ASEE 2022: Letter from Dean José Sánchez
As Dean of Wentworth Institute of Technology, I am delighted to welcome all of you to the 2022 ASEE Northeast Section Conference on behalf of the organizing and technical committees. Wentworth is located in the great city of Boston, which contains a rich tourist-attracting history, a bustling scientific community, and a hub of higher education with 35 colleges and universities.
The conference is organized around a central theme of inclusive excellence and student success in engineering education. In the US, graduation rates in engineering have been around 50%-60% for many decades. However, graduation rates in diverse, underrepresented populations are even lower, as continuously shown in ASEE by the Numbers. This equity gap has been exacerbated during the pandemic. One of the grand challenges for higher education institutions that offer engineering is that diverse, underrepresented populations are increasing, but their graduation rates are not improving. Thus, to narrow this equity gap and meet this grand challenge, academic institutions must have a community that cultivates an inclusive excellence spirit in the classroom and beyond. Therefore, this conference hopes to have intentional and thoughtful discussions, talks, and workshops around this topic.
The reality is that the world is changing rapidly, and the problems that engineers solve are more complex and require an interdisciplinary approach. Furthermore, these problems require analysis from diverse perspectives to ensure inclusive solutions. One area that excites me the most at the Section Conferences is the students presenting their work. As an academician who has focused on student engagement and learning, I enjoy seeing the impact of our higher education community in creating engineers that are prepared to tackle the future.
I hope that this conference provides participants with an experience that will orient their compass with a mindset that all academic institutions have to be culturally competent and that all students must have a chance to reach their full potential. Once we all have the proper heading, we can take steps in the right direction as a community. I look forward to meeting you all at the conference.
Best regards,
José Sánchez
Dean and Professor, School of Engineering
Wentworth Institute of Technology