NSF INCLUDES Design & Development Launch Pilots (DDLPs): Engineering Community Inclusion of Individuals with Autism (ECIIA)

The Engineering Community Inclusion of Individuals with Autism (ECIIA), an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilots project, will employ virtual reality (VR) technology to engage more high school students with autism in engineering. ECIIA builds off the NSF-funded Engineering for US All (e4usa) project, a high school program that expands student and teacher access to engineering. Inclusive practices are a critical element to ECIIA, and participants and all who engage in the project will be representative of the broad spectrum of autism and intersectionality of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sex, and socioeconomic status. The project will engage Community Collaborators, including stakeholders such as e4usa high school educators and students, engineering education and VR researchers, and engineers in industry. ECIIA will also ensure that individuals with autism serving the role of Autism Advisor will inform all stages of the project and support Community Collaborators as they develop a collective commitment to the project and individualized commitment goals and objectives that will further sustain and scale ECIIA. ECIIA will focus on the following research questions: (1) Is virtual reality (VR) effective in increasing access to engineering education for individuals with autism?; (2) Does participation in the VR environment and accompanying support result in the development of engineering identity, engineering self-efficacy, engineering interest, and an understanding of the engineering design process?; (3) Does supporting individuals with autism in the VR environment as Community Collaborators result in increased understanding, and presumed competence and advocacy for individuals with autism to be included in engineering industry? What knowledge of autism is needed to be effective?; (4) Does the project lead Community Collaborators to increase collective and distributed leadership? Three hands-on activities from the e4usa curriculum will be developed within a VR environment to provide an authentic and immersive experience that is responsive to the unique needs of each participant with autism. Participants will engage in the engineering design process, which will support the development of engineering identity, self-efficacy, and interest. The Collective Impact (CI) Framework will be applied to engage diverse individuals that are committed to addressing complex issues and triggering change in engineering pathways for this historically excluded population. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected to evaluate participant engagement, explore the project’s impact on participants’ engineering self-efficacy, identity, and understanding of the engineering design process, and determine a change in Community Collaborators. In sum, ECIIA will lead to the development of VR that is disability-responsive and lay the groundwork for change by building a network of Community Collaborators to broaden participation and foster authentic inclusion in the field. This project is funded by NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) Initiative, which seeks to motivate and accelerate collaborative infrastructure building to advance and sustain systemic change to broaden participation in STEM at scale. 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.