Planning: iuse/PFE:red planning - engineer:… (2550301) – Project Grant to Wilkes University

Abstract: Engineering education plays a critical role in preparing the nation's future workforce to address complex societal challenges across advanced manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and national security. Yet many engineering programs experience substantial student attrition during the sophomore and junior years, when students often encounter increasingly rigorous technical coursework with limited opportunities to connect classroom learning to authentic engineering practice. This project will strengthen the capacity of wilkes university's mechanical and electrical engineering department, a primarily undergraduate institution, to undertake a comprehensive transformation of undergraduate engineering education through the NSF revolutionizing engineering departments (red) track 1 planning program. The project will develop the institutional structures, faculty leadership, and collaborative partnerships necessary to prepare for a future department-wide transformation that integrates technical excellence with creativity, professional identity formation, teamwork, ethics, and inclusive learning practices. By engaging faculty, students, alumni, industry partners, and university leadership in a shared planning process, the project will create a sustainable framework to improve student persistence, broaden participation in engineering, strengthen workforce preparation, and advance evidence-based educational innovation. The resulting planning model will provide a scalable approach that can benefit other primarily undergraduate institutions seeking to modernize engineering education while supporting the national science foundation's mission to promote the progress of science, advance the nation's prosperity and welfare, and strengthen the preparation of the future engineering workforce. This project will conduct a comprehensive planning effort to develop a competitive NSF red track 3 implementation proposal for transforming engineering education at wilkes university. Guided by organizational change theory and engineering education research, the project will conduct an institutional self-study using quantitative and qualitative analyses of student success, curriculum, faculty culture, and organizational structures. Faculty will participate in interdisciplinary x-teams that explore curricular integration across courses and in y-circles that serve as faculty learning communities focused on professional formation, inclusive pedagogy, and organizational change. Participatory visioning workshops will engage students, alumni, industry partners, and university leadership to establish a shared vision for departmental transformation and identify priorities for curricular innovation. The project will also develop governance structures, a logic model, an implementation roadmap, a sustainability strategy, and an evaluation framework to guide future implementation. Strategic mentorship from experienced NSF red investigators will provide feedback throughout the planning process while ensuring that wilkes faculty lead all substantive planning activities. The project will produce a complete red track 3 proposal, evidence-based planning resources, strengthened faculty collaboration, enhanced institutional readiness for sustainable educational transformation, and transferable planning practices that will contribute to the national knowledge base on engineering education reform at primarily undergraduate institutions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.

Planning: iuse/PFE:red planning - engineer: engaging new generations in engineering education reform

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