Discovering How to Get Engineering on the Radar of Community College Students

It is well-known that community colleges (CCs) are a largely unexploited resource for more engineers and computer scientists in the United States. It is also well-known that many of these students do not have engineering as a career on their radar because they know little or nothing about engineering. In Fall 2014 on a visit to a nonmetropolitan CC, two engineering professors visited nine classrooms and talked with over 165 students. At the beginning of the presentation the students were surveyed for their opinions on engineering including their interest, their knowledge of engineering, and their myths about engineering. This paper shows the results of the survey and, in particular, examines the results by whether or not a student is interested in engineering or computer science as a career. An emphasis in our work has been to encourage females and underrepresented minority students to consider engineering. The CC we visited has a high Hispanic population. By analyzing these results, we will be better able to focus future presentations to these populations of students.