Undergraduate Student Competitions

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2005 by Wankat, Phillip C

Professors involved with competitions that are closely aligned with a course thought either that the time requirements for the course were the same, or that it was a toss-up because the motivated students who do put in more time probably would do more anyway. Professors who are involved with competitions not aligned with courses think that students who voluntarily join a team for a competition put in significantly more time. "These students don't have a life."

There was general agreement in the answers to question 6, "Did winning or placing in the contest have a long-term effect on some of the students?" The actual award appears to have a short-term effect although it might help students get their first jobs. Many advisors believed that there are long-term benefits from involvement in the experience. "Students that have competed consider it one of the highlights of their education. Even those that did not win value the experience." "The enhancement of student confidence after a strong performance in a competition is remarkable. I feel strongly that such confidence inspires young engineers to take on more creative and challenging tasks, coupled with a greater willingness to engage in self-taught education on the job."

V. CONCLUSIONS

The data collected strongly supported Hypothesis 1: No institution wins consistently in the universe of student competitions, but institutions do win consistently in individual competitions. The advisors' answers to the survey questions support a modified Hypothesis 2: Institutions that consistently win a competition usually have a dedicated faculty advisor/teacher and/or the close alignment of the competition with their curriculum. Also important are: a tradition of winning; the quality of the students; and (for hands-on competitions) the availability of resources.

The question, "Do competitions lead to increased student learning?" cannot be definitively answered based on this study's methodology. Although advisors tend to be overly positive about their students, their answers to questions 3 to 6 in Table 5 plus expectations from involvement theory of education [3], justify a direct study of students. Future research should test the following hypothesis: well-designed student competitions increase student learning, help them learn practical aspects of engineering and motivate many students to work harder.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Professors Colin Howat, Carl Crane III, Michael Feutz, Hayden Griffin, David Hall, Bill Lear, William Mason, Gary Mathew, John Schueller, and Thomas Sputo were most generous in sharing information with me. Matthew Janszen and Joel Virkler were extremely helpful in searching the Web. I thank Dr. Walter L. Robb for his support of the Walter L. Robb Engineering Education Senior Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering. Although the research topic presented in this paper was suggested by the NAE for this fellowship, the direction, conduct and conclusions of this research are solely the responsibility of the author.