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This research paper explores the keys to successful cross-race mentoring identified by mentees and mentors in the Increasing Minority Presence within Academia through Continuous Training (IMPACT) mentoring program. Two iterations of the IMPACT program paired Black engineering faculty with primarily White male emeriti engineering faculty for career-focused mentorship, networking, and advocacy. A great need exists to better understand that which facilitates successful cross-race mentoring, as it is the standard in the engineering professoriate due to the underrepresentation of senior and emeriti faculty of color in engineering academia. Thus, this intrinsic case study explores the perspectives of 16 mentees and 14 mentors on the keys to successful cross-race mentoring. Participant interviews were analyzed inductively and resulted in three themes: (1) self-awareness and empathy create trusting, honest conversations; (2) mentee career advancement must be core to the relationship; and (3) a history of racial allyship from the mentor is required. These findings reveal the importance of the IMPACT mentoring program creating successful mentoring matches in which mentees and mentors demonstrate self-awareness and empathy, focus on mentee career advancement, and mentors possessing a keen cognizance of the ways in which racism affects the lives and careers of Black faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2008 to 2021, Gannon University was awarded three National Science Foundation SSTEM awards (0806735, 1153250, and 1643869) amounting to $2.2 million. These awards provided a total of 300 one-year scholarships to engineering and computer science academically talented students having financial need. The program developed at Gannon University provided an educational experience emphasizing technical mastery, personal and professional development, and community engagement through partnerships with nonprofit organizations in the local community. At its inception, the program was one-of-a-kind, providing a unique tool to intentionally connect technical education with the community-service mission of the university. The program developed and lessons learned through the eight years of the first and the second awards were previously detailed in another publication. 2021 marked the completion of the third award with 63 scholars graduating with a STEM degree who completed the program and with $1.76 million dispersed directly to scholarships. To-date, without NSF funding, the program continues to exist with university funds to support the scholarships. In the current paper, the authors summarize the implementation of new activities, lessons learned, and the evolvement of these three grants. Emphasis will be given to describe responsive changes made after the second grant activity incorporated in the third iteration of the grant, and lessons taken from the third award activity. Topics of this paper include additional features implemented in order to foster better diversity in the program and career readiness, observations about student motivation as a result of grant activities, experiences with students working on interdisciplinary community engagement projects, guidelines on how to better and more effectively interact with stakeholders, lessons on assessment of student progress (along with warning signs of imminent trouble), and planned actions to improve student success outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents numerical modeling of meteorological processes in the wind farm of the Republic of Adygea. The wind farm has 60 wind turbines, the capacity of each wind turbine is 2.5 MW. A test configuration with 4 nested domains was developed to study the wind farm. The computations were carried out using the WRF-ARW computational code with the wind turbine parameterization module. The calculation was performed for the period 01.04.2020 00:00 – 01.05.2020 00:00 UTC. As a result, the dimensions of the wake formed by the wind farm were obtained, and the influence of the parameterization of wind turbines on the wind distribution calculation was shown. The potential vortex wake can reach sizes up to 15 km. The losses of generated power can reach 1 MW inside the vortex wake. The computations were run on high performance cluster UNIHUB of ISP RAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structure defects in PV cells can be identified through I-V curve parameters: short circuit current, open circuit voltage, fill factor and efficiency. In converting high density radiant fluxes, structure heating affects significantly these parameters. For this reason constant temperature (25°C) is a necessary condition for correct characterization. In this paper, a method for recording optical and electronic parameters of PV cells in regimes of converting high density radiant fluxes, which excludes the effect of radiative heating of a device, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the implementation of Imaginative Education (IE) pedagogy for creating a transmedia learning environment that engages children in learning about engineering design. IE uses narrative to engage learners' imaginations; helps them master the cognitive tools necessary for progressing to higher levels of understanding; and helps them structure what they learn in meaningful ways. Included in the paper is an introduction to IE pedagogy and the use of transmedia in education; an overview of the online learning environment called Through My Window (TMW) that we have developed for middle school children; and a detailed look at a learning adventure on engineering design called Trapped in Time. Assessment data collected by external evaluators shows that TMW positively impacted student interest in engineering and increased STEM identity. Preliminary results for the Trapped in Time learning adventure indicate improved understanding of engineering design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been known for a long time that the precise characterization of multi-junction solar cells demands spectrally tunable solar simulators. The calibration of innovative multi-junction solar cells for CPV applications now requires tunable solar simulators which provide high irradiation levels. This paper describes the commissioning and calibration of a flash-based four-lamp simulator to be used for the measurement of multi-junction solar cells with up to four subcells under concentrated light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which determines whether Knowledge Building and community idea improvement can happen over the course of short (1-2 week) timescales. A subquestion of the study is to see whether and how KB is affected by perceived accountability structures. The evidence for addressing these questions comes from the KB discourse itself. A sub-goal of the work is to continue the development of tools needed to analyze KB discourse.

My presentation, part of a special session panel discussion on integrating social justice in core engineering courses, discusses lessons learned from specific attempts (in two courses over several years of teaching) to integrate social justice considerations in sustainability instruction. As the session description notes, most sustainability education in engineering has to date done a thorough job ensuring student learning about the relationship between sustainability considerations and the economic bottom line, but has done far less in considerations of people and communities, rarely taking up questions of power and equity. In my presentation I draw on my experience developing, teaching, and assessing modules in collaboration with colleagues in the Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace network to integrate social justice considerations in our core courses. I reflect on lessons learned from two assignments in two different core courses, each implemented in the larger context of engineering at a liberal arts college. Here introducing a social justice dimension of sustainability was a small part of a larger effort to integrate liberal education into core courses. One module introduced students in a first year Mass and Energy Balances course to the tool of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for developing and analyzing green products and processes, while simultaneously offering a critique of green consumerism which was incorporated into student LCA projects. A key learning outcome was that students understood not only the promises of the tool but also its limitations and when it is and is not appropriately used. A second module, in Engineering Thermodynamics, sought to integrate considerations of climate change, ethics, and global economic inequality. The course, taught in the fall semester, usually overlapped with a major international climate summit. Using the 2009 Copenhagen summit as case study, students analyzed the conflict between countries in the global North and global South, with guided prompts and background reading to aid them in understanding and incorporating into their analysis the power relations evident in the climate talks, borne of histories of colonialism and present-day neoliberal economic policies. This case study was among several ethics assignments offered throughout the semester, and in some years was part of a wider exploration of global climate change. Taken as a whole, the ethics assignments and reflective engagement of students produced gains in critical thinking and reflective action, along with resistance from some students policing disciplinary boundaries of the course, opening space for motivating conversations about the syllabus in the context of the larger engineering program. The presentation concludes with some lessons learned related to design of assignments, motivation of social justice topics, scaffolding for specific social justice concepts and terminology that may be new to students, challenges of transforming an over packed curriculum, and how student resistance to topics perceived as "not engineering" can be a positive learning opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sabbatical experiences provide an opportunity for faculty to immerse themselves in current scholarship, to explore new areas of research, and/or to pursue professional development. This paper reports on one capstone design instructor's experiences during a yearlong sabbatical in industry. The author spent six months working as part of an engineering team at one company, and then spent four months on short visits to 24 engineering companies across the country to gain an inside look into a variety of engineering disciplines, multiple approaches to engineering design, and different workplace environments. This paper shares feedback from companies regarding important skills for entrylevel employees. The paper describes how the sabbatical experience impacted the author's approach to teaching the capstone design course, and modifications the author made to the course as a result. In addition, the paper discusses the process for coordinating such short visits and recommendations for pursuing a similar sabbatical experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the effects of increased irradiance into one subcell of triple-absorber concentrator solar cells during efficiency measurements. This situation can easily occur when unfiltered xenon flash solar simulators are used for illumination. We demonstrate how excess irradiance into bottom subcells causes artificially increased fill factors, and that commonly used measurement procedures are unable to account for any excess irradiance. The effect always results in efficiency values that are too high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative electroluminescence (EL) and luminescent coupling (LC) analysis, along with more conventional characterization techniques, are combined to completely characterize the subcell JV curves within a fourjunction (4J) inverted metamorphic solar cell (IMM). The 4J performance under arbitrary spectral conditions can be predicted from these subcell JV curves. The internal radiative efficiency (IRE) of each junction has been determined as a function of current density from the external radiative efficiency using optical modeling, but this required the accurate determination of the individual junction current densities during the EL measurement as affected by LC. These measurement and analysis techniques can be applied to any multijunction solar cell. The 4J IMM solar cell used to illustrate these techniques showed excellent junction quality as exhibited by high IRE and a one-sun AM1.5D efficiency of 36.3%. This device operates up to 1000 suns without limitations due to any of the three tunnel junctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional economic planning of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) requires a thorough understanding of the industry structure and the size of business. The main body of the literature regarding SMEs is focused on formation and growth, as well as success and failure (Dejardin & Fritsch, 2010). Some studies have considered clustering regional areas based on functional specialisation but only a few studies have considered industry structure and the size of business (Okamuro, 2006). Using the Australian data and a large data set for regional (non-metropolitan) areas, this current study attempts to investigate the relationship between the economic growth of geographical areas with the industry structure and size of the businesses within those areas. For this the study uses Ward's, the k-means, global k-means, and the modified global k-means clustering algorithms and compares the function of these algorithms. Resulting analysis of this comparative study demonstrates that the modified global kmeans algorithm outperforms the other algorithms examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supersonic beams of organic molecules seeded in light carrier gases are a viable method to control the deposition of highly ordered thin films, to activate kinetically chemical reactions to functionalize surfaces or to synthesize hybrid compounds. The advantage of supersonic molecular beam deposition (SuMBE) with respect to the more standard OMBE/OMBD method is the control of the energetic parameters of the precursors that we have shown to give an unprecedented control on structural, morphological and hence functional properties in the deposition of organic thin films. The basic mechanism is envisaged to be a sort of local annealing activated by the kinetic energy of the molecules that collides with the surface. Depending on the molecular precursor used and on the kinetic energy achievable this same method can be exploited to activate reactivity at the surface and hence to synthesize different structures. Here we report on a few examples including the deposition of highly ordered organic thin films of pentacene, the synthesis of SiC at moderate temperatures and the functionalization of inorganic nanostructured materials such as TiO2. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technologies for Space Reactor Power Systems are being developed to enable future NASA’s missions early next decade to explore the farthest planets in the solar system. The choices of the energy conversion technology for these power systems require radiator temperatures that span a wide range, from 350 K to 800 K. Heat pipes with carbon-carbon fins and armor are the preferred choice for these radiators because of inherent redundancy and efficient spreading and rejection of waste heat into space at a relatively small mass penalty. The performance results and specific masses of radiator heat pipes with cesium, rubidium, and potassium working fluids are presented and compared in this paper. The heat pipes operate at 40% of the prevailing operation limit (a design margin of 60%), typically the sonic and/or capillary limit. The thickness of the carbon-carbon fins is 0.5 mm but the width is varied, and the evaporator and condenser sections are 0.15 and 1.35 m long, respectively. The 400-mesh wick and the heat pipe thin metal wall are titanium, and the carbon-carbon armor (∼ 2 mm-thick) provides both structural strength and protection against meteoroids impacts. The cross-section area of the D-shaped radiator heat pipes is optimized for minimum mass. Because of the low vapor pressure of potassium and its very high Figure-Of-Merit (FOM), radiator potassium heat pipes are the best performers at temperatures above 800 K, where the sonic limit is no longer an issue. On the other hand, rubidium heat pipes are limited by the sonic limit below 762 K and by the capillary limit at higher temperature. The transition temperature between these two limits for the cesium heat pipes occurs at a lower temperature of 724 K, since cesium has lower FOM than rubidium. The present results show that with a design margin of 60%, the cesium heat pipes radiator is best at 680–720 K, the rubidium heat pipes radiator is best at 720–800 K, while the potassium heat pipes radiator is the best performer and lightest at higher temperatures >= 800 K. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]