Search

This research paper examines students' productive beginnings of engineering judgement while solving open-ended problems in a second-year dynamics course. Undergraduate students are typically assigned well-structured textbook problems for homework, in which the systems have already been simplified and there are few, if any, open-ended decisions to be made. Therefore, students have few opportunities in class to practice their engineering judgment until capstone design courses. We have developed a framework of the productive beginnings of engineering judgment with data from open-ended modeling problems in statics courses. In this paper we investigate how the framework transfers to open-ended modeling problems in dynamics courses. This analysis suggests our framework is transferable to dynamics courses, with all fourteen types of judgement found in the dynamics data set and no additional ways of engaging in judgement were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering education in Malaysia has been recognized by the Washington Accord (WA) since 2009. The International Engineering Alliance continuously updates the requirements for the Program Learning Outcomes according to the needs of the current and future global graduating engineers that member countries of the WA must fulfill. Recent requirements emphasize lifelong learning, complex problem solving, engineering activities, and computing and digital tools capabilities geared towards developing engineering graduates ready for 21st century challenges. When brought upon engineering educators, these increasing requirements posed a dilemma because most are not trained to educate students beyond what they have experienced in their previous formal learning processes, which may be irrelevant for today's learners. In a survey conducted by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, engineering knowledge and skills are the topmost needed challenges to meet the needs of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Thus, to transform engineering education in Malaysia, the gap between the needs of the current and future engineering requirements, with the current engineering education practices, must be determined. Hence, this study aims to identify the gaps in Malaysian engineering education towards preparing 21st century ready educators, study the transition of engineering educators in their attempt to implement innovative education, and finally develop a framework for transforming engineering education through the infusion of innovative teaching and learning to support the development of the future-ready educators. The study uses a mixed-method research design to identify the gaps through document analysis, interviews, questionnaire surveys, and focus group discussions (FGD) among engineering education providers and industry players. The data will be analyzed and triangulated to chart the gaps in engineering education toward preparing 21st century educators. Later, this result will be used to develop the directions, actions, and transformation framework. The findings from this study will be used to formulate Malaysian national policy for transforming future-ready engineering educators who can excel and be on the leading edge of knowledge, innovation, and humanistic values to develop quality engineers in the 21st century. In this work-in-progress paper, only the initial part of the research, which is part of the document analysis, under the training construct, is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have examined a major focus area of engineering education research--engineering students' experiences and outcomes, or ESEO--through a targeted literature review of 121 selected articles published by the Journal of Engineering Education from 2011 to 2021. We drew upon a methodological taxonomy (Malmi, et al., 2018), literature on student development theories, and particularly an integrative ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1993), to guide our analysis. We have presented the findings with respect to engineering students' outcomes, and the contextual and individual factors in their learning experiences as exhibited in the selected articles, as well as the frameworks, methodologies and paradigms used by these studies. Based on these findings, we attempt to characterize ESEO studies in terms of topics, frameworks, methodologies and research paradigms. Our analyses have attested that student development perspectives in the field of higher education offer scholarly and useful insights to engineering education researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation in industry funded research can have significant impacts on faculty's research experiences. As industry funded research tends to have different characteristics than government funded research, i.e. industry funded research is relatively short term, deadline driven, more applied, and more focused on commercial outputs than government funded research, these characteristics can lead to measurable impacts on faculty research experiences when participating in industry funded research. This is especially true for Engineering at R1 institutions, where industry funded research is a much higher percentage of R&D expenditures than overall industry funded university R&D expenditures (typically 10 - 25% for Engineering alone, compared to about 6 - 8% of the university overall). This paper examines the existing literature for impacts on Engineering faculty's research experiences when participating in industry funded research, including research productivity as measured by publication output, innovation as measured by patent output, and the likelihood for collaboration with others. Results of the literature review will be synthesized for a better understanding of each of these impacted areas and where there are opportunities for further research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses feasible means of integrating mentorship programs into engineering and engineering technology curricula. The two main motivations for investigating the development of such programs are to improve retention rates and to augment the efforts toward increasing the enrollment of minority students. In fact, it can be argued that a mentorship program can also indirectly assist in the achievement of critical student outcomes for accreditation. The model of mentorship presented in this paper involves a vertical integration of cohorts through a series of project-based learning (PBL) courses. Furthermore, this attempt is enhanced by the introduction of incentives that encourage student involvement in undergraduate research as well as on-campus engineering organizations. The specific focus of the mentorship is on student-student relationships in addition to the conventional faculty-student relationships. These relationships allow students to learn from each other since they are able to strongly relate to each other's experiences among their peer group. The mentoring model proposed in this paper formulates a learning community that allows the student to form a support group and a mechanism for preventive intervention, as discussed in other studies on mentoring programs. Such student engagement is commonly acknowledged to significantly benefit the students as well as the student mentors involved in the program. Data from an initial student survey that measures the efficacy of the proposed mentorship program is included in this paper and these data are discussed in detail. A 1-5 Likert scale is used for quantitative analysis of the data in order to evaluate the self-efficacy of the program. The group size of the mentorship cohort has been limited to a maximum of thirty students at this stage. Preliminary analysis of the data indicates that the participating students have a strongly positive opinion of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International experiences are viewed as important components of undergraduate engineering education. Yet little has been done to define global preparedness, specify alternatives for achieving it, or determine to what degree being globally prepared is the result of personal attributes, prior experiences (including pre-college), or specific educational experiences. A collaboration of investigators from four universities are investigating how the broad spectrum of international experiences both in and outside of formal curricula impact engineering students' global preparedness. Now in its fifth year of research, we have conducted three primary studies to learn more about global preparedness. The first was an extensive Delphi survey with subject matter experts. The second consisted of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of students at our four partner institutions. The third is a much larger survey of engineering students at 13 representative engineering programs across the U.S. This paper focuses on the results of the third study. At each campus we have obtained stratified random samples of freshmen and seniors; in the case of seniors we have subdivided the sample into two cohorts - those who had an international experience while an undergraduate student and those who had not participated in an international activity. All students completed a carefully tested instrument that captured their demographics, experiences and a measure of their global preparedness. To determine the latter, we utilized the nationally normed Global Perspective Inventory developed by Braskamp and colleagues. This has enabled us to identify changes in global awareness, knowledge and thinking over the course of the students' transition from incoming freshman to graduating senior. We report what we have learned from this extensive sample of over 2,500 students. The results of this third study and the two earlier linked studies have resulted in guidelines for engineering administrators and faculty interested in preparing students for the global economy. Similar to our earlier papers, we provide an overview of the updated results of this NSF funded research initiative that has investigated how the various internationally focused learning experiences within engineering (both curricular and cocurricular) impact students' global preparedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Research-to-Practice paper presents a study of the use of concept maps for assessing engineering students' representation and identification of ethical dilemmas. The concept maps were implemented in the context of role-play case studies in a class on technology ethics. Due to the ubiquitous nature of technological applications in the field of engineering, it is important to teach students how to identify and address ethical dilemmas that might emerge through algorithms embedded in different systems. To understand how technology operates, students must explore the context around their implementation and understand the perspective of all stakeholders involved. Role-play scenarios (RPSs) are one pedagogical technique for students to explore nuanced topics and gain a situated perspective. For this study, we implemented RPSs, and data were collected from 56 undergraduate students during the Fall 2020 semester. Students were introduced to the case through a set of resources, including videos, publications, and news articles, and they created a pre-role-play scenario concept map. After participating in the roleplay scenario discussions, students completed a post-discussion concept map as a group activity. Analysis of the pre-and-post concept maps shows students were able to identify a greater number of concepts and ethical dilemmas after participating in the role-play scenario. This research reduces some of the barriers to role-play activities being incorporated in the classroom from an assessment perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of literature focuses on the importance of student involvement in all aspects of college for achieving desired educational outcomes. In the engineering education literature, participation in out of the class activities is linked to the development of several ABET and Engineer of 2020 outcomes. Largely engineering students do not participate in such activities. Further, education scholars assert that individual effort and involvement in academic, interpersonal, and campus activities occurring outside of the college classroom essentially dictate the impact of college. Such activities are associated with a range of positive educational practices and conditions, but are not well understood especially for underrepresented students in engineering. As a vital first step toward a better understanding, this paper discusses the development of a survey to accurately measure undergraduate engineering students' decisions to participate in out-of-class activities and the students' outcomes from involvement in these activities. Specifically, this paper details the development of the items and face and content validity for the Postsecondary Student Engagement Survey (PosSES). The instrument development is guided by a thorough literature review, web searches, a Q-study using focus group meetings, a panel of experts, and finally, think aloud sessions to determine face and content validity. The instrument measures positive and negative involvement outcomes and factors that promote and prevent participation decisions in out-of-class activities; and engineering identification, sense of belonging, engineering major intentions, engineering career intentions, proactive personality, and major satisfaction. Pilot testing of the instrument in the engineering student population to develop the final version of instrument is currently underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional first-year engineering curricula place a premium on education related to math, science, and often an introductory engineering course involving elements of design, analysis, and programming. While the opportunity for first-year students to gain hands-on experience is increasing, these experiences typically focus on design-related activities, while experiences with manufacturing skills and processes are limited. Yet with the "maker movement" in full swing, today's students have a strong desire for engineering experiences where they learn manufacturing skills and build things that complement the design skills they are learning in firstyear classes and beyond. This paper explores the details of how a 1-credit seminar course is being used at a large Midwestern university to provide an innovative manufacturing education experience to first-year engineering students. This is accomplished by grounding the course in the manufacturing tools and processes used in the university's Artisan and Fabrication Laboratory (AFL) to facilitate learning about manufacturing through the technology that students have access to and can use. As part of the course, students can volunteer (and most do) to gain hands-on experience with the tools and processes that are discussed in the class through specific activities in the AFL designed to complement what is taught in class. As this class has been taught in both the Fall and Spring semesters since Fall 2013 (7 semesters), assessment data and student feedback is available and is reviewed in this paper. The overall result is a class that is in high demand from the first-year engineering student body and that greatly enhances students' understanding of manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capstone design courses are intended to provide a culminating experience for senior undergraduate engineering majors. Universities vary in how they implement the instruction and implementation of the design process in their capstone courses. For example, many have a separate class in design methods, followed by a one-semester capstone course where teams work on a "design, build, test" project. Other institutions teach design methodology incorporated into the capstone design project in what is often a two-semester capstone sequence. In the cases where design methodology is incorporated into a two-semester capstone course, it is possible that this is the students' first extensive exposure to design methods and process. In that case, students may be experiencing methods such as "Customer Needs Analysis", "Functional Decomposition", "Concept Generation", "Concept Selection" and "Prototype Planning" for the first time. From a constructivist educational standpoint, it can be problematic for students to apply these design techniques for the first time on what is often a complex, real world capstone design problem. One solution to this problem is to incorporate a short design experience at the beginning of the two-semester capstone course. This can allow the students an initial experience with the design methods that can provide a "learning scaffold" for their implementation of the full suite of design methods over the course of a two-semester project. For the last three years, we have implemented three versions of a short, introductory design project (i.e. designette) in our two-semester capstone design sequence. In our uses of the designette project, the suite of five core design methods mentioned above were taught in an abbreviated form. However, in one year the designette lasted ten class hours, the next year's designette lasted 14 class hours, and this past year's project lasted seven class hours. The longest designette allowed for greater depth in the initial coverage of the methods and also provided greater time for prototyping and testing. Of course this was at the cost of consuming a greater percentage of the overall time allocated for the actual capstone design project. This paper reports on the implementation details of the designette projects, focusing in particular on advantages and disadvantages of the different implementations in the most recent years. Faculty and student feedback indicated that the use of the designette does increase student familiarity with the design methods. However, more subtle questions such as the number of lessons allocated for the designette and the depth of coverage of the design methods have much more complicated assessment results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have successfully finished our second summer in our National Science Foundation (NSF) supported Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site entitled "Multidisciplinary Engineering Research for Rural Michigan's Future." The summer program was 6 weeks long and hosted 7 in-service teachers (high school science) and 5 pre-service teachers (integrated science majors). Participants were split into 6 groups and teamed up with an engineering faculty and an engineering undergraduate student each. During their 40 hours/week work schedule, participants worked on faculty supervised research projects for half their time, and the rest was reserved for classroom unit plans that participants would work on developing. Different from the first year, participants were assigned management roles during the summer. Also, each participant prepared new lesson plans and classroom activities that align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The academic year class activities from first year were debriefed and learned lessons were generated. In this paper, we will give the details about the RET Site's management and discuss our experiences from our second year with the improvements and their effects. We hope that our shared experiences (struggles, accomplishments, mistakes, etc.) will help the engineering education community develop more effective relationships with K-12 by using the models we implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development of a dynamic ball-and-plate system successfully completed for a one-semester Senior Capstone Design project. A group of five undergraduate students developed the project concept and constructed a prototype within a semester, integrating major mechatronics engineering concepts learned in classes. The three-degree-of-freedom system consists of sensors, actuators, and controls to keep a free rolling ball in a desired position on a flat plate, accounting for any possible external disturbances. Due to its complexity, multiple steps were taken to solve the design challenges and develop the system. The major works were mathematical modeling, kinematic constraints and dimensional analysis, simulations, and construction of the system. The control system required an effective control strategy and a thorough analysis of system parameters. The system's feasibility and optimal operation were fully considered in the design phase. The design was then validated by simulations using Simulink/MATLAB™ and experimental testing. The completion of the system development provided the understanding of analyzing different control designs on various system parameters based on multidisciplinary mechatronics design principles. Lastly, the class outcomes confirmed the effectiveness of students' learning on multidisciplinary mechatronics engineering through this hands-on project as an assessment of the design project presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For large enrollment courses, such as Statics, Dynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Solid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, the use of computers (laptops and tablets) in the classroom can save instructor time. However, there are numerous problems with computer-based exams, especially when the students are allowed to access online course materials (eBook, homework, etc). Previously, the author used student-supplied laptops for web-based exams in the classroom, but this has become problematic over the years due to the increased sophistication of communication software (Twitter, Facebook, Skype, SnapChat, etc.). It is no longer reasonable to expect the instructor and TAs to be able to monitor student laptops during exams. To solve this issue, android-based tablets with special apps have been developed and implemented into two fundamental engineering courses, Fluid Mechanics and Solid Mechanics (Mechanics of Materials). The paper first examines both the selection process for the Android-based tablets and the development process for applications (apps) required for testing. Both Android and iOS tablets were considered. Based on cost and ease of system customization, Android-based tablets were selected. Two different apps were developed for use for tests. The first app, "examApp" permits the student to access the online text and it records the student's choices. It has numerous security features that limit access to the exam only on the tablets provided and only during the test time. All graphics are vector-based so they are crisp on high resolution screens. Included in the examApp was an admin (or instructor) page that provides the instructor and TAs real-time information about the exam while in progress. This includes scores, percent correct for a given problem, students activity, graphs, and direct communications to all students. The second app, "eBookApp", allows the student access to the online eBook used for the class. However, it blocks the student from other online web site or material. The Android operating system itself was modified to limit access to standard apps like email, app stores, social networks, and even browsers. The apps were developed using Abobe AIR development framework due to its relatively easy development of web and mobile apps when compared to native programming or HTML5 with JavaScript. AIR also avoids programming the same app three times (web browsers, Android and iOS). The successful results (and lessons learned) using tablets for in-class testing for multiple engineering courses are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Wyoming has developed Computer Science (CS) standards for adoption and use within K-12 classrooms. These standards, adopted in January of 2022, go into effect for the 2022-2023 school year. The University of Wyoming has offered two different computer science week-long professional developments for teachers. Many K-12 teachers do not have a CS background, so developing CS lessons plans can be a challenge in these PDs. This research study is centered around three central questions: 1) To what extent did K-12 teachers integrate computing topics into their PD created lesson plans; 2) How do the teacher perceptions from the two CS PDs compare to each other; and 3) How was the CS PD translated to classroom activity? The first PD opportunity (n=14), was designed to give hands-on learning with CS topics focused on cybersecurity. The second PD opportunity (n=28), focused on integrating CS into existing curricula. At the end of each of these PDs, teacher K-12 teachers incorporated CS topics into their selected existing lesson plan(s). Additionally, a support network was implemented to support excellence in CS education throughout the state. This research study team evaluated the lesson plans developed during each PD event, by using a rubric on each lesson plan. Researchers collected exit surveys from the teachers. Implementation metrics were also gathered, including, how long each lesson lasted, how many students were involved in the implementation, what grades the student belonged to, the basic demographics of the students, the type of course the lesson plan was housed in, if the K-12 teacher reached their intended purpose, what evidence the K-12 teacher had of the success of their lesson plan, data summaries based on supplied evidence, how the K-12 teachers would change the lesson, the challenges and successes they experienced, and samples of student work. Quantitative analysis was basic descriptive statistics. Findings, based on evaluation of 40+ lessons, taught to over 1500 K-12 students, indicate that when assessed on a three point rubric of struggling, emerging, or excellent - certain components (e.g., organization, objectives, integration, activities & assessment, questions, and catch) of K-12 teacher created lessons plans varied drastically. In particular, lesson plan organization, integration, and questions each had a significant number of submissions which were evaluated as "struggling" [45%, 46%, 41%] through interesting integration, objectives, activities & assessment, and catch all saw submissions which were evaluated as "excellent" [43%, 48%, 43%, 48%]. The relationship between existing K-12 policies and expectations surfaces within these results and in combination with other findings leads to implications for the translation of current research practices into pre-collegiate PDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the impact of precipitous decisions to abruptly migrate a first-year and first-semester engineering core course to partially online as a response to a pandemic. This quantitative and retrospective study seeks to identify any effects of a global pandemic on student performance in a course at a large research university in the southwestern continental United States. The study focuses on student performance as an important factor that directly impacts and concerns many students. The study compares 340 Fall 2019 students' performance to 293 Fall 2020 students' performance on similar coursework. The Fall 2020 course implemented a transition to a hybrid format (combined online and in-room class meetings) as part of precautions over the pandemic. We employed statistical analyses methods (paired t-tests, etc.) on the student data. The Fall 2019 exam average decreased from the first to the second by 13.37 whereas Fall 2020 hardly had a change in the two exam averages (difference in mean of 0.3208). The paired t-tests showed the significance of the variations: 5.974 for the first test for fall 2019 compared to Fall 2020 with a significance of 3.868 × 10-9 and -4.406 for the second test for fall 2019 compared to Fall 2020 with a significance of 1.238 × 10-5. The result of this study can help determine the impact of precipitous decisions to abruptly migrate a course to partially online as a response to a pandemic and thereby help inform future preparations for similar events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tradeoff studies used in engineering choices are organized in a branching tree conceptual structure that curiously matches the conceptual schema employed by the law to find the best alternative in the natural world of human occurrences. Just as tradeoff study trees differentiate a level of attributes and a level of measures, common law legal practice has institutionalized the separation of the law and facts, which are separate determined by a trier-of-law and the trier-of- fact. Recognition of this similarity leads to the investigation of how the knowledge employed in each method can inform the other, both having evolved in rather insular research and practice fields. Broadly speaking, technical tradeoff studies can lend precision to this hybridization, while legal processes utilized in the jury trial system can provide wisdom as to the management of human perceptions and biases. This cross-disciplinary comparison helps engineering acknowledge and engage these human biases with a formulation and analysis of the components and workings of the law. While both decision processes span the breach between complementary qualitative and quantitative regions, they employ vastly different apparati that are best studied together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the future engineer workforce required by the global engineering industry. For the U.S. to remain competitive in advanced manufacturing, the students need to have access to education opportunities that prepare them for the transformation. Individual teachers have made improvement in learning their individual students to accommodate the requirements of a global workforce in the 21st century.

Recent research in learning science has focused on students' misconceptions about emergence. In emergent phenomena, the interactions of the agents in the phenomenon aggregate and form a self-organizing pattern that can be seen at a higher level. One such emergent system, drift, is a fundamental mechanism for semiconductors. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the presence and prevalence of misconceptions about emergence students have about drift, and to determine what relationships existed between the identified misconceptions. Forty-one undergraduate engineering students participated in the written protocol study. Participants' responses were coded and analyzed using written protocol analysis. A total of 10 emergent misconceptions were observed for drift. Sixty-three percent of participant responses exhibited an emergent misconception, with participants typically anthropomorphizing the electrons' actions in the phenomenon. Quantitative analyses were completed utilizing non-parametric Kendall's taub correlation demonstrated significant relationships between the goal-directed nature of the phenomenon and electron volition (0.45, <0.05), the predictability and causal reasons for the phenomenon's pattern (0.31, <0.05), and the not random predictable aspects of the phenomenon (0.31, p<0.05). Results indicated that undergraduate engineering students hold misconceptions related to emergence regarding drift and that these misconceptions are prevalent. Furthermore, the relationships observed indicated that learners may view emergence in particular ways -- offering insight into how educators can better prepare and develop learning material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses about investigating one of the challenges to a diverse engineering faculty and workforce by exploring the causes behind why African Americans remain one of the most underrepresented racial groups in engineering faculty positions, remaining steady at 2.5% for the past five years, despite intervention programs that aim to broaden the participation of minorities in engineering.

The article discusses changes in engineering education research that have been occurring over the past twenty years. It is noted that these changes were discussed in South Dakota State University (SDSU) to improve abilities of professors in teaching engineering. It also discusses various aspects of engineering faculty and engineering research.

The University of Dayton (UD) opened a campus in Suzhou, China in August 2012. One of the objectives of the University of Dayton China Institute (UDCI) is to develop partnerships with industry that will both benefit the companies and provide rich educational experiences for students studying in China. Partnerships between UDCI and companies in China are multifaceted, and varied among the companies. The standard Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) essentially says that both UDCI and the partner company will endeavor to form collaborations for such items as student recruiting, research, innovation center projects, continuing education, professional development, and degree courses. Development of industry collaborations is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, but rather a mutually-beneficial partnership that helps the company and also provides opportunities for students to become learners with an ability to excel in a global workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study conducted to devise innovative ways to measure and track student learning outcomes and empirically identify the conditions that lead to the development of engineering students. It also discusses how various participatory design (PD) approaches may better inform development of and ultimate sustainable student use of computer-based dashboards that visualize learning analytics data.

The article discusses results of a front-end research conducted to inform development of a resource website, LinkEngineering, containing materials relevant to teaching and learning engineering at the PreK-12 level as well as a platform for developing a community of practice. It is noted that the study is based on a survey discussing interests, needs, motivations and expectations from a new online resource in engineering education.