Rustin Webster, an associate professor in the School of Engineering Technology at Purdue Polytechnic New Albany, co-authored four peer-reviewed papers accepted for presentation at the 2026 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition.
The ASEE conference gathers educators and industry stakeholders from across the globe to discuss advancements in engineering and engineering technology education. The 2026 event takes place June 21 to 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The four accepted papers address challenges in student success, workforce readiness, and experiential learning.
"These papers reflect our ongoing commitment to evidence-based teaching and learning research that directly improves student preparation for engineering technology careers," Webster said. "By studying what works, and what doesn't, we can design educational experiences that are both academically rigorous and industry relevant."
The accepted works cover a broad range of instructional research and student mentorship:
- Undergraduate engineering projects: One paper, co-authored with Purdue Polytechnic undergraduate student Joseph Bartlett, details the iterative, student-led redesign of an open-source vibrotactile glove intended to treat Parkinson's disease symptoms.
- Student preparedness: Another paper, co-authored with Purdue associate professor Matthew Turner, examines how engineering technology students' perceptions of their own academic preparedness shift between their first-semester gateway courses and their later, discipline-specific classes.
- Capstone design trends: A third paper analyzes open-ended responses from a nationwide 2025 survey of engineering capstone programs. The research highlights persistent challenges instructors face regarding student engagement, workload, and securing industry-sponsored projects.
- Manufacturing pedagogy: The final paper explores the successes and failures of teaching geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) in the classroom. It provides instructors with practical strategies for teaching complex measurement concepts, including the use of 3D-printed tactile models.
The research highlights a strong culture of cross-institutional collaboration. Webster's co-authors on the capstone and GD&T papers include faculty from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Murray State University, and Smith College.
The papers will be publicly available through the ASEE PEER Document Repository following the conference.
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