Just Deserts: Engineering for All, Everywhere

Work in Progress: When we talk about inclusion, we often neglect geographic constraints. Akin to a food desert, education deserts exist in the United States and affect the participation of students in higher education. Accessing an engineering education program is not always possible for placebound students if they are far from engineering programs, even if nearby community colleges support lower division training. This paper presents information about where the engineering education deserts are in the United States and seeks to broaden the conversation about access to engineering degrees. There are both lower-division and upper-division deserts, but community colleges expand the availability of engineering education in ways that are not always studied and are sometimes dismissed. This work-in-progress paper highlights an initial investigation of this issue and presents the early stages of an innovative curriculum that addresses the challenge of providing access to upper-division engineering learning for all prepared students.