Through her research, Dr. Sanchez-Pena aims to promote a more equitable engineering field, in which students of all backgrounds can acquire the knowledge and skills to achieve their goals. Therefore, her research focuses on two different but complementary areas: (1) Institutional level research, aiming to progress engineering as a more diverse field through rigorous research on the advancement of women and other minorities at all levels of engineering, and (2) Knowledge level research, aiming to identify the evolving knowledge and skills the engineering practice requires, and find how to teach this knowledge effectively. In this area, she is primarily focused on the data analysis skills of engineers.