competitiveness and the insufficient number of graduating engineers the Neal Report called for research to improve teaching and learning in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.

Similar to other disciplines, the 1990s brought a focus on the scholarship of teaching as demonstrated by the 1995 NRC Report, "Engineering education: Designing an adaptive system", influenced by Ernst Boyer. This focus was primarily motivated by the need to improve the quality of engineers produced by universities in the US. Additionally,