Given the need to increase diversity in technical fields, the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary created an out-of-school coding workshop for pre-university students, now known as “Schulich Ignite.” Five of these innovative and hands-on workshops have been run since 2017 with the objective of increasing diversity in science and engineering. Since its inception, over 400 people have participated as mentees or mentors. In this paper, we describe the program as it started in 2017 and the four iterations it has gone through with focus on the recruitment techniques, organization, program delivery, and outcomes. We look at enrollment, exposure, and diversity in the program. From the preliminary results, we propose areas of future research for delivering and researching pre-university engineering workshops.

Mentoring in engineering outreach is being adopted more and more by university programs that aim toincrease diversity in their school. It is fair to say that mentoring can be a useful tool to do this, but not always.Mentor training can help improve program outcomes (attendance, engagement, retention). In this study, we look at one case of a virtual engineering outreach program, find the challenges, and make recommendations for mentor training modules that could address challenges.  In doing so, we believe that this sets a foundation for building training for many mentor-based virtual outreach programs in engineering.

The Computing for Engineers (ENGG 233), first year programming class uses a 3-week end term project to involve students in a technical, creative and applicable project. In Fall 2018, students designed and programmed a new digital dashboard, displaying information such as current speed and fuel level based on sensory inputs such as engine revolutions per minute, gear ratio, and car position in the horizontal and vertical axis. A student perception survey was distributed and analyzed to better understand the view that students have towards term projects. The results from a Kendall Tau-B test are presented in this paper.

Their interests are in the intersection of informal engineering education, digital skills, and diversity in engineering. They are currently looking at pre-university audiences and how the development of digital skills in under-represented groups in engineering can improve diversity as well as technology.