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Summary
With a $50k budget, I led design for a career exploration tool aimed at connecting non-traditional students to career opportunities in the field of biofabrication - overseeing the entire design cycle from discovery research to interface design.
As of 2022, the prototype is currently in production - garnering an additional $700k in funding.
Project details
Project title: Uncovering and Engaging a Diverse Career and Technical Education Student Pipeline in Advanced Manufacturing
Timeline: June 2018 - December 2020
Client: Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), a member institute of Manufacturing USA supported by the U.S. Department of Defense
Budget: $50,000
My role: Research & design lead
Problem
Biofabrication is an aspect of regenerative medicine that refers to the production of human tissues from organic and synthetic sources. This burgeoning industry is expanding at a rapid pace and bringing jobs online at every level.
The demand for skilled employees in biotechnology and advanced manufacturing is outpacing the number of students preparing for careers in these fields. Industry leaders are seeking ways to build a talent pipeline to support the need for a growing workforce.
Definition
How might we...
help STEM learners in Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs build awareness and engagement in Biofabrication
in order to...
support the biofabrication industry in developing new recruitment channels through which to attract talent
Solution
My team at CAST designed and developed Biofab Explorer, a prototype career-exploration tool aimed at introducing students in CTE programs to Biofabrication.
Goals
Expose students to the biofabrication industry
Engage students with compelling case stories
Connect students to the career pathways that appeal to them most
Define the step-by-step process for pursuing these opportunities
The project team discusses the making of Biofab Explorer
Key screens
The biofabrication Process
Review the four stages of biofabrication to build familiarity with the process
Case stories menu
Select a case story to learn about a specific application of biofab
Impact story
Discover how biofabrication could cure heart disease
Career profiles menu
Explore the variety of jobs associated with the case story you explored
Technician profile
Hear from a bioprinter repair technician discussing his experience
Career card
Learn how to pursue this career pathway
Check out the Biofab Explorer website ⮕ (Google Sites)
Discovery
We facilitated a series of in-person focus groups and co-design activities with 60 Career & Technical Education (CTE) students enrolled in STEM-related courses. We developed a research protocol designed to help us investigate the following questions:
Why did these students choose to enroll in CTE programs?
How familiar are CTE students with STEM careers generally and biofabrication in particular?
How do students find out about potential career pathways? Through what means do they seek information or gain exposure to career options?
What aspects or attributes of a career matter most to students when they evaluate it for fit?
What formats and styles of media are most preferred by students to learn about careers?
Students ranked the values and attributes of a potential career from most to least important
Students brainstormed the variety of channels through which they have learned about career options, then collaboratively grouped them to find patterns within their responses
We synthesized the feedback from the co-design sessions and highlighted these findings:
Overwhelmingly, students were very familiar with STEM and interested in pursuing a career in a STEM field. However, within STEM, many of those students were less familiar with biofabrication or advanced manufacturing specifically.
Crucially, students identified the attributes they considered most about a future career. They chose the following factors over other attributes like making good money and benefits and having job security.
Feeling a sense of accomplishment
Making the world a better place
Learning new things
To evaluate a potential career, students wanted to understand what it is really like on a daily basis - to experience the atmosphere of the workplace and learn what tasks the job entails.
When asked what matters, students told us making the world a better place was one of the most important aspects of their future career
Ideation
We defined the requirements for a rough prototype based on the research outcomes. Centering the finding that students wanted to understand how their future careers could make a positive impact, we decided to create a series of case stories that would explore biofabrication through the effects it would have on people's lives.
User flow
Iteration
Phase 1
We brought our wireframe back to the CTE students to get their input on early-stage content development. Students found the case stories effective as an entry point to exploring the industry, but about half of students tested indicated that, rather than stories focusing on individual people, they preferred to understand the industry’s potential impact on society at large.
In response to this feedback, we developed two types of case stories - patient stories and impact stories - to appeal to both groups of students.
Try out the clickable prototype ⮕ (Marvel App)
Students can select from Patient Stories or Impact Stories to explore the problems Biofabrication could solve
Phase 2
Students indicated that, once they discovered a career, they wanted to understand what a ‘day in the life’ of a worker in that role really looked like. Our partnership with ARMI gave us access to employees of member companies including Deka, Advanced Solutions Life Sciences, and Rockwell Automation.
We interviewed people in a wide variety of roles - with different backgrounds, levels of experience, and expertise - and captured their actual work environments on video. Their unique stories expose students to first-hand personal experiences and bring each career to life.
Students can watch videos featuring professionals working in a range of careers in biofabrication
Phase 3
As our design and content development process progressed, we experienced the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent adoption of remote schooling. The teachers with whom we collaborated expressed interest in using the Biofab Explorer in their remote learning settings.
We pivoted from delivering a clickable prototype to building out a functional website using Google Sites. Without any funding for programming, this option allowed us to quickly create an accessible, responsive site at no cost.
Outcomes
Upon delivery of the prototype, CAST and ARMI sought to obtain additional sources of funding for producing Biofab Explorer. In 2022, the National Science Foundation awarded 700k for continued development of the tool and expansion for use in dual-enrollment settings across New Hampshire (NSF Division of Undergraduate Education #2202033).
Additionally, another Manufacturing USA member institute, America Makes, has engaged CAST to build a corresponding career exploration tool for additive manufacturing career pathways.
Photo permission: Students and/or their parents/guardians provided releases for media use.
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