineers to lever... more Professional engineering work occurs in dynamic, complex contexts that require engineers to leverage various skills beyond their technical competencies to work productively with different stakeholders. Problem-solving is not merely a technical endeavor; educators and practitioners have long realized the synergistic connection between technical proficiency and complex personal and interpersonal competencies, such as critical thinking and communication skills. Since the 1990s, the topic of transversal or professional skills has been a common thread in engineering education literature. Engineering accreditation bodies such as Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) and Commission des titres d’ingénieur (CTI), and engineering curriculum models such as the conceive-designimplement- operate (CDIO) have highlighted the importance of various transversal skills in professional engineering work. Today, there is a general agreement among engineering educators and scholars about t...
Yousef Jalali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. H... more Yousef Jalali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.Eng. in Energy Systems Engineering. His research interests include interaction between critical thinking, imagination, and ethical reasoning, interpersonal and interinstitutional collaboration, diversity, equity, and inclusion, systems thinking, and chemical engineering learning systems. Yousef taught chemical engineering courses for a few years in his home country, Iran, and first-year engineering courses for several semesters at Virginia Tech. He has provided service and leadership in different capacities at Lehigh University and Virginia Tech.
Despite the important advances in engineering ethics education, key problems with mainstream engi... more Despite the important advances in engineering ethics education, key problems with mainstream engineering ethics instruction have not been completely addressed. One critical aspect that has been overlooked in engineering education literature is the role of imagination in our moral deliberation. The lack of attention to one's values, background and experiences, treating mind and body as two separate entities, and downplaying the role of imagination as merely an emotional regulator, contribute to neglect for imaginative rationality one may engage in dealing with moral problems. We designed and implemented an ethics discussion session as part of the professional development activities in a National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduate (NSF REU) program, in which we prioritized imagination as an essential character of moral reasoning and deliberation. In this paper, we describe the theoretical perspectives, the innovative ethics curriculum, and evaluation methods. Finally, we conclude with the results and reflection on the connection between the conceptual foundation and instructional choices.
2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2019
This work-in-progress research paper presents our experiences with an NSF-sponsored International... more This work-in-progress research paper presents our experiences with an NSF-sponsored International Research Experiences for Undergraduates (IRES) program. A major component of the program is implemented at an international laboratory in China. The lab has been established in 2010 as a collaborative research platform, for a large land-grant university in the U.S. and a public comprehensive university in China, to study the biosonar sensing and flight of bats from an engineering perspective. The lab has pioneered work on the diversity and dynamics of the structures (noseleaves and ears) that bats use to emit and receive ultrasonic pulses In addition, the lab has hosted research experiences for international (primarily U.S.) students and collaborative BS/MS and MS/PhD educational programs. In the last two years, two cohorts of IRES scholars completed IRES 10-week program. In addition to research and technical experiences, the IRES students participated in several field trips and seminars and were exposed to Chinese culture. To better understand the impact of the program, students were invited to complete pre- and post-program surveys and a post-program interview. The surveys included cultural intelligence assessment, Global Competency Activity, and Sojourn Readiness Assessment. In addition, students answered a few open-ended questions about their technical and cultural experiences. In this paper, we first explain the history of the lab and its research and educational contribution to date. Then, we describe the IRES program and program evaluation measures. Finally, we focus on the influence of the program on students’ intercultural skills and present the results from interviews.
Yousef Jalali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. H... more Yousef Jalali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.Eng. in Energy Systems Engineering. His research interests include interaction between critical thinking, imagination, and ethical reasoning, interpersonal and interinstitutional collaboration, diversity, equity, and inclusion, systems thinking, and chemical engineering learning systems. Yousef taught chemical engineering courses for a few years in his home country, Iran, and first-year engineering courses for several semesters at Virginia Tech. He has provided service and leadership in different capacities at Lehigh University and Virginia Tech.
Despite the significant growth of inter-institutional research collaboration, there has been a di... more Despite the significant growth of inter-institutional research collaboration, there has been a disparity of partnerships between universities with different history, missions and identities. In competition for limited resources, inter-institutional collaborations among Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and research-intensive universities appear more frequent and better supported than between PWIs and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or other minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Developing grant funding strategies is one way to enhance collaboration between faculty at HBCUs/MSIs and faculty at PWIs and improve pathways for success among traditionally underrepresented groups. The Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) at Virginia Tech, a research-intensive PWI, launched a unique seed funding program, the ICTAS Diversity and Inclusion Seed Investment (ICTAS D&I Investment), in 2016 to build direct faculty-to-faculty research partnerships between faculty at Virginia Tech and faculty at various HBCUs/MSIs. With the rarity of such initiatives and recognizing the primacy of the topic, this doctoral study was defined in the context of the ICTAS D&I Investment to investigate the little-understood phenomenon of research collaboration between faculty at HBCUs/MSIs and faculty at PWIs. The study informed by several bodies of literature including social psychology, inter-organizational relationships, and ethics and moral philosophy. A qualitative multiple case study approach was employed to explore factors that influence the sustainability of collaboration considering the perspectives of faculty in the context of the ICTAS D&I Investment. The ICTAS D&I Investment-related reports as well as survey and interview data were collected from 15 faculty members representing eight collaborative teams, across Virginia Tech and six different HBCUs. The findings indicate that potential collaboration and sustainability of partnerships rely on dynamic interactions between three dimensions in temporal context: Structure, broader institutional and contextual elements, Diversity, similarities and differences between team members’ characteristics, abilities, and identities, and Relation, interactions and exchanges between collaborators and their outputs in doing collaboration. The study shows ICTAS has been successful in facilitating fruitful collaborations among faculty participants at different institutions. Based on the findings in this study I recommend that forging and maintaining long-term relationships of collaborative teams across HBCUs and PWIs need attention to the importance of capacity building over time and broader organizational and administrative factors such as support structure and credit allocation. Further, I recommend that administrators and policymakers to develop similar programs as a strategy for broadening participation and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, not merely as a means for enhancing research productivity.
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Conference Presentations by Yousef Jalali
We started a project centered around moral imagination in 2019 to enhance the previous curriculum. The major changes included two learning modules, each for two and half hours, developed explicitly to provoke and encourage imagination, which is one of the major goals of ethics instruction. The course provides a context for rather unconventional intervention in the form of these modules, and there is a hope that students will benefit from explicit attention to the concept of imagination by incorporating some philosophical and fiction pieces. Imagination discussed as an essential character of thinking and understanding urges us to pay attention to otherwise obscured patterns of human suffering. The modules make a connection and expand the existing discussion on bias, institutional culture, and power relations.
The first module is in connection with everyday decision-making, how we think, and the role of bias. Two readings were considered for the first module: "Moral Insight" by Josiah Royce and an excerpt from I and Thou by Martin Buber. The second module highlights institutional culture and systematic oppression. The intent in this module is to make a shift from negative ethic-- passive role/do not harm-- to a more positive ethic-- active role/add good-- and emphasize the importance of power relations and collective responsibility. Two readings were chosen for the second module: "The Ones Who Walk Away" from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin and "From Cruelty to Goodness" by Philip Hallie.
In this paper, we first discuss the concept of imagination informed by the literature. Then, we present an overview of the course, including a narrative from the perspective of a student, and review the modules and pedagogical methods. Finally, we report on the data collected from students' pre- and post-surveys in 2019 and 2020.
Liberation as its own field of praxis and theory which has been excluded from formal education, can provide a unique contribution in changing status quo. For the oppressed to get engaged in the process of discovery and transformation, critical thinking is such a crucial component. In this paper, liberation as a program of praxis and theory will be introduced. Then considering different stages in a liberatory process, the role of critical thinking in liberation struggle will be discussed and evaluated. Finally, paper focuses on contribution of liberatory scholars and in particular Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa in addressing promising components of critical thinking such as relation, communication, and imagination. This paper aims to raise awareness regarding liberation scholarship as a resource for researchers and practitioners in engineering education.
The sample ethics discussion session was developed as part of the professional development activities in the program. Some major topics discussed in the session included ethical theory, ethical reasoning, bias, power, oppression, identity, and two case studies on environmental injustice. During the session, students were engaged in several freewrite tasks and reflected on their thoughts and feelings. After the program, students were invited to complete a post-program survey and participate in a focus-group interview. Students reflected on their research experiences, social experiences, and different professional development activities including the ethics discussion session. With regards to the session, our intention was to learn about students’ experiences rather than exploring a particular question or quantifying the effectiveness of the session. Overall, we received positive and unexpected responses from participants that may shed light on the importance and relevance of liberatory praxis and theory as a key resource in bridging conventional STEM design paradigms and ethics.
Papers by Yousef Jalali
We started a project centered around moral imagination in 2019 to enhance the previous curriculum. The major changes included two learning modules, each for two and half hours, developed explicitly to provoke and encourage imagination, which is one of the major goals of ethics instruction. The course provides a context for rather unconventional intervention in the form of these modules, and there is a hope that students will benefit from explicit attention to the concept of imagination by incorporating some philosophical and fiction pieces. Imagination discussed as an essential character of thinking and understanding urges us to pay attention to otherwise obscured patterns of human suffering. The modules make a connection and expand the existing discussion on bias, institutional culture, and power relations.
The first module is in connection with everyday decision-making, how we think, and the role of bias. Two readings were considered for the first module: "Moral Insight" by Josiah Royce and an excerpt from I and Thou by Martin Buber. The second module highlights institutional culture and systematic oppression. The intent in this module is to make a shift from negative ethic-- passive role/do not harm-- to a more positive ethic-- active role/add good-- and emphasize the importance of power relations and collective responsibility. Two readings were chosen for the second module: "The Ones Who Walk Away" from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin and "From Cruelty to Goodness" by Philip Hallie.
In this paper, we first discuss the concept of imagination informed by the literature. Then, we present an overview of the course, including a narrative from the perspective of a student, and review the modules and pedagogical methods. Finally, we report on the data collected from students' pre- and post-surveys in 2019 and 2020.
Liberation as its own field of praxis and theory which has been excluded from formal education, can provide a unique contribution in changing status quo. For the oppressed to get engaged in the process of discovery and transformation, critical thinking is such a crucial component. In this paper, liberation as a program of praxis and theory will be introduced. Then considering different stages in a liberatory process, the role of critical thinking in liberation struggle will be discussed and evaluated. Finally, paper focuses on contribution of liberatory scholars and in particular Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa in addressing promising components of critical thinking such as relation, communication, and imagination. This paper aims to raise awareness regarding liberation scholarship as a resource for researchers and practitioners in engineering education.
The sample ethics discussion session was developed as part of the professional development activities in the program. Some major topics discussed in the session included ethical theory, ethical reasoning, bias, power, oppression, identity, and two case studies on environmental injustice. During the session, students were engaged in several freewrite tasks and reflected on their thoughts and feelings. After the program, students were invited to complete a post-program survey and participate in a focus-group interview. Students reflected on their research experiences, social experiences, and different professional development activities including the ethics discussion session. With regards to the session, our intention was to learn about students’ experiences rather than exploring a particular question or quantifying the effectiveness of the session. Overall, we received positive and unexpected responses from participants that may shed light on the importance and relevance of liberatory praxis and theory as a key resource in bridging conventional STEM design paradigms and ethics.
With the rarity of such initiatives and recognizing the primacy of the topic, this doctoral study was defined in the context of the ICTAS D&I Investment to investigate the little-understood phenomenon of research collaboration between faculty at HBCUs/MSIs and faculty at PWIs. The study informed by several bodies of literature including social psychology, inter-organizational relationships, and ethics and moral philosophy. A qualitative multiple case study approach was employed to explore factors that influence the sustainability of collaboration considering the perspectives of faculty in the context of the ICTAS D&I Investment. The ICTAS D&I Investment-related reports as well as survey and interview data were collected from 15 faculty members representing eight collaborative teams, across Virginia Tech and six different HBCUs.
The findings indicate that potential collaboration and sustainability of partnerships rely on dynamic interactions between three dimensions in temporal context: Structure, broader institutional and contextual elements, Diversity, similarities and differences between team members’ characteristics, abilities, and identities, and Relation, interactions and exchanges between collaborators and their outputs in doing collaboration. The study shows ICTAS has been successful in facilitating fruitful collaborations among faculty participants at different institutions. Based on the findings in this study I recommend that forging and maintaining long-term relationships of collaborative teams across HBCUs and PWIs need attention to the importance of capacity building over time and broader organizational and administrative factors such as support structure and credit allocation. Further, I recommend that administrators and policymakers to develop similar programs as a strategy for broadening participation and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, not merely as a means for enhancing research productivity.