Call for Papers – ASEE Community Engagement Division – 2025
The ASEE Community Engagement Division (COMMENG) is soliciting abstracts for the Annual Conference and Exposition to be held in June 2025 in Montreal, Quebec.
The COMMENG is a scholarly community for faculty and practitioners interested in the various ways engineering students, faculty, institutions, communities, and other stakeholders are impacted through Community Engaged Learning, an umbrella term that includes community-based research, humanitarian engineering, service learning, civically-engaged learners, and technology-based social entrepreneurship. Community organizations, either local or international, partner with educators for the mutual benefit of communities and engineering students.
We invite you to share and present research, works in progress, innovations in curricula or instruction, or other areas of interest to engineering educators focused on facilitating learning through hands-on engagement with community partners. We encourage submissions related to service learning in project-based capstone courses or that are candidates for cross listing with other divisions such as ethics, civil engineering, environmental engineering, or mechanical engineering.
CATEGORIES FOR COMMENG PAPERS
The division is particularly interested in papers that fall into three distinct categories:
- Engagement in Practice Papers
- Traditional Research Papers
- Work in Progress Papers
Engagement in Practice papers are short papers that discuss innovative approaches to integrating community-based efforts into the engineering curriculum and are presented as specific case studies. These papers should address key issues such as partnership development, project design and execution, student evaluation, lessons learned, transferability, etc. They are not expected to have a significant collection of data for educational evaluation or assessment. Engagement in Practice papers are limited to 6 pages, including references. Papers will be grouped into themed sessions devoted to presenting ongoing community engagement projects; session structure will include brief (5 minute) presentations followed by facilitated discussion with all presenters as a panel.
Traditional Research papers are full papers that address scholarly research on the impacts of community engagement on students, community partners, and/or faculty. Traditional Research papers are typically 30 pages or less. Session structure will include 15 minute presentations followed by five minutes of moderated Q&A. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Educational research in the context of engineering education and community engagement;
- Models of community engagement activities in engineering including design projects and collaborations with co- and extracurricular activities;
- Scaling community engagement to large numbers of engineering students;
- Innovative approaches to integrating community-based efforts into the engineering curriculum;
- Building effective community partnerships at both the local and global scale;
- Establishing program sustainability – making programs outlive their founders;
- Perspectives of community partners;
- The importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in successful community engagement
Work in Progress papers discuss research studies at an intermediate stage for which authors are seeking to present early findings and receive feedback from the community. Work in Progress papers should be limited to 15 pages, including references. Session structure will include 15 minute presentations followed by five minutes of moderated Q&A. Topics are the same as those presented in traditional research papers.
Please submit a 200-300 word abstract electronically through the ASEE Conferences website. Abstracts submitted no later than the closing date announced by ASEE will be evaluated. Papers selected for presentation must be submitted in accordance with ASEE requirements in the formats noted below.
KEY DATES
Abstracts Submission Deadline: Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Abstract decisions: Monday, December 2, 2024
Draft Paper Submission Deadline: Friday, February 7, 2025
Revised Paper Submission Deadline: Friday, March 14, 2025
Paper acceptance decisions: Monday, April 14, 2025
Author Registration and Final Paper Deadline: Friday, May 2, 2025. No changes accepted after this deadline.
Please note that ASEE’s paper submission process and timeline are firm and the program chair cannot override them.
ABSTRACT FORMAT
Abstracts for Engagement in Practice papers should include the following
- A title that starts with “Engagement in Practice” e.g., Engagement in Practice: Lessons Learned from University X’s Engineering Service Learning Program
- Background (including partnership development) and motivation for project
- Project design and execution
- Lessons learned through successes or failures
- Conclusions and next steps
Abstracts for Traditional Research papers should address the following:
- A title that indicates the type of submission in brackets: [Traditional Research Paper]
- Background and motivation
- Description and justification of methodology
- Results and data analysis including impact on the community where possible
- A summary of the conclusions and significance to be presented
Abstracts for Work in Progress papers should address the following:
- A title that indicates the type of submission in brackets: [Work in Progress]
- Background and motivation
- Description and justification of methodology
- Major hypotheses and anticipated impact on the community where possible
- Results to date
REVIEW PROCESS
Abstracts and papers are double-blind reviewed. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the requirements for double-blind review are met. The abstract and subsequent drafts should NOT include authors’ names or institutional affiliations nor should author names be in the file name or in document properties. It is not necessary to include references in the abstract. Be sure to indicate that your abstract is for the Community Engagement Division.
To create a division rooted in effective learning and engagement, sessions and presentations will be structured to maximize the benefits for speakers and attendees alike. Based on submitted papers, the program chair will craft the best session topics and formats possible. Since our goal is to appeal to audiences beyond COMMENG practitioners, we are exploring the possibility of joint sessions with divisions that share similar priorities and projects. These include Engineering Ethics, Design & Engineering Education, and Civil/Humanitarian Engineering as well as capstone-focused sessions.
AWARDS
The Community Engagement Division sponsors a Best Paper Award and a Best Diversity Paper Award. All presented papers submitted to the division are considered for both awards. The division’s best papers are forwarded on for PIC Best Paper Award and ASEE’s Best Diversity Paper Award.
VIDEO CONTEST
The Community Engagement Division invites academia and not-for-profit organizations to showcase their impactful community engagement contribution by participating in the 2025 ASEE COMMENG Video Competition. Finalists will be nationally recognized for their outstanding community engagement contribution for making a difference locally and around the world.
Submissions are due on Friday, March 28, 2025. The winners will be announced at the 2025 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. More details on video requirements, the judging rubric, and past winners can be found here. For additional questions please email, Dr. Lekshmi Sasidharan (lekshmis@uark.edu).
GET INVOLVED
If you are interested in participating in the peer review process, please contact the program chair via email.
If you have ideas for panels/workshops or any questions about possible papers, panels, co-sponsoring with divisions or other special session ideas please contact:
Program Chair:
Rajani Muraleedharan
Professor and Chair, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Chair, Undergraduate Research Program
Saginaw Valley State University
Division Chair:
Libby Jones
Professor, College of Engineering Teaching Fellow
Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
We look forward to your contributions!