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Creativity is an important skill for engineers but many students face a lack of experience in idea generation, often compounded by low-self efficacy towards creativity. Providing students with online training modules has been suggested as one solution. However, the literature demonstrates using a computer can influence performance and self-efficacy in a different manner to using pen-and-paper. There is a current lack of research on whether computers may influence self-efficacy during idea generation tasks. Two experiments involving computer-based and pen-and-paper groups were designed. Groups were provided with templates that guided them through the process of applying an idea generation technique and were given sixteen minutes to generate ideas to solve a presented problem. Results revealed that students' performance was similar and using a computer does not negatively influence self-efficacy. This shows that students can engage in idea generation learning tasks using computer-based modes without negatively influencing performance or self-efficacy, suggesting an avenue for educators to engage students with building creativity skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The importance of thriving is well-established, but little is known about thriving for undergraduate engineering students. We introduce engineering thriving as the process by which engineering students develop optimal functioning in undergraduate engineering programs. Since thriving is currently underexplored in the engineering education literature, we investigated the larger body of literature on engineering student success. Purpose: We introduce the concept of engineering thriving to synthesize the largely discrete existing bodies of literature on engineering student success to bring together many different perspectives, methodological approaches, and findings that shape our understanding of engineering thriving. Our work on thriving unites disparate lines of research on engineering student success, challenges the assumption that addressing barriers automatically leads to success, and strives to change the way engineering education views student success. Scope/Method: We used the scoping literature review method to investigate papers on undergraduate engineering student success. Four databases were searched, yielding 726 initial papers that studied separate dimensions of engineering student success, such as academic, personal, cognitive, and behavioral. We integrated the relationships among these dimensions to develop an understanding of engineering thriving. Our final analysis included 68 papers after removing duplicates and applying selection criteria. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that an engineering student thriving includes multiple dimensions of success, involves cyclical processes of growth and adaptation, and consists of synergistic competencies that should ideally be studied together with as many other competencies as possible. These findings support the conclusion that engineering thriving can be understood as helping students manage constantly changing internal and external factors within the broader engineering education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions are used to obtain information, stimulate thinking, and redirect reasoning. Academics in higher education use questions on a daily basis to stimulate thinking and reasoning in students. Final examination papers are used by academics to assess the retention and application skills of students. The assumption, however, exists that questions relating to application skills at universities of technology should start to dominate the higher academic levels in education, with a subsequent drop in questions regarding retention skills. These questions may be categorized as either higher order or lower order questions. This article attempts to distinguish between these two types of questions in light of Bloom's taxonomy, with similar concepts such as deep and surface learning being examined. The literature review is applied to an electrical engineering module titled Electronics, which serves as the case study. The results of this study indicate that a high percentage of the final examination papers dealt with the objective "Application," where students had to make use of numerous mathematical equations to solve various unknowns. The results also indicated that academics in electronics are using more lower order than higher order questions in their final examination papers. A balance is suggested between these two types of questions for various academic levels at universities of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the application of visual-spatial skills in academic disciplines, vocational fields and daily life is becoming more and more prominent, it is of great theoretical and practical significance how to make use of big data and artificial intelligence technology to conduct research on the relationship between visual-spatial skills and students' grades. This paper explores and analyses from the perspective of artificial intelligence, combining students' visual-spatial skills and students' specific attribute characteristics to construct an expert system, which defines the prediction of academic performance as a classification problem corresponding to the five categories of excellent, good, moderate, passing, and weak, respectively, and based on which a deep neural network-based classification prediction model for students' performance is designed. The experimental results show that visual-spatial skills plays an important role in the professional learning of science and engineering students, while the classification model designed in this paper has high accuracy in the grade prediction process. This paper not only helps to fill the gaps in the current research field, but is also expected to provide scientific basis for educational practice and promote the development of the education field in a more intelligent and personalized direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to show how graduated engineering students in classical ICT view practically the advent of the QIT. The students do their theses in El.Eng. and ICT and were asked how to implement now or in the future the QIT in their current or future work. Most of them have strictly defined research topics and in some cases the realization stage is advanced. Thus, most of the potential QIT application areas are defined and quite narrow. In such a case, the issue to be considered is the incorporation of QIT components and interfaces into the existing ICT infrastructure, software and hardware alike, and propose a solution as a reasonable functional hybrid system. The QIT components or circuits are not standalone in most cases, they should be somehow incorporated into existing environment, with a measurable added value. Not an easy task indeed. We have to excuse the students if the proposed solutions are not ripe enough. The exercise was proposed as an on-purpose publication workshop, related strictly to the fast and fascinating development of the QIT. The paper is a continuation of publishing exercises with previous groups of students participating in QIT lectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concentrates on the work by Petrus van Musschenbroek published in 1729, constituting apparently the first study in the literature on column buckling. To understand the significance of Musschenbroek's contribution, we provide the combined personal, historic and scientific contexts in which he carried out his studies; he was the first researcher to deal with the failure of compressed elements as a new phenomenon. Most unfortunately, his name is not currently known except for a small circle of historians of science, whereas engineering students at present are told that buckling should be associated with the name of Leonhard Euler. We fully share the idea of Benvenuto stating that "Musschenbroek's experimental law is of considerable historical interest." The contributions in his 1729 book are shown not only to include his experimental work but Musschenbroek also devised a design procedure for column buckling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the science projects by engineering students recognized in the 1997 Daniel W. Mead Student Paper Contest in the United States. Participation of three universities; Projects presented; Scientific relevance.

Sensors have recently become valuable tools in engineering, providing real-time data for monitoring structures and the environment. They are also emerging as new tools in education and training, offering learners real-time information to reinforce their understanding of engineering concepts. However, sensing technology's complexity, costs, fabrication and implementation challenges often hinder engineers' exploration. Simplifying these aspects could make sensors more accessible to engineering students. In this study, the researcher developed, fabricated, and tested an efficient low-cost wireless intelligent sensor aimed at education and research, named LEWIS1. This paper describes the hardware and software architecture of the first prototype and their use, as well as the proposed new versions, LEWIS1-β and LEWIS1-γ, which simplify both hardware and software. The capabilities of the proposed sensor are compared with those of an accurate commercial PCB sensor. This paper also demonstrates examples of outreach efforts and suggests the adoption of the newer versions of LEWIS1 as tools for education and research. The authors also investigated the number of activities and sensor-building workshops that have been conducted since 2015 using the LEWIS sensor, showing an increasing trend in the excitement of people from various professions to participate and learn sensor fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and machine learning (ML) has pioneered a transformation across several fields. Equipping electrical engineering students to remain abreast of the dynamic technological landscape is vital. This underscores the necessity for an educational tool that can be integrated into electrical engineering curricula to offer a practical way of learning the concepts and the integration of IoT, big data, and ML. Thus, this paper offers the IoT-Edu-ML-Stream open-source platform, a graphical user interface (GUI)-based emulation software tool to help electrical engineering students design and emulate IoT-based use cases with big data analytics. The tool supports the emulation or the actual connectivity of a large number of IoT devices. The emulated devices can generate realistic correlated IoT data and stream it via the message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) protocol to a big data platform. The tool allows students to design ML models with different algorithms for their chosen use cases and train them for decision-making based on the streamed data. Moreover, the paper proposes learning outcomes to be targeted when integrating the tool into an electrical engineering curriculum. The tool is evaluated using a comprehensive survey. The survey results show that the students gained significant knowledge about IoT concepts after using the tool, even though many of them already had prior knowledge of IoT. The results also indicate that the tool noticeably improved the students' practical skills in designing real-world use cases and helped them understand fundamental machine learning analytics with an intuitive user interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current article used real data to demonstrate the analysis and synthesis of Mixed Methods Research (MMR) data with generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI). I explore how reliable and valid Gen AI data outputs are and how to improve their use. The current content is geared towards enhancing methodological application regardless of field or discipline and includes access to a prompt library and examples of using outputs. The demonstration data used emanated from a study done in South Africa, with a quantitative sample size of 969 first-year engineering students and, for the qualitative part, 14 first-year students. In the current article, I compare my original analysis to ChatGPT results. Generative AI as a mind tool is best used with human insight, and I found this to be especially true when coding qualitative data. ChatGPT produced generic codes if asked to do inductive coding, and the results improved when training the Gen AI on human examples, which led to moderate and significant correlations between human and machine coding. The quantitative analysis was accurate for the descriptive statistics, but the researcher had to use best judgment to select the correct inferential analysis. Quantitative and qualitative analysis should be conducted separately in generative AI before asking the Chatbot for help with mixed methods results. In the current paper, I give guidelines and a tutorial on how to use chatbots in an ethically responsible and scientifically sound manner for research in social and human sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite many calls for change, and especially change aligned to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) goals, engineering continues to show disparities in the opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of women and people from groups historically marginalized in these fields. In response, institutions have traditionally used change frameworks to both understand and create reform at program, department, or college levels. However, when aiming at DEIJ goals, change frameworks alone do not lead to the desired transformations of systems. Purpose: In this theoretical paper, we develop an integrated framework that draws from three theoretical domains to guide systemic, equity-focused transformation in engineering education. We argue knowledge from three domains—intersectional power, learning, and change—is necessary to account for and address the complexity of DEIJ change projects. This complexity requires a framework that sheds light on interrelated embodiments of power relations, guidance on how to change, including how and why people learn and engage in new practices. Scope: To illustrate the need for and value of such integration, we examine how prior researchers have used theories of power, change, and learning. In doing so, we present a framework for how integration across these domains can occur. In the domain of change, we identified papers on diffusion of innovations and communities of practice. In learning, we identified papers on distributed practice and legitimate peripheral participation. We examined how these papers utilized critical theories of intersectional power, the third domain, in tandem with these theories. We also explored how the choice of a theory (within the domains) can help or hinder the attainment of systematic, equity-focused transformation. Discussion/Conclusion: We drew the three domains together to consider how these, when integrated in the Theories and Research on Intersectional Power, Learning, and Evolutionary Change (TRIPLE Change) Framework, provide a more comprehensive means to envision, guide, and characterize DEIJ change efforts. By integrating learning, change, and intersectional power theories, we increase the capacity of our analyses of systems and open new possibilities for creating more equitable and just systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The general purpose of this study was to determine the potential of using a gamified platform in the development of scientific writing skills among engineering students at a Peruvian university. To this end, a gamified web platform named Call for Papers for Engineers was designed. This platform contains mini-games focused on developing reading and writing skills for articles related to the engineering area. A quantitative methodological approach was employed, with a quasi-experimental design involving two groups: an experimental group and a control group, with pre-and post-test measurements. Additionally, the gamified platform was validated through expert judgment, and user satisfaction levels were assessed. The main results indicate that the content developed in the course and the use of the gamified web platform were effective teaching methods, as the students in the experimental group demonstrated higher performance after using the gamified platform compared to the control group. Furthermore, participants in the study expressed satisfaction with the use of this technological resource, finding it motivating and user-friendly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Robot companions will soon be part of our everyday life and students in the engineering faculty must be trained to design, build, and interact with them. The two affordable robots presented in this paper have been designed and constructed by two undergraduate students; one artificial agent is based on the Nvidia Jetson Nano development board and the other one on a remote computer system. Moreover, the robots have been refined with an empathetic system, to make them more user-friendly. Since automatic facial expression recognition skills is a necessary pre-processing step for acknowledging emotions, this paper tested different variations of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to detect the six facial expressions plus the neutral face. The state-of-the-art performance of 75.1% on the Facial Expression Recognition (FER) 2013 database has been reached by the ensemble voting method. The runner-up model is the Visual Geometry Group (VGG) 16 which has been adopted by the two robots to recognize the expressions of the human partner and behave accordingly. An empirical study run among 55 university students confirmed the hypothesis that contact with empathetic artificial agents contributes to increasing the acceptance rate of robots [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially engaged engineering provides for student learning of the design, analysis, and practices of engineering as well as the ways that engineering is situated in sociocultural contexts. This paper provides a conceptual framework regarding socially engaged engineering for K-8 educators, researchers, and curriculum designers. The framework identifies ways to support youth learning of engineering and considerations of technical, social, environmental, and ethical dimensions of engineering. As engineering enters K-8 educational settings, it is important to introduce the discipline in equity-oriented ways. We draw from the field of engineering for social justice to build this framework for examining engineering at the macro-, meso-, and microscales. Situating engineering in sociocultural contexts can be motivating to learners and provide perspectives on the nature of engineering. Our framework was concurrently designed with Youth Engineering Solutions (YES; https://YouthEngineeringSolutions.org) curricular units. To test the applicability of our principles, we applied them to K-8 YES curricula for school and out-of-school environments. Through the coevolution of principles and curricular materials, we developed age-appropriate learning objectives for three levels--lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle school. This paper shares the principles and progression, showing worked examples from curricula to demonstrate how the principles translate into curricular resources. We discuss constraints to the implementation of socially engaged engineering curricula, including those imposed in educational settings and the ideological assumptions about science, engineering, and STEM disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Those who participate in engineering are often assumed to be smart by others. At the same time, the cultural construction of what counts as “smart” is biased and therefore functions as a barrier to broadening participation in engineering. While considerable work has been done to understand engineering identity, how students understand themselves as smart is rarely made explicit in engineering identity research. Purpose: This paper is a theoretical discussion which highlights the need for engineering identity research to integrate students’ understanding of themselves as smart. By not incorporating students’ understanding of themselves as smart explicitly in work on engineering identity, we allow the bias in what gets recognized as smart to remain implicit and oppressive. Scope: In this paper, we argue that the idea of smart is very salient in engineering contexts and contributes to inequity. Then, we demonstrate how three different framings of identity allow for the explicit integration of how students are understanding themselves as smart. We also present selected examples from our empirical data to illustrate the concrete ways in which students’ understandings of themselves as smart manifest in an engineering context. Conclusions: We provided explicit opportunities for researchers to integrate students’ understandings of themselves as smart across three different framings of identity and how such understanding has shown up in our empirical research. In doing so, we conclude that making “smart” explicit in engineering identity provides a way to understand the exclusionary nature of engineering, and a new lens to apply when considering efforts to broaden participation in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to raise important issues in engineering education in the face of contemporary challenges and demands through the voices of different stakeholders in engineering curricula and in the practice of professional engineering. Several challenges and future perspectives are based on important skills, like soft skills, which are required by employers and include communication, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership and emotional intelligence, as well as the ability to work with people of different backgrounds and apply technical knowledge. A qualitative data analysis of interviews with students, alumni, teachers and employers revealed the demand for more balanced qualified curricula for higher education institutions in the field of engineering. This includes the promotion of collaborative learning spaces, authentic learning experiences based on engaging students in real situations, project-based learning, industrial visits, guest lectures and problem-solving methodologies that are perceived by these stakeholders as essential in the construction of a curriculum, in line with the specific technical competences of each area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's age, we see the increasing influence of technology on people, which begs to raise the question: "Is society determined by technology?" Rising up within the constraints of each society, technology had its limitations, as it catered to the needs and interests of the masses. As society evolved, so did its requirements. We are at a stage where dependence on technology has gone through the roof with new innovations coming up in the sector, the rise of artificial intelligence, for instance. Technology has replaced the concept of being a mere tool and is creating/demanding space of its own. With advancements in various fields like robotics which churn out machines that can mimic human behaviour and are equipped with anthropomorphic features, it has become rather difficult to view them as mere commodities waiting for one's (human master's) command. Keeping this in view, the paper primarily focuses on the relationship between society and technology, with special emphasis on artificial intelligence, through an analysis of the films Ra One (Bollywood), Android Kunjappan (Mollywood), and Ironman 3 (Hollywood). Secondarily, an experimental study was carried out to know the perception of the Engineering students, the future technologists, who are the stakeholders of the 21st-century technological world, with an aim to know their perception of technology and bring an awareness of the limitations of technology and its role in the creation of utopian and dystopian world. Finally, the paper examines the consequence of technological determinism and autonomy from a colonial perspective and intends to bring preparedness among the students to perceive technology conscious of its limitation and bring harmony between society and technology that leads towards building a utopian world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With changing employment conditions, technological advancement, frequent manpower reduction and global competition, the relevance of the protean and boundaryless career concepts is increasing. With this, the country's culture plays a pivotal role in career choice. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate protean and boundaryless career scales for college passing out students and in the Indian context. The protean career scale was measured by self-directed and values-driven dimensions, while the boundaryless career scale was measured by boundaryless mindset and organizational mobility preference. Design/methodology/approach: The first step involved defining construct and determining face validity. The data collected via questionnaire from India's final year engineering students were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis in the second and third steps, respectively. Finally, the nomological validity was tested by establishing the relationship between factors influencing career choice and newly developed protean and boundaryless career. Findings: The result suggested using a two-factor model with a protean career (combining self-directed and values-driven items) and a boundaryless career as a separate construct for college passing out students. Research limitations/implications: The developed scale has nine items that can be used to conduct surveys at the time of campus hiring by academic scholars, HR managers, and practitioners who are working on the identification, development and management of human talent as a part of any human resource management system. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first approach to developing the protean and boundaryless career scale for college passing out students and in the Indian context which can be replicable for South Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of narrative is common in many liberal art, medicine, law and education courses but not, a literature review suggests, in engineering. This paper outlines the benefits that narrative was found to bring to the delivery of engineering undergraduate courses in ill-defined domains. The narrative rich learning intervention described in this paper was designed to increase levels of student engagement, motivation, and ability to accept the validity of non-optimal solutions to indeterminate engineering problems. The outcomes were qualitatively evaluated using student feedback from questionnaires and personal interview supplemented with researcher observations. The results indicated that the intervention was successful in raising levels of student engagement with the course material (Manufacturing Systems) and students' motivation to complete assignments, with an additional benefit of increasing students' appreciation of the interconnections between the various topics covered in the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive guide for the design and development of a power electronic converter, specifically focusing on the Buck converter. The guide aims to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, providing engineering students with a hands-on experience in digital control using the STM32 microcontroller. The workshop experience described covers all necessary steps, from the initial design and simulation using tools like MATLAB-Simulink and Plecs to the final implementation and testing of the converter. The educational value of this approach is highlighted, emphasizing the importance of practical engagement in understanding complex concepts related to power electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flutter has become popular for providing a uniform development environment for user interfaces (UIs) on smart phones, web browsers, and desktop applications. We have developed the Flutter programming learning assistant system (FPLAS) to assist its novice students' self-study. We implemented the Docker-based Flutter environment with Visual Studio Code and three introductory exercise projects. However, the correctness of students' answers is manually checked, although automatic checking is necessary to reduce teachers' workload and provide quick responses to students. This paper presents an image-based user interface (UI) testing method to automate UI testing by the answer code using the Flask framework. This method produces the UI image by running the answer code and compares it with the image made by the model code for the assignment using ORB and SIFT algorithms in the OpenCV library. One notable aspect is the necessity to capture multiple UI screenshots through page transitions by user input actions for the accurate detection of changes in UI elements. For evaluations, we assigned five Flutter exercise projects to fourth-year bachelor and first-year master engineering students at Okayama University, Japan, and applied the proposed method to their answers. The results confirm the effectiveness of the proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes ongoing developments to an advanced laboratory course at Kettering University, which is targeted to students in engineering and engineering physics and emphasizes theoretical, computational, and experimental components in the context of airborne acoustics and modal testing [cf. D. A. Russell and D. O. Ludwigsen, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 131, 2515–2524 (2012)]. These developments have included a transition to electronic laboratory notebooks and cloud-based computing resources, incorporation of updated hardware and software, and creation and testing of a multiple-choice assessment instrument for the course. When Kettering University suddenly shifted to exclusively remote teaching in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these changes proved to be essential for enabling rapid adaptation to a situation in which a laboratory was not available for the course. Laboratory activities were rewritten by crowdsourcing archived data, videos were incorporated to illustrate dynamic phenomena, and computer simulations were used to retain student interactivity. The comparison of multiple measures, including the assessment instrument, team-based grades on project papers, and individual grades on final exams, indicates that most students were successful at learning the course material and adapting to work on team-based projects in the midst of challenging remote learning conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical physics doctoral programs have large variations in organization, administration and financing. Blending a medical physics stream into an engineering graduate program has advantages of pre‐existing financial and educational infrastructures. A case study of the accredited program at Dartmouth was carried out, analyzing operational, financial, educational and outcome features. The support structures provided by each institutional partner were outlined, including engineering school, graduate school, and radiation oncology. The initiatives undertaken by founding faculty were reviewed, along with allocated resources, financial model, and peripheral entrepreneurship activities, each with quantitative outcome metrics. Currently 14 PhD students are enrolled, supported by 22 faculty across both engineering and clinical departments. The total peer‐reviewed publications are ≈75/year, while the conventional medical physics fraction of this is about 14/year. Following program formation, a significant rise was seen in jointly published papers between engineering and medical physics faculty, up from 5.6 to 13.3 papers/year, with students publishing an average of 11.3/person with 5.7/person as first author. Student support was predominantly via federal grants, with a stable $5.5million/year, using about $610K/year supporting student stipends and tuition. First year funding, recruiting and staff support were via engineering school. Faculty teaching effort was supported by agreement with each home department, and student services were provided by engineering and graduate schools. Student outcomes were exceptional, with high numbers of presentations, awards, and residency placements at research universities. The lack of financial and student support in medical physics can be mitigated by this hybrid design of blending medical physics doctoral students into an engineering graduate program, providing complementary strengths. Future growth in medical physics programs might consider following this pathway, strengthening research collaborations for clinical physics and engineering faculty, as long as there is vested commitment to teach by the faculty and department leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of digital reading during educational disruption on science and engineering students' learning experience. Before the pandemic, some studies explored whether university students preferred using printed or digital resources for their academic readings. Amidst the pandemic, online learning became essential. Several studies showed students' preference for printed text. This paper extends a pilot study that was conducted during the first COVID-19 wave in China. A survey consisting of Likert questions and open questions was designed using MS-Forms. The survey was shared with the science and engineering students in Years 2–4 (Levels 1–3) of their study at SWJTU-Leeds Joint School, Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, China. This covered students from four undergraduate programs: Civil Engineering with Transport, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science. In total, 223 students participated in this study. The survey was anonymous and was made available to students for a month. The participation rate is nearly 27%. Findings indicate that the behavior of science and engineering students toward digital reading was different than other majors, and it is generally favorable. The necessity for online learning during educational disruption has encouraged some students to develop their digital reading skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the results of a study to examine the global state of engineering education research on problem- and project-based learning (PBL). This paper has two major aims. First, we analyze a large collection of conference papers and journal articles to report on research trends in PBL, including in specific, leading countries. Second, based upon our analysis as well as a literature review of meta-analyses/syntheses of PBL literature, we propose a theoretical model for conceptualizing international research collaborations. Based on this model, we make recommendations for future initiatives, including multinational collaborations for research on PBL in engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the online teaching-learning of the Computer Science and Engineering program's female students at the Central Women's University in Bangladesh due to the COVID-19 epidemic. A survey was directed to comprehend the students' perspectives on online engineering education. The performances of the same students under the same course instructor of various courses as well as of different students under the same course instructor of the same courses before the pandemic and during the pandemic were investigated. After that, this paper analyzed students' experiences of the evaluation method before and during the outbreak, and then found out the transformation of the students' concerns regarding online engineering education. The research was based on the student surveys and observations, and their academic performances. All indicators exhibited that the procedure that was implemented had a positive impact on students' achievement. Students' involvement, particularly in the core courses that are essential to fulfilling their degrees, had improved. Furthermore, students gained more precise and constructive knowledge from the course teachers during the pandemic, as such the impact on the students' learning due to the online teaching of Computer Science and Engineering students were positive than before the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable use of the Earth's resources is recognized as increasingly important on a global scale, especially in relation to natural resource management, and is effectively addressed under the auspices of resource efficiency within engineering education. This has led to an increased demand for engineers able to carry out professional activities whilst considering sustainable issues, as well as adopting state-of-the-art technologies, and applying the best domestic and foreign practices. The study of resource efficiency encompasses a range of aspects, from natural resources, through information management, technological tools, time, and other resources. Effective engineering education should include resource efficiency, whilst enabling students to become autonomous lifelong learners, and to develop as potential researchers and professionals, able to take account of emerging issues and approaches for resource efficiency. This paper begins by analyzing the concept of resource efficiency and key research in this area. It goes on to provide a framework to demonstrate how resource-efficiency can be delivered as part of the teaching of year one engineering students, with a theoretical and methodological scaffolding. The paper presents a case study which utilizes resource efficiency within language training. The paper defines the notion of language training resources and their classification. The case study demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed approach and includes a formal assessment to show its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper focuses on the manifestation of racism within the computer and information technology (IT) sector of engineering. The IT sector lacks diversity and a welcoming environment, particularly for women and People of Color. Thus, this paper serves as a case study to interrogate the culture of engineering workplaces. This paper focuses on the narrative of Ben, a Black engineer, as he navigates his engineering workplaces. Purpose: This paper contributes to the literature on justice and equity in engineering, specifically the experiences of a Black engineer. We examine how workplace cultures affect the extent to which Ben can authentically be himself as both a Black man and an engineer and how racism manifests within the workplace. We also aim to provide guidance to other researchers on qualitative data analysis through our detailed presentation of the results. Method: This paper presents a narrative analysis of experiences shared by Ben, a Black engineer. Specifically, he was interviewed about his workplace experiences. Interviews were read through the lenses of racial and vocational identity development, in/authenticity, and the manifestation of racist ideas. Results: We explicitly identified how racism manifested throughout engineering workplaces through Ben's narrative. Early in his career, Ben was inauthentic to his personal identity and conformed to the normalized workplace culture, but he established his authenticity and racial identity as he matured as a professional. Conclusions: Ben's experiences illuminate how pathways through engineering and engineering workplaces are built on white normative expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluid mechanics, a required course in many undergraduate engineering disciplines, is often described as a challenging subject as it weaves together advanced mathematics and physics to solve conventional engineering problems. This study examines the effect of incorporating a physical model project via multidisciplinary teams into two theory-based fluid mechanics courses to address two general questions: Does the design and construction of the physical model aid in understanding fluid mechanics concepts? Does working with students of different engineering disciplines improve student experience and comprehension? The study was conducted in Spring 2023 with a cohort of 49 mechanical and civil engineering students; each project team had a mix of both disciplines. At the end of the semester, all projects were presented at a common venue, followed by an anonymous paper-based survey. The results indicate that around 83.7% of students felt the project had an overall positive impact on their learning experience. Despite initial student apprehension about multidisciplinary teams, 72% of students appreciated the opportunity to work with engineers from other disciplines, with qualitative inputs describing the value added from varied skill sets. In conclusion, this project enabled students to apply their in-class training to a real-world model while working in multidisciplinary teams. The results provide insight into the implementation of similar projects and the value of multidisciplinary teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of having engineering students proficient in visual literacy has long been recognized. Within this objective, the role of freehand drawing is paramount. It is, therefore, important to reinforce its practice for engineering communication and visual thinking support. This paper reports the findings of a research project aimed at studying the visual literacy skills of engineering students and the use of freehand drawing for this purpose. This exploratory study focuses on visualization and its externalization through freehand drawing. An empirical study was conducted with 66 engineering students from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). Their skills for expressing visualized images through freehand drawing and their tendency to use drawings for problem-solving were evaluated. The findings of the study indicate that students generally lack skills in expressing ideas through freehand drawing. Additionally, they do not tend to apply drawing when finding solutions to given problems. Considering the importance of freehand drawing to reinforce visual literacy, the implementation of its practice is encouraged in order to have students competent in thinking and communicating through these means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary professional landscape, engineers are confronted with the dual imperative of not only excelling in the core subject expertise but also possessing linguistic competence to remain competitive in the global job market. The current employment scenario is marked by raise in demand but decline in the number of qualified professionals graduating from colleges. Graduates are now expected to embody the qualities of techno-managers, adept at multitasking in their roles. Relying solely on technical skills has proven inadequate for many individuals. Recognizing the evolving job market requirements, it became apparent that students must excel in communication, particularly English communication skills, to thrive professionally. Effective communication fosters the development of confidence, astuteness, and outward skills in students. Language acquisition is a lifelong, active process that commences at birth. Textbooks play a crucial role in achieving the objectives of a course, serving as prominent elements in the teaching process. Language learning, facilitated by learning strategies, involves a set of tactics individuals employ to take control of their learning processes. In today's educational landscape, teachers play a pivotal role in enhancing strategies in second or foreign language classrooms. Their responsibility extends to facilitating learning among students and making their thinking processes visible. Effectively teaching a second language (L2) requires educators to consider the unique needs and backgrounds of each learner. By doing so, they can employ methods that help students in utilizing strategies to enhance their L2 learning experience. This paper provides insights into the trailblazer learning strategies that augment the language skills repertoire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning the SQL language for working with relational databases is a fundamental subject for future computer engineers. However, in distance learning contexts or unexpected situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, where students had to follow lectures remotely, they may find it hard to learn. Chatbots are software applications that aim to have conversations with people to help them solve problems or provide support in a specific domain. This paper proposes a chatbot-based learning platform to assist students in learning SQL. A case study has been conducted to evaluate the proposal, with undergraduate computer engineering students using the learning platform to perform SQL queries while being assisted by the chatbot. The results show evidence that students who used the chatbot performed better on the final SQL exam than those who did not. In addition, the research shows positive evidence of the benefits of using such learning platforms to support SQL teaching and learning for both students and lecturers: students use a platform that helps them self-regulate their learning process, while lecturers get interesting metrics on student performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students' engagement is a fundamental challenge in large classrooms in higher education. In recent years, innovative technologies such as electronic learning and online polling platforms have made learning more engaging, effective, and interactive. By using these platforms, educators can create more inclusive and enriching learning environments. This paper presents a novel approach in which an online technology is employed to enhance students' learning experience. In this approach, features of an online polling platform, i.e., Slido, are employed to enhance students' engagement in an engineering module, i.e., 'Mechanics of Solids', which is recognised as a fundamentally challenging module with difficult subjects. This study investigates how the interactive features of such technologies, such as real-time polls, question and answer (Q&A) sessions, and quizzes, can provide a more active and practical learning environment by improving student engagement in the classroom. In total, six online polls were designed: one for ice-breaking, two on the topics of shear forces and bending moment, two on stresses, and one on deflection. Each poll was presented to the students, and they participated in them by scanning a QR code or typing the poll's code online. The rate of students' participation in polls is extensively discussed to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. The findings of this study show a significant increase in student participation in classroom activities compared to traditional methods. Student feedback also indicates a positive learning experience with the use of the proposed approach. It is shown that the proposed approach has the potential to transform the way engineering students engage with challenging subjects, leading to enhanced learning outcomes and a more positive learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present creativity in the context of developing inventive and innovative potential in engineering students. Students use educational resources provided by teachers, other bibliographic resources and materials uploaded to educational platforms in the process of preparation for various disciplines. Educational platforms (i.e. the Moodle Platform) could provide new opportunities for creative learning. In the first part of the paper there are briefly presented the methods for solving the problems. Considering the fact that interactive lecture, discussion, dialogue, presentation, exemplification, experimental investigation and educational electronic platforms are used in addition to teaching methods in the process of education and training of engineers, the way Moodle platform contributes to the growth creativity of future engineers is briefly presented. In the second part of the paper are presented solutions to stimulate the creativity of future engineers through the didactic preparation process. Thus, the paper presents both proposals for stimulating students' creativity and typologies of activities that can be translated into the practice of university teachers in their activities with the students. This paper helps to foster creative learning in the context of engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have suggested a link between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and increased creativity and ingenuity. Clinical work suggests that individuals with ADHD generally gravitate toward exploratory rather than exploitative thinking. Yet, these theories have not been tested in the field. This paper is a case study of a transformative undergraduate summer research program that allows engineering students with ADHD to spend 10 weeks in engineering labs at a research-intensive (R1) university. The program intends to show that students with ADHD can excel in engineering and STEM fields when placed in research environments that align with their natural cognitive processes and preferences. Using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) on post-program participant interviews, this paper suggests that engineering students with ADHD perceive that they learn more effectively when given the opportunity to explore academic material via hands-on research. The traditional structure of STEM education, with its focus on lectures and rigid curricula, causes significant harm to these students, leading to struggles, anxiety, and even thoughts of dropping out. In contrast, the research environment appears to foster creativity and motivation in students with ADHD, as it allows for exploration, provides real-world problem-solving opportunities, and offers tangible, hands-on experiences. This paper highlights the need for a paradigm shift in engineering pedagogy to better engage with and retain this neurodiverse student population and fully harness their creative potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prior work has shown the importance of engineering identity formation for student success and persistence in engineering. While research has explored how engineering identity is formed, less attention has been given to liminal engineering identities—identities that exist between two commonly identified ones, such as the identity of being an engineering student and that of being an engineering professional— and the qualities of liminality that might impact this identity formation. Purpose/Hypothesis: This paper addresses the research question, “How do engineering students talk about their liminal engineering identities?” Design/Method: Through eleven focus groups held with engineering students at two U.S. universities, evidence of liminal engineering identities emerged. Focus group data was analyzed iteratively using an inductive analysis process due to the emergent nature of this study. Results: Our analysis found six categories for the reasons and justifications students gave for their liminal engineering identities: Mindsets and Related Personal Characteristics; Knowledge; Experience; Engineering Coursework and Degrees; the “Real World”; and Other People. We found that these categories sat on a continuum between an internal or self-driven sense of identity and an external or other-driven sense of identity. Conclusions: This work applies the concept of liminal identity to engineering education, emphasizing that engineering identity is more than an either/or prospect. It makes evident the intricate and intersecting ways in which students construct and justify their emerging engineering identities, and illuminates the reasons students give for refraining from fully adopting an engineering identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of persisting and learning from design failures is essential to engineering design and offers unique ways of knowing and learning for K-12 students. To understand how students engage in the practice of persisting and learning from design failures, we must first understand how, if at all, they recognize that a design failure has occurred. We studied a classroom of fourth-grade students engaged in an engineering design challenge and examined the ways in which design failure occurred and how students recognized, neglected to recognize, or misinterpreted design failure. We found that, in addition to anticipating failure, conducting fair tests, and making focused observations, students must have an understanding and awareness of the evolving criteria and constraints of the design problem in order to recognize design failure. If lacking an understanding and awareness of criteria and constraints represents a barrier to recognizing an initial design failure, it also represents a barrier to recognizing any subsequent design failures in the design process and thus a barrier to persisting and learning from design failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address the societally important issue of developing a more equitable approach to preK-12 engineering education. Our primary emphasis is on K-8 grades--a time when first impressions of engineering may be developed. Calls for increased participation by all students, including those who have been historically marginalized, motivate the need for theoretically grounded ways of developing and assessing educational programs. This paper draws from sociocultural learning theory and applies four theoretical and empirical analyses to derive design principles for equity that can inform curriculum, instruction, and assessment of preK-12 engineering education programs. We present a model for equity-oriented preK-12 engineering learning and delineate its dimensions and principles, which include socially engaged engineering, authentic engineering practices, asset-oriented pedagogies, and student engineering identity. We illustrate each with examples and discuss ways of implementing equity-oriented engineering curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students of the undergraduate course Computer Science get acquainted with the most prevalent methods of Steganography and Cryptography in history as well as with up to date applications. To teach Cryptography and Steganography is complicated, because you need to plot figures and tables at the blackboard plus calculating the frequency of characters in the text is consuming a lot of work and time. Concealing information within pictures or voices is impossible to show on the blackboard and you can only partially explain how to apply the LSB (least significant bit) technique. Therefore, we have devised some applications which are appropriate to show all these algorithms. We wanted to know the usefulness of all the programs we wrote. The safety technology engineering students attended my lectures held at different times in two groups. In the first group of lectures I presented and used the programs described above while the lectures for the second group were delivered without these materials. Our hypothesis was that a group where we used the developed multimedia applications got better marks in the papers written than the other. An analysis of the results (Man-Whitney test) showed significant difference in paper results of the two groups (p<0,05). This showed: the paper results of students attending the multimedia lectures were better by one mark than the results of the other group where lectures were delivered without multimedia presentations. We can say the using of multimedia applications when teaching cryptography and steganography is productive, and the students understand the methods easier, and get better result when writing papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of learning a foreign language for specific purposes, the most suitable, adequate, and innovative approaches are constantly being sought, concerning how and which/what additional (supplementary) materials contribute to more effective 1) subject and 2) language content learning, as well as concerning easy knowledge transfer - from the native to the foreign language. The following paper examines the importance of various content components and illustrative materials as supporting engineering students’ foreign language teaching and learning. By means of an exploratory survey (survey card), the opinion of the students was collected and analyzed, which is indicative of the materials suitable for application in a working environment in their relation with the conceptual apparatus in the studied material in the native and foreign languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographic information system (GIS) education empowers engineering students to make informed decisions, integrate comprehensive data, and communicate effectively through maps and visualizations. In GIS education, it is common to employ problem-based learning, which can benefit from the advantages of peer assessment methods. Among the benefits of peer assessment are the enhancement of students' capacity for analysis and synthesis, improvement in organizational and professional communication skills, and the development of critical judgement. However, a consequence of its application is that there may be variation in students' final grades, with no consensus in the literature on this matter. This paper explores the extent to which the application of peer ratings among students can modify student grades in the field of GIS education. This was achieved by conducting an experiment in which undergraduate engineering students assessed two problem-based learning activities carried out by their peers in two different basic GIS courses. The ratings obtained after the peer assessment were compared with the grades given by the instructors. The results allowed us to debate whether the teaching benefits of this strategy compensate for the differences between the students' grades and those given by instructors. Although no clear pattern was found in the mean ratings awarded by the two groups of evaluators, the results show that student engagement in peer assessment was high. This experience has demonstrated that the assessments of the two groups complement each other and allow students to gain a better understanding of their ratings and how to improve their skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the deep integration of modern information technology and auxiliary training, virtual reality technology represented by human-computer interaction has gradually received widespread attention. In this paper, virtual reality technology is applied to the physical fitness training of college engineering students to assist teaching, so that learners in the virtual sports situation with the help of VR sensing equipment to complete a variety of sensory real-time interaction, combined with the goal of stimulating feedback mechanism to improve students' self-efficacy and interest in learning, and use practice to explore the teaching effect and potential value of the achieved not only to promote the diversified development of sports skills learning, but also to provide a reference for the application of virtual reality technology in sports. It can not only promote the diversified development of motor skills learning, but also provide reference for the application of virtual reality technology in sports. The application of virtual reality technology in the physical fitness training and teaching of college engineering students can be used as a means to stimulate the effect of the potential learning ability of the learners, in the awakening of interest in the sports situation at the same time to promote the improvement of sports skills, while the traditional classroom learners in the emotional attitude did not have a positive effect on the promotion. Secondly, it is difficult to form an effective stimulating effect in physical quality by different teaching methods. The experimental results show that the application of using virtual reality technology to optimise engineering students' physical fitness training is significant and proves the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) has opened up new opportunities in education, particularly in the field of mobile robotics. Mobile robotics is a fast-growing field, and with the increasing demand for skilled robotics engineers, it is essential to provide students with hands-on experience in designing and developing robots. In this regard, an IoTbased 3D printed mobile robot platform has been developed for students training. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education has been gaining attention as a means to improve science and engineering education. STEM education aims to foster critical thinking, problem-solving skills, creativity, and innovation among students. It involves an educational policy that aims to develop the next generation of skilled professionals by integrating the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The goal of this approach is to provide students in mechatronics, who are assigned to the robotics lab during their studies, an up to date knowledge and experience in research and development activities. Thus, this paper aims to provide education that focuses on the acquisition and application of engineering knowledge, including control engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, information engineering, among others, with the main focus on mobile robot research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unhealthy lifestyle among university students is an apparent issue in their quality of life. The criticality of this issue is supplemented by reports that students' lifestyle was severely impacted due to the pandemic and abrupt shift to online learning. This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the lifestyle of engineering students at a Malaysian public university. This paper also seeks to determine gender differences in students' lifestyles. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents via Google Forms to uncover their eating habits, physical activity, and sleeping habits. Data were collected for three months from four engineering programmes. Simple random sampling was employed, and 120 responses were obtained. The findings revealed that the students have been practising a moderately unhealthy lifestyle; possess average eating habits; are physically inactive, and do not attain sufficient sleep. This study also observed no significant differences between male and female students' eating and sleeping habits. In contrast, a significant difference was reported between male and female students' physical activities. The results also determined a moderate correlation between eating habits and sleeping habits and also between eating habits and physical activity. The findings recommend universities implement precautionary measures such as constructing relevant courses and health programmes to raise students' awareness of the importance of a holistic lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the study of the high frequency transformer incorporated in solid- state transformers, specifically on the development of the steps that enable the design of an optimized high frequency transformer and its equivalent model based on the desired characteristics. The impact of operating a transformer at high frequency and the respective solutions that allow this impact to be reduced are analyzed, alongside the numerous advantages that the utilization of these transformers has over traditional 50/60 Hz transformers. Furthermore, the power scheme of the solid-state transformer is outlined, focusing on the power converters, which are immediately before and after the high frequency transformer (HFT). We also investigate a control technique that allows for correct operation and the existence of power bidirectionality. In a novel approach, this paper demonstrates the systematic steps for designing an HFT according to the desired specifications of each given project, helping students and engineers achieve their objectives in power-electronic applications. Moreover, this paper aims at increasing the knowledge of this area of power electronics and facilitating the development of new topologies with high power density, which are very important to the integration of renewable power sources and other applications. Finally, a simulation is presented to validate a high frequency transformer and its control technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the challenges posed by globalization and internationalization, engineering education programs are increasingly focused on knowledge, technologies, and competence that meet global needs. Against this backdrop, higher engineering students are often encouraged to collaborate in teams with others from diverse, cultural, and disciplinary backgrounds, for the purpose of preparing them to accommodate change and innovation across international working contexts. Within a growing number of intercultural systematic and meta-analysis reviews in engineering education, little attention has been paid to intercultural team characteristics, and even less has been given to the challenges of intercultural teamwork and the relevant coping strategies. Using a systematic approach, this paper reviewed 77 journal articles to identify the intercultural team characteristics of engineering students based on team formats, level of collaboration, learning goals, evaluation methods, and learning gains. Through the process of intercultural collaboration, several challenges and corresponding coping strategies were reported at the individual, relational, and contextual levels. Recommendations for future practice for engineering educators and programs faculties, and future research directions for engineering educational researchers, are proposed in order to support engineering students' intercultural team learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]