Characterizing Research Process Sophistication in Engineering PhD Students and the Influence of Prior Experiences

One goal of engineering PhD programs is to support students’ independence as researchers and it is expected that by the time they have completed a doctoral degree students will have developed the skills necessary to manage an independent research project. Engineering PhD students need to be able to consider the broader context and potential impact of their research, identify and frame an appropriate research question, developing an approach to studying their topic of interest, and to have the experience and intuition necessary to steer the project and navigate challenges that may arise. One might characterize such skills as elements of research process sophistication. However, while experienced researchers may be able a sophisticated application of such skills in which they “know it when they see it,” a need exists for a classification system to consistently and systematically represent students’ varying levels of research process sophistication.