Nicholas Fila

• Doctor of Philosophy, Engineering Education
• PostDoc Position at Iowa State University

Empathy has received increased attention for its role in engineering design. While research on empathy in engineering and engineering design is still relatively new, there are already several definitions or models of empathic design for engineers. Moreover, there are a variety of ways that scholars have integrated empathy into engineering design cu...

Background: Ethics is a required outcome for engineering education programs, but few studies focus on how workforce experiences lead to changes in how engineers experience ethics in practice. By identifying what incidents influence the ways that engineers come to experience ethical engineering practice, we can more effectively design post-secondary...

Developing a course is a substantive design activity. Within a complex and dynamic context and user base, educators must scope ambiguous problems and develop detailed solutions that are often novel and iterated upon over time. While much attention has been given to course design as a process, less attention has been paid to what a course is as a de...

Engineering education researchers have identified a lack of alignment between the complexities of professional engineering contexts and the ways that we train and evaluate the ethical abilities and dispositions of engineers preparing for professional practice. The challenges that engineers face as practitioners are multifaceted, wicked problems sit...

This study applied Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to identify potential causes of changes in ways of experiencing ethical engineering practice in the health products industry. We use the term change broadly to refer to any shift, refinement, or reaffirmation in one’s way of experiencing. We applied CIT to study 25 interviews with engineering pra...

This WIP paper describes a team approach to phenomenography on ethical engineering practice in the health products industry and its potential impact on research quality. Although qualitative researchers often conduct phenomenography collaboratively, most often a single individual leads the data collection and analysis; others primarily serve as cri...

This Work-in-Progress Research paper describes (1) the contemporary research space on ethics education in engineering; (2) our long-term research plan; (3) the theoretical underpinnings of Phase 1 of our research plan (phenomenography); and (4) the design and developmental process of a phenomenographic interview protocol to explore engineers' exper...

Dr. McKilligan's research focuses on approaches in the design innovation process, ideation flexibility, investigations of problem-solution spaces, and concept generation and development practices of novices through practitioners. She produces theory, design principles and systems to support design, engineering and educational innovation processes,...

Understanding the strategies instructional designers use in practice can help to identify the factors that influence how courses and learning environments are designed and suggest methods to improve practices. Prior research has shown that educators use heuristics, models, and frameworks 1–5, as they design their courses. Although prior work has co...

Innovation projects are often positive experiences that allow engineering students to solve novel but challenging problems, navigate their own processes, and critically reflect on their experiences. However, engineering students may gain value from these experiences under different conditions based on individual capabilities and mindsets. This stud...

This work in progress continues an ongoing project to understand and document engineering students' innovation identities. Prior studies have reported on how students separate their engineering and creative identities, on demographic differences in students' ideation processes, and on students' description of barriers that prevent them from practic...

The emergence of human-centred design strategies has directed attention to the role of empathy within design. While research on co-design acknowledges the potentially improved outcomes of using an empathic design approach, a comprehensive analysis on how empathy functions throughout the design process has been minimally explored in this literature....

Quality assessment is an essential component of education that allows educators to support student learning and improve educational programs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current state of assessment in engineering entrepreneurship education. We identified 52 assessment instruments covered in 29 journal articles and conference procee...

Empathy for users is a critical element when designing appropriate and innovative products, processes, and systems for others. As such, emphasis on empathy in design practice, research, and education has grown in recent years. Immersive projects, during which designers interact with users in their daily lives, can help designers develop stronger em...

Innovation has received particular emphasis in engineering education due to implications of global challenges, diverse human needs, and economic competitiveness. As such, many instructors explore new methods to help engineering students develop innovation-related competencies and researchers seek to understand how students connect with and learn ab...

In quantitative studies, surveys are often used as tools to gauge attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. Often, when these surveys are used in new contexts or with new populations, they require validation procedures such as confirmatory factor analysis or comparison to similar measures. These methods, however, are bounded by the need for large sample...

Innovation is the process of developing novel and functional products, processes, and systems that appropriately address key user needs. As the role of innovation in engineering has grown, engineering educators have become increasingly focused on preparing engineering students to meet innovative challenges. Innovation discovery behaviors as describ...

Phenomenography is an emerging method in the engineering education research community. Critical variations exist across studies regarding the use of phenomenography as a methodological approach. Beyond many of the documented variations, including the Swedish and Australian approaches, many nuances are not necessarily explicit in existing studies. T...

The primary goal of engineering education is to prepare students to work as productive engineers in society. This preparation traditionally focuses on developing students' discipline related technical and analytical knowledge, skills, and abilities. However, recent initiatives to develop a more holistic engineer have shed light on an aspect of engi...

Teamwork is an essential skill for engineers, but it presents a variety of challenges for both instructors and students. One such challenge is identifying what individual contributions are made by each member of that team. This paper presents a typology of frequently recurring roles in student engineering teams. The Student Engineer Role Typology (...

This paper describes a simple technique, structured pairing, for organizing student teams in engineering instructional laboratories. This technique was adapted from pair programming, which was previously found to improve student confidence, satisfaction, and retention in computer science. A study of structured pairing was implemented in a large req...

Design teams are commonly formed in engineering courses with the expectation that gender diversity will lead to more innovative solutions, but few studies have examined this relationship. In this study, we investigated whether the variety of ideas and the innovative qualities of team design solutions are related to team gender diversity. The resear...

Conceptual and technical creativity during design are critical skills for engineering graduates. Current research, however, suggests that students experience design fixation and do not place high value on creativity. In this study we explored engineering students' creativity and perceptions of their creative ability. Twenty seniors in nine differen...

Despite the crucial link between engineering and innovation, research on engineering education in innovation is limited. While prior studies highlight some of the individual characteristics important for creativity, characteristics of innovators and entrepreneurs, and the critical role of organizations in supporting innovation, very little is known...

Innovation plays a key role in transforming companies and markets. Engineers can contribute to this transformation by developing skills to innovate. The Innovator's DNA discusses the five major innovation skills used by experts1. A better understanding of innovative skills of experts and what sequence they were used may inform the education of futu...

The assessment of knowledge, skills, and behaviors related to innovation is a challenging task. Current assessment approaches rely on idea generation tasks, surveys, or project deliverables each of which have limitations. In this paper, we present an alternative novel approach for assessing individual understanding of innovation process that we arg...

Engineers often must decide between multiple design options that present tradeoffs. Engineering students gain experience making and justifying such decisions during team design projects or capstone courses. While previous studies of engineering student design teams have focused on idea generation, conceptual design, team dynamics, and individual sk...

Conflict is a common subject of research on engineering teams. While some conflict may improve team creativity and productivity, it can also detract from team member satisfaction, perceived team efficacy, and overall team performance. In this paper, we present a preliminary framework for identifying conflict within engineering design dyads using a...

Innovation is defined in diverse ways in the literature and often assessed in ways synonymous with creativity. As these arguments continue it is also important to identify student perspectives. In this pilot study, we examine how engineering students define innovation. Fifty-four first-year engineering students were asked to define innovation in an...

Engineering student teams are often formed under the assumption that diversity will increase team innovativeness. Rather than approaching the problem from an outcome-oriented stance, as has much of the previous research, this study examined how gender differences may affect specific phases of the design process. Seventy-three first-year engineering...

Design teams are commonly formed in engineering courses with the assumption that diversity leads to more innovative solutions. However, the literature indicates that this assumption is conditional, based on factors such as team effectiveness and how diversity is defined. Additionally, prior research has focused on expert teams, rather than the novi...

Pair programming, a method of structuring student groups in computer science courses, has been found to increase student confidence, satisfaction, and retention in the computer science major. We developed a similar method of structuring student groups in an engineering laboratory, called “structured pairing.” We implemented structured pairing in an...

Pair programming, a method of structuring student groups in computer science courses, has been found to increase student confidence, satisfaction, and persistence in computer science courses. I developed a similar method of structuring student groups, called “structured pairing,” which I implemented in an engineering laboratory. I compared structur...