Intelligently Preparing the Future Construction Engineering Workforce by Connecting the Professional and Educational Communities

AbstractThe purpose of this project is to investigate the development of a framework for Connecting theProfessional and Educational Communities (ConPEC). This aims to improve the accessibility ofconstruction industry practitioners to instructors and ensure more significant interaction of studentswith their communities of practice (COP). The project will determine users’ learning-drivenpreferences and develop many-to-many matching algorithms. Users will evaluate the ConPECplatform, and the matching algorithms will be improved to ensure enhanced equitable matching.The project will investigate the ConPEC platform's influence on students’ disciplined perceptionand professional identity development. Substantive theories would be developed to explain howimproved accessibility, enabled by the ConPEC framework, improves the disciplined perceptionand professional identity development of construction engineering students.In addition to improved accessibility to construction COP, this project would contribute to thediversity of the nation’s construction workforce and strengthen diverse forms of industry-academiainteractions. Also, the platform, developed theories, and algorithms can be adapted by highschools, community colleges, and researchers to develop other technological solutions to enhancethe development of students in various disciplines. The deployment of ConPEC will also producediverse datasets for engineering education researchers, institutions, and policymakers. These datainclude concentration areas, current and future directions of the industry, and the extent to whichinstitutions are preparing students to meet the demands of the industry. ConPEC will also facilitateindustries' supply chain through apprenticeship programs and talent pipelines that are currentlyfragmented.