Featuring Dr. Allison Godwin, Purdue University School of Engineering Education

Russell P. Troyer began his Purdue education in the fall of 1968 with hopes to one day design spaceships to Mars - or at least fighter planes - with a degree in aeronautical engineering. It was about halfway through his degree that he learned what aeronautical engineers were actually doing in the field. The jobs didn’t have anything to do with design or anything else as exciting as he had anticipated. Russ knew he needed to make a decision, which is where his story with Interdisciplinary Engineering began.

As the engineering graduates of 2020 work their way through our undergraduate programs, engineering educators and engineering education researchers are starting to come to terms with the work we’ve left unfinished.

Featuring Dr. Joachim Walther, University of Georgia

Congratulations to Dr. Allison Godwin and Jacki Rohde, along with their co-authors, for receiving the Benjamin Dasher Best Paper Award for FIE 2017. Their paper, entitled, "Understanding the Pathways of Students with Normative Attitudes in Engineering," was presented at the annual FIE Conference in Indianapolis last month.

Dr. Jennifer DeBoer's research team has been at work in Tunisia, Malaysia, and Jordan to determine how Muslim-majority countries are closing the gap for women pursuing engineering.

Jeff Myers is an academic advisor for the First-Year Engineering Program;
he has been with us since 2013; and
he is the recipient of the 2014 Richard W. McDowell Best Counselor Award.