About

Cameron Denson is an Associate Professor at the College of Education at North Carolina State University. His contact email is cddenson@ncsu.edu. The page does not provide specific details about his research focus, background, or key contributions.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Engineering management
• Mathematics education
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Mathematics
• Multimedia
• Medical education
• Software engineering
• Medicine
• Engineering ethics
• Operations management
• Human–computer interaction

Selected publications

• Examining barriers and facilitators of graduate international students in the U.S.

  Journal of International Students · 2025-04-25 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  As international student enrollments surge in U.S. higher education, understanding their experiences is crucial for fostering an inclusive and successful environment. This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore the challenges and coping strategies of international students during acculturation. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with eight international graduate students from diverse backgrounds at a large U.S. public research-based university. An inductive, hermeneutic approach revealed six main challenges: 1) cultural differences and adjustment, 2) practical and daily living, 3) academic and educational, 4) mental health and well-being, 5) linguistics and communication barriers, and 6) lack of resources. Students reported resilience strategies and four main coping mechanisms and needs for better adjustment: 1) building connections and social support, 2) cultivating resilience and personal development, and 3) leveraging technology and media. The findings of this research highlight the importance of social support and self-resilience for international students.

  PublisherDOI

• How GenAI Mentoring Can Support Underserved Students in STEM

  AI-Enhanced Learning · 2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This paper examines the potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) mentoring systems to address persistent underrepresentation of women, Black, Latino, and Indigenous students in STEM fields. Despite national efforts to diversify the STEM workforce, traditional mentoring approaches face significant constraints, including time limitations, scalability issues, and limited availability of mentors from similar backgrounds for underrepresented minorities. Drawing on attachment theory and social cognitive theory, we argue that AI-enhanced mentoring can complement human mentorship by providing 24/7 accessibility, personalized guidance, and cost-effective scalability. The analysis reviews existing GenAI mentoring platforms, including MentorAI and Thunai, demonstrating their capabilities in delivering personalized career guidance and overcoming geographical and resource barriers. Evidence from studies using Google Gemini as an AI mentor shows positive outcomes for underrepresented STEM graduate students, including improved time efficiency and empowering career guidance. However, our examination reveals critical challenges that must be addressed: algorithmic bias that can reinforce gender and racial stereotypes, a lack of emotional intelligence compared to human mentors, and insufficient transparency in AI decision-making processes. We identify significant gaps in AI literacy among both mentors and mentees, particularly concerning prompt engineering, bias recognition, and critical evaluation of AI outputs. For underrepresented populations who may have limited technology access, these literacy gaps pose additional barriers to equitable engagement with AI mentoring systems. The paper emphasizes that GenAI tools should augment rather than replace human mentors, as authentic mentoring relationships require emotional depth, cultural sensitivity, and psychosocial support that current AI systems cannot adequately provide. Our recommendations include comprehensive AI literacy training focused on prompt engineering and bias recognition, the development of explainable AI systems tailored specifically for mentoring contexts, and the creation of culturally responsive AI designs. We call for longitudinal research examining the long-term impacts of AI-enhanced mentoring across diverse cultural contexts and emphasize the need for transparent, domain-specific GenAI tools developed in collaboration with mentoring and education experts. Keywords: generative AI, STEM mentoring, underrepresented minorities, algorithmic bias, AI literacy, educational equity, artificial intelligence in education

  PublisherDOI

• How Mentors Benefit from a STEM-Based eMentoring Program

  2025-11-02

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The following full research paper provides the results of a mixed-method study that examined the benefits of a STEM-based eMentoring experience for underrepresented student mentors. The eSTEM program engages underrepresented students in engineering-related experiences supported by near-peer relationships with college mentors of similar backgrounds, experiences, and interests to bolster students' STEM identity. eSTEM relies on an innovative research-based four-pronged mentoring protocol [1]. Using a mixed-method research methodology this paper reports on the benefits of the eSTEM program for mentors guided by the following research questions; (a) Does participation in the mentoring program result in improved outcomes for mentors?, and (b) What factors did mentors report as influential to the mentoring experience? Results from the study provided evidence that eMentoring can have positive personal, professional and educational impacts on the mentors. Our findings also provided insight into program elements that facilitate successful implementation of an eMentoring program from the mentors' perspective.

  PublisherDOI

• How Do Parents Influence Female Students' Engineering Trajectory?

  Journal of Research in Technical Careers · 2025-05-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Using the Parental Socialization Framework, this research provides a detailed analysis of how early STEM exposure, parental confidence in abilities, and gender-neutral upbringing contribute to the development of STEM identities among women. Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, six undergraduate women engineering majors were interviewed in-depth about their parents' influence on their STEM pathways. The findings reveal that parents' high academic expectations, confidence in their daughters' abilities, verbal and non-verbal encouragement, and early STEM opportunities are pivotal in steering female participants toward engineering. The study also underscores the importance of creating a gender-neutral environment that allows girls to explore and develop an interest in STEM from an early age. Our research offers novel insights by applying a structured framework to analyze parental influence, which has not been sufficiently explored in existing literature. These findings have significant practical implications for educators, policymakers, and parents. Recommendations include integrating hands-on STEM activities in early education, fostering parental confidence in daughters’ abilities, promoting gender-neutral upbringing, facilitating mentorship programs, and developing supportive policies to enhance parental involvement in STEM education. By addressing these factors, stakeholders can create an environment that nurtures female students' interest and success in engineering, contributing to greater diversity and innovation in STEM fields.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Identifying the Parenting Approaches of Parents of Women in Engineering

  2024-08-04 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify key aspects of parenting approaches and practices used by influential parents of female undergraduate engineering students and map them to existing parenting styles.Through inductive analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six (6) female engineering majors, we investigated the parenting approaches employed by their parents and key factors that may have influenced their daughters' decisions to pursue engineering.The parenting practices used by parents of female engineering students revealed a balance of support, responsiveness, and high academic expectations.The findings of this research-open communication, encouraging independent decision making while providing support, holding high academic expectations while being responsive-align closely with the authoritative parenting style characteristics described by pioneering researcher Baumrind (1996).Since the data analysis revealed strong similarities between parents of female engineering students and the characteristics of authoritative parenting, future studies should further investigate the link between engineering majors and parenting styles using a broader sample.This could provide more conclusive evidence about which styles are most common among parents of female engineering students.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• STEM Mentoring at a Distance: A Comparative Case Study of the eSTEM Program

  2024-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Augmented Botswanan Learning Experience

  2024-02-07 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The Augmented Botswana Learning Experience (ABLE) is an international collaboration between two STEM institutions that engages engineering students in solving real-world problems using a problem-based learning approach and service-based learning pedagogy. The ABLE project aims to create a collaborative learning environment for engineering students in Botswana and the US by utilizing augmented reality and Onshape technologies to develop their visualization and 3D modeling skills. The project provides an eight-week co-curricular program focusing on problem-based learning approaches to address authentic real-world problems, particularly in Botswana. To accomplish the ABLE project's goals, six high-performing students from an introductory engineering graphics course in the US will serve as consultants for design teams in Botswana. The emphasis is on creating an immersive experience that utilizes mixed reality for the students using AR technology, enabling them to participate in activities that involve decision-making, object design, basic assembly and the mentality of "modify and redefine". The ABLE project represents an innovative approach to engineering education that leverages technology and cross-cultural collaboration to prepare students for real-world problem-solving, using 3D Modeling along with AR technology. Deliverables for the project include a 3-D model of the original device, 3-D model of modified model utilizing AR technology, 3-D printed examples of final products and a 2-page write up detailing the modifications and describing its presumed increased functionality.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Scaffolding Middle and High School Students’ Engineering Design Experiences: Quality Problem-SCOPEing Promoting Successful Solutions

  Journal of Technology Education · 2021 · 9 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics education
  • Computer Science

  Highly proficient expert engineers begin the iterative process of design by thoroughly investigating the design problem. Engineering students are often distracted by surface details, leading to a faulty conception of the problem and inappropriate solution strategies. Adequate problem-scoping is arguably the most important step in the design process. To address this issue, the researchers developed an instructional framework to help teachers scaffold students’ cognitive and metacognitive processes during the problem-scoping phase of a design challenge. <br />The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the impact that scaffolded instruction related to the SCOPE process had on students’ solution success during a design challenge. The SCOPE process is used to help teachers scaffold students’ design experiences during a tower design challenge and increase the overall effectiveness of their design efforts. Students in this study (N = 802) were separated into treatment and control groups. Using hierarchical multiple regression, the SCOPE process accounted for 40.4% (ΔR2 = .404) of the variability of the design score, which was statistically significant (p &lt; .001). The results indicate that students who received scaffolded instruction from their teachers related to the SCOPE process during the design experience performed better on the design challenge.

  PublisherDOI

• Systematic Approach to Diversifying Botswana’s STEM Population

  2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings · 2020-09-08

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  On October 1st, 2016 Botswana formed the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology with the explicitly stated goal of transforming Botswana from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy. In order to achieve this goal Botswana has to contend with two major factors; One is the improved teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content (STEM) content (Kennedy &amp; Odell, 2014) and the other factor is the lack of women participants in STEM careers for Botswana With its combination of economic success and social development unique to many African states, Botswana has been hailed as an African developmental state Consequently, Botswana lays claim to the continent's oldest continuous democracy and boasts one of the world's fastest growing economies. These factors contribute to a political and social environment conducive to technological advances and entrepreneurial opportunities. Yet, Botswana has continued to struggle in creating a robust STEM professional population with women in particular being seriously underrepresented

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Pre-service Teachers' Modeling as a Way of Thinking in Engineering Design

  2020 · 6 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Software engineering

  The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for assessing students working through an engineering design challenge.Using a case study approach to theory building we collected artifacts from a pre-service teachers in a second level Engineering Design Thinking course.The students produced artifacts in the form of conceptual models, graphical models, mathematical models and finally working models.Student-generated mind maps, design journals, final design products and their accompanying documentation, and peer checking procedures were also collected and triangulated with the modeling artifacts for the purpose of this study.The result was a working framework that helps eliminate some of the ambiguity for students producing deliverables for a design challenge and provides the instructor with a practical approach to assessing student work.In addition to offering a new pedagogical approach to engineering design thinking, the following research offers empirical evidence of student cognition as they go through an engineering design process.Finally, we provide definitions and student generated examples of the four modeling artifacts to include; conceptual models, graphical models, mathematical models and working models. The NeedThe case for infusing engineeringspecifically engineering designinto K-12 settings has been made by educators and policy makers 1-3 .Yet determining how engineering design will be operationalized in K-12 settings is still a subject of great contention.One pedagogical approach to assist not only the student, but the teacher as well, in engineering design is the focus on modeling and the accompanying artifacts 4 .We proffer that focusing on modeling artifacts is a useful tool for students to demonstrate their engineering design thinking while providing a framework for the assessment of engineering design experiences.This paper will discuss how pre-service teachers approached and engaged in engineering design through the analysis of the modeling artifacts they generated.This research was pursued to help further understand and elucidate how pre-service engineering education teachers (student-designers) go about engineering design.Specifically, we sought to find out what they did well and where they struggled, what the student-designers understood, and their perception of engineering design when developing modeling artifacts.Although there was the potential for many phenomena to be investigated, we believe an examination of the students thoughts and processes around modeling was salient.We also sought to demonstrate the utility of the pedagogical focus on modeling artifacts in engineering design.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Matthew Lammi

  Black & Veatch (United Kingdom)

  15 shared

• Christine Hailey

  Utah State University

  7 shared

• Daniel Kelly

  North Carolina State University

  5 shared

• Chandra Austin

  Auburn University

  5 shared

• Niloufar Bayati

  North Carolina State University

  5 shared

• Z. Avery

  4 shared

• Daniel L. Householder

  Utah State University

  4 shared

• Jennifer Buelin-Biesecker

  North Carolina State University

  4 shared