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- Conference Proceeding
Engineering Leaders Conference 2014 on Engineering Education
- Conference date: 8-11 Nov 2014
- Location: Doha, Qatar
- Volume number: 2015
- Published: 29 August 2015
41 - 60 of 80 results
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Team and project based learning: A critical instructional strategy for engineering education
More LessTeam-based learning (TBL) is one of the most important instructional strategies used in engineering education. It emulates real-life professional situations where most activities tend to be team-based. TBL helps to develop intrinsic motivation as per the self-deterministic theory and aides to develop ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) criteria such as, the ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and the ability to communicate effectively. TBL helps in developing other abilities such as to conduct and design experiments, to design a system, component or process and to identify, formulate and solve engineering problems and to understand the impact of engineering solutions in global and societal context, etc. Addition of project based learning (PBL) enhances all the benefits of TBL. Given these benefits, we have been employing the strategy in many of our courses. In this paper we illustrate its usage in two non-traditional sophomore courses – “Liberal Learning” and “Innovation and Creativity”. In the Liberal Learning course students learnt non-engineering areas on their own in clusters of 15 students and in Innovation and Creativity course they chose to do innovative team projects based on their passions.
We received overwhelmingly positive feedback for both the courses. In the case of Liberal Learning, students seem to have liked the course and its approach. Besides the overall theme, they liked the freedom offered to them to choose topics and opportunities to make presentations. Interestingly, one-third of the students who provided feedback did not dislike anything. Some of them wanted more time and more credit for the course which can be considered as positive feedback. Students conveyed their liking for the Innovation and Creativity course by giving the highest votes for course plan. The ‘disliked’ factors that captured the highest votes were paucity of time which can be considered as a positive feedback. The strategy does require some efforts on the part of faculty but the returns are more than worth the efforts.
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Leveraging digital platforms for teaching and learning processes
Authors: Sudheer Reddy Kola and Kantha Reddy MuthangiEmployability remains a serious concern in India, with the country producing about 1.5 million engineers each year from over 3200 institutions. Surveys and analysis reports from several industries and apex bodies have pointed out the talent shortage and presented that only 30–35% of them are employable in Industry sector. In order to enhance the employability skills and competencies of engineering students in a large scale, a Learning Management System (LMS), has been adopted. The digital collaboration platform has been the catalyst for transforming the education world. This paper presents the need for a digital collaboration framework that promote employability skills (technical, soft and problem solving) required for engineering students to become global professionals by effectively leveraging the technology.
The proposed digital platform has been deployed on Moodle, an open source web LMS. The goal of this framework is to create an online learning collaboration platform that help teachers in getting the learning repositories, including assessments, case studies, assignments up on the learning portal for students and to facilitate the traditional classroom activities viz., participation, assignments, events calendar, time lines, instructions, resources, discussions, quizzes and grading.
Leveraging digital infrastructure has led to a higher grade of dissemination, linked to traditional classroom teaching. Successively, this model has facilitated the learning fraternity to have broader, wider, easier and anytime, anywhere access to knowledge repository. The effective teaching and learning mechanisms have been greatly influence by the digital infrastructure.
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Bridging the gap: Using design based activities to develop problem-solving skills in Qatari high school students
A substantial number of secondary school students are accepted into engineering schools without adequate exposure to key engineering based skills, such as analytical thinking, problem solving, critical thinking and design. Unfamiliarity with the practical skills needed in engineering leaves students unprepared, leading to poor academic performance and demotivating them about engineering. It is critical that students be able to apply learnt scientific concepts to solve real life problems. In this paper, we will present a set of design-based learning activities created to help develop the analytical thinking and problem solving skills of students in local Qatari secondary schools. We will discuss implementation details of these design-based learning activities along with results, comments from participating students and teachers as well as data analysis.
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The University of Texas faces the 21st Century Engineering Grand Challenges: Driving local and global economies with innovation and entrepreneurship
More LessInnovation transforms insight and technology into novel products, processes, and services that create new value for stakeholders, drive economic growth, and improve standards of living. Our vision at The University of Texas for innovation and entrepreneurship to transform the processes and services of higher education is supported by: 1) implementing the new university-wide, transcript-recognized certificate Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP); 2) developing a Grand Challenges-focused incubator for diverse students who will have faculty and industry mentors; 3) creating a scalable model of NAE GCSPs at other universities around the world with new online educational resources; 4) hosting interdisciplinary, inter-institutional GC design-a-thons; and 5) continuing to annually host a student start-up pitch competition at SXSW Interactive.
Throughout the program and course, GC Scholars research important real world problems while fostering their abilities to design innovative solutions. We structured our GCSP to leverage the strengths of the entrepreneurship ecology at UT and in Austin and embed them as part of the curriculum. Unique to our GCSP at UT, students from all majors are invited to engage in multi-semester/multi-year design-based projects from as early as freshman year. The GC Director and partnering Engineering Faculty designed a course for the GC and then they mentor the students throughout the rest of their program on ways to include a total of 18 credit hours towards their GC certificate.
This reflective paper includes descriptions of our GCSP since its inception in 2011, methods for assessment and support, and examples of entrepreneurship from our Scholars. We indicate ways that the GCSP develops globally competent engineers who are capable of being leaders in meeting the complex needs of the 21st century.
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Intellectual property teaching as part of an engineering degree
Authors: Achilles Vairis and Markos PetousisUndergraduate teaching of engineers should prepare graduates for designing processes and making products to solve real-world problems. As such, an engineering course should enable the development of engineering knowledge, skills, imagination and experience. On the other hand, intellectual property rights cover topics such as patents, utility models and registered designs among others. These tools are granted for inventions, form and appearance of objects and can be found in every single product available to a lesser or greater extent. This paper reports on teaching aspects of intellectual property rights to undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students as part of the syllabus at a technological university in the Greek island of Crete. The courses are described in terms of goals and procedures which teach students IP rights so as to prepare them to benefit the maximum in today's knowledge-based economy.
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The Deliberative and Dynamic model for engineering education curriculum renewal
Authors: Karlson ‘Charlie’ Hargroves and Cheryl DeshaThis paper will assist engineering educators around the world to prepare graduates that can contribute to a number of the grand challenges for engineering. Responding to the understanding that it will be critical that engineering educators evolve curricula and pedagogy to meet new demands of the 21st century, the paper focuses on preparing graduates to assist society to respond to climate change. Based on the 2014 book, ‘Higher Education and Sustainable Development’, the paper outlines the first comprehensive model for achieving program wide curriculum renewal to embed sustainability topics into higher education. Examples of each aspect are drawn from efforts to embed energy efficiency into engineering programs. This model has been trialled in a number of universities and peer-reviewed by over 70 leaders in engineering education. The paper presents a strategic and optimistic approach to engineering education curriculum renewal that will provide a valuable tool for engineering education around the world. The paper overviews a model for rapid curriculum renewal, including a focus on six core elements: 1) Developing a curriculum renewal strategy. 2) Identifying graduate attributes. 3) Mapping learning pathways. 4) Auditing learning outcomes. 5) Develop and update curriculum, and 6) Implement program. The purpose of the paper is to provide academic staff with an overview of tools and insights to rapidly align program offerings with the needs of present and future generations of engineering students.
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EAP or ELF: The case of technical writing engineering students
More LessThis study investigates the attitude of the engineering students towards learning technical English for academic purposes and workplace. The paper analyzes the students' motivation for learning technical English and explores if academic standard and academic level have a role in motivating students to learn. The study particularly analyzes the source of their motivation: did the students put effort to learn technical English to maintain a high GPA or are they powered by their personal motivation? The study sample consisted of the technical writing engineering students in Summer I & II 2013 and Summer II 2014 in a local Lebanese university. A questionnaire to test their attitudes and motivation was developed, and used after piloting, as the instrument for data collection. Focused group interviews with each group to triangulate the findings were also conducted. Findings reveal that the participants of high academic standard have positive attitude towards technical English and believe it will further their status and employment chances while students of weak academic standard would rather learn English only as a means for communication (ELF). This becomes possible since ELF focuses on the function of the language- i.e. communicating the message across instead of stressing on accurate structure (Cogo, 2010). In this manner, students become users of the English language, not learners of the language. Proponents of ELF consider ELF speakers as users of English rather than learners (Björkman, 2011). Moreover, results reveal that there was a minor difference of attitude among the participants with respect to academic level.
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Ritaj: Birzeit University academic and administrative portal
More LessRitaj is the Birzeit University electronic academic and administrative portal gate for students, staff, and administration. It allows students to view the teaching material posted by instructors, communicate with their fellow colleagues and instructors, perform registration, review academic and financial files, and access the database of available books in the library. For instructors, it enables them to communicate effectively with students in all matters related to the registered courses, submit course grades, access the available university administrative resources, and reach out resources allocated for their particular departments or faculties. The university administration utilizes Ritaj to extract useful academic, administrative, and financial indicators that will assist the university in planning and development as well as in the assessment of the performance of the various university units.
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The role of a “caring” professor in developing a proper learning environment
By Waddah AkiliThe paper focuses on the role of a “caring” faculty who believes that being dedicated, thoughtful, and passionate is as important as being professionally competent. A caring faculty understands, encourages and supports students' individuality and is willing to listen and provide advice. The paper discusses the role of the “caring” professor in creating a positive environment where students feel comfortable being themselves, enjoying and appreciating the total experience of learning. The paper addresses relevant topics that supports teacher-students' relations, and as a consequence, does improve the learning environment. The aforementioned topics include: development of critical rationale for good teaching, taking account of learning styles, and how to teach responsively. In this environment, students feel that they are important, that their needs can be met, and that others experience joy and satisfaction in helping them meet their needs. In concluding, the author presents his own reflections as an engineering student and a faculty member. The author firmly believes that the only professor who belongs in a classroom is a caring professor.
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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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