Impact-Driven Engineering Students: Contributing Behavioral Correlates

Abstract

Eric is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford interested in engineering design, manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and engineering education. From 2011 to 2016, Eric worked at MIT DLab where he co-developed and taught two courses and was a lab instructor in Mechanical Engineering. Additionally, he managed the MIT D-Lab Scale-Ups hardware venture accelerator supporting full-time social entrepreneurs primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and India. Eric has worked extensively in lessindustrialized economies, most notably Zambia. Previously, he worked at Battelle Memorial Institute and New England Complex Systems Institute. A proud Buckeye, Eric is a graduate of The Ohio State University (BSME 2009) and recipient of a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2016). Dr. Mark Schar, Stanford UniversityThe focus of Mark's research can broadly be described as "pivot thinking," the cognitive aptitudes and abilities that encourage innovation, and the tension between design engineering and business management cognitive styles. To encourage these thinking patterns in young engineers, Mark has developed a Scenario Based Learning curriculum that attempts to blend core engineering concepts with selected business ideas. Mark is also researches empathy and mindfulness and its impact on gender participation in engineering education. He is a Lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University and teaches the course ME310x Product Management and ME305 Statistics for Design Researchers.Mark has extensive background in consumer products management, having managed more than 50 consumer driven businesses over a 25-year career with The Procter & Gamble Company. In 2005, he joined Intuit, Inc. as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer and initiated a number of consumer package goods marketing best practices, introduced the use of competitive response modeling and "onthe-fly" A|B testing program to qualify software improvements.Mark is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of One Page Solutions, a consulting firm that uses the OGSP R process to help technology and branded product clients develop better strategic plans. Mark is a member of The Band of Angels, Silicon Valley's oldest organization dedicated exclusively to funding seed stage start-ups. In addition, he serves on the board of several technology start-up companies. Dr. Sheri Sheppard, Stanford UniversitySheri D. Sheppard, Ph.D., P.E., is professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design and education related classes at Stanford University, she conducts research on engineering education and work-practices, and applied finite element analysis. Impact-Driven Engineering Students: Contributing Behavioral Correlates AbstractEngineering has a long history of developing solutions to meet societal needs, and humanity currently faces many and varied societal challenges. Who are the engineering students motivated to address such challenges? This study explores a sample of 5,819 undergraduate engineerin...

Establishing the Relative Importance of Specific Sustainability Themes That Influence Women’s Choice of Engineering as a Career Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

“…Likewise, these findings indicate the misunderstanding of the overlap among the three pillars of sustainability, where an environmental sustainability theme such as water pollution may be viewed as a social or economic theme, depending on the context of the study [26]. Similarly, this interrelatedness of the three pillars of sustainability is seen in Brubaker et al [27], who defined societal impact as "measurable effects on environmental, social and economic issues facing human wellbeing and/or planet" (p.3). Although more studies outlined several social sustainability topics that influence women's choice of engineering, it is not clear whether a reference to these topics such as women's interest in the societal relevance of engineering or the desire to change the world should be regarded or classified under any of the three sustainability themes.…”