The Rocky Mountain Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education saw notable achievements by CU Boulder educators.
Among the 47 presentations and posters delivered by engineering education leaders over the two-day conference, three out of the five best-in-conference awards were presented to members of CU Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Ben Weihrauch, senior director of student professional development, received the best presentation award in the professional category for his presentation on findings from his PhD thesis, "No Choice but to Succeed: Persistence and Graduation Determinants of First-Generation STEM Students."
Additionally, college members secured the best presentation award in the graduate student category.
Jessica Rush Leeker, the Engineering Management Program’s faculty director of undergraduate education, collaborated with Lyndsay Ruane (PhDAeroEngr '24), Hanna Sanders (EnvEngr '24) and community member Robertha Richardson on "Where do we start? Lessons learned from the PI, graduate research assistant, undergraduate researcher, and a community member starting their inter-institutional STEM-focused community-engaged project using participatory action learning and action research."
Janet Yowell, the college's director of strategic community college STEM initiatives, and Nick Stites, director of the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, also secured the Best Poster award in the professional category for their project titled "Pathways to Develop 'College Capital' for Underrepresented Community College Students: the Denver-Metro Engineering Consortium."
The project focuses on their efforts supported by a grant of over $10 million from the Department of Defense, aimed at significantly increasing the representation of students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM fields.