Research Initiation: Understanding Impacts of Soft Robotics Curricula on Female Students Engineering Identity

Participation in K12 educational robotics is a common precursor to enrollment in engineering majors, however the gender gap in traditional pre-college robotics prevents equal access to these disciplines. We believe soft robotics may create a new pathway for students from underrepresented groups to enter engineering majors. Soft robots are those devices made from soft materials and flexible electronics enabling robots to more safely interface with humans and other living organisms.

Soft robotics presents an opportunity to introduce traditional engineering principles through a human-centered perspective with the potential to diversify engineering. This project will address two aims. First, this project aims to understand changes in the engineering identity of middle and high school-aged female students after having engaged in soft robotics projects in their science classes.

Second, this project aims to introduce the Principal Investigator to engineering education research, catalyzing a new research enterprise focused on access to engineering and educational robotics. The research team will utilize existing relationships with local schools to deliver a previously piloted soft robotics curriculum and study student experiences.

Implementation will include a one-week, hands-on robotics short course for about 200 middle and high school students local to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

To date, the lack of representation of women in mechanical and electrical engineering is well-documented. However, successful pathways for women to these majors are understudied. Agency beliefs have been a useful lens for understanding how women do enter some engineering majors, such as bioengineering.

The mentor-mentee research team will leverage a mixed methods approach to explore soft robotics as a new pathway to engineering Critical Engineering Agency will be a framework through which to understand the student experience. The research team will use surveys and interview instruments to help answer the overall research question: How can a soft robotics implementation impact high school students’ attitudes and self-beliefs, and therefore serve as a strategy to recruit female students to traditionally male-dominated engineering majors?

Prior to the activity, students will be surveyed using engineering identity and agency belief measures. After implementation, students will complete a post-survey and the research team will interview select students to understand how the activities impacted their engineering identity. The result of this collaborative research project will be an analysis of the elements of pre-college soft robotics curriculum that may lead to diverse recruitment in engineering.

Education of local stakeholders in standards-based soft robotics curriculum opens the door for further engagement in our local community. Dissemination of research results will enable broad adoption. Findings from this study will pave the way for increased representation of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering at the college level and in the engineering workforce, contributing to a diversity of solutions to society’s critical challenges.

Soft robotics curricula have the potential to prepare a diverse generation of engineers and reduce the barrier to entry not only for girls, but other students from underrepresented groups.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.