ENE Research Seminar: Assessing the Long-Term Impact of Undergraduate Global Experiences on Engineers’ Career Outcomes
ENE Research Seminar: Assessing the Long-Term Impact of Undergraduate Global Experiences on Engineers’ Career Outcomes
| Event Date: | September 4, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Speaker: | Kirsten Davis, PhD |
| Speaker Affiliation: | Purdue University |
| Type: | Research Seminar |
| Time: | 3:30-4:20 p.m. |
| Location: | WANG 3501 |
| Open To: | Graduate and undergraduate students, staff, and faculty with an interest in educating engineers |
| Priority: | No |
| School or Program: | Engineering Education |
| College Calendar: | Show |
For the high-flex option, register in advance. You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Title:
Assessing the Long-Term Impact of Undergraduate Global Experiences on Engineers’ Career Outcomes
Abstract:
Engineers need to develop skills relevant to the ever-evolving global nature of the engineering workplace. As a result, many educational institutions have established global undergraduate experiences designed to help students develop these skills. The immediate impacts of these programs are well documented, but there is limited information on their long-term effects and the career outcomes of program participants. This talk will describe a project funded by the National Science Foundation to address this gap. We have collected more than 1000 responses on a survey of engineering alumni from three universities focused on understanding their career paths, global work experiences, and global competence. We collected data from two groups: those who participated in global experiences as undergraduates and those who did not. I will present the results of our early analyses of these data, which explores what experiences and/or participant characteristics predict global career outcomes, including the development of Global Engineering Competency and the performance of global engineering job tasks. I will also discuss the implications of our findings for both academic and industry-based training of engineers for the global workforce.
Bio:
Kirsten Davis is an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research explores the intentional design and assessment of global engineering programs, student development through experiential learning, and approaches for teaching and assessing systems thinking skills. Kirsten holds a B.S. in Engineering & Management from Clarkson University and an M.A.Ed. in Higher Education, M.S. in Systems Engineering, and Ph.D. in Engineering Education, all from Virginia Tech.
Citation:
Arinze, L. C., Tort, J., & Davis, K. A. (Accepted). Assessing the impact of undergraduate global experiences on engineers’ career outcomes: A case study of one university. 2025 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Nashville, TN.