How cultural, educational factors influence engineering students: Lessons from Okoani’s research

By Henry Akubuiro
At Arizona State University (ASU), USA, one of America’s most innovative research institutions, Ogochukwu Okoani, is pursuing a second doctorate – not because the first was insufficient, but because the problems she seeks to solve have grown larger. A recipient of the highly competitive Ira A. Fulton Fellowship, Okoani is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineering Education Systems and   Design at ASU after already earning a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in Nigeria.
Her journey from investigating carbon dioxide capture technologies and environmental remediation to studying how engineers are educated and developed may appear unconventional. Yet, in reality, it refl...