WIP: Graduate-Student Led Initiatives for Enhanced Safety Learning and an Improved Safety Culture in Engineering Departments

This work-in-progress research-to-practice paper describes the development of safety projects and the implementation of safety-related initiates to improve the overall safety culture in engineering programs at the graduate level. Safety in chemical engineering refers to the application of engineering concepts in the identification of hazards, the management of risks, and the prevention of accidents that may result in loss of life and/or property. Multiple studies highlight how the practice of laboratory and process safety in engineering offers educational benefits and opportunities to help the professional development of students; nonetheless, the implementation of these educational experiences has been inconsistent, contributing to a gap in knowledge in engineering graduates. This research addresses graduate safety education. A high percentage of our graduates typically proceed to work in laboratory and/or manufacturing environments that require safety knowledge. Our goal is to contribute to the creation of a homogeneous safety training at the graduate level that prepares students for their careers more effectively. This study was developed by the Graduate Student Safety Committee at The University of Texas at Austin (GSSC at UT Austin). We are currently working on three projects to improve our departmental safety culture: (1) the deployment of safety-related flyers on campus, (2) a safety-focused seminar series, and (3) the creation of an engineering safety climate survey. In this manuscript, we describe the development and implementation of our current safety initiatives. We highlight how student-led initiatives can enhance safety culture in engineering departments and we summarize our initial efforts to make safety training at the graduate level more homogenous. We anticipate this work will lead to the creation of a safety training program available to engineering students.