Assessing the impact of international project participation on student practitioners and engineering education outcomes

Each year dozens of engineering infrastructure projects in rural communities are facilitated and designed by student practitioners at academic institutions in the United States. These projects are complex with a variety of technical and nontechnical influences and multiple stakeholders who each hold their own set of motivations, attitudes, and desired outcomes. This research first compares six small-scale gravity-fed water distribution system projects, each designed using a contextual training approach for client communities located within a 25-kilometer radius, to demonstrate the significance of understanding and incorporating the nuances of context into decision-making and design. Two studies are then discussed that assess the experiences of international engineering student practitioners who participate on these projects. Findings from a thematic analysis of students who have participated in an applied contextual engineering course indicate that self-reflection and the ongoing gain in knowledge of client needs and project expectations facilitate learning from which students ultimately consider themselves to be holistically-trained, adaptable, and empathetic practitioners. An assessment of student practitioners who have participated in a variety of project opportunities is then discussed and a conceptual framework of learning objectives for applied international engineering programs is proposed. This research indicates that student practitioners not only benefit from participating in applied projects but that an emphasis should be placed on providing rigorous training to prepare these practitioners to perceive and design for contextual distinctions and complexities of project work.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Biological Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Jahnke, Keilin Tarum

Contributors dc:contributor

• Witmer, Ann-Perry
• Hansen, Alan
• Elliott-Litchfield, J. Bruce
• Hathaway Goldstein, Molly

• Engineering education
• Contextual engineering
• International
• Student practitioners
• Project participation
• Student outcomes
• Reflection

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Keilin Tarum Jahnke

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109463

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109463