The Research Briefs podcast aims to continue raising the profile of engineering education research by exploring new frameworks, new methods, and new findings with the scholars who created them. Research Briefs 2.0, hosted by Drs. Monique Ross & Jeremi London, is a continuation of the original Research Briefs hosted by Dr. Ruth Streveler. We continue her exploration of scholarship, but add a strong emphasis on the scholars themselves. Thanks in advance for joining us on this journey! Roll Call Submission: https://forms.gle/ZT5QVYiFt2xhWLePA Musical genius credit: William M. Humphrey III Editing credit: Jasmine C. Ross
Episodes
Friday Dec 05, 2025
Friday Dec 05, 2025
Summary: This beautiful conversation was so rich we have split it into two episodes. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Join us for a conversation between a recently retired mentor, Dr. Bevlee Watford and their recently promoted mentee, Dr. Walter Lee. While their faculty careers at Virginia Tech started decades apart, their stories are woven together by a shared interest in developing the systems and programs that support engineering students who hold marginalized identities. In this episode, they share what led them to careers that center student support and their unique approaches to decision making while leading CEED. Their enviable mentoring relationship includes strategies anyone can adopt; and their wisdom on navigating the shifting landscape is timeless.
Name Drop:
Center for Engineering Excellence and Discovery (CEED)
Susan Lasser
Hassan Aref
Malcolm McPherson
Lynn Nystrom
Kamyar Haghighi
Rising Scholars and their scholarship:
Carol Geary
Peer Mentoring Programs Survivability: How Programs React When Bad
Things Happen
Tasha Zephirin
Persistence through community: An exploratory study of student support in
Purdue University's NSBE chapter
Malini Josiam
An Investigation of the Perspectives of Women of Color on the Cultures of Undergraduate Engineering
Taylor Johnson
"You Have to Focus on School...You Can't Focus on Getting Paid": A Multi-
Study Exploration of Perspectives on and Experiences of Engineering
Students Who Work
Article mention:
Su, L. K. (2010). Quantification of diversity in engineering higher education in the United States. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 16(2).
https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/00551c876cc2f027,69ab3d9d13586e06,0e19b121603f0805.html
Department of Education degree reclassification (referenced in Part 2) -
Friday Nov 28, 2025
Friday Nov 28, 2025
Summary: This beautiful conversation was so rich we have split it into two episodes. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Join us for a conversation between a recently retired mentor, Dr. Bevlee Watford and their recently promoted mentee, Dr. Walter Lee. While their faculty careers at Virginia Tech started decades apart, their stories are woven together by a shared interest in developing the systems and programs that support engineering students who hold marginalized identities. In this episode, they share what led them to careers that center student support and their unique approaches to decision making while leading CEED. Their enviable mentoring relationship includes strategies anyone can adopt; and their wisdom on navigating the shifting landscape is timeless.
Name Drop:
Center for Engineering Excellence and Discovery (CEED)
Susan Lasser
Hassan Aref
Malcolm McPherson
Lynn Nystrom
Kamyar Haghighi
Rising Scholars and their scholarship:
Carol Geary
Peer Mentoring Programs Survivability: How Programs React When Bad Things Happen
Tasha Zephirin
Persistence through community: An exploratory study of student support in Purdue University's
NSBE chapter
Malini Josiam
An Investigation of the Perspectives of Women of Color on the Cultures of Undergraduate
Engineering
Taylor Johnson
"You Have to Focus on School...You Can't Focus on Getting Paid": A Multi-Study
Exploration of Perspectives on and Experiences of Engineering Students Who Work
Article mention:
Su, L. K. (2010). Quantification of diversity in engineering higher education in the United States. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 16(2).
https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/00551c876cc2f027,69ab3d9d13586e06,0e19b121603f0805.html
Department of Education degree reclassification (referenced in Part 2) -
Friday Oct 31, 2025
Friday Oct 31, 2025
Join us as we discuss life after grant terminations, keeping the work alive and relevant, and staying true to our values as researchers. Dr. Kendall shares with us her journey to engineering education and some insights into her ongoing work - The AMPLIFY Project, a collaborative effort that leveraged participatory research to explore the knowledge and practices at Hispanic Serving Institutions in the U.S. to understand faculty development along a continuum between deficit-based and asset-based framing of the educational experience. She candidly shares with us the gems uncovered by this project and the subsequent challenges that disruptions in funding have created and how WE, as a community, can help each other keep these impactful efforts going. Dr. Kendall shares an inspirational story for all those engineering faculty considering a line of inquiry in engineering education and hope for the future of engineering education.
Name Drop
Amplify team: Alexandra Coso Strong, Gemma Henderson, Ines Basalo, and Henry Salgado
Engineering Leadership: Cindy Rottman, Meg Handley, Kim Wolfinbarger, and Brian Novoselich
UNIDOS: Monica Cardella
Engineering Identity: Maura Borrego & Cole Joslyn
Up and coming: Lori Houghtalen & Nichole Ramirez <- inspiration to keep going and to find joy in research again.
Relevant websites:
NDSL Sourcebook on engineering leadership development: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/23733357/2022/2022/173
The AMPLIFY Project: https://www.utep.edu/engineering/amplify/
UNIDOS Center for Community Coordination: https://hsiunidos.org/
Friday Sep 26, 2025
Friday Sep 26, 2025
Dr. Sarah Rodriguez shares with us her autobiographical influenced research inquiry that explores being rural, Latina, and pursuing engineering education. We are so thankful to have had Dr. Rodriguez with us to discuss her upcoming book, endorsement of Chicana Feminist scholars during these difficult times, and place-based approaches. She shares with us her journey as a rural Latina engineering education scholar and prolific author in engineering education. Dr. Rodriguez low key drops some tips on how to build unexpected connections that lead to opportunities.
Name Drop
Authored books:
Latin* Students in Engineering: An Intentional Focus on a Growing Population
Supporting Latina Students in Engineering and Computing: A Chicana Feminist Approach
Chicana Feminists -
-
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (Anzaldúa)
-
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa)
-
Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality (Anzaldúa)
Dolores Delgado Bernal
Ruth López, Associate Professor, University of Arizona, College of Education
Joel Alex Mejia, University of Cincinnati
Blog - My Life as a Rural Latina Professor: A Journey in Finding Purpose and Place
Friday Aug 29, 2025
Friday Aug 29, 2025
Join us in our conversation with the revolutionary Dr. Alan Cheville of Bucknell University exploring his journey to and through engineering education from Physics to Photonics to revolutionary departmental efforts to transform engineering education. He shares with us his philosophy related to dealing with change in these uncertain times, but most notably he encourages us to hold onto hope and to each other. He’s a scholar after our own hearts with pithy quotes and words of wisdom.
Name Drop
Jennifer Turns
Ron Ulseth
Becky Bates
Friday May 09, 2025
Friday May 09, 2025
Dr. London and Dr. Ross reflect on the season including our favorites and insights followed by some words of encouragement for our fellow scholars impacted by the change in priorities of the nation and subsequent grant terminations. We acknowledge the work of scholars who may feel devalued in this changing times, we call for the generational fight for academic freedom, and announce a change in the season to come.
As scholars who have received terminations in recent weeks, we offer below some resources.
National Science Foundation PAPPG Informal resolution of award adminstration disputes
Code of Federal Regulations Termination and standard closeout costs
Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom Action Report #6
Action Plan & Appeal for Illegal NSF Grant terminations
Bridge funding opportunities: Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program
We'd also like to acknowledge the tireless, thankless, and often cruel work that our colleagues at federal agencies are enduring. We see you too.
Saturday Mar 29, 2025
Saturday Mar 29, 2025
Join us in listening to the ways in which Reverend Dr. Tamecia Jones honors her many talents, callings, and selves as she designs research and navigates the academy. She will share the ways in which her background, experiences, and core values shape her work. She will hip us to epistemic frames and the ways we can reimagine assessment of knowledge acquisition that is not punitive and painful.
Name drop:
Cindy Atman, University of Washington
Learning Sciences, Stanford
K-12, Tufts University - Trevion Henderson, Greses Pérez
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Join us as we discuss Black feminist theory and intersectionality with Dr. Yolanda Rankin. She led us through the historical foundation and her hopes for the future of intersectionality, feminist scholarship, computing, and computing education. She discusses the messiness of the theory and challenges us to continue to muddle through that messiness so that we might do better as a discipline. The chat was both insightful and hopeful. Enjoy!
Name Drop
Dr. Jakita Owens, Auburn University
Dr. Shawna Erete, University of Maryland
bell hooks
Angela Y. Davis
Brittany Cooper
Patricia Hill Collins
Nicki Washington
Article mention
Ross, M. S. (2023). Let’s have that conversation: How limited epistemological beliefs exacerbates inequities and will continue to be a barrier to broadening participation. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 23(2), 1-4.
Friday Jan 31, 2025
Friday Jan 31, 2025
Listen to Dr. Smith’s predictions of the future of Engineering Education by first exploring the seven shifts in engineering education over the last 20 years. You are in for treat as he unpacks the themes that have emerged upon reflection on where we’ve been and how it shapes where we are headed.
Name Drop/Links:
The Future of the University – Part 1 – JEE Academic Bookshelf Revisited
ASEE Reports
https://www.asee.org/publications/asee-publications/asee-reports
Financial Alignment with Inclusive Teaching Excellence (FAITE)
https://faiteworkshop2024.blogspot.com/
https://ascnhighered.org/ASCN/cost_benefit.html
https://cdn.serc.carleton.edu/files/ASCN/20240422_faite_ascn_workshop_brief.v4.pdf
Tom Fisher (former Dean, College of Design, UMN) - Fisher, T. (2022).Space, structures and design in a post-pandemic world. New York: Routledge.
Bryan Rosenberg (Former president of Macalester College) - Rosenberg, B. (2023). Whatever it is, I’m against it: Resistance to Change in Higher Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. I’m working on my next JEE Academic Bookshelf reflection essay on the future of engineering education and am deeply immersed in the multitude of books on the future of higher education. Currently I have 19 books in my ereader library and another 12 in print on my bookshelf.
We do touch on the unrest in 2020 that gripped the nation catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd. As to honor the movement and those lost, please visit the Say their Names project.
References Cited
Fisher, T. (2022).Space, structures and design in a post-pandemic world.New York: Routledge.
Fisher, T. (2024). The ‘Phygital’ Future: What Campuses Will Look Like. What higher ed will look like in 10 years: Fundamental change is coming quickly. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Froyd, J. E., Wankat, P. C., & Smith, K. A. (2012). Five major shifts in 100 years of engineering education. Proceedings of the IEEE, 100, 1344–1360.
Mann, C. R. (1918). A study of engineering education: prepared for the Joint committee on engineering education of the national engineering societies (No. 11). Merrymount Press.
Rosenberg, B. (2023). Whatever it is, I’m against it: Resistance to Change in Higher Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press
Smith (2010) Social nature of learning: From small groups to learning communities. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2010, 123, 11-22 [NDTL-123-2-Smith-Social_Basis_of_Learning-.pdf]
Smith, K. 2011.Cooperative Learning: Lessons and Insights from Thirty Years of Championing a Research-Based Innovative Practice [Smith-FIE-CL-1240-10-draft.pdf]
Smith, K.A. & Chavela Guerra, R. (2021). Learning in the time of coronavirus. ASEE Webinar, March 30, 2021. Link to recording. Link to slides.
Smith, K.A. & Felder, R.M. (2023). Cooperative Learning in Engineering Education: The Story of an Ongoing Uphill Climb. In Robyn Gillies, Barbara Millis, and Neil Davidson, eds. Contemporary Global Perspectives on Cooperative Learning Link to Draft
Streveler R., and Smith K. (2020), Course design in the time of coronavirus: Put on your designer’s CAP. Advances in Engineering Education. https://advances.asee.org/opinion-course-design-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-put-on-your-designers-cap/
Friday Nov 29, 2024
Friday Nov 29, 2024
Join us as we discuss engineering education in Australia, with a focus on the career path of Dr. Anne Gardner, an Associate Dean at the University of Technology Sydney. Dr. Gardner shares her journey into engineering education, her current research projects, leadership roles, and the focus areas of the engineering education community in Australia. We also discuss collaborations with scholars in Australia and the upcoming engineering education conference - Austaliasian Engineering Education (A2E2).