Collaborative research: research initiation: engineering identity formation of student veterans through capstone experiences

The National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education and Centers awarded $158,776 to Austin Peay State University on July 1, 2026, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to examine how undergraduate students who are military veterans develop engineering identity, professional confidence, and a sense of belonging through capstone design experiences in engineering and engineering technology programs. The project investigates how student veterans integrate prior military identity—including leadership, teamwork, technical training, mission-focused problem solving, and real-world constraints experience—with emerging professional engineering identity during capstone coursework, where students are expected to synthesize technical knowledge, communicate with teammates and stakeholders, make design decisions, and recognize themselves as members of the engineering profession. The work contributes to understanding professional formation pathways for non-traditional students entering engineering, including adult learners and career changers, and expands the engineering education research community as required by the program. Performance occurs in Clarksville, Tennessee, with a completion date of June 30, 2028. Austin Peay State University is a subsidiary of the Board of Regents Tennessee.

Abstract

This project will examine how undergraduate students who are also military veterans develop engineering identity, professional confidence, and a sense of belonging over time as they move through capstone design experiences in engineering and engineering technology programs. The project also explores how engineering identity interacts with an identity as a veteran within a capstone environment. Students who are also military veterans (student veterans) bring valuable prior experiences to engineering education, including leadership, teamwork, technical training, mission-focused problem solving, and experience working under real-world constraints. However, little is known about how these prior experiences shape their transition into engineering roles, especially during capstone design, where students are expected to integrate technical knowledge, communicate with teammates and stakeholders, make design decisions, and begin seeing themselves as members of the engineering profession. This project will study how student veterans make meaning of their prior military identity while developing an emerging engineering identity, given that both are strong role identities. This work will contribute to our understanding of the professional formation of engineers which includes investigating how and why people become engineers, how identity develops through formal and informal educational experiences, and how engineering programs can better support students who enter engineering through nontraditional pathways. The project also expands the engineering education research community, as required by the funding program. The work here will serve the national interest by strengthening understanding of how military-affiliated students, adult learners, career changers, and other non-traditional students can be supported in engineering education and prepared for engineering careers. This is important for the nation?s technical workforce given that critical sectors such as advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and microelectronics, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology, infrastructure, defense, and energy depend on graduates who are technically capable, adaptable, collaborative, and able to solve complex problems. The project will advance knowledge in engineering education by focusing on understudied undergraduate experiences, and produce recommendations that engineering and engineering technology faculty, advisors, veteran-support offices, and program leaders can use to improve capstone instruction, mentoring, advising, and student-support practices, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of undergraduate stem education. This project will use an exploratory qualitative case study design focused on student veterans enrolled in engineering and engineering technology capstone design experiences at austin peay state university. The study will use an engineering identity framework that examines interest, competence, and recognition as key dimensions of how students come to see themselves as engineers. The project will address three research questions: (1) how student veterans experience and describe their developing engineering identity during senior capstone design projects; (2) what aspects of the capstone environment, such as teamwork, mentorship, technical challenges, sponsor interaction, and project expectations, support or inhibit identity formation; and (3) how student veterans reconcile their prior military identity with their emerging identity as engineers. The research team will collect data through a longitudinal sequence of semi-structured interviews conducted across the capstone experience, supplemented by relevant capstone artifacts when participants provide consent. The research team will analyze the data through first- and second-cycle qualitative coding, within-case analysis, and cross-case analysis to identify patterns in how identity develops over time. Data analysis will expand researchers' understanding of godwin's identity theory, which hinges on the concepts of recognition (by peers and instructors), competence (in technical work), and interest (in engineering as a discipline). By studying veterans, the team will increase understanding of the importance of those concepts on identity formation more generally. The project will be a collaboration between austin peay state university and virginia tech, with engineering education research mentoring supporting the principal investigator?s development as a scholar in professional formation of engineers. The project will also include mentoring for a graduate and undergraduate research assistant, who will gain experience with human-subjects research ethics, qualitative data practices, research documentation, and scholarly dissemination. Expected outcomes include peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, a refined understanding of how capstone experiences shape student veteran engineering identity, and evidence-based recommendations for supporting student veterans and other nontraditional students in engineering capstone environments. The findings will lay the groundwork for future engineering education research on identity formation, transition to practice, and inclusive capstone design education across institutional contexts, as well as practical insights for institutions of higher education with large military populations, or seeking to improve its support of military populations. 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.