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Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers.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Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers.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

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers.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Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers.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

The stator ground fault location of large generators can guide rapid maintenance. In this paper, a location criterion without fault transition resistance is constructed by using the fundamental potential and the third harmonic potential of the faulty winding simultaneously. The above potentials of the faulty winding are corresponding to the fault position. To precisely locate the grounding fault, it is necessary to clarify the analytical relationship between the faulty winding potential and the fault position. However, the existing methods often take the coil potential as the unit to analyze the winding potential, which has theoretical errors for the generators with short-pitch winding. Aiming at this problem, a more precise analysis method for winding potential is established by taking the slot conductor potential as the unit. To solve the location criterion, the optimization model for each slot conductor of the faulty phase is constructed. The slot conductor with the smallest optimal objective function value is judged as the faulty slot conductor, and the corresponding decision variable is judged as the fault position. Simulation and experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, which can still meet the needs of engineering applications under multiple adverse conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The machine learning (ML) life cycle involves a series of iterative steps, from the effective gathering and preparation of the data—including complex feature engineering processes—to the presentation and improvement of results, with various algorithms to choose from in every step. Feature engineering in particular can be very beneficial for ML, leading to numerous improvements such as boosting the predictive results, decreasing computational times, reducing excessive noise, and increasing the transparency behind the decisions taken during the training. Despite that, while several visual analytics tools exist to monitor and control the different stages of the ML life cycle (especially those related to data and algorithms), feature engineering support remains inadequate. In this paper, we present FeatureEnVi, a visual analytics system specifically designed to assist with the feature engineering process. Our proposed system helps users to choose the most important feature, to transform the original features into powerful alternatives, and to experiment with different feature generation combinations. Additionally, data space slicing allows users to explore the impact of features on both local and global scales. FeatureEnVi utilizes multiple automatic feature selection techniques; furthermore, it visually guides users with statistical evidence about the influence of each feature (or subsets of features). The final outcome is the extraction of heavily engineered features, evaluated by multiple validation metrics. The usefulness and applicability of FeatureEnVi are demonstrated with two use cases and a case study. We also report feedback from interviews with two ML experts and a visualization researcher who assessed the effectiveness of our system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: This article lends empirical evidence to this research area of factors influencing students’ choice of and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Background: Understanding these factors is crucial as it informs recruitment and support interventions provided to students and constitutes a premise to improving graduation rates. The social cognitive career theory (SCCT) was used as a theoretical framework to provide insight regarding factors influencing students’ choice of qualifications. Research Questions: What is the state of research on the factors influencing students’ choice of and success in STEM programmes? Which of these factors have interested most researchers? What research themes are covered in articles investigating these factors? Methodology: This study followed the general bibliometric analysis workflow—study design, data collection, data analysis, data visualization, and interpretation. Data collection followed the preferred reporting items for systematic review and metaanalysis (PRISMA) guidelines. From an initial set of 408 articles, 179 related to the theme and were published in the Web of Science between 2004 and 2020. These articles were analyzed using the standard bibliometric metrics. Findings: Findings indicate that this research field is still growing. Thirty-two factors were identified and rated based using an objective assessment criterion. In addition, a classification of the factors is presented based on the SCCT. This study provides a theoretical reference for improving success rates for STEM qualifications and better understanding the theme. The study proposes a research agenda of what future research in the field should focus on, based on current gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only posed a significant threat to health, life, economy, and the whole society but also led to numerous new theoretical and practical challenges for automation science and engineering. The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together researchers and practitioners into a forum to show the state-of-the-art research and applications in responding to the challenges and opportunities of automation science and engineering to the pandemic, by presenting efficient scientific and engineering solutions, addressing the needs and difficulties for integration of new automation methodologies and technologies, and providing visions for future research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software engineering (SE) and computer science (CS) programs in universities worldwide are marked by a gender gap, which subsequently translates into a gender gap at the industry level. However, there are positive activities that can help attract more women to these male-dominant professions. This study maps the literature related to the achievement of gender balance in SE and CS university-level education and identifies future research directions. More specifically, this article reports on a systematic mapping study of female-inclusive SE and CS tertiary education programs. The authors collected 882 publications between 2015 and 2022 from five databases (ACM, IEEE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct), selecting 143 peer-reviewed papers for further analysis. The results showed that the main academic contributors were researchers from the USA. The majority of the publications contained observations and explanations regarding the gender gap in computing education. However, an important part of the literature considered proposals and practical activities for achieving gender balance in SE and CS programs. Finally, the authors classified the literature related to female-inclusive SE and CS tertiary education programs, identified the main research focuses and regional distribution, and considered ideas for future research.

In this work, we study experimentally the impact of different gate dielectric stacks on the subthreshold behavior of cryogenic MOSFETs. While in room temperature devices, silicon nitride deteriorates the off-state of MOSFETs it turns out that at cryogenic temperatures an appropriately thin, grown silicon nitride layer in combination with a high-k gate dielectric counteracts the saturation of the inverse subthreshold slope and inflection phenomena. As a result, steep slope cryogenic MOSFETs with strongly improved subthreshold behavior are demonstrated. [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 AUTHOR]

Contribution: This study contributes to efforts to diversify the field of engineering by studying the influence of co-curricular activities on African American students’ development of key nontechnical professional skills. Background: The 21st Century workforce requires significant collaboration and communication. For engineering graduates to meet workforce challenges, they must graduate with nontechnical skills. This study operationalized these skills using traits identified in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) “Engineer of 2020” report. The NAE also points to the urgent need for the United States to diversify its workforce; broadening the participation of African American engineers is key to doing so. Co-curricular activities help students develop nontechnical professional skills and are particularly important to African Americans at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Research Question: How do African American engineering students attending PWIs in the United States develop nontechnical professional skills through participation in ethnic-specific co-curricular activities? Methodology: This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of 16 participants from one of six engineering disciplines. Each participant was a member of at least one of the following organizations: a Black fraternity or sorority (termed Black Greek Letter organizations), their campus student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, or an institution-sponsored program for racially underrepresented students such as a minority engineering program. Findings: Data analysis revealed significant evidence that involvement in one or more of the studied ethnic-specific co-curricular activities enhanced African American engineering students’ educational experiences by providing resources and opportunities to help them develop professional skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open-source research software plays a central role in accelerating advances in science and engineering. Its increasing significance, however, incentivizes malicious actors to attack that software and compromise the systems on which it runs, undermining the free and open exchange of trustworthy research codes. In the world of conventional software development, there has been a shift towards integrating security as early as possible in the development process to guard against malicious activity. Given the potential risks at hand, developers of research software must consider how to do the same across the research software lifecycle. This editorial argues for the need to unite diverse forms of expertise in scientific computing and software security to address these challenges and outlines a roadmap for future work in this space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a biographical profiel of Dave Walden, a key figure in the engineering history of the ARPAnet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonic amplification and interaction of the PV plant which contains multiple parallel inverters influence the renewable power generation and operation seriously. In this article, the resonance mechanism and characteristics of a real large-scale PV plant are explored based on its plant-level circuit model. The component and system models are established first. The distribution rules of wideband resonance frequency from the perspective of the point of common coupling (PCC) and the inverter are respectively determined. Two different resonance bands excited by LCL filter and underground cable are further identified. At last, the practical case of harmonic resonance in the studied PV plant is investigated. Both the measured data and the simulation results support the analytical conclusions. This article combines the theoretical study with the engineering practice, which provides beneficial guidance on the resonance prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ready-to-eat (RTE) millet grain flakes and puffs are gaining importance in the modern era because of their nutritional and health benefits. In this work, air plasma has been generated and bubbled into pearl millet during soaking, followed by analyzing its flaking and puffing characteristics. The voltage 180, 200, and 220 V with airflow rates of 10 and 12 lph for 1 and 2 h was exposed to treat pearl millet samples. An increase in conductivity, total soluble solids (TSS), and drop in pH of the soaked medium was observed with the bubbling of plasma. The plasma bubbling exhibited an improvement in the pearl millet’s flaking and puffing properties. The noteworthy changes ($P < 0.05$) in expansion volume, bulk density, color, moisture content, crispiness, and hardness were observed in flaked and puffed samples. An increase in the expansion ratio (ER) of pearl millet flakes and puffs from 4.2 to 8.3 and 4.9 to 9.5 decreases in bulk density of flakes and puffs from 0.36 to 0.11 and 0.14 to 0.06 kg/m3, respectively, was noticed with the plasma bubbling. The textural properties like the crispiness of the flakes and puffs elevated, and hardness was reduced with the given treatments. The decrement in yellowness index (YI) and increase in whiteness index (WI) was observed in both flaked and puffed samples with the rise in exposure time. The synergistic effect of plasma reactive species in combination with hydration aids in improving grain properties and helps in diversifying the utilization of millet grains. [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 AUTHOR]

One-dimensional (1-D) demonstrations, e.g., the black-box systems, have become popular in teaching materials for engineering modules due to the high complexity of the system’s multidimensional (e.g., 2-D and 3-D) identities. The need for multidimensional explanations on how multiphysics equations and systems work is vital for engineering students, whose learning experience must gain a cognitive process understanding for utilizing such multiphysics-focused equations into a pragmatic dimension. The lack of knowledge and expertise in creating animations for visualizing sequent processes and operations in academia can result in an ineffective learning experience for engineering students. This study explores the benefits of animation, which can eventually improve the teaching and student learning experiences. In this article, the use of computer-aided animation tools is evaluated based on their capabilities. Based on their strengths and weaknesses, the study offered some insights for selecting the investigated tools. To verify the effectiveness of animations in teaching and learning, a survey was conducted for undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts and automotive engineering academics. Based on the survey’s data, some analytics and discussion have offered more quantitative results. The historic data (2012–2020) analysis has validated the animations efficacy as achievements of the study, where the average mark of both modules has significantly improved, with the reduced rate of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrated that channel mobility and cell current could be increased through Ge diffusion engineering and H2 plasma treatment in a poly-Si channel. Even though the Ge channel has a higher intrinsic mobility than the Si channel, a typical poly-SiGe channel has inferior channel characteristics due to high interface trap density (Dit) and bulk trap density caused by Ge. We propose a novel technique to control the Ge profile along the depth direction of the channel to realize lower Ge concentration at the gate dielectric interface and higher Ge concentration at the channel bulk. This Ge profile could achieve reduced Dit and enhanced channel mobility. Furthermore, the bulk traps caused by Ge are effectively reduced by H2 plasma treatment. These techniques increased the channel mobility to 32%, which can help increase the channel mobility of devices where poly-Si channels are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our built world is one of the most important factors for a livable future, accounting for massive impact on resource and energy use, as well as climate change, but also the social and economic aspects that come with population growth. The architecture, engineering, and construction industry is facing the challenge that it needs to substantially increase its productivity, let alone the quality of buildings of the future. In this article, we discuss these challenges in more detail, focusing on how digitization can facilitate this transformation of the industry, and link them to opportunities for visualization and augmented reality research. We illustrate solution strategies for advanced building systems based on wood and fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a novel waveform engineered sequential load modulated balanced amplifier (W-SLMBA) that uses a continuous Class-F−1 control amplifier (CA) to manipulate the impedance trajectory of the balanced amplifier (BA). It is demonstrated that the use of the continuous Class-F−1 CA can trigger a unique impedance load modulation mechanism by which the fundamental impedance of the BA is shaped by the varying second-harmonic load reactance of the CA. Theoretical derivations reveal that this special load modulation yields extended design space for the LMBA, in which high efficiency can be achieved over wide bandwidth and output power back-off (OPBO). A prototype operating from 1.80 to 2.75 GHz is designed following the proposed theory. The implemented LMBA achieves a measured drain efficiency (DE) of 60.2%–68.3% at saturation and 51.8%–69.0% at 8-dB OPBO. When tested with a 100-MHz long-term evolution (LTE) signal having peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of 8 dB, the proposed LMBA achieves 50.2%–59.1% average DE and better than −45.1-dBc adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) across the target bandwidth after digital predistortion (DPD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the emergence of artificial intelligence as a new field in engineering. AI first emerged in the 1950s and over the next few decades, experienced both advances and obstacles.1 However, there is now a new era of AI. The history of AI has been an acceleration from object intelligence (e.g., on symbol, behavior, and agent) to system intelligence (e.g., human, nature, and society), and from individual intelligence (e.g., learning intelligence) to metasynthetic intelligence (hybridizing and synthesizing intelligences). Building on the tumultuous AI evolutions, this new-generation AI is accelerating its pace of innovating, differentiating, transforming, and reshaping the world. The new-generation AI not only enables a smarter and more resilient humanity, well-being, and economy, but also everything else. What lessons can we learn from reviewing these AI advances and challenges? What makes AI science and engineering (AISE, or intelligent science and technology) a solid and comprehensive scientific field in addition to transforming other scientific and engineering disciplines and translating businesses and economy into their smart editions? What are the fundamental questions to be addressed in AISE? What forms the body of knowledge of AISE? What type of profile should AI professionals have to meet the requirements of AISE? What should AI education look like to produce qualified AI professionals? These questions deserve enduring, comprehensive, deep, creative, and critical thinking, ideas, and actions first and foremost to establish the AI field. Here, I share my limited view on AISE as a new discipline and the imperative developments, including the AI profession and AI education, to drive and enable the intelligent digital era and Industry 4.0. I hope my humble opinions will spur valuable debate and exchange and systematic and strategic developments of AISE in the broad AI community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the 2021 subject/author index for this publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Resume preparation is a common activity within technical writing classes, but the advent and increased use of resume profile and job-hunting sites, such as Indeed.com, require instructors and researchers to re-think common practices in the teaching of resume writing, particularly for writing instructors with limited disciplinary experience. Prior research for conventional resumes has quantified the disciplinarity of resumes as a function of resume quality using metrics of disciplinary discourse density, which may be useful in analyzing online resumes profiles. Research questions: 1. How do online engineering resume profiles demonstrate disciplinarity? 2. What formatting and stylistic conventions are observed within engineering resume profiles? 3. How do rhetorical disciplinarity and conventions vary with resume profile quality? Literature review: Although past efforts have examined the resume as a critical genre for entering a professional setting, few researchers have sought to interpret the relationships between discursive and stylistic expectations and quality in online resume profiles, while also accounting for aspects of disciplinarity. Methodology: This study compares engineering (all disciplines) resume profiles from Indeed.com with a corpus of conventional engineering resumes through qualitative genre analysis and quantitative methods for calculating disciplinary discourse density. We also characterize stylistic and rhetorical conventions for resume profiles, and statistically compare these facets as a function of resume quality. Results and conclusion: Results determined that discursive strategies were significantly different between strong, moderate, and weak engineering resume profiles. Qualitative analysis captured differences in style and form that were also statistically linked with quality. Based on our results, we call for further investigation into resume profiles and reconsideration of current pedagogical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education and training are among the fields taking advantage of serious games (SGs). In this article, we present Gea 2: A New Earth, a digital SG developed as an immersive 3-D virtual learning environment, integrating several educational resources, including multimedia learning material, communication tools, and intelligent tutoring support. The game aims to complement traditional classroom activities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), for high school students and teachers. It incorporates an intelligent pedagogical agent that can converse in natural language with the student and provides unsolicited hints during gameplay. This article presents the game and its evaluation based on experiments involving about 100 participants. We think that the results presented here add to the research on game-based learning for STEM, by proposing a complex game system, where artificial intelligence techniques are integrated to support students’ learning, and by confirming that the game experience can be attractive for the learners, also in very constrained classroom environments, such as those we operated in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today’s society is facing new challenges and opportunities that demand professional profiles specialized in problem solving, with the ability to innovate and exploit the possibilities offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs). Far from being a novelty, the term STEM was coined in the mid-1990s. From then until now, there are a multitude of initiatives focusing on working STEM education with students. In recent years, the use of the arts as an enhancer of the educational experience has been incorporated into STEM education. There has also been a focus on involving the student in the educational process. Despite this, few experiences have been detected in which parents are involved in the educational process. Throughout this work, it is shown the pilot experience which has been developed to motivate parents to be part of the learning process in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: A systematic interdisciplinary engineering and technology instructional model using cutting-edge technologies is proposed in this research. This model consists of four key components: 1) interdisciplinary collaboration; 2) hands-on projects; 3) real-world simulations; and 4) cutting-edge technologies. The model was designed to engage students in the real-world engineering projects and experience through the following activities: 1) performing the design, fabrication, and lab testing; 2) modeling and analyzing testing samples; 3) conducting on-site experiments; and 4) performing data processing and analysis. Background: Engineering programs are challenged by the rapid development of innovative technologies. To address this challenge, it is required to provide engineering graduates with “soft skills” for the capability of project management, especially the communication and collaboration among disciplines through university education. Therefore, it is desired to develop a systematic interdisciplinary engineering and technology educational strategy. Research questions: 1) is the proposed systematic interdisciplinary instructional model appropriate and feasible to be integrated into the engineering curriculum? 2) what were the students’ perceptions and experiences about the interdisciplinary model? 3) does the interdisciplinary model facilitate engineering students’ soft skills, such as interdisciplinary communication and collaboration? and 4) does the interdisciplinary model help to enhance engineering students’ real-world professional experience, develop design thinking and problem-solving skills, which will help them to transfer their learning experience from the classroom setting to the real-world setting? Methodology: A systematic interdisciplinary engineering and technology model was developed, implemented, and evaluated. Findings: The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed systematic instructional model were validated by various data sources. The tested model is recommended for broader adaptation in various STEM disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: Insights are provided into the intended role of integrative courses that aim to connect technical and professional capabilities and, particularly, the appropriate stage within a program for different levels of integrative capability. Background: The need for Engineering graduates who can balance technical competence with professional and transversal capabilities is well recognized. Integrative multidisciplinary projects have become an increasingly common approach to managing this balance and have been the subject of significant research. There has, however, been minimal consideration of the level of integrative skills that might be considered as appropriate at different stages of degree programs. Research Questions: Do intended learning outcomes of integrative projects vary with their stage in a degree programs? If so, then what does this variation reveal regarding expectations on the development of integrative capabilities? Methodology: Examples of project units that claim to be addressing integrative objectives and for which learning outcomes are available were collected ($N=33$). Guided by the existing literature on the purpose of integrative units a thematic analysis of these units was undertaken by coding the learning outcomes against the structure of observed learning outcome (SOLO) taxonomy. Findings: Within the existing units, there is clear evidence, as projects move from junior to senior, of a progression in the breadth of knowledge that is being drawn on in carrying out the projects, and the nature of knowledge integration becomes more purposeful. There is, however, no evidence of an associated progression in the intended level of integrative capability that is expected (e.g., identifying richer connections). This suggests the critical need for more work in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil engineering is a primary domain for new augmented reality technologies. In this work, the area of subsurface utility engineering is revisited, and new methods tackling well-known, yet unsolved problems are presented. We describe our solution to the outdoor localization problem, which is deemed one of the most critical issues in outdoor augmented reality, proposing a novel, lightweight hardware platform to generate highly accurate position and orientation estimates in a global context. Furthermore, we present new approaches to drastically improve realism of outdoor data visualizations. First, a novel method to replace physical spray markings by indistinguishable virtual counterparts is described. Second, the visualization of 3D reconstructions of real excavations is presented, fusing seamlessly with the view onto the real environment. We demonstrate the power of these new methods on a set of different outdoor scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are pleased to present this Special Issue of TASE, including 12 extended articles selected from the technical program of the 2020 International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE2020). CASE2020 was held virtually due to the COVID19 pandemics, August 20–21, 2020, and was originally scheduled in Hong Kong, China. CASE is an offspring of TASE and is the flagship automation conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, constituting the primary forum for cross-industry and multidisciplinary research in automation. The 2020 CASE theme was Automation Analytics, a global challenge emphasized at the conference by several invited and regular sessions, as well as specific workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]