Biomedical Engineering Social Networks

PROJECT ABSTRACT Thousands of students yearly are drawn to biomedical engineering (BME) by the prospect of a career linking medicine and engineering. Unfortunately, students from historically underrepresented racial/ethnic minority (HU; e.g., Hispanic\Latinx) groups do not advance or integrate into the BME professional community at rates

comparable to their majority peers. National statistics indicate that Hispanic, Black, and non-Hispanic racial/ethnic minority groups accounted for only 12% of bioengineering and BME graduates in 2021. Data collected at Texas A&M University, a Hispanic Serving Institution and ranked 5th nationally in bachelor’s

degrees awarded in BME in 2022, show that students from HU groups (on average ~25% of BME majors, up to 33% in recent years) lag behind their peers from historically overrepresented (HO) groups on measures of academic success (e.g., time to graduation). Social Network and Mentoring Co-Regulation theories, and

preliminary data suggest these disparities may be due to HU students holding less privileged positions within their peer network, having less access to mentors, and therefore having less access to social capital (i.e., information, support, and resources) and support for self-regulated learning (SRL; e.g., help-seeking). The

long-term overall objectives of this work are to develop a generalizable model of how social networks facilitate students’ biomedical research career success and to diversify the BME research workforce. This study will (1) examine the impact of generalizable “Creating Birds of a Feather” (CBoaF) peer and mentor network

interventions designed to promote diverse students’ “Hallmarks of Success” outcomes (e.g., well-being, GPA, degree conferral), and (2) assess the contributions of students’ SRL and social capital. The central hypothesis is that being well-connected within peer and mentor networks will promote access to social capital and support

for effective SRL, which will promote success in BME. The project will implement a longitudinal, randomized experiment via a professional development workshop across three cohorts (2024-2026) of first-year BME majors to ensure a large and diverse sample of emerging biomedical engineers (N=360) from HU (n=108) and

HO (n=252) groups. Aim 1 will test a peer network intervention by randomly assigning students to one of three workshop groups: (1A) CBoaF enhanced inclusive activity workshop at a Mixed Low/High table (containing students with low and high connections with peers), (1B) CBoaF enhanced inclusive activity workshop at a

Same-level table (i.e., low-only, high-only), or (1C) Alternative workshop control group without CBoaF activities. Aim 2 will test a mentor network intervention by randomly assigning students to one of two mentor introduction groups: (2A) Introduction + CBoaF similarities highlighted or (2B) Introduction only. Exploratory

Aim 3 will assess the degree to which intervention effects are stronger for students from HU groups compared to their HO group peers. This study will show how and why helping diverse BME students form stronger social networks can promote their well-being and BME career success.