Center for Engineering Education Research (CEER)

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The Center for Engineering Education Research (CEER) examines innovative and effective engineering education practices as well as classroom technologies that advance learning and teaching in engineering. The center aligns with the College of Engineering mission in preparing engineers for the workforce of the 21st Century. CEER represents the evolution of the successful National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE), a center funded by the National Science Foundation (2004-12) in excess of $10M. CEER expands the work of NCETE to better meet the needs of the College of Engineering by strengthening collaborative research interdepartmentally, across campus and nationally. CEER conducts basic and applied multidisciplinary research in engineering education; identity and gender; the development of students’ and teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior with regard to engineering; the learning of engineering in informal settings; and the diffusion of engineering education into educational systems.

CEER uses affiliated faculty from other engineering education programs across the country. This affiliation consists of faculty working on PhD committees who would join research projects. This brings further distinction to USU as a leader in engineering education research as it works collaboratively with other national and international centers for engineering education. Through expanded participation in joint research with other research centers, CEER at USU further promotes the university as a world class research institution.

Research in engineering education is not limited to studies conducted by faculty in the Department of Engineering Education. There are faculty across the College of Engineering conducting research to improve learning and teaching of engineering who benefit from CEER. For example, faculty in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering are collaborating with Engineering Education faculty to understand the student learning outcomes associated with the senior capstone design experience.  Faculty teaching large sections of required sophomore-level engineering courses from Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering are collaborating with Engineering Education faculty and education faculty from the University of California at Santa Barbara to understand the most effective ways to teach courses such as Statics and Thermodynamics. CEER also serves an important role in helping College of Engineering faculty develop broader impacts, essential components to many NSF, NASA, DOE and DOD proposals. College faculty can turn to CEER for expertise to help develop broader impact solutions focused on improving teaching and learning in engineering classrooms.

Additionally, due to a 20 percent slip in the number of engineers graduating from U.S. institutions and with more than half of the U.S. workforce in the sciences and engineering approaching retirement age, the need for a diverse group of students interested in and prepared to study engineering in college is ever growing.  Within the state of Utah, as well as across the intermountain west, CEER is unique in its focused effort to conduct research into how engineering is learned, taught, and assessed.  The long-term outcomes of CEER research enable USU engineering programs, as well as engineering programs across the country, to maintain global leadership. This is accomplished through the development of responsive engineering degree programs that can rapidly adjust to the changing needs of the economies and technologies of Utah and the nation, and that are equally open and available to all citizens. CEER facilitates the interdisciplinary research across engineering programs that is necessary for the development of responsive engineering degree programs.

FACULTY - College of Engineering  
 

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