This project will adapt and implement evidence-based practices from two prior NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) awards. The project will generate new knowledge about how successful strategies can be effectively translated to a new institutional context, with the goal of broadening their impact to benefit all students. Specifically, the project will implement a design-thinking approach among the electrical engineering (EE) faculty to empower a collaborative curriculum redesign process. Additionally, to enhance the professional development and formation of electrical engineers, this adaptation will extend training beyond EE standard technical skills to include cross-disciplinary expertise, thereby enhancing our students' unique appeal to potential employers. This project addresses critical national needs by preparing graduates who are professionally competent and adept in interdisciplinary collaboration. Such skills are necessary for maintaining U.S. leadership in rapidly evolving technological sectors such as high-speed communications, data centers, and modern power grids. Aligned with NSF’s RED initiative, this project addresses gaps in engineering education by ensuring continuity of professional competencies beyond the traditionally well-supported first and senior years. By collaboratively redesigning courses in sophomore and junior years, the project seeks to increase student retention and foster a stronger academic identity among EE students. Furthermore, the adaptation process itself will generate new knowledge on how educational innovations developed in prior RED-funded projects can effectively be scaled and contextualized to other institutional settings. At the regional and national level, the outcomes of this project will significantly enhance career preparedness for students, provide engineers with broader skill sets, and support industries critical to national economic prosperity and security.

The project team will implement two core interventions: (1) a collaborative design-thinking-based course review process and (2) the development of socio-technical modules that contextualize electrical engineering practice in broader cross-disciplinary context. These interventions will be applied across the EE curriculum at UC Merced and aim to establish a coherent alignment between course content and the skills needed for professional success in engineering. Faculty from different disciplines (including outside of EE) will collaborate to build this curriculum and engage in training on evidence-based pedagogy, design thinking, and continuous improvement. Activities such as vision and values mapping will support the development of a shared cultural mindset among both senior and junior faculty and strengthen their roles as effective engineering mentors. The project’s research will generate new knowledge on: (1) the challenges of adapting organizational change strategies to new institutional settings, (2) the influence of collaborative faculty design processes on student self-efficacy, (3) the impact of our departmental interventions on student identity as they progress from first year to capstone, and (4) the relationship between student retention and motivation to contribute as electrical engineers. To address these questions, the team will collect longitudinal data on students and faculty throughout the life of the project, tracking professional identity formation, engagement, and motivation. The project aims to support pedagogical sustainability, improve student-centered teaching practices, and cultivate a departmental culture that embeds continuous, collaborative improvement as a central norm.