Engineering Ambassadors Network: Progress in Year 3 on Creating a National Network of Ambassadors

Haas, Christine; Alley, Michael; Garner, Joanna K.; Thole, Karen A.

doi:10.18260/p.26612

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…All had been exposed to the AE approach through Engineering Ambassadors as well as a university speaking course. The Engineering Ambassadors Network is a collaboration of professional development programs for undergraduate engineering students with an outreach mission to middle and high schools [10]. Programs include Pennsylvania State University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Connecticut, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Oregon State University, Tufts University, Union College, University of Nebraska, Geneva College, James Madison University, and Ohio University.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the AE approach is spreading on a collegiate level [10], it is not yet widely used in professional settings. To explore how to spread the use of AE in professional settings, we conducted a study to determine how students who have learned the innovative method are giving presentations in their companies and laboratories.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research also shows that the speakers themselves comprehend and retain their content more deeply when using the AE approach [8]. Because of the apparent advantages of the AE approach, institutions and organizations such as the Engineering Ambassadors Network [9][10] are teaching the approach to their students. Shown in Figure 1 are two slides that follow the assertion-evidence approach.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Assertion-Evidence Approach to Technical Presentations: Overcoming Resistance in Professional Settings

Miller

Alley

2017 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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The assertion-evidence (AE) approach to presentations is a non-traditional way [1-4] for engineers and scientists to share their work with their audiences. In short, the approach calls on presenters to build each talk on messages (not topic phrases), to support those messages with visual evidence (not bullet lists), and to explain that evidence by fashioning sentences on the spot (but only after planning and practice). Research shows that presentations with the AE approach lead to deeper understanding of the content not only by the audience [5-7], but also by the speaker [8]. Given its advantages, the AE approach is being increasingly introduced to college students through communications courses and organizations such as the Engineering Ambassadors Network [9-10]. This paper is an exploratory study on the experiences of students presenting in postgraduate settings after learning the AE approach. In order to gage the resistance to and potential of the AE approach in such settings, we surveyed thirty college students and young professionals, asking questions in a fashion that encouraged the interviewees to volunteer information. These surveys, which followed the customer discovery approach used in lean design [11], were then analyzed to understand how AE is received outside of the classroom. Participants in the survey showed that once they learned the AE style, they preferred to use it for presentations in industry and research. Since the style is not widespread, though, participants described facing resistance from superiors and peers because of uncertainty about the style and opposition to deviating from company standards and traditional methods. Defying this resistance, many participants who attempted to incorporate elements of the AE style found that they had great success with those who were initially opposed, as well as with almost all of their overall audiences. With most engineers and scientists looking for ways to improve their presentations, participants expressed beliefs that great potential exists for the AE approach to be spread to professional settings through individuals giving AE talks in those settings and through online resources.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Assertion-Evidence Approach to Technical Presentations: Overcoming Resistance in Professional Settings

Miller

Alley

2017 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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“…Some scholars have argued that outreach participation, like other forms of co-curricular activity, provides students with a sense of community and belonging, increases resilience, and minimizes feelings of marginalization [2]. Others have emphasized that outreach participation can act as an opportunity for undergraduate students to develop critically important professional skills that might not otherwise be learned in typical undergraduate courses such as technical communication, teamwork, leadership, and the ability to integrate across engineering disciplines [3][4]52]. In this systematic review of literature, we sought to better understand affective and cognitive facets of outreach impact and draw conclusions about the overall nature of research conducted in this area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work In Progress: A Systematic Review Describing Impacts on Engineering Undergraduates Who Participate in Outreach

Garner

Thole

Alley

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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Karen A. Thole serves as the head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University and also holds the title of Distinguished Professor. She is the co-founder of the Engineering Ambassador Network, which is a professional development program for engineering students with an outreach mission to high school students. Her area of expertise is turbine cooling and using additive manufacturing to develop innovative cooling technologies. She has published over 220 archival papers and advised 70 dissertations and theses. Dr. Thole has provided service leadership to numerous organizations including being a member of ASME's Board of Governors. She has also served as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the ASME's International Gas Turbine Institute in which she led a number of initiatives to promote communities of women engineers and students.

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Engineering Ambassadors Network: Progress in Year 3 on Creating a National Network of Ambassadors

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

The Assertion-Evidence Approach to Technical Presentations: Overcoming Resistance in Professional Settings

The Assertion-Evidence Approach to Technical Presentations: Overcoming Resistance in Professional Settings

Work In Progress: A Systematic Review Describing Impacts on Engineering Undergraduates Who Participate in Outreach

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