Qualitative research methods, such as interviews, surveys, field notes, phone calls, etc. were applied to study both faculty and peer mentoring at the undergraduate level in several engineering departments. Both small and large departments were considered. The results show that there is no universal rule for effective mentoring. Size of the school, human and material resources, such as student/instructor ratio, total years of the undergraduate program as well as the local culture (in this case Spanish speaking Puerto Rico and five-year Bachelor degree) are some of the factors that govern effective mentoring. Some schools in the mainland USA are compared with those of Puerto Rico.
Jayanta Banerjee is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus. Dr. Banerjee received Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo and M.Ed. from Queen's University, both in Canada. He has worked in industries and taught at the universities in Germany, Canada, USA and Latin America. He has over hundred publications in refereed journals and conference proceedings and a few books to his credit. Jayanta is a member of ASEE, ASME and VDI (Germany).
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