Deborah K. Follman

This qualitative study explored the engineering self‐efficacy beliefs held by students enrolled in their first engineering course at Purdue University. Findings from the thematic analysis of one‐on‐one interviews with 12 students enrolled in the course are presented. Results demonstrate the susceptibility of first‐year engineering students' self‐efficacy beliefs to the influence of performance comparisons based on the speed with which students were able to perform various tasks, the degree of contribution they were able to achieve when working with others, how much material they had mastered, and their grades. Gender differences were also identified in the way in which men and women were influenced by these experiences. Descriptions of how students made performance comparisons, including the logical progression from a specific experience through the modification of confidence in success, are offered.

Purdue University's EPICS program is a service-learning program that attracts women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields at higher rates than the overall population. While many features of the EPICS program align with approaches cited in the literature for encouraging women to participate in STEM fields, there has not been an in-depth investigation from the female engineering students' perspective. In this work, we give a voice to female engineering students participating in EPICS. Through semi-structured interviews with six students investigate why women choose engineering as a major, why they are attracted to the EPICS program, and how the EPICS program matches their objectives. This summarizes our work in progress including descriptions of the participants, project status and expected outcomes. Based preliminary data analysis, we found themes of students knowing an engineer, viewing EPICS as theory application with "real-world" relevance and finding learning from each other through EPICS