Jacob R. Grohs, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D. Educational Psychology, Virginia Tech, 2015
M.A.Ed. Curriculum and Instruction, Virginia Tech, 2012
M.S. Engineering Mechanics, Virginia Tech, 2009
B.S. Engineering Science & Mechanics, Virginia Tech, 2008

Research Interests

• Systems Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Multi-stakeholder Partnership (e.g., collaboration with K12, industry, government agencies)
• Community Engagement & Collaboration
• Educational Environments and Systems

Biography

Jake is an educational researcher whose interests focus on systems thinking, multi-stakeholder partnerships, and collaborative change efforts in education. His project portfolio includes a wide range of interdisciplinary and multi-party applied educational research projects which have focused on issues such as novel assessment of systems thinking competencies in engineering, healthcare, and community contexts; access to engineering education in rural communities; and research-practice collaborations to improve undergraduate engineering education quality, affordability, and student success. Jake is an NSF CAREER awardee and his external funding portfolio includes research grants in excess of $7.5M ($2.6M personal share).

Jake also directs the Center for Educational Networks and Impacts at Virginia Tech which advances applied research and community engagement to address the complexities and persistent issues of educational ecosystems. CENI builds long-term relationships with regional schools, museums, and programs for reciprocal learning and positive collaborative change. CENI is a research center housed within the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology.

In his personal life, Jake is committed to his family including his partner Courtney, their sons Jude, Crosby, Béla, and a giant Newfoundland dog Rhody.

Awards & Honors

• Stemmler Fund, National Board of Medical Examiners, 2023
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2020
• Engagement Scholarship Consortium, Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award for VT PEERS, 2020
• Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence, College of Engineering Virginia Tech, 2020
• Charles "Butch" and Joan Nunnally for Outstanding Engineering Education Faculty Member Award (2017)
• VT Engage Faculty Fellow (2017-2019)
• AAC&U K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award (2015)

Selected Publications

Partnerships Research and Community Engagement in K12

• Schilling, M., & Grohs, J. (2024). A conceptual model for engineering educators in rural places: Critical reflection and engagement. Studies in Engineering Education, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.21061/see.97
• Grohs, J. R., Gillen, A. L., Matusovich, H. M., Kirk, G. R., Lesko, H. L., Brantley, J., & Carrico, C. (2020). Building Community Capacity for Integrating Engineering in Rural Middle School Science Classrooms. Journal of STEM Outreach, 3(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.15695/jstem/v3i1.01
• Gillen, A. L., Grohs, J. R., Matusovich, H. M., & Kirk, G. R. (2021). A multiple case study of an interorganizational collaboration: Exploring the first year of an industry partnership focused on middle school engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 110(3), 545–571. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20403

Systems Thinking Research

• Norris, M. B., Grohs, J. R., & Knight, D. B. (2022). Investigating student approaches to scenario-based assessments of systems thinking. Frontiers in Education, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.1055403
• Grohs, J.R., Kirk, G.R., Soledad, M.M., & Knight, D.B (2018). Assessing Systems Thinking: A tool to measure complex reasoning through ill-structured problems. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 28, 110 130.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.03.003

Engingeering Mechanics Open Educational Resources 

• James Lord and Jacob Grohs, eds. (2024). Problem Set for Strength of Materials. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Publishing. https://engineeringmechanicsoer.github.io/StrengthOfMaterialsExercises. Licensed with CC BY NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.

Recent Grants

External grant portfolio includes over $7.7M total ($2.6M personal share) as PI or co-PI. 

• Lim, T (PI 60%), Wiseman, E. (co-PI 20%), Grohs J.R. (co-PI 15%), & Ramakrishnan, N. (co-PI) 5%. $1,000,000. (2023-2025) CIVIC-FA Track A: Youth-centered civic technology, science, and art for improving community heat resilience infrastructure. National Science Foundation, CMMI-2322085

• Mutcheson, R.B. (PI 25%), Karp, N. (co-PI 25%), Grohs J.R. (co-PI 25%), & Katz, A. (co-PI 25%). $149,926. (2023-2025) Operationalizing, Validating, and Scaling Health Systems Citizenship Assessment in Undergraduate Medical Education. National Board of Medical Examiners.

• Grohs, J.R. (PI 19%), Lord, J (co-PI 20%), Walz, A. (co-PI 19%), Dillard, D. (co-PI 14%), Davison, S. (co-PI 14%), & Wallwey, C. (co-PI 14%). $49,750. (2023-2025) Open Textbook, Problem Bank, and Assessment Environment for Mechanics of Materials. Virtual Library of Virginia. 

• Lim, T (PI 50%), Grohs J.R. (co-PI 10%), Gohlke, J. (co-PI 10%), Pingel, T (co-PI 10%), Ramakrishnan, N. (co-PI) 10%, & Wiseman, E. (co-PI 10%). $50,000. (2023) SCC-CIVIC-PG Track A: Youth-centered civic technology and citizen science for improving community heat resilience infrastructure. National Science Foundation, CMMI-2228553

• Knight, D.B. (PI 20%), Grohs, J.R. (co-PI 20%), Lee, W.C. (co-PI 20%), Rodriguez, S. (co-PI 20%) & Watford, B. (co-PI 20%), $2,399,501. (2022-2026) Collaborative Research: A Research Hub for Understanding Inter- and intra-institutional partnerships that systematically support low-income engineering students. National Science Foundation, DUE-213818

• Grohs, J.R. (PI 100%), $724,031 (2020-2025). CAREER: Engineering Pathways for Appalachian Youth: Design Principles and Long-term Impacts of School-Industry Partnerships. National Science Foundation, DRL-1943098

• Pitterson, N. (PI 34%), Grohs, J.R. (co-PI 33%), & Dillard, D. (co-PI 33%), $298,535 (2019-2021). Enabling Accelerated Learning and Assessment in Engineering Mechanics. National Science Foundation, DRL-1841980

• Triantis, K. (PI 20%), Knight, D. (co-PI 20%), Grohs, J.R. (co-PI 20%), Ghaffarzadegan, N. (co-PI 20%), & Hosseinichimeh, N. (co-PI 20%), $403,178 (2018-2021).  Cognitive Barriers to Understanding Complexity in Human-Technical Systems: Evidence from Engineering Students and Practitioners. National Science Foundation, EEC-1824594

• Dillard, D. (PI 50%) & Grohs, J.R., (co-PI 50%), $200,000 (2018-2019).  Experimental characterization of fuel cell membranes for durability prediction. Ford Motor Company

• Baum, L. (PI 45%), Grohs, J.R., (co-PI 25%), Paretti, M. (co-PI 15%), Farlee, J. (Senior Personnel 10%), Newbill, P.L. (Senior Personnel 3%), & McGlothlin Lester, M.B. (Senior Personnel 2%), $257,205 (2017-2019).  Community Cultures: Broadening Participating By Understanding How Rural Communities Support Engineering as College Major Choice. National Science Foundation, EEC-1734834

• Grohs, J.R. (PI 45%), Kirk, G.R. (co-PI 25%), Matusovich, H.M. (co-PI 25%), & Baum, L. (co-PI 5%), $1,288,622 (2017-2020). Community-Engaged Engineering Interventions with Appalachian Youth. National Science Foundation, DRL-1657263

• Grohs, J.R., (PI, %34), Knight, D.B. (co-PI 33%), & Case, S.W. (co-PI 33%), $298,599 (2017-2020).  Investing in Instructors: Creating Intelligent Feedback Loops in Large Foundational Courses for Undergraduate Engineering. National Science Foundation, DRL-1712089

• Knight, D.B. (PI 30%), Grohs, J.R., (co-PI 30%), Matuosvich, H.M. (co-PI 30%), & Bradburn, I. (co-PI 10%), $503,093 (2017-2020).  Gatekeepers to Broadening Participation in Engineering: Investigating variation across high schools comparing who could go versus who does go into engineering. National Science Foundation, EEC-1647928