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In this paper, the authors review extant natural language processing models in the context of undergraduate mechanical engineering education. These models have advanced to a stage where it has become increasingly more difficult to discern computer vs. human-produced material, and as a result, have understandably raised questions about their impact on academic integrity. As part of our review, we perform two sets of tests with OpenAI's natural language processing model (1) using GPT-3 to generate text for a mechanical engineering laboratory report and (2) using Codex to generate code for an automation and control systems laboratory. Our results show that natural language processing is a potentially powerful assistive technology for engineering students. However, it is a technology that must be used with care, given its potential to enable cheating and plagiarism behaviours given how the technology challenges traditional assessment practices and traditional notions of authorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study related to the learning of decision-making heuristics such as preference matrix, break-even point and decision tree from the perspective of using a computational tool. With their respective algorithms, a virtual learning environment through a mobile application (app) aimed at Engineering students was developed. To answer the research questions posed in this report, an empirical study was conducted to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and cost in solving decision-making problems with and without the use of the app. The results in this study suggest that the use of the app in learning decision-making skills facilitates the mathematical process for students, and that by using critical thinking competence, they can make assertive and accurate decisions considering different alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simplified model of the population migration problem, addressed to first-year engineering students in order to show them the use of linear algebra tools. The study consists of predicting the census in the city centre and in the suburbs, determining the city population equilibrium point, and making a sociological interpretation of population flows. This practical problem is part of the seminar "Applications of Linear Algebra in Engineering", which is being held at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech (UPC). This seminar consists in the learning of linear algebra by the implementation of real applications where mathematical tools are required to resolve them. This paper presents an application of linear algebra to the population migration problem and analyses students' appreciation through anonymous surveys and personal interviews. The surveys assessed students' motivation towards the subject of linear algebra and their learning of mathematical concepts. Personal interviews were conducted for students in order to let them express in detail their opinion about the seminar. The results confirm that the introduction of real applications in the learning of mathematics increases students' motivation and involvement, which implies an improvement in students' performance in the first courses of STEM degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to expand our knowledge on interdisciplinary design education by focusing on team development, which has remained a less explored aspect of interdisciplinary collaboration so far. An interdisciplinary design studio course, Collaborative Design, for food engineering and industrial design students in higher education provides the research context. The empirical basis of the paper comes from interviews with students on their experiences of interdisciplinary collaboration in the course, and the educator's observation notes. Drawing on these data, this article critically reflects on how and to what extent the teaching materials, methods and strategies incorporated into the course design guided and supported students' transition through the four stages of becoming a performing interdisciplinary team. The article concludes with four suggestions for design educators. First, encountering new ways of thinking, talking and doing that make sense for both disciplines engages students in interdisciplinary collaboration. Second, humour and positive social relations play an important role in team success in all stages of team development. Third, using the first weeks of the course to reveal the disciplinary differences and potential issues that would lead to conflicts through class discussions and warm-up activities facilitates a smooth transition from forming to norming. Fourth, adequate representation of each discipline should be ensured both in the design problem and solution, and among the tutors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health issues reported among college‐aged individuals have increased. Prevalence of these issues has an established impact on students' personal, professional, and academic outcomes. Graduate students experience unique stressors that impact their mental health. In particular, engineering graduate students have lower help‐seeking tendencies, which can impact the severity and length of their mental health problems. Purpose: We investigate the literature concerning engineering graduate students' mental health, focusing on academic outcomes, mental health measures, and mental health findings, to highlight gaps in current literature and the need for further research. Scope/Method: Five research databases, EBSCO: CINAHL, EBSCO: PsycINFO, ProQuest: ERIC, PubMed, and Scopus, were searched in a scoping literature review. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied during the screening process. Peer‐reviewed publications (i.e., articles and conference papers) were identified and coded for study focus, keywords, participants and institution(s), journal discipline, study type, methods used, and work referenced, in addition to academic outcomes, mental health measures, and mental health findings. Results: Nineteen of the 4,826 unique studies identified were included in the review. Ten academic outcomes and 13 mental health measures were discussed. Mental health findings were grouped into five themes: social support and sense of belonging; student–advisor relationship; cultural barriers faced by international students; gender and racial stereotypes; and generalized findings. Conclusions: Research on engineering graduate students' mental health is limited. Given that mental health has direct ties to students' well‐being and ultimately their success, engineering education researchers should focus on studying students' experiences, sharing these findings, and communicating best practices for all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hands-on, project-based learning was difficult to achieve in online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Engineering Experimentation course at Cooper Union teaches third-year mechanical engineering students practical experimental skills to measure physical phenomenon, which typically requires in-person laboratory classes. In response to COVID, a low-cost, at-home laboratory kit was devised to give students tools to conduct experiments. The kit included a microcontroller acting as a data-acquisition device and custom software to facilitate data transfer. A speed of sound laboratory was designed with the kit to teach skills in data collection, signal processing, and error analysis. The students derived the sound speed by placing two microphones a known distance apart and measuring the time for an impulsive signal to travel from one to the other. The students reported sound speeds from 180.7–477.8 m/s in a temperature range from 273.7–315.9 K. While these reported speeds contained a large amount of error, the exercise allowed the students to learn how to account for sources of error within experiments. This paper also presents final projects designed by the students at home, an impedance tube and two Doppler shift experiments, that exhibit successful and effective low-cost solutions to demonstrate and measure acoustic phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the difficulties engineering undergraduates encounter with tertiary mathematics. Results from our survey (N = 71) show that students in our sample face issues mostly related to the challenging nature of university mathematics, the absence of worked examples during lectures and the discontinuity of school and university mathematics curricula. By using third generation Activity Theory, we were able to interpret the identified difficulties as contradictions emerging between the school and university activity systems as well as within the university activity system, and we argue that these difficulties can be treated as stemming from the structural characteristics the two activity systems have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The professional formation of new graduates and their ability to perform well at the start of their career depends on the development of both technical skills and professional competencies. Whilst the latter aspects have become increasingly considered within engineering programs, they are often learnt within an academic context rather than a practice context. This is in contrast with research that argues that professional expertise should be learnt within the context in which it will be applied. This paper reports on an analysis of engineering student reflections on professional engagement activities over the duration of their university study. A text-based thematic analysis examines the link between different types of activities and professional competencies (using Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competencies), and the level of sophistication in the language using Blooms taxonomy. The thematic analysis provides strong evidence that different activity types result in students being more likely to reflect upon specific competencies. The deeper Bloom analysis showed that generally the activity types that have reflections skewed towards higher Bloom levels are those that involve project activities. We conclude that those activities that require student-driven exploration are the most likely to engage students in thinking about the nature of real-world engineering practice.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet of things is emerging in the recent years and is changing many traditional industries in the recent years. Engineering students of several knowledge areas may benefit with the introduction of internet of things concepts in the undergraduate courses, since there is an increasingly need of professionals to work in multidisciplinary teams. This paper proposes an undergraduate course to teach internet of things concepts for engineering students using cooperative problem-based learning (CPBL). The students have to develop a project using different internet of things technologies: sensing and actuation, embedded computing, communication and networking, cloud computing, and data analytics. The proposed course may help students to improve not only their technical skills but also soft skills, such as teamwork, communication and creativity. The developed projects achieved good results, and positive feedback was received from the students. Students from engineering courses related to internet of things had a better performance than students of no internet of things-related courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of gender on the interest in engineering and technical subjects of the students in the first courses of secondary education. A statistical analysis was carried out, analyzing the use of a free virtual-reality application, developed by the 3M Foundation, which aims to bring these subjects to the students. Non-parametric statistical methods were used to analyze several variables, such as repetition of the experience, new learning and knowledge reinforcement as well as learning in different ways, which were collected through two questionnaires. These were Pre and Post the playing of the game and later, subsequently validated. This analysis demonstrated that gender has an impact on the interest of the students in engineering and technology but it does not have any influence on the rest of the studied variables. The results show that the interest of girls could be increased through group activities. Age has only influence on the desire to repeat the experience, with a varied level of influence, in the case of the technological contents. The motivational factors that have a greater influence on each variable, "innovation" and "usefulness", were also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]