Kaylie Richard wins 2026 ASEE Multidisciplinary Division Best Paper Award

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (07/23/2026) — Congratulations to chemical engineering graduate student Kaylie Richard on receiving the Best Paper Award in the Multidisciplinary Division at the 2026 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference. Richard received the award for her paper, "Clear Writing Promotes Clear Thinking: Implementation and Effectiveness of a Homework Writing Guide for Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Undergraduates."

Richard’s work highlights the development of a low-cost homework guide intervention that improves students' abilities to organize information and understand course concepts by providing students with clear expectations for communicating their homework solutions. The homework guide was developed in collaboration with Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (CEMS) faculty and implemented in three full-size CEMS undergraduate courses. Student surveys given throughout each semester indicate that the guide helped students organize their thoughts and better understand complex engineering problems. In the conference proceedings paper, the authors share a copy of the homework guide used in the study, making it easier for instructors at other institutions to implement similar strategies for supporting student learning in their own courses. The full conference proceedings paper will be available in ASEE's PEER repository. Dr. Dan Emery, from the University of Minnesota's Writing Across the Curriculum Program, and Professor Kimberly Kosto were co-authors on the conference proceedings paper.

The authors also would like to acknowledge David Poerschke, Samira Azarin, Natalie Boehnke, Nathan Mara, Michael Manno, Aditya Bhan, Qi Zhang, Chris Bartel, and Lynn Walker for their feedback and contributions to the original version of the homework guidelines used in this study. Special thanks to Samira Azarin, Natalie Boehnke, Lynn Walker, and Christopher Akiki for assisting in the implementation of the homework guides in the undergraduate chemical engineering and materials science and engineering courses. This work was supported by the Writing Enriched Curriculum Program within the Office of Undergraduate Education at the University of Minnesota.

Congratulations Kaylie Richards!