Shaylin Williams

About

Shaylin Williams is invested in identifying ways to improve the engineering education experience for future generations of engineers. As a McNair Scholar, Shaylin worked on chemical engineering projects creating thermal barriers for food packaging and studying soil remediation. Additionally, she completed an REU project in healthcare engineering at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. She earned a master’s degree in industrial and systems Engineering with a Management Systems Concentration in December 2022. Shaylin recently completed her Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Mississippi State University, using Self Determination Theory to analyze freshmen and continuing Summer Bridge students’ experiences and senior engineering students’ graduation plans. She previously worked on a longitudinal study researching how varying first-year experience structures affect students’ engineering identities and involvement in communities of practice. Shaylin now serves as an Assistant Professor for the University of Virginia’s First Year Engineering Center and is interested in learning more about what contributes to engineering students’ success, how they can get the most out of their undergraduate programs, and how programs can be better designed to cater to students’ needs.