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Engineering Leaders Conference 2014 on Engineering Education
- Conference date: 8-11 Nov 2014
- Location: Doha, Qatar
- Volume number: 2015
- Published: 29 August 2015
51 - 80 of 80 results
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Engaging students via failure case studies and problem-based learning
Authors: M. Zoghi and N. DelatteIt is widely known that nearly 50% of engineering students either switch majors or drop out within the first couple of semesters upon enrollment. Research has revealed that a combination of poor teaching and mentoring, difficulty of the curriculum, and lack of belonging are among the reasons for high attrition.
Over the years, educators have developed a wide range of techniques to address the attrition issues mentioned above. There have been many teaching and learning centers established across campuses to improve pedagogies to help enhance student learning. In addition, freshman and sophomore curricula have been revamped to incorporate more design projects, problem-based learning (PBL), etc. Better mentoring and engaging students in engineering activities and research have also helped students feel they belong in engineering.
All along, one of the challenges has been to introduce new courses and additional units in an already jam-packed curriculum. The authors have been incorporating failure case studies as an integral component of existing engineering and construction management courses to provide students a better insight regarding their chosen field and future profession. Student groups form forensic engineering or consulting companies; investigate technical and ethical aspects of a prominent engineering or construction failure; prepare technical reports, and deliver PowerPoint slide presentations in class. Myriad assessments have revealed that students become more conscientious about the subject at hand; working in teams gives them the feeling of belonging; a closer interaction is established between the instructor and students, and students gain a better perspective of real life projects. In addition, the venue provides an opportunity to teach ethics via case studies. The details of case studies, on failure to enhance student learning and retention and inculcating professional ethics as part of these case studies, will constitute the crux of our paper.
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A framework for K-12 engineering education at low budget institutions
More LessPeruvian students demonstrate poor performance results in math, science and reading. Critical thinking and significative learning is avoided or rarely infused in the classroom. Teachers are content-oriented, and it is pretended that all students learn the same material at the same time, ignoring individual interest and motivations. Also, the national curriculum ignores cultural diversity and particular necessities in each town and city. Moreover, there is a strong rivalry among schools and low cooperation among teachers of the same school. The Internet features plenty of resources for engineering education. Also, there is low-cost hardware and free software for a variety of engineering projects in the K-12 level.
This paper describes a framework for an integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education approach considering the current context in the Peruvian education system. An ad-hoc methodology was used to promote students interest in engineering by developing extracurricular workshops with an emphasis in electronic engineering, computer science, and physics experiments. We described some engineering workshops and computer programs developed along many years, including a simulator that is being used around the world for logic circuit design. In our experience, building interests in science and engineering can be addressed with extracurricular workshops in an informal setting. We think we must persist in STEM education by reaching all interested teachers and students.
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Towards a sustainable collaboration between the oil and gas industry and university
Authors: MS Liew, Lee Hsiu Eik and Noor Amila Wan Abdullah ZawawiThere are few universities globally focused on oil and gas technical education. In some cases, these universities are set up by the oil and gas majors, which are typically state-owned. The need for the university to be linked to the industry, especially in the oil and gas sector, is an important facet of the daily operation of the university. This ensures that the university remains relevant in time and is contributing to the oil and gas industries. The fast and ever-changing business climate and the speed of conduct of the oil and gas business predicates that the university must be geared to remain relevant and also sustainable in serving the oil and gas fraternities by producing graduates who will typically find their way into the oil and gas industries. In addition, the research components of the university must also address the current issues affecting the oil and gas industries. This paper seeks to address the modes of delivery by the university and the industries in achieving sustainable growth academically and in research through collaboration with the oil and gas industries. This involves the working mechanism of the university in relation to the integration of the often-complicated state-owned oil and gas major, the oil and gas service providers, and also the oil and gas vendors. In some instances governmental bodies overseeing the growth and support of the state owned oil and gas company are part of the working parameters in the collaboration. It was found that the fit for purpose collaborative efforts between the university and the oil and gas industries are key to sustainable academic, research and business development. It involves one key business model with several sub-key business models in making a sustainable collaboration model. A case example is presented.
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Curricular innovation to integrate sustainability for global grand challenges
Authors: M. Zoghi, A.R. Chini, V. Luo, W. Wu and B. HyattEducating future generations of engineers and construction managers who will be well prepared to tackle the sustainability grand challenges in the global context will require a paradigm shift from traditional engineering education. There has been much debate in recent years that traditional engineering education has failed to adequately prepare the graduates to face ever-changing complex and multidisciplinary problems in a sustainable and global context. Thus, an innovative transformation of the curricula is needed to educate future engineering graduates to successfully solve sustainable grand challenges. Not only must they be grounded in the latest technical knowledge and tools, future engineers are expected to have adequate understanding of the societal, economical, and political issues and be able to work in diverse team environment and have excellent communication skills. Furthermore, the future generations of engineers and construction managers should possess a highly developed knowledge of the environmental sustainability. “Education for sustainable development is not an option but a priority,” is the vision of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). It is the guiding principle of this paper to provide an overview of the fundamental concepts that should be integrated within engineering and construction management curricula for sustainability in the context of global grand challenges. The curricula innovation from authors' own individual institutions will be presented as successful examples.
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Applications of the advanced FRP composites to restore and improve urban infrastructure
More LessAn engineering grand challenge, identified by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), is to restore and improve urban infrastructure. It is widely known that the aging and failing urban infrastructure is a worldwide challenge. Most recently, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has assigned a grade of “D+” to the US infrastructure, across sixteen categories. ASCE estimates that it will cost each American family $31,00 annually in personal disposable income unless the backlog of projects and deferred maintenance are duly addressed nationwide.
Engineers of 21st century will have the formidable challenge of restoring and improving infrastructure in view of limited resources and funding. Regarding the transportation systems, it has been recognized that innovative design and advanced materials can provide a more sustainable solution. In this paper, the application of the advanced fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite, a novel construction material—christened the material of 21st century—will be presented for infrastructure revitalization and renewal. Two major initiatives, utilizing FRP composites, will be described to demonstrate successful real-life applications. One of the initiatives involves the use of advanced FRP composite materials for replacement of an existing deteriorated short-span bridge superstructure. The second initiative involves rehabilitation of two existing severely deteriorated long-span box-girder bridges using post-tensioning CFRP plates via StressHead System.
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A possible instrument for measuring ethical behavior of engineering students
More LessEthics is one of the most important competencies required of today's engineering graduates. All attempts towards developing that competency constitute, at best, conducting scenario and active learning-based courses and, at worst, delivering passive lectures. There is little chance of developing ethics with these methods. One must follow a systemic cycle of measures to build any such competency. Further, the measurement must be based on real-life situations with real stakes, especially for ethics, which is not easy. In fact, this is one of the most difficult competencies from both measurement and development perspectives.
Ethics is reflected in most of the professional decisions. A decision depends on being able to identify and acquire right information and being able to identify and execute a process based on that information. A competent and qualified engineer typically does not make mistakes in these two stages. The next step, which involves implementing the decision, is susceptible to unethical influence. An incorrect decision could be due to mistakes in the first two stages or in the third stage of implementation. It is difficult to ascertain the source. This dynamics makes measurement and development of the ethics competency an uphill task.
We have tried to develop a measure for ethical behavior of students. We have been using project- and team-based learning instructional strategy in many courses. We use peer evaluation using constant sum scale to assess performance of individual students. We posit that self-evaluation, as compared to peer-evaluation, can provide an idea of the ethical behavior of students. Since it is possible that students may make mistakes in the earlier two stages—information and process—we propose performing such assessment for a number of courses to even out that possibility.
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Proficiency in technical report writing skills among the Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Technology streams in Nigeria
Authors: Abubakar Sadiq Bappah and Babangida Ibrahim YarimaThe study was designed to determine the proficiency levels in technical report writing skills exhibited by the three streams of pre-service bachelor of engineering and bachelor of technology within the study area. Pre-service bachelor of engineering were designated as Stream A , pre-service bachelor of technology with specialisations in engineering were the Stream B , and pre-service bachelor of technology with non-engineering specialisations as the third category, Stream C . Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the study and the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study involved a stratified randomly sampled 90 respondents drawn from six federated geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The instrument used for data collection consists of a 50-items standardized test adopted from Dantes Test Preparation Technical Writing Practice Examination. 1 The mean scores of pre-service bachelor of engineering ( Stream A ) and pre-service bachelor of technology ( Streams B and C ) were all determined and compared. The standard deviations and mean score distribution within each stream was statistically analysed and interpreted based on the stated hypotheses. The study revealed that there was no significant difference between the mean scores of Stream A and Stream B pre-service graduates in their technical report writing skills. However, significant difference was observed between the mean scores of Stream A and Stream C pre-service graduates in their technical report writing skills. The results from this study suggest that there is a direct relationship between the skills acquired from the technical communication skills courses and their mean scores in the Dantes Test. The study also revealed that Nigeria's undergraduate bachelor of engineering curriculum places less emphasis on pre-service engineer trainees’ literary presentation. Unlike what is obtained in the bachelor of technology with non-engineering specialisations ( Stream C ) where a substantial number of disciplines offer technical report writing as a separate course. It, thus, becomes necessary to look for ways of enhancing the writing skills of engineering graduates.
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Ethical and social implications of nanotechnology
By Ahmed KhanThe projected impact of nanotechnology has been touted as a second industrial revolution—not the third, fourth, or fifth, because despite similar predictions for technologies such as computers and robotics, nothing has yet eclipsed the first. In the United States and in many other countries, numerous partnerships among industry, university, and government have been created to facilitate the research, development, and commercialization of nanotechnology advances. Such a collaboration is expected to bring about next generation of nanotechnology based products and new markets with a promise of job creation and economic development. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), products incorporating nanotechnology will contribute approximately $1 trillion to the global economy by the year 2015. About two million workers will be employed in nanotechnology industries, and three times that many will have supporting jobs. Despite many benefits of nanotechnology there are potential risks and ethical issues involved in its implementation. There's a concern that some nanoparticles could be toxic because elements at the nanoscale behave differently than they do in their bulk form and these particles could easily cross the blood-brain barrier.
Society is at the threshold of a revolution that will transform the ways in which materials and products are created. How will this revolution develop? The opportunities that will develop in the future will depend significantly upon the ways in which a number of challenges are met. As we design systems on a nanoscale, we develop the capability to redesign the structure of all materials—natural and synthetic—along with rethinking the new possibilities of the reconstruction of any and all materials. Such a change in our design power represents tremendous social and ethical questions. In order to enable our future leadership to make decisions for sustainable economic nanotechnological development, it is imperative that we educate all nanotechnology stakeholders about the short-term and long-term benefits, limitations and risks of nanotechnology. The social implications of nanotechnology encompass so many fundamental areas such as ethics, privacy, environment, and security. This paper presents an overview of new and emerging nanotechnologies and their societal and ethical implications to address 21st Century challenges and issues. The discussion includes a range of different types of nanotechnologies and their potential social and ethical implications on society. The paper also highlights the approaches used to teach Science, Technology and Society (STS) courses at DeVry University, Addison, IL, USA.
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Comparison of simulation-based and hands-on teaching methodologies on students’ learning in an engineering technology program
Authors: Mohammed Taher and Ahmed KhanThe use of simulation-based labs has been gaining currency in the domains of engineering and technology programs. How effective is simulation-based teaching methodology in comparison to traditional hands-on activity based labs? To answer this question a study was conducted to explore the impact of the use of computer simulation design methods on students’ learning for circuit construction in an undergraduate technical course.
This paper presents the findings of the research study, which tested the hypothesis by investigating three key questions: 1) Does the use of simulation improve students’ learning outcomes? 2) How do faculty members perceive the use and effectiveness of simulation in the delivery of technical course content? 3) How do students perceive the instructional design features embedded in the simulation program such as exploration and scaffolding support in learning new concepts?
The paper also discusses the other aspects of findings, which reveal that simulation by itself is not very effective in promoting student learning. Simulation becomes effective when it is followed by hands-on activity. Furthermore, the paper presents recommendations for improving student learning, viz a viz simulation-based and hands-on labs.
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Effect of feedback mechanisms on students' learning in the use of simulation-based training in a computer engineering program
By Usman GhaniFeedback is a vital element for improving student learning in a simulation-based training as it guides and refines learning through scaffolding. A number of studies in literature have shown that students' learning is enhanced when feedback is provided with personalized tutoring that offers specific guidance and adapts feedback to the learner in a one-to-one environment. Thus, emulating these adaptive aspects of human tutoring in simulation provides an effective methodology to train individuals. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated the effectiveness of automating different types of feedback techniques such as Knowledge-of-Correct-Response (KCR) and Answer-Until-Correct (AUC) in software simulation for learning basic information technology concepts. For the purpose of comparison, techniques like simulation with zero or no-feedback (NFB) and traditional hands-on (HON) learning environments are also examined. The paper presents the summary of findings based on quantitative analyses, which reveal that the simulation based instructional strategies are at least as effective as hands-on teaching methodologies for the purpose of learning of IT concepts. The paper also compares the results of the study with the earlier studies and recommends strategies for using feedback mechanism to improve students' learning in designing and simulation-based IT training.
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Improving human capital through engineering and entrepreneurship
Authors: S. Zoghi and E. LiguoriWhether the goal is to solve the grand challenges established by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), or it is to address the developmental road blocks plaguing less economically developed countries (LEDC), engineers must be able to work together to help improve the quality of life for people all over the world. One of the primary focuses of this paper is to explore how engineers can incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship in order to elevate the living conditions for many people in developing countries.
Due to the lack of investments in LEDC, much of the world is still trapped in poverty. These low levels of investments lead to minimal infrastructure building, meaning inadequate roads, schools, or hospitals. As a result, we have a population that is less productive, uneducated, and unhealthy—bringing us back to the reason why few invest in LEDC. As engineers, entrepreneurs, and educators, it is our job to promote sustainable solutions to infrastructural black holes. We must do this by enticing investors to these regions through high-yielding startups, high levels of education, sustainability, and global partnerships.
Through a variety of programs established by entrepreneurs and engineers, we can help facilitate new entrepreneurial ecosystems in various regions around the world. As Rwandan President Kagame puts it: “entrepreneurship is the most sure way of development.” By assisting in the maturation of technologically-driven entrepreneurship ecosystems and advocating for policy change, we will be able to stimulate significant infrastructure investments. By addressing deficiencies in the various markers highlighted by this comprehensive analysis, LEDC will be able to cultivate long-run sustainable growth.
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The role of physics and mathematics courses in influencing students' performance in engineering programs
Authors: Ahmed Imran, Mohamed Nasor and Fahar HayatiThe role of physics and mathematics courses was evaluated in influencing students' academic performance in an undergraduate engineering program. Statistical data for 200 students in their final or pre-final years of study was used to relate performance in the above-mentioned courses with their overall performance in the program. Significant majority of students who performed well in physics and mathematics courses also performed well in the program, and vice versa. The analysis suggests that students' performance in such courses may be used as an early indicator of their ability to continue in engineering programs successfully.
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Enhancing student learning: Using design-based learning in a bridging program to improve critical thinking skills
Bridging programs have been shown to be valuable because they allow students access to higher education and lay a solid foundation by equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in mainstream diplomas such as engineering. Most bridging programs focus on improving students’ skills in Science, Math and English. However they fail to address their critical thinking skills, which are deficiencies often present in students enrolled in these bridging programs. This leaves students inadequately prepared for entry into engineering programs and more likely to struggle in problem based or design courses. At Texas A&M University at Qatar, a large proportion of the students in the bridging program come from an educational system which fosters rote learning instead of conceptual learning. In this paper, we describe a new hands-on course run by student instructors that addresses this issue by introducing bridging program students to critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and engineering design skills. We also present survey results from the participating students about the skills acquired in the course.
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Afterschool STEM mentoring programs helping to develop K-12 students for the STEM workforce
More LessMany companies are now faced with a huge engineering challenge. It has less to do with STEM, and more to do with creating the passion, drive and innovation in our future STEM workforce. We acknowledge a STEM pipeline, however, and that the pipeline must be constantly supplied and maintained to positively impact production and product. The projected demand for STEM workers in the near future is very high, which is accompanied by a very high earning potential for these workers. Afterschool programs, such as STARBASE 2.0 Afterschool STEM Mentoring Clubs, target middle school students help to develop our future STEM workforce. STEM Mentor programs such as these, not only present real-world challenges to students to help mold and sharpen their STEM skills, but also allow students to experience and put into practice strong soft skills that organizations say they look for, such as written communication, team-building, and leadership abilities. STARBASE 2.0 also helps to increase the diversity within the pipeline and allows diverse students to interact with someone who looks like them and who is already in the STEM field, through the mentoring aspect of the program. The afterschool or out of school time setting has allowed students to be more focused on challenges and allows for time to be creative and innovative.
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Developing the engineering talent pipeline using work-based learning
Authors: Robin Clark, Bill Glew and Jane AndrewsThe need for engineers in our modern world is undeniable. Industry, professional bodies and governments provide a constant stream of communication to this effect, communication that has stimulated massive efforts in the field of engineering education over recent years.
This paper explores the case of a UK higher education institution where ‘coherence’ has been the main driver in terms of engineering education development.
By viewing the sections of the educational journey as connected sections of a whole, the transition losses and opportunities for disengagement are minimised. This then leads to a higher quality engineering education experience that helps to promote an innovative mindset able to capitalise on non-traditional opportunities for delivering engineering education.
This latter point will be the focus here, in particular the introduction of a suite of Professional Engineering programmes. In 2006, the Engineering Council in the UK initiated the Engineering Gateways programme. Recognising that there was much latent engineering talent in the UK workforce, the programmes developed as part of the Engineering Gateways initiative focused on developing the knowledge, skills and understanding of people already engaged in engineering work.
The examples explored fit into the global context as they are not focused on the UK. A key component of the work undertaken has been with companies engaged in the oil and gas sector, in particular BP in both Angola and Indonesia. The desire of governments to see more nationals represented in the workforce, especially at the higher levels, has resulted in programmes being developed at both bachelor's and master's level to enhance the engineering talent. The students are engaged in full-time work, and the programmes are work-based, but without a fixed curriculum.
The opening element of the programme requires the students to review their career and then develop, in line with the programme requirements, a personalised learning pathway. This is done with the support of an academic and a professional supervisor.
The programmes have been operating for 5 years, with the first graduates starting to complete now. The programmes offer benefits to all parties, yet the challenges around the work environment and culture in particular need to be adequately understood and accounted for.
In order to develop a better understanding of the programme value, the work has been the subject of an ongoing research project. The potential of the programmes to help develop the very best engineers and leaders is now starting to become apparent.
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From internationalization to globalization: Exporting application-oriented Master's programs
Authors: Helmut Dispert and Christine BoudinOnly a few decades ago, the German university system has undergone a major adjustment, transforming the existing engineering schools and other previously existing institutions into what is nowadays known as “Universities of Applied Sciences.” Since then, these they have proliferated strongly, representing today almost 60% of the German tertiary educational system (in number of installations). In the late 1990s, the European Bologna process had initiated another wave of reforms, especially unifying structure, duration, and credit transfer and accumulation at the academic institutions. As part of this two-tier structure, the bachelor's and master's degree programs were established throughout Europe, replacing in some countries the single-tier diploma degrees, e.g., the German Diplom-Ingenieur (Graduate Engineer).
This paper will describe how the Master's Program Information Technology has been implemented at Kiel University of Applied Sciences and has gradually been transformed into a highly-successful international program, attracting students from around the world with today about 70% of the student body being recruited from outside Germany and Europe. Special emphasis will be given on the next expansion, which started recently: globalizing this master's program. The English-taught program has been offered in Germany, the next step underway is the “export” to other countries, providing all the benefits of a genuine German study program and degree, but offering it partially or entirely in other countries. The major aspects of the implementation process will be discussed, as well as experiences and challenges related to the different international educational environments involved.
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Integrating teaching of contemporary issues into engineering education: A case study
Authors: Tasneem Pervez and Arif MalikLack of teaching initiatives and learning difficulties related to understanding contemporary problems in engineering education in the Gulf region and beyond requires corrective measures. It requires new policy decisions at department, college and university levels, not only in curriculum design but also in curriculum delivery. The integrated approach of curriculum design and delivery along with the formulation of new education policy in universities is needed in order to change and adapt engineering education with changing economic conditions and social demands. This paper suggests some principles of cooperation between industry and science, which are important to tackle contemporary issues in engineering. Focuses on real world engineering projects and a human approach in engineering—which interprets the world of engineering education through human values—are described as the key to the development of the engineering education, not just in the issue mentioned above but also on creative problem solving.
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Building the right way: The need and importance of an ethicist in construction engineering
Authors: Nicole J. Johnson, Kenneth Sands, Christine M. Fiori and Annie PearceHistorically, the construction industry has been plagued by substantiated unethical business practices that lead to loss in construction quality, economic damage, loss of reputation, and increased risks in public health and safety. These unethical acts draw negative attention to the industry. In order to curtail unethical business practice in the construction industry, it is critical to make ethical education a cornerstone of the construction engineering curriculum. Students within the discipline must have comprehensive ethics education to ensure that they are capable of making informed, responsible decisions on projects when on the job. Ethics education is important to rectify the issues of unethical practices; it is also a key component to academic program accreditation. Accreditation requires departments and programs to have qualified instructors to develop and teach ethics and integrate it into the core curriculum.
The authors posit that departments and programs in construction engineering have an ethicist among their faculty. This scholarly paper outlines the role and characteristics of an effective ethicist using existing literature from within and outside the discipline. The authors suggest that qualified instructors should be ethicists who can fulfill these roles: (1) having a foundation in construction ethics philosophy, (2) teacher/consultant, (3) consultant/teacher, (4) versatility as an educator, and (5) stranger characteristics. Ethicists should master these roles to be effective conveyors to disseminate the information to students. As an ethicist, one must possess the ability to not only be a versatile educator, but one must also have ‘stranger” characteristics. The authors of this paper seek to facilitate a broader discussion about the need and importance of employing an ethicist in the discipline and also inspiring new and innovative research around the subject matter.
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Innovations in the civil engineering education: A capstone case study in a Malaysian University
Authors: Noor Amila Wan Abdullah Zawawi, M.S. Liew and Hairuzila IdrusCapstone course is a Civil Engineering Design subject attended by final year Civil Engineering undergraduates. It was introduced in the Civil Engineering curriculum to fulfil the requirement for engineering education by Washington Accord. It aims to strengthen the co-curriculum for the engineering degree program. The course captures and applies all the fundamentals of civil engineering knowledge. This paper presents the outcomes of the innovations and assessments introduced by Capstone. The assessment and analysis are based on the performance of five batches of Capstone students from 2011 to 2012. The innovations include a comprehensive test introduced to the second batch, mimicking the practice of Engineers in Training (EIT) in the United States. The findings generally indicate that this type of comprehensive assessment could positively impact the graduating students. Other findings include the improvement and significant impacts on the overall performance from one batch to another after variations of the assessment components were introduced and continual quality improvements (CQI) were implemented from one batch to the next. This is indeed an exciting development in engineering education as Capstone is not a familiar feature for engineering education in Malaysian universities, definitely not in this comprehensive scale of implementation.
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Designing a sustainable liberal arts pedagogy for the engineers of tomorrow
Authors: Maria D. Lombard and Mark SideyABET's EC 2000 lists “an ability to communicate effectively” as one of the criteria for engineering education programs. Here is one area where the liberal arts can make a strong contribution to the education of engineers. As they work to solve the grand challenges, engineers will have to persuade reluctant audiences that change is necessary and beneficial. Therefore, educating engineers to solve the grand challenges requires courses grounded in rhetoric.
A valid criticism of writing classes is that they have taught a sterile form of writing that was inadequate in preparing engineers to solve the grand challenges. To address this issue, this presentation advocates what we define as a “pedagogy of networks.” In many scholarly disciplines and workplaces, the expert witness or subject matter expert, a product of Modern thought, continues to be a valid method of knowledge transference. However, the expert witness model is not always effective when communicating with non-engineers. As ABET points out, engineers must be able to do more than present technical data to other engineers.
Drawing on the work of Lyotard, Latour, and field work, this presentation will discuss how postmodern ideas of networks and rhizomatic connections can inform the education of engineers. By shifting to a networked pedagogy and by directly engaging epistemic processes in professional writing classrooms, students can begin to understand the complex relationship among knowledge and networked communities. Networked pedagogy helps situate the engineer in direct conversation with peers, decision makers, funding organizations, and community members.
In addition to Postmodern theories of knowledge, research on how the brain processes information can help students analyze and respond to various rhetorical situations. For example, Kahneman's work on cognitive ease provides strategies for communicating with audiences who are resistant to change and new ideas. Overcoming resistance to change is a significant hurdle in solving the grand challenges; technical data and its implications must be shaped to so as to engage audiences on both a cognitive and emotional level. As advertising and marketing firms know, research on cognition is quite useful in doing so.
Ultimately, this presentation will suggest pedagogical and workplace training standards which can help engineers communicate with various audiences as they work to solve the grand challenges. Clear strategies and timelines for incorporating a pedagogy of networks into writing courses for engineers will be discussed.
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A multifaceted approach to supporting STEM/SBE students with learning disabilities: Highlights of engineering student participants
Students with a learning disability (LD) comprise between 46 to 61% of all students with disabilities in postsecondary education, making LD the most widely diagnosed disability. Very often LD has a significant negative impact for those college students in both their academic work and interpersonal encounters due to frequent misunderstandings and unawareness by faculty, staff, and fellow students. To address the challenges of LD, the University of Florida is developing and implementing a unique model of multifaceted approaches and services for these students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), called Comprehensive Support for STEM Students with Learning Disability (CS3LD). We form a cohort of students with LD (CS3LD scholar) who are mentored and supported in the areas of academics, health, personal and professional development. Simultaneously, we build a campus network of health and STEM units/personnel sensitive to and able to address the needs of STEM students with LD. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, this approach is designed to impact the student (personal), encounters (interpersonal), and our campus environment (institutional). At the personal level, mechanisms for CS3LD scholar engagement are designed to foster self-advocacy, self-efficacy, and increased campus connection and participation. Scholar activities include individual mentorships, group activities, and student-driven project initiatives. At the interpersonal level, multi-disciplinary mentorship teams are designed for each CS3LD scholar to improve mentoring and professional enculturation to STEM disciplines for students with LD. Mentorship teams address individual academic and disability/health related needs. At the institutional level, a campus-wide network of health and STEM faculty, staff, graduate students, and academic units knowledgeable of LD is created to coordinate efforts in facilitating the success of STEM students with LD. A Partnership Council is created to increase communication and examine ways to better meet the needs of students with LD on campus. The Partnership Council includes faculty representatives from academic and health units across the University of Florida (UF) campus, as well as CS3LD scholar representatives who contribute student perspectives to the conversation.
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A design-based apprenticeship approach to transform freshman chemistry for engineering students
Authors: Kent Crippen, Chang-Yu Wu, Treavor Boyer, Trisha de Torres, Philip Brucat and Maria KorolevEngineering education cannot expect to meet the demands of a global, diverse, knowledge-society without addressing a well-established issue of student recruitment and retention. The dropout rate for engineering students is around 40% as shown in various studies of a national scope. This retention issue is particularly prevalent for freshman students, such as in general chemistry. Indicators suggest that lower-division engineering curriculum is not based upon the authentic practice of engineers, thus, not representative of the profession and not attractive to the widest possible population of students. To address this issue, the University of Florida is conducting a project to transform the freshman chemistry curriculum for engineering students to a more contextually relevant and engaging experience with rich context of workplace engineering (Transforming Chemistry with Cognitive Apprenticeship for Engineers - ChANgE Chem). This transformed curriculum situates energy and environmental as fundamental organizing principles in practical engineering problems, communicated as human-interest stories. Based on cognitive apprenticeship, we have developed a sequence of activities that emulate and make explicit, an engineer's way of thinking, knowing and working. In addition, we support student success with design elements that engage deep learning strategies that embody our understanding of effective learning. Organized around the three overarching themes of Design, Develop, and Test, this unique approach creates new learning materials and teaching strategies, develops faculty expertise, implements an educational innovation and assesses student achievement. This transformative curriculum contributes new knowledge about how to design for recruitment and retention, and the project advances our understanding of how people learn chemistry and develop the skills for addressing engineering design problems. This presentation will discuss the framework and creation of engineering mini-projects that complement the major chemistry lecture topics, and discuss the progress and challenges of implementing the mini-projects in weekly recitation sections.
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Developing global and regional sustainability engineering skills through a successful study abroad program
Current engineering curricula must satisfy specific national accreditation requirements that result on limited elective course flexibility. Thus, developing programs that give engineering undergraduate students the opportunity to complement their education with a global academic and practical experience, within such constraints, require creative solutions. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in the USA and the University of Piura (UDEP) in Peru have developed a summer faculty-led study abroad program that enables U.S. and Peruvian students build the skills and knowledge required to tackle the global sustainability issues associated with the grand engineering challenges of this century such as: making solar energy economical, providing access to clean water and restoring, and improving urban infrastructure. Students completing this abroad training program are able to identify strategic opportunities to strengthen sustainability engineering practices that are in congruence with globalization, urbanization, and a future healthy economy.
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AggiE-Challenge Program: A multidisciplinary, vertically integrated, project-based engineering program
Authors: Magdalini Lagoudas and Jeffrey E. FroydThe AggiE-Challenge, a multidisciplinary, project-based program, was created to develop student knowledge and skills for engineering design, lifelong learning, multidisciplinary teamwork, communications, ability to apply engineering fundamentals to problem solving, and appreciation for the impact of engineering on people. Distinctive features of the program include student engagement with a project associated with a grand challenge in engineering, undergraduate student teams with members from at least three engineering majors, active involvement by an engineering faculty member, and guidance by an engineering graduate mentor. Students receive course credit for their participation in AggiE-Challenge. Projects are designed for at least a full academic year to provide interested students in-depth opportunities to continue working on the same project for more than one semester. Faculty submit proposals to be considered for funding each year and selected proposals require faculty to recruit and mentor a student team with at least ten students and one graduate student who provides project management and technical support to the team. Since 2012, more than 100 engineering students have participated in the program each semester, with some continuing on the project for two semesters and a few for more than two semesters. This paper will focus on the program description, student demographics, impact on recruiting for graduate programs, and transferring this approach to industry-sponsored student team research projects.
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Greening chemical engineering laboratory at Bradford University
Authors: I.M. Mujtaba, R. Patel and N. KarodiaThis paper highlights the work undertaken to assess the current state of the art of the Chemical Engineering Laboratory at the University of Bradford (UK) in terms of total energy and water usage and sound pollution and to propose an action plan to ‘greening’ the laboratory so that future students are trained in a laboratory where sustainability is the key feature of all learning activities. The project was funded by National Higher Education STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) Programme. This review and assessment was carried out by two academic staff and one technical staff member with chemical engineering background.
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Preparation of engineering professionals: The role of pre- and post-college education
More LessThe time-span for college education of engineering graduates is very limited (3.5 to 4 years), compared to time required for professionals in other fields, such as medicine or pharmacy. During this limited period it is very difficult to adequately satisfy the modern sophisticated industry and the knowledge-based economy requirements of a graduate engineer. Here, the role of pre-college or school (K-12) education and the post-college education, such as continuing engineering education, becomes significant. In this paper we consider the role of each of these stages in the development of skills and competencies needed by engineering professional and introduce a concept of teaching factory and its role in complementing formal engineering education.
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Foundation Coalition: Impact on chemical engineering education at Texas A&M University 20 years later
Authors: Mark Holtzapple, Katherine Toback and Carol HoltzappleIn 1993, the Foundation Coalition (FC) was formed to provide an innovative curriculum for freshman and sophomore engineering students in nine universities, including Texas A&M. FC themes include an integrated curriculum, active/cooperative learning, technology-enabled learning, and continuous improvement. For many years, FC was generously supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and produced numerous papers showing significant benefits, such as greater retention, improved academic performance, and more rapid graduation. Once NSF funding ended, Texas A&M institutional commitment to FC waned and the freshman engineering program fragmented into three tracks. Only Track C (chemical and petroleum engineering) continued the educational traditions established by FC. Because of transfers and changes of majors, not all students who enter the sophomore chemical engineering programs had Track C as freshman. This provides a unique opportunity to run “controlled studies” to determine the impact of FC principles on chemical engineering education. The data demonstrate that students who participated in Track C exhibited significantly better performance. For example, grades in the first chemical engineering course (mass and energy balances) increased by 0.45 grade points and the “recycle rate” for this course decreased by a factor of 2.6.
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Puzzles Principles and engineering education
More LessFor this paper engineering programs were reviewed in terms of curriculum building and the technique of Puzzles Principles developed by the author is defined. This technique could not only enhance the teaching of capstone design courses, but generally could be incorporated in the design of curricula for effective engineering teaching. The concept of Puzzles Principles and its application can show how greatly engineering education can be planned and how the requirements suggested by the Engineer of 2020 can be implemented.
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Development of a surveying engineering technology program: From certificate to BS degree
More LessThe College of Technology at the University of Houston together with Lone Star College proposes to develop a programs in Land Surveying Engineering Technology. The proposed program will address two goals 1) a certificate program to enhance the skill set of the associate degree graduates and 2) ultimately will lead to a BS degree in organizational Leadership and Supervision (OLS). The certificate program consists of five courses. Theses five courses will be developed as college level courses that could be either used as a minor in Construction Management program or in Civil Engineering Technology program. In addition, the courses can be transferred into a BS program for those who seek to obtain a BS degree in OLS. The highlights of this program are the acceleration of skill enhancement of those land surveying field crew and office technicians and their re-development in Land Surveying based on the new technology and provide the opportunity for those who are choosing the Land Surveying profession as career. This program will provide skilled workforce to the Land Surveying Firms, Texas Department of Transportation, and other organization involved in Land Surveying. Once developed the certificate and BS degree programs will be available for adoption with interested institutions.
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Change strategies and leadership frames for advancing engineering education
More LessTwenty to thirty years ago, efforts to improve engineering education focused on developing new instructional strategies and materials to increase percentages of engineering students that graduated, numbers of entering undergraduate engineering students, and the diversity of engineering graduates. Today, a considerable body of studies has shown that this goal has been achieved. Efficacy of many instructional strategies and materials has been demonstrated with the support of compelling evidence. In light of these developments, the focus of efforts to improve engineering education appears to be shifting to promoting broader adoption of instructional strategies and materials already developed and supported by substantial bodies of evidence. What change strategies could be used in these efforts? Research in many fields, while it does not provide definitive answers for each organizational culture and scenario, embodies knowledge from which change strategies can be developed. Four change models and eight change strategies have been synthesized from extensive literature reviews. This paper extends this work incrementally by adding that change strategies should be synthesized across multiple perspectives of organizations, what Bolman and Deal refer to as leadership frames. Examples of strategy fragments for each of the four leadership frames have been presented for each of the eight change strategies to provide options for change agents looking to develop coherent strategies for their particular circumstances at their specific organizations. The principal intended contribution of this paper is to present strategy fragments from each of the four leadership frames that could be used in developing change strategies.
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