Introduction
There is growing evidence of a mental health crisis in graduate student populations [One of the contributing factors is the level of stress graduate students experience and the lack of coping skills, resulting in adverse emotional, academic and health outcomes [The impact of stress on the mental health is compounded by the trend of low treatment rates among engineering graduate students, with only a quarter of those with apparent mental health issues seeking help [We present an investigation of the impact of a mindfulness-based training program as a practical, cost-effective method for promoting well-being in the context of graduate engineering education. We recruited subjects to participate in an eight-week training designed to provide them with both an understanding of the scientific underpinnings of mindfulness practice and the experience of engaging with these practices firsthand. We hypothesized that training in mindfulness-based techniques would have a positive impact on graduate student well-being and their capacity to engage productively in research. We conducted survey-based assessments that were primarily quantitative in nature, augmented with qualitative data in the form of open-ended responses. Our investigation spanned multiple years involving training cohorts (each including an intervention group and a wait-list control group) at two research doctoral universities with very high research activity.