Date of Award

Spring 2023

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Computer Science and Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Mohammod Ali

Abstract

Society’s dependence on engineered products is steadily increasing. This dependence requires the engineering workforce to continually innovate and design new advancements. In pursuit of this, engineering employers are implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to attract prime candidates and retain employees. For employers to achieve the goals of their initiatives, engineering colleges and universities must produce a diverse pool of graduates. The purpose of this thesis report is to investigate how the diversity, equity, and inclusion concept can be implemented into engineering education to assist with producing diverse graduating classes. A universal methodology is proposed to provide a roadmap on how to implement diverse representation, equitable practices, and an inclusive atmosphere into the administrative and educational structure. The methodology is designed to accomplish two main objectives; aid recruitment efforts to increase enrollment diversity and promote retention of minority engineering students to increase minority graduation rates. In an effort to conduct a feasible and timely research study, a survey-style study was conducted to collect the student point of view on the hypothetical implementation of the proposed methodology. The results of the study are presented as collective, statistical data to reflect the general student perception. At the conclusion of the study, majority of the respondents concur with the diversity and equity elements of the proposed methodology. For the inclusion component of the study, the data reflected that respondents believed the methodology was adequate to support the retention objective, but not the recruitment objective, definitively.

Rights

© 2023, Phoneia Hughes Myers

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