Angela R. Bielefeldt
· Professor • Director of Engineering Education • Professional Engineer (PE)VerifiedUniversity of Colorado Boulder · Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Active 1991–2025
About
Angela R. Bielefeldt is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Iowa State University and both a Master’s and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington. Her research focuses on engineering education, emphasizing sustainability, service learning, ethics, social responsibility, recruiting and retention, and diversity. She is also engaged in biodegradation and biotransformation of pollutants in soil, water, and air, as well as sustainable water and wastewater treatment for developing communities. Bielefeldt has received numerous honors and distinctions, including being named a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education in 2019 and a University of Colorado President’s Teaching Scholar in the same year. Her work has been recognized through various awards for her research and contributions to engineering education, particularly in the areas of diversity, ethics, and societal impacts. She is actively involved in professional organizations such as ASEE, ASCE, and AEESP, and has a strong record of publications related to sustainability, engineering ethics, leadership, and global engineering education.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Sociology
- Engineering
- Social Science
- Psychology
- Engineering ethics
- Business
- Knowledge management
- Medicine
- Mathematics education
- Social psychology
- Engineering management
- Pedagogy
- Medical education
Selected publications
Women Having their Say: Experiences of Hierarchical Microaggressions
2025-08-21
article1st authorCorresponding2025-08-21
article1st authorCorresponding2025-07-22
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingMany engineering programs offer a first-year engineering projects (FYEP) course to incoming engineering students.These courses can help excite students about the engineering design process, build engineering identity, and begin socializing students into engineering.This study explored the perceptions of students enrolled in a FYEP course with regards to their teamwork experiences in the course.The course included 13 sections in fall 2024, with 11 sections participating in a post survey at the end of the semester.The results found that female students had less positive experiences in their teams compared to male students, with the largest difference in the extent that female students reported feeling supported on their project team.A deeper dive into the results found a less positive experience among female students enrolled in sections taught by male instructors; female students in sections taught by female instructors reported similar teamwork experiences to male students.There were also particular sections of the course where female students had a mix of better and worse experiences.One section had a particularly large gap where the teamwork experience ratings of the female students averaged 1.6 points lower on a 7-point scale than their male peers.The results indicate that individual instructors can significantly impact the teamwork experiences of first-year female engineering students.Instructors should consider these findings and how their practices might be impactful in facilitating teamwork.At the University of Colorado Boulder the retention of first year female students to the second fall in the College of Engineering has lagged male students by 3% or more in 7 or the last 10 years (see Table 1).The 6-year graduation rates for women within engineering have lagged male students by 3% or more for 3 of the most recent 5 years.Table 1.Retained in Engineering College (red if women lag men by 3% or more; bold if >5%) ENG entry college 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2 nd Fall retention %, males 86 82 88 87 88 87 85 89 91 91 2 nd Fall retention %, females 84 83 84 82 85 83 85 84 85 89 6 th yr graduation %, males 69 70 71 74 77 70^ 6 th yr graduation %, females 66 72 72 68 68 66^ ^ 5-yr graduation rateThus, research exploring conditions that might lead female students to leave engineering at higher rates than male students at this institution is warranted.Poor grades or failing out is not the culprit.The Talking About Leaving Revisited (TALR) study found that women who left STEM majors had higher grades than the men while persistence was due to a variety of factors, including "grit to overcome isolation or hostile climates" [8, p. 465].Early experiences in their engineering student teams might relate to feelings of hostile climate or building belonging.This study focuses on teamwork experiences in the context of a first-semester engineering design course.
Emotions in Education for Sustainability in Engineering
2025-08-21
article1st authorCorresponding2025-08-21
article2025-07-22
articleGIFTS: Integration of Real-World Case Studies into a First-Year Engineering Mathematics Course
2025-08-21
articleSenior authorMacroethics Education in Engineering and Computing Courses
2025-02-27 · 2 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding2025-08-21
articleSenior author2025-08-21
article1st authorCorresponding
Recent grants
CCE-STEM: Collaborative Research: Efficacy of Macroethics Education in Engineering
NSF · $350k · 2015–2021
Collaborative Research: Engineering Faculty Engagement in Learning Through Service (EFELTS)
NSF · $175k · 2010–2014
CCE STEM: Collaborative Research: Efficacy of Macroethics Education in Engineering
NSF · $42k · 2017–2019
NSF · $346k · 2012–2016
Frequent coauthors
- 206 shared
Daniel Knight
- 190 shared
Chris Swan
Tufts University
- 178 shared
Madeline Polmear
University of Colorado Boulder
- 159 shared
Nathan Canney
Taylor Wimpey (United Kingdom)
- 64 shared
Kathryn Schulte Grahame
Universidad del Noreste
- 64 shared
Sharon Jones
Research Experiences for Undergraduates
- 64 shared
Jennifer Mueller Price
University of California, San Francisco
- 64 shared
Andrew Gillen
Universidad del Noreste
Labs
Civil, Environmental and Architectural EngineeringPI
Education
- 2000
Ph.D., Environmental Engineering
University of Colorado Boulder
- 1996
M.S., Environmental Engineering
University of Colorado Boulder
- 1994
B.S., Environmental Engineering
University of Colorado Boulder
Awards & honors
- Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education, 20…
- University of Colorado President’s Teaching Scholar (lifetim…
- Best Paper from PIC III and the Engineering Leadership Devel…
- Best Paper Award from PIC IV and Engineering Ethics Division…
- Best Paper Award from the Women in Engineering Division of t…
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