The Role of Empathy in Choosing Majors

Abstract

holds a B.S.E.E. (1986) and M.S.E.E. (1988) degree from the University of Arkansas, and a D.Sc. degree in Electro-physics from the George Washington University (2001). Dr. Jacobs is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Tennessee. Dr. Jacobs began teaching in 2006 after a 17 year career as a US Department of Defense researcher. He currently serves as the Undergraduate Coordinator for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Memphis. He is actively involved in curriculum development and in efforts to form the professional identity of students. He serves as the faculty sponsor for IEEE-HKN honor society and a faculty advisor for IEEE. He provides numerous research experiences for undergraduates, primarily in the fields of optics and imaging which are his major areas of research. Dr. Jacobs is fellow of SPIE and a senior member of IEEE.

Why Students Select the Civil Engineering Major

“…MacDonald and Durdyev [9] found that friends' and family members' influence did not strongly affect female students' propensity to study the civil engineering adjacent fields of "architecture, engineering, and construction studies." Jacobs et al [10] conducted focus groups on women in STEM and engineering disciplines and found that "fathers and math teachers play in the choices women make to study engineering," although this influence affected both students' decisions for and against majoring in engineering.…”