G. Padmanabhan, NDSU professor of civil engineering, presented two papers at the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition last month in Atlanta.

His first paper, “A Surveying Course as Summer Experience for a Tribal College Pre-Engineering Program,” described how the beginning of a tribal college pre-engineering course inherently is uniquely qualified to fulfill some of the objectives of a Pre-Engineering Education Collaborative effort designed to increase the number of Native Americans in engineering.

The paper was co-written by Darshi De Saram, Robert Pieri, Thomas Schanandore and James Schanandore.

The second paper, “Community-Relevant Research for Tribally Controlled College STEM Student Retention,” highlights how the relevance of a student research project can motivate students to continue studies to the completion of their degrees, particularly with Native American students in tribal colleges.

The paper was co-written by Audrey LaVallie and Eric Asa. 

Padmanabhan also moderated the session titled “Using Student Competitions to Enhance Learning.”

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.