E Underscored: Laying the Foundation for Engineering Communication

Engineers shape almost every part of daily life, from the bridges people drive across to the phones in their pockets; yet many people cannot name a single engineer. A national survey found that nearly 60 percent of middle and high school students could not name an engineer, real or fictional, and fewer than half knew that engineering is the “E” in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). This was true even though most students said they enjoyed hands-on engineering activities when given the chance to try them. This project, led by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), aims to close that gap, and hence expand the pipeline of students selecting engineering as a career goal. The goal of the project is to train experienced NAE members to speak clearly and personally about their work and thus prepare them to engage with students, families, and educators at science museums and similar community sites across the country, including in states that historically receive less federal research funding. The overarching goal is to help young people, especially those with few engineering role models nearby, understand the creativity and meaning possible through an engineering career path. The project also seeks to help the public better understand the engineered systems that shape their lives. An important component of the project is to produce training materials and tools that other organizations can use to sustain this work beyond the award. The project addresses Engineering Communication as a field distinct from Science Communication. It argues that engineers must convey an ongoing design process shaped by structures, constraints, and trade-offs, rather than a discovery that has already been confirmed and explained after the fact. Approximately 80 to 100 NAE members will complete training developed with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. The training will use the Alda Method, an approach grounded in improvisation and communication research and will be delivered during regular NAE convenings. Trained members will then engage audiences at six or more informal-education institutions serving as partner sites, including sites located in states designated under NSF’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which have historically received less federal research funding. Effectiveness will be assessed using an instrument grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), tracking trainees’ attitudes, perceived social norms, and confidence before and after training, alongside partner-site surveys of visiting audiences. Deliverables will include a validated curriculum, a TPB-based assessment instrument, and a documented, replicable program model intended for adoption beyond NAE. Trained members are expected to continue deploying these skills within their own institutions well beyond the award period, and the project is intended to lay the groundwork for a lasting Engineering Communication program at NAE. Together, these efforts will help establish a powerful approach aimed at increasing the domestic pipeline of students trained in engineering research to ensure America’s long-term competitiveness and national security. 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.