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Teaching, research, and service are the three "arms" of academic success, especially for new faculty. The roles of teaching and research are relatively concrete in disciplinary standards, but service is more ambiguous. This paper reflects on the service and outreach of prior generations of Ph.D.-holding engineers to more fully interrogate the idea of what service means in the context of being an expert in the field. This paper studies the role of service and outreach in the careers of engineering Ph.D.s in academia and industry through the lens of Golde and Walker's (2006) Stewardship framework. Although service and outreach are not tenets of the three arms of Stewardship as proposed originally by Golde and Walker, we find that they are integral parts of all three tenets of Stewardship. As part of a larger NSF-funded study on the preparation of engineering doctoral students, interview data from 40 Ph.D.-holding engineers in a variety of careers indicate that practicing engineers identify strong linkages between their engineering expertise and outreach, service, and the broader impacts of their work. This research will help to prepare new engineering faculty for the expectations of service based on the paths of prior generations of engineers and engineering educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last thirty years much attention has been given to improving engineering education; however, much of this effort has been devoted to understanding and improving the classroom environment while the courses in a typical curriculum have remained unchanged. This paper examines a unique curricular change, a new paradigm, for organizing and teaching engineering science courses at two different institutions. This approach has been used successfully for many years at these institutions (10 years and 20 years, respectively) to organize curricula for sophomore engineering students from a range of disciplines. Many of the key ideas in this framework are singled out as core ideas in the new AK-12 Science Education Framework and could also have application to designing first-year courses and curricula. The foundational sophomore course in each of these curricula is the focus of this paper. Each course is part of a larger integrated engineering science curriculum that emphasizes fundamental principles and de-emphasizes traditional course boxes. Stressing a common framework for presenting and applying the fundamental principles, the foundational course emphasizes the construction of problem-specific solutions not just "plug and chug" procedures using memorized formulas. The paper discusses the features of these sophomore courses, the underlying curriculum paradigm and how they are consistent with current knowledge about student learning. Through this discussion, the authors also hope to encourage others to consider this and other new approaches to organizing engineering courses and curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a classroom observation program for first-year engineering faculty members in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We begin by describing the program's philosophical approach, which is based on principles of formative feedback and collegial support. We then explain the structure of the program and the observation sequence. One distinctive attribute of our approach is a two-observer arrangement -- one member of the observation duo is an instructional development professional and the second is an engineering faculty member or a student. We have collected feedback on the program from both the new faculty members and the observers, and summarize the results in the paper. Based on our feedback and our experience, we also provide an analysis of areas for program improvement and future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The engineering education community is adopting an increasingly diverse range of qualitative methods. This rapid expansion in required methodological expertise has sparked a vibrant discourse around ways to foster and articulate research quality in qualitative and mixed-methods studies. This paper describes three engineering education scholars' engagement with a process-oriented framework for interpretive research quality. Set in the context of a collaborative inquiry-based approach to reflecting on and improving research practice, this paper presents five instances when we turned to the framework to address quality challenges that emerged in our own research projects. Analysis of these experiences demonstrates the exploratory and explanatory power of the existing framework. At the same time, however, our collaborative process revealed the need to consider another dimension of research quality, specifically concerned with the human experience of the researcher and the researched throughout the inquiry. In this context, we propose Ethical Validation as a validation construct that, we argue, lies at the heart of conducting and evaluating interpretive research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research described in this paper uses a state-of-the-art technique, known as virtual reality (VR), to recreate the complex structure and construction processes of dougong, a unique characteristic of ancient Chinese architecture, in an environment where users can interact with objects with a high degree of realism. Virtual reality has become a powerful tool in the field of education, as it enables students to examine digital assets in a virtual environment without relying on expensive props or compromising the safety of the students in an on-site demonstration. This gives students a more in-depth picture of dougong than in previous studies, multimedia system which connects 3-D models made in Autodesk 3DS Max with the Oculus Rift VR glass hardware system has been conducted as an example of the application of VR in engineering education to facilitate the learning of complex architecture and engineering. The authors believe that systems like this can be applied to both additional types of dougong and other, similarly sophisticated construction systems, which can help engineering students understand the structure and construction of these complex buildings and infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of project-based learning (PBL) activities in the context of a sophomore dynamics class. The activities were developed in partnership with an industry representative and have thus far been implemented in two iterations. Surveys conducted in Spring and Fall 2016 reveal how students experienced the activities. The survey findings indicate that using PBL activities to complement a lecture-based approach in dynamics provides an opportunity for students to connect abstract engineering principles to reallife situations, thereby increasing student motivation to learn and deepening conceptual understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008 ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), the body responsible for accreditation of engineering programs, changed the criteria for Civil Engineering programs to include a requirement that graduates of those programs "can ... apply knowledge of ... at least one additional area of science, consistent with the program educational objectives".1 This new requirement appears to have its origins in the Body of Knowledge (BOK), and the desire to make those ideals and the ABET requirements for Civil Engineering programs become one in the same. However, for many programs across the country this became an issue of concern and confusion. Taking its cue from the BOK the "one additional area of science" shortly became defined to mean a physical science, as opposed to a social science, and that this "area of science" could not include Computer Science, Chemistry or Physics. Because of this, programs needed to change their curricula to address this criterion. Schools that had an emphasis where additional Chemistry or Physics courses had previously been incorporated to take advantage of native strengths in their university or to support the focus of their program now had to reassess the value of these course versus the need to cover an area of science outside these fields. Many other schools had not required a science course outside of Chemistry or Physics and now needed to add a course to address this issue. Still others who may have required such a course now needed to assess the effectiveness of yet another course taught outside their department. This paper will look at the method adopted by one university to meet this new criterion while at the same time attempting to remain true to the goals and objective of that program with respect to providing a broad education to its students and utilizing the unique and distinct opportunities that program's university provided to those same students. This university adopted the use of a questionnaire given to all students who graduated with the criterion of an additional "area of science" included in their graduation requirements to collect data on the subject. The questionnaire asked which area of emphasis within Civil Engineering the student planned to pursue upon graduation, which additional "area of science" the student the student studied while they were in school, and how this additional "area of science" aided them in their understanding of Civil Engineering. The results obtained, after this new criterion had been in effect for several years offers insight into both the method of meeting this requirement chosen by this university, as well as comments on the benefit of this criterion for the Civil Engineering profession as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With over 10,000 Baby Boomers a day retiring from the U.S. workforce, the issue of retaining irreplaceable knowledge capital was at the forefront of strategic initiatives of industrial leaders. In spite of the attention the topic was receiving in industry, little mind space or targeted research within the academy was being focused on the looming issue. In 2011, with urging and support from an Engineering Education Industrial Advisory Council (IAC), a first of its kind course was launched entitled "Harnessing Engineering Expertise in Industry". The graduate course, co-developed and instructed by university faculty and members of the IAC, explored the topic of engineering expertise from an industrial perspective. The objective of this course was to make explicit the concept of expertise in industry, to replicate and/or develop research based approaches for identifying and capturing this expertise, and to consider how these approaches could benefit industrial enterprise. Further, rigorous Engineering Education research practices were put to work underpinning the topical exploration, and enabling the class deliverables which included individually developed, industry facing, research proposals, and formal proposal "pitch" presentations to industry representatives. Beneficial outcomes from developing this course have included: 1) establishing a foundation of college/industry collaborative graduate level course work that supports the concerns of industry facing stakeholders and beyond, and 2) offering engineering education students a unique area of research specialization focused on life- long learning and engineering practice in Industry. Framed using the so-called "six themes of Six Sigma": genuine focus on the customer; data and fact driven management; processes are where the action is; proactive management; boundary-less collaboration; and drive for perfection-tolerate failure [1], this paper unpacks the collaborative processes and perspectives by which this course was developed and continues to evolve and improve. Authors suggest that collaborative industry/academic efforts may benefit by reflecting upon their work product through the six themes of Six Sigma as an alternative assessment framework to traditional academic assessment approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding ways to generate interest in Engineering Technology (ET) is an ongoing challenge for many colleges and universities. Starting early is always recommended; however, employing recruitment initiatives even in high school may yield success when the right motivators are used. Having strong corporate partnerships not only enables delivery of specialized programs but also strengthens the message from both an academic and industry perspective. The authors partnered with an international manufacturing company that offered a national competition to high school students as part of their STEM outreach. Although the event was labeled as being national, the vast majority of teams were located near the company's headquarters. The recruitment begins in October and the final contest is in mid-February. There are several checkpoints along the way which determine whether a team has accomplished enough to stay in the contest. This paper describes one high school competition that began as a "national competition" at a single location in 2009 and has evolved over the past three years to a competition that now includes three regional contests where national qualifiers are selected to compete nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an advanced modern engineering tool, the Finite Element Method (FEM) has been widely adopted in current undergraduate engineering curricula, especially in the discipline of mechanical engineering. However, the usage of FEM as a tool integrated into other fundamental engineering classes, such as statics and dynamics, fluid and thermal, and mechanics of materials, is not as common as one might suppose. Including, this present-day engineering tool is proposed to assist the teaching of deformation concepts in mechanics of materials. Due to the inherent complexity of FEM, a small finite element analysis (FEA) program, mini-FEA, developed by Professor Paul S. Steif at Carnegie Mellon University about fifteen years ago, is used to illustrate the concepts and quickly show how it works. For complex geometry, ANSYS Mechanical APDL programs were created by the instructor so that the requirements of student interaction with the program are minimal, and to keep their focus on deformation concepts. The mini-FEA allows the instructor to provide a quick illustration of deformation concepts as well as the basic steps in implementing FEM. The concepts of deformation mechanics are then demonstrated by graphical illustrations from both FEM and the traditional photoelasticity method. The purpose of this paper is to study the effectiveness of integrating FEM and discover how FEM further enhances students' learning in comparison with the traditionally used photoelasticity method. From the survey feedback, the effectiveness of the FEM model in enhancing student learning is clearly seen. Assessment of this approach and results of teaching strategies are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do we still need to learn about entrepreneurship education for engineers? Who better to answer this question than a group of engineering educators, educational researchers, practicing entrepreneurs and innovators, and engineering students? Such a group was convened in August 2014 to examine and reflect on current knowledge of students' entrepreneurial development and pathways, entrepreneurship programming models, and the efficacy of various curricular approaches. The event, known as the Epicenter Research Summit, was held at Stanford University and co-hosted by scholars at three universities; 70 attendees from 29 different institutions and organizations contributed to panel and poster sessions over two days. These sessions and the continuous dialogue, along with a series of individual and group exercises, allowed this community to identify gaps in knowledge about educational environments and pedagogies that support engineering students in becoming creative, innovative and entrepreneurial thinkers. Findings from the interactive exercises led to the identification of three major research areas for future work: Linking Outcomes to Reform, Understanding Student Diversity, and Examining Contexts. Each of these areas includes a wide range of questions that could be collaboratively pursued in the coming years to direct the course of entrepreneurship and innovation education in engineering. This paper reviews such questions and makes recommendations for the next phase of both research and community building in this emergent space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), General Education (GenEd) requirements for Bachelor Degrees include six credit hours dedicated to project work that brings students from all across the university to work in teams that resemble a professional work setting. These interprofessional student teams work with faculty and/or industry mentors on a wide range of projects. Students assume different roles in the team and are encouraged to approach the project from their own perspective and to contribute their respective discipline-specific knowledge while performing within their professional role in the team. Engineering students in these inter- professional teams are often addressing (and leading) the technical aspects of the project using engineering approaches to problem solving. To take best advantage of this GenEd requirement and its potential impact in engineering education, our college of engineering has been working to create projects that provide opportunities for students to address significant contemporary challenges that can benefit from engineering solutions. This paper describes an "Urban Systems" inter-professional project course that (in the context of the themes of energy, heath, security and water) examines challenges posed by urban systems, proposes creative solutions, and forms innovation teams focused on the research and development of prototype solutions. Developed to specifically target local issues in Chicago, IL where IIT is located, the intent of the course is to foster the use of engineering approaches to problem solving, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship among students. Ideas that have emerged from this course range from new apps to better serve the community on healthy food needs to a new concept of a cooling tent for hot summers. In addition to the opportunity to apply their respective discipline-specific knowledge, theme-centered, engineering-led, inter-professional projects provide our students with team work, leadership, and project management skills while contributing to the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of a competition prompt into a capstone design course challenged students to apply the skills and content knowledge gained throughout their studies to address a complex problem. Texas Tech University (TTU) uses a prompt from the Water Environment Association of Texas (WEAT) student design competition to address the ABET specified program and student outcomes while also providing a real world design challenge for the students to provide treatment upgrades to a municipal wastewater treatment plant. TTU's course solicited advisement from two consulting professional environmental engineers, in addition to faculty guidance. Incorporating these professional engineers into the class helped to bridge the gap between academics and practical applications as the engineers provided feedback to student teams throughout the design process. The two semester course promotes problem-based learning and allows students to enhance their professional and communication skills such as group collaboration, problem solving and presentation of technical designs. Self-evaluation by students in addition to professional engineers and faculty evaluations throughout the course provide similar and contrasting perceptions of how learning outcomes were met. Learning outcomes were used to evaluate student work during the design course and responses from various views allowed for assessment of student preparedness following completion of the course. Learning outcomes were presented to students, professional engineers and faculty for evaluation using a Likert scale. The responses provided data of how the three groups perceived the relevance of the course outcomes addressed to the students' future careers. Responses to pre and post course questionnaires assessed the three evaluators' perceptions of student areas for improvement and strengths as related to the learning outcomes. This study allowed for similarities and differences to be identified between the three groups of stakeholders: students, faculty, and professionals. This paper addresses the performance of an environmental engineering capstone design course following the integration of the WEAT design prompt and highlights components of the course weaknesses. Additionally, longitudinal data showcases students performing well following the implementation of the WEAT design prompt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering Education (EE) has become a notable topic of discussion in India. Faculties have initiated the dialogues long back and have been working for its improvement. The student fraternity has been introduced into the discussion, when SPEED (Student Platform for Engineering Education Development) entered India in 2009. From then, SPEED has evolved to create a marked change into the field of EE through development of numerous action plans by students. Students were empowered to face, plan and solve their local EE issues. More than twenty-five workshops have been conducted by SPEED focusing on various themes, which led to a nationwide presence and collaboration with IUCEE (Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education). With IUCEE's immense support, the national chapter of SPEED India was created in 2013. In 2013, SPEED India formulated a general theme on EE which aided in introducing the concept in detail to the student group. With the experimentation methodologies SPEED India have used so far and in moving forward in the current year of 2014, it chose to move this dialogue and developments in EE a step forward. Involving students into questioning, addressing and solving global engineering challenges would connect the different pedagogical methods such as problem based learning, experimental learning and community based learning into the learning culture. Seven workshops have been conducted with more than 500 engineering student participants and 100 action plans created under the theme of "Grand challenges of engineering in 21st century" as created by National Academy of Engineering (NAE), three major world issues: Access to Clean Water, Economical & Sustainable Energy and Removing barriers in urban infrastructure were addressed and action plans are created. This paper discusses the impact created by addressing to solve the grand challenges in engineering and the results of SPEED India's efforts in creating a new platform to enhance EE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established by both industry and academics that while the current focus of the engineering curricula focuses on the technical aspects of the student's education, there is a definitive need to incorporate the inculcation of leadership, communication, and professional skills during the course of their undergraduate study. This point is emphasized in several reports, including the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the National Academy of Engineers (NAE), and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) among others. In this study, a personal leadership profile instrument was tested that enables students to compare their personalized engineering leadership score with data obtained from a prior study (N=753)1. This establishes a baseline of leadership skills in comparison to one's peers. This paper describes the development of a personalized leadership profile for students that would aid them in creating their own leadership plan by comparing their responses with the baseline. The leadership profile helps to identify areas for improvement and provides recommendations of relevant courses as a step towards improving upon them. Students empowered with the results of their profile could make informed decisions about future course selection in their program. This study demonstrates one method of aiding students in creating a leadership experience that is unique to their needs. Profile creation could be a model for other institutions to ensure they are meeting the needs of the accrediting bodies and student expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]