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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]

Multidisciplinary teams often undertake engineering projects beyond their original discipline involving different kinds of risks. Risk perception is an inherent and embedded part of the decision-making process, which depends on the personal background and instinctive attitudes or behaviors. Process safety and risk analysis training for engineers, and education for engineering students, provide valuable tools seeking safer workplaces; however, personnel's risk perception is commonly neglected. This paper analyzes the risk perception and appetite of undergraduate engineering students in Colombia based on a survey strategy and a weighted-approach following a Factor Analysis. The survey considered financial, social, physical, and professional risks, and four main reasons for risk-taking or risk-avoiding actions. The Factor Analysis allows us to classify the students tendency as risk-averse o risk-prone, and propose didactic teaching planning using a modular toolbox for process safety education, based on skills identified for junior engineers in Colombian Oil & Gas Industry. A total of 465 engineering students from 12 Colombian universities completed the survey in 2016. The results suggest that risk perception depends on the location, possible risk training, and accessible information. The obtained factors allow describing the students' overall risk profiles, which can serve as an input for refining the content and curriculum content of current engineering programs regarding process safety. Improving the training of risk management in the engineering curriculum will benefit upcoming multidisciplinary teams in high-risk industries. • Risk perception and appetite of engineering undergraduate students was evaluated. • A survey strategy and a weighted-approach using a Factor Analysis were considered. • The survey contemplated professional, financial, physical and social risks. • It considers preventive, adventurous, inspirational, or rewarding risk reasons. • Factor Analysis allow classifying each student as risk-averse or risk-prone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses teamwork skills and independent-learning skills that enhance active learning. Problem-based learning (PBL) was incorporated into science, where real-life problems were chosen from the field of engineering to motivate students to activate and develop these skills. The analysis of students' questionnaires shows that engineering students have positive attitudes toward cooperative learning and towards the use of computers in engineering problem solving. Students, who were taught using PBL rated their progress in teamwork skills significantly higher than their peers who were taught in the traditional way. Moreover, the PBL participants reported significant improvement in independent-learning skills using a computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a cognitive study of a qualitative character in relation to the learning of the two variable functions and partial derivative concepts in the engineering context. It defends the fact that didactic settings in context can be conducive to a logical meaningful learning for the student with sense in the future professional area. This motivated us to research what happened at cognitive levels for students in this type of didactic environment. The theoretical framework is described by the study of cognitive functioning in a mental act of learning (the process of resolving problem). The analysis reports the experience which results in the implementation of didactic setting designs with one group of engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some professors claim college students seek the easy way out and prefer classes that lack challenge. In a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional ethnographic research study of the attainment of gender parity in an engineering department, it emerged that student attitudes toward challenge did not support this perception. By far, the majority of participant responses on this topic fell into the category of hard classes that students liked. Student reasons for enjoying challenging classes include the desire to learn more and boredom in classes that lack challenge. Students dislike, however, a challenge that cannot be met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering programs must assess students' abilities to master "criteria 3 a-k." Skills such as teamwork, problem solving, design, and ethical understanding entail learning various processes; hence, assessing these outcomes is better accomplished by focusing on the process rather than the result. Methods for observing students' performance, such as 100 percent behavioral observation, are ideal but expensive. We extend work sampling, an economic industry-based alternative, to observe cognitive and behavioral processes. Specifically, we describe a work sampling methodology to assess students engaged in teamwork. We then determine attributes of teamwork, establish target time proportions using 100 percent observation, and statistically compare the targets to proportions obtained from work sampling intervals to determine the effective interval. The robustness of work sampling is tested in four learning environments. Results indicate that sampling provides a statistically valid alternative for assessing teamwork. However, when observing design and ethical understanding processes, additional research is needed to make work sampling viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the learning experiences of engineering students of both genders in a problem-based and project-organized learning environment (PBL) at a Danish university. This study relates an amalgam of theories on learning and gender to the context of engineering education. Based on data from a qualitative study of an electrical and electronics engineering study programme, this study found that studying engineering in a PBL environment involves not only the mastery of technological knowledge but also an engineering identity development process. However, the association of an engineering identity with masculinity and the culturally defined engineering competencies leads to different learning experiences for male and female students. The nature of hard-core engineering subjects, based on male interests, privileges men and acts as a barrier to women. The masculine culture in engineering communities of practice involves more effort in identity management for women students than their male peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]