Johns Hopkins researchers have received nearly $1
million from the National Science Foundation to produce and
begin testing a revised course of study for undergraduate
engineering students with a goal of attracting more women
and minorities to the field — and retaining them once
they begin their studies.
The project was launched to address a persistent lack
of diversity among engineers, despite a serious shortage of
workers with advanced technical skills in the United
States. The three-year $999,993 grant will enable Johns
Hopkins to lead a consortium of eight U.S. educational
institutions in developing a new curriculum designed to
encourage more women and minorities to choose an
engineering major and remain in the program through
graduation.
"Most attempts to increase diversity in engineering
education have involved the use of add-on programs such as
tutoring sessions and social networks. The results have
been modest improvements at best," said Ilene
Busch-Vishniac, professor in the
Department of Mechanical
Engineering at Johns Hopkins and lead investigator of
the project. "We want to completely revamp the engineering
curriculum so that it will be more attractive to a wider
range of students without compromising its technical
rigor."
She added, "The idea is that by improving the
curriculum for all students, we'll attract and retain more
students overall — including more women and
minorities."
Supported by an earlier grant from the GE Foundation,
Busch-Vishniac began planning this project while serving a
five-year term as dean of the
Whiting School of
Engineering. During that initial study, she and
research assistant Jeffrey P. Jarosz collected some
disturbing figures about the lack of diversity in the
engineering field nationally:
Blacks, Hispanics and Native
Americans comprise 23 percent of the U.S. population but
only 6 percent of the engineering labor force. Black women
account for 0.6 percent of the science, engineering and
technology work force. For Hispanic women, the figure is
0.4 percent.
In academia, men are five times
more likely than women to choose engineering as their
major. In 1998, of the bachelor's degrees awarded to women,
only 1.7 percent were in engineering.
Many undergraduates who initially
major in engineering do not stay with it through
graduation. In 2001, the retention rate for white students
was 62 percent; among minority students, it was only 38
percent.
The average engineering faculty is
95 percent male, which may be a factor in why many women
and minorities often report that they feel marginalized.
To address this, Busch-Vishniac, Jarosz and their
colleagues from other institutions plan to look for ways to
update and streamline the traditional engineering
curriculum, which has undergone little revision in recent
decades despite significant changes in technology and
economic globalization. The researchers aim to increase the
links between the fundamentals and applications and between
technical and nontechnical topics, streamline the path to
the degree by eliminating artificial prerequisites,
introduce team experiences into all courses and foster a
climate of inclusion rather than exclusion. Another goal is
to expose students to engineering topics earlier in the
curriculum instead of limiting them to less engaging
foundation courses for their first two years.
The researchers plan to begin testing a few revamped
pilot courses at some of the participating institutions
within the next two years. A completely revised degree
program may be ready within three to seven years.
"Some of the changes we've discussed have already been
tried successfully at highly respected engineering
schools," Jarosz said. "While there have been effective
innovations here and there, there has not been an
integrated process for curriculum revision that makes
programs more attractive to a diverse community."
The schools that will partner with Johns Hopkins in
the new project to increase diversity are California State
University, Los Angeles; Howard University; Michigan State
University; Smith College; Stevens Institute of Technology;
Tuskegee University; and the University of Washington.