College of Engineering hosts ASEE Southeastern Section Conference

At the 2019 American Society for Engineering Education Southeastern Section (ASEE-SE) Conference, more than 200 professors, students and deans gathered to discuss how to improve the education of the future generation of well-rounded, global-thinking engineers.

The annual conference, held on NC State’s Centennial Campus March 10-12, focused on the theme “Educating Tomorrow’s Engineering Entrepreneur.” Attendees had the chance to participate in workshops, view student posters, listen to presentations and discuss at roundtables topics relating to teamwork, resilience, ethics, knowledge and diversity.

“The ASEE-SE Conference offers a chance for everyone involved in education in engineering to get together and talk about current research and deep issues,” said Dr. Anna Howard, teaching associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and site chair for this year’s conference.

Workshops organized by Dr. Evelyn Brown, director of extension research and development for NC State Industry Expansion Solutions, kicked off discussions between educators on Sunday, March 10.“When the presenters submitted their abstracts, they had to talk about how they would engage and have interactive activities, and I could tell there was a lot of good conversation going on between the audience and presenters, as well as among the attendees,” Brown said.

Those conversations continued on Monday during the roundtable discussions, which were new to the conference itinerary. Topics for the discussions included diversity in engineering, how engineers can communicate their work, teaching engineering at the K-12 level and the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering.

In addition to the more interactive portions of the conference, attendees heard from five speakers, including Dr. Hans Jürgen Hoyer, the plenary speaker and Secretary General of the International Federation for Engineering Education Societies and the Executive Secretary of the Global Engineering Deans Council. Hoyer emphasized the need for this new generation of engineers to have a range of skills, including emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity, to solve global problems.

Students from 11 universities presented their posters on a wide range of engineering topics, including engineering education, 3D printing tissue and land subsidence.

A poster displayed by Inhwan Kim, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science at NC State, focused on a week-long summer program the department hosts to introduce high school seniors to the field. More than 80 percent of the students who attended the camp applied to NC State. The camp focused on having a diverse group of engineers and students, and Kim said that it was a good teaching experience for the graduate students.

Anam Navied, a junior computer science major at NC State, won third place in the individual poster competition for her poster about PRIME, an intelligent tutoring system for first-year engineering students who are not computer science majors. The program provides hints to students who request them, and the goal of the project is to help more people feel comfortable with coding.

“Our project is really geared around enhancing student learning. We want to see if we can provide supplemental aids that mimic personalized feedback and build student confidence and skills,” she said.

Next year’s conference will be held March 8-10 at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, and the theme is “Delivering Student-Centered Engineering Education.” More information about this and past conferences is available at asee-se.org.