Whom Are We Serving? An Exploration of Student Demographics in a Large Engineering Design Projects Ecosystem

Project-based learning is a popular way for students to gain hands-on experience in engineering curriculums. Curriculum in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, allows students to participate in a variety of engineering design projects as early as the second quarter of their freshman year through their senior year. The projects ecosystem typically serves around 400 students, with the majority in mechanical engineering. These projects are largely student organized and run with the support of faculty advisors, and the number of students on each project varies from three students to over 100. With so much variability in the projects, we aim to better understand the differences in student experiences in our projects ecosystem. In particular, we comparatively study the experiences of low income, first generation, transfer, female, and underrepresented minority students. We similarly study the experiences of students on teams that have the goal of participating in a national or international competition versus those of students on non-competition teams. Using survey data from students in the project ecosystem, paired with institutional data on student demographics, we conduct an exploratory analysis to understand whom our projects ecosystem is serving.