School of

Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering

ChEBE Faculty Research

Denny C. Davis, Ph.D.

Professor

Dr. Davis is a participating faculty member of the
Engineering Education Research Center at WSU.


School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering
Washington State University
118 Dana Hall Spokane St.
P.O. Box 642710
Pullman, WA 99164-2710


Office: Dana 143 (Tel: 509 335-7993)
davis@wsu.edu

Research Interests


Improving student learning through high quality engineering education has been a passion of Dr. Denny Davis for over a quarter century. In his vision for research universities, educators employ knowledge of teaching and learning along with research-based classroom practices to maximize student learning and success. Graduates are prepared for effective cross-disciplinary collaboration in solving complex societal problems while exhibiting creativity, cultural sensitivity, responsibility, and sound economic sense.

For a decade and a half, Dr. Davis has used National Science Foundation-funded research to improve engineering design education. He has incorporated social issues and communication in design courses across the curriculum. He has collaborated with industry and educators from across the nation to define the “profile of an engineer” that reflects attributes desired in engineering practitioners. He utilizes this “profile” to elevate and broaden student learning outcomes in courses and to guide development of curriculum materials and assessments for student achievement in engineering design.

His research also addresses recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in engineering. He has incorporated design activities into summer camps for pre-college female and minority students to show them practical applications of math and science and inspire them to study engineering. He has collaborated with education faculty to use videoconferencing technologies to incorporate engineering projects into distant middle school math classes to motivate student learning of mathematics.

Dr. Davis’ research has provided the engineering education community valuable resources for improving student learning of engineering design. He and numerous collaborators have published structured learning activities that simultaneously develop students’ teamwork, communication, and engineering design skills. Characteristically, their design classes embody increasingly complex design challenges interspersed with reflective assessments that analyze team performances and identify needs for improvement.

Dr. Davis holds that the Scholarship of Teaching is vital to the future of higher education. He declares that significant gains in classroom effectiveness can be achieved if an authentic emphasis is placed upon the Scholarship of Teaching. He posits that five key outcomes can be expected:

  • Classrooms will become laboratories for improving student learning and success,
  • Faculty conducting educational scholarship will be recognized equally with faculty conducting basic scientific research,
  • The best teachers will be using “gateway” classes to solve student retention problems by application of scholarly educational research,
  • Classrooms and the culture of learning in research universities will be collaborative and result in high levels of knowledge development, and
  • Students in research universities will participate in educational research that stimulates the desire for learning and leads to research careers.

Dr. Davis uses “how students learn” and “knowing what students know” as the basis for improving education and student learning at research universities. He engages students in active learning with clear student learning outcomes to target achievement. He achieves professional performances from students by expecting them to take ownership for their learning and to accept significant learning challenges.


Biographical Information

Dr. Davis is a professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at Washington State University. He joined the Washington State University faculty in 1976, three years after receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University. His present work focuses on engineering education teaching and assessment. For over 15 years, he has led multidisciplinary and multi-institution engineering education projects with funding from the NSF Engineering Directorate in addition to programs sponsored by the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education. His work has been published in over 80 articles covering engineering education, especially with regard to engineering design education and assessment. He has received numerous awards for teaching locally (including the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching at Washington State University) and nationally (including selection as a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education).


Selected Publications

  1. Davis, D. C., S. W. Beyerlein, and I. T. Davis. 2006. “ Deriving Design Course Learning Outcomes from a Professional Profile,” International Journal of Engineering Education 22(1).
  2. Trevisan, M., D. Davis, S. Beyerlein, P. Thompson, and O. Harrison. 2006. “A Review of Literature on Assessment Practices in Capstone Engineering Design Courses: Implications for Formative Assessment.” Proceedings of Annual Conference of American Society for Engineering Education, Chicago, IL.
  3. Beyerlein, S., D. Davis, M. Trevisan, K. Harrison, and P. Thompson. 2006. “Assessment Framework for Capstone Design Courses,” Proceedings of American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
  4. Davis, D., S. Beyerlein, K. Harrison, P. Thompson, M. Trevisan, and B. Mount. 2006. “Conceptual Model for Capstone Engineering Design Peformance and Assessment,” Proceedings of American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
  5. Light, J., D. Davis, G. Crouch, and J. Beller. 2006. "Using Reflective Essays as Part of a Mixed Method Approach for Evaluating a Freshman Living-Learning Community for Engineering and Science Students." Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Chicago, IL.
  6. Davis, D.C., S.W. Beyerlein, and I.T. Davis. (2005). “Development and Use of an Engineer Profile.” Proceedings of Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Portland, OR.
  7. Light, Jennifer and Denny Davis. (2005). “Impacts of a Combined Living-Learning Community on Attitudes and College Engagement of Engineering Freshmen.” Proceedings of Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Portland, OR.
  8. Gentili, Kenneth, Jim Lyons, Eric Davishahl, Denny Davis, Steven Beyerlein. (2005). “Measuring Added-Value Using a Team Design Skills Inventory.” Proceedings of Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Portland, OR.
  9. Davis, D.C., S.W. Beyerlein, and I.T. Davis. (in press). “Deriving Design Course Learning Outcomes from a Professional Profile.” International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 21, Dublin, Ireland.
  10. Gentili, K.L., D.C. Davis, S.W. Beyerlein. 2003. “Framework for Developing and Implementing Engineering Design Curricula.” Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
  11. Davis , D.C. , S.W. Beyerlein, P. Thompson, K.L. Gentili, and L.J. McKenzie. 2003. “How Universal are Capstone Design Course Learning Outcomes?” Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
  12. McKenzie, L.J., S.W. Beyerlein, T. Walser, M.S. Trevisan, and D.C. Davis . 2002. Evaluation of Engineering Program Elements by Doctoral Candidates in Student Assessment and Program Evaluation. Proceedings of Frontiers in Education Conference.
  13. Davis, D., M. Trevisan, L. McKenzie, S. Beyerlein, P. Daniels, T. Rutar, P. Thompson, and K. Gentili. 2002. Practices for Quality Implementation of the TIDEE “Design Team Readiness Assessment.” Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education.
  14. Davis , D.C. , K.L. Gentili, M.S. Trevisan, and D.E. Calkins. 2002. Engineering Design Assessment Processes and Scoring Scales for Program Improvement and Accountability. Journal of Engineering Education (April):211-221.
  15. Gentili, K. L., McCauley, J.F., Crain, R.W. Jr., Calkins, D., Davis, D. C., Trevisan, M.S., Parkay, F., and McKenzie, L.J. 2001. A curriculum model for developing teams, communication skills, and introducing the design process for engineering programs developed by the TIDEE project team. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education.
  16. Davis , D.C. , Trevisan, M.S., Beyerlein, S.W., and McKenzie, L.J. 2001. Enhancing scoring reliability in mid-program assessment of design. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education.
  17. Davis, D.C., K.L. Gentili, M.S. Trevisan, R.K. Christianson, J.F. McCauley. 2000. Measuring Learning Outcomes for Engineering Design Education. Proceedings of 2000 Annual Conference of American Society for Engineering Education.
  18. Trevisan, M.S., D.C. Davis, D.E. Calkins, and K.L. Gentili. 1999. “Designing Sound Scoring Criteria for Assessing Student Performance,” Journal of Engineering Education (January):79-85.
  19. Trevisan, M.S., D.C. Davis, R.W. Crain, D.E. Calkins, and K.L. Gentili. 1998. “Developing and Assessing Statewide Competencies for Engineering Design,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 87, no. 2, pp. 185-193.


School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, PO Box 642710, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-2710, 509-335-4332, Email ChEBE