Engineering faculty member receives NSF CAREER Award
Avneet Hira, an assistant professor in the department of Engineering at Boston College, has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, the institution’s most prestigious honor in support of a junior faculty member who exemplifies the role of teacher-scholar through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors in the context of their organization’s mission.
The five-year, $596,000 NSF grant is designed to develop comfort and fluency in engineering and technology among youth historically underserved in STEM fields, and to develop educational programming for engineering students and coordinators of collaborative work spaces in the Greater Boston area.
Titled “Engineering in Youth-led Technology-rich Settings: Promoting Belonging and Preventing Harm,” the project will recruit middle and high school students who are typically unlikely to engage with engineering and technology, and involve them in participatory action research.
Avneet Hira
Hira’s CAREER award is the first for BC’s recently formed Engineering department, which enrolled its first students in fall 2021.
“We live in a world where we increasingly use technology to do essential daily tasks, and the number of STEM and non-STEM jobs that use technology is steadily growing,” said Hira, the principal investigator. “Yet, only students who have access to expensive resources or see themselves as people who are `good with technology,’ feel like they belong in engineering and technology.”
Hira, who notes this estrangement is attributable to the pervasive technology divide evident since the advent of computers — along with the inadvertent gatekeeping behaviors of individuals in charge — established as primary goals the support of youth in leading their own explorations of how technology use and creation can reinforce a sense of belonging in engineering, and co-developing a framework with youth that focuses on preventing human and environmental harm when engineering.
Middle and high school youth will lead the design of work stations featuring different types of technologies, such as 3D printers, laser and vinyl cutters, microcontroller boards, sewing machines, hand tools, sensors and other electronics, for use in solving youth-relevant engineering problems, but in a low-stakes, formative environment. They also will meet and collaborate with coordinators who manage such “makerspaces,” and with students who are or might become leaders in such work spaces, to learn and develop best practices for similar, youth-led, technology-rich settings.
“We live in a world where we increasingly use technology to do essential daily tasks, and the number of STEM and non-STEM jobs that use technology is steadily growing. Yet, only students who have access to expensive resources or see themselves as people who are `good with technology,’ feel like they belong in engineering and technology.”
The youth will also work with the research team to develop ways to introduce the principle of detriment prevention as an essential tenet of engineering.
“Using technology to create artifacts aligned with students’ interests and motivations has great promise in promoting inclusion and attracting students to engineering,” said Hira, who also has a courtesy appointment in the Lynch School’s Department of Teaching, Curriculum, and Society.
“However, women, and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and underserved racial and ethnic groups remain underrepresented in these inclusion efforts. The lack of a sense of belonging in engineering and STEM contexts plays a clear role, as do the inadvertent but nonetheless discouraging gatekeeping behaviors of teachers, shop staff, and coordinators. This project addresses these barriers by conducting youth participatory work to meet the unmet promises of technology-rich spaces in engineering education.”
Glenn R. Gaudette, the John W. Kozarich '71 Chair of the Department of Engineering, noted that this award recognizes Hira’s dynamic work within the Engineering department, and with collaborators across campus.
“As a founding faculty member, she has made significant contributions to the department to ensure our students have the technical knowledge needed in engineering, combined with a mindset focused on making the world a better place for all,” he said. “This grant will help Avneet expand her impact to include middle and high school students.”
BC’s undergraduate Human-Centered Engineering degree is one of just a few programs that purposefully integrates a general engineering education with the full strength of the liberal arts experience to develop engineers focused on complex problems that impact society and the planet.
“Professor Hira’s work is well aligned with the vision for this innovative engineering program,” said Gaudette.
“This honor recognizes Professor Hira’s innovative research and commitment to address the many barriers to students entering engineering and other STEM-related fields,” said Thomas Chiles, BC’s vice provost for Research and Academic Planning, and professor and Deluca Chair of Biology. “This CAREER award supports the NSF’s mission to broadening participation in engineering,”