Cross-disciplinary Project Research Articles

The Construction of a Mathematical Modeling Curriculum System Oriented by New Engineering Talents

This article provides an overview of the research progress on mathematical modeling courses both domestically and internationally, and points out the main problems that currently exist. Propose to no longer include competition results in the evaluation criteria, and establish its own training model based on the actual situation of the school. With the assistance of teachers, establish cross disciplinary projects. Teach students to apply knowledge to new problems, allowing more students to achieve more lasting results. The role and significance of research projects in promoting teaching work and improving teaching quality, and the specific research objects and contents. The main research subjects are students from most majors in science and engineering at our university. The main value lies in the exploration and practical work done in the field of new engineering education to cultivate students' mathematical literacy and numerical calculation ability.

Manifestation of The Pancasila Student Profile Strengthening Project as A Meaningful Learning : A Case Study

This study examines the implementation of the Pancasila Student Profile Strengthening Project at SMAN 4 Bandung as a form of meaningful learning. This research used a qualitative approach with a case study method. Data were obtained through observations, interviews, and document analysis related to the project's implementation. Analysis of data using triangulation technique to reconfirm every data from a different view. The results showed that the Pancasila Student Profile Strengthening Project was designed to develop students' character and competence in accordance with Pancasila values. Students learn through direct experience and contextual cross-disciplinary projects relevant to their daily lives. Research orientation, case study, planning design, and implementation action designed in an exploratory and collaborative manner encourage students to hone their critical thinking skills, collaboration, and independence.

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL): Fighting Hunger During a Global Pandemic

Today, an increasing number of higher education institutions are recognizing the importance of preparing students to communicate, live, and work effectively with others from different cultural backgrounds (Appiah-Kubi, 2020; Eliyahy-Levi, 2020; Iuspa, 2019). Providing opportunities for students to travel abroad has been an integral part of the higher education experience for many years. However, with the global pandemic resulting in limited travel, universities are developing new and innovative ways to provide international experiences for students. The purpose of this cross disciplinary project was to explore an international virtual student collaboration between two universities, one in the United States and one in Southeast Asia. Twenty students were matched across universities to examine one of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: #2 Zero Hunger (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). Fighting hunger is not a new problem in our world, but the focus has been greater in the midst of a world-wide pandemic. Many people have lost jobs or had their income severely impacted. Students from both universities worked collaboratively to explore the issues of fighting hunger during a pandemic and focused on finding solutions that can last long after the end of this current pandemic.

Developing Teamwork Skills in Undergraduate Engineering Students: A Comparison Between Disciplinary and Cross-Disciplinary Projects

Developing Teamwork Skills in Undergraduate Engineering Students: A Comparison Between Disciplinary and Cross-Disciplinary Projects

Enhancing Engineer-To-Order Processes with Agile Project Management: Lessons from a Refurbishment Project

Changing customer requirements raised the bar for companies in terms of fulfilling individual demands and ensuring internal efficiency. This can be seen in a variety of business contexts such as Engineer-To-Order (ETO), characterized with high interaction with the customer and uniqueness of the products. The current paper suggests the use of agile project management to support customer-centric processes in ETO environments by addressing a case study involving a refurbishment project. The paper reports on how the project was planned, executed and closed, highlighting ETO processes intricacies and discussing how they are addressed. The case study brings empirical evidence of pursuing agile in managing ETO processes and uncovers some of the issues that ETO project stakeholders need to deal with. These issues include uncertainty and pricing, managing teams in complex environments, and dealing with cross-disciplinary projects. Ultimately, these findings will help decision-makers manage ETO processes more efficiently and continuously learn from ETO projects.

An Example of Using Collaborative Online International Learning for Petroleum and Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Courses

This work describes an international collaboration experience carried out between our process design and petroleum property evaluation courses. This collaboration was developed as part of a partnership between the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, United States of America, using a program called Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) from the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The COIL program provides training to faculty on engaging students in international and cross-disciplinary projects to promote skills needed in the current work force. The COIL training meetings facilitated pairing faculty of different disciplines in different parts of the world and provided a structure for developing a collaborative project. The collaborative project that we undertook in fall 2021, and which we detail throughout this article, was titled Upstream and Downstream of Petroleum Economics.

Thinking outside the Zoom box: Discovering resilience, innovation and creativity for large instrumental ensembles during the pandemic

This paper provides readers with insights and strategies to tackle challenges of various remote and in-person large ensemble rehearsal situations, as well as hopefully inspires others to find the opportunities through the obstacles. The authors provide tips and strategies for creating innovative and cross-disciplinary projects and providing valuable experience for the ensemble students in virtual, hybrid and socially distanced in-person educational settings. Strategies presented are gathered from the authors’ first-hand experiences with their large orchestral ensembles (ranging from 50–70 students) during the pandemic. Finally, the authors provide insights on what has worked well, challenges faced, technologies applied and lessons learned during the process. This paper also discusses various creative strategies to highlight collaboration and create a sense of community and belonging in a remote environment. Readers will gain ideas regarding unique teaching concepts for the music ensemble in the current environment including fully remote instruction, hybrid instruction and in-person settings. Matters such as utilising the audio Jamulus platform, engaging students in synchronous format, wellness for the instructor and students, finding value and motivation and embracing technology will be explored throughout the paper.

An Historical Archaeology of Labor in Convict Australia: A Framework for Engagement

Between 1788 and 1868 Britain transported some 171,000 male and female convicted felons to Australia, in the process establishing the foundation European population and instituting a process of invasion and colonization. The convict “system” remains a signature theme in Australian historical and archaeological research, contributing to a multitude of areas of investigation: punishment and reform, colonialism, and colonization process, as well as social aspiration and cultural transformation. This article provides an overview of the history, organization, and physical structure of the system. It then describes recent efforts to reunify the trajectories of archaeology, history, and historical criminology through cross-disciplinary projects, questions, and themes. It includes a description of the authors’ Landscapes of Production and Punishment research framework, which views the organization and administration of the convict system, as well as the shifting balances between punishment and reform, through a labor-systems analysis. This line of inquiry broadens the scope of archaeological interest away from its focus on prisons and institutional sites. It embraces a wider range of labor settings and products, including the dispersal of convicts across urban and frontier areas, and the operational logic behind the system. It also views the convicts both as individuals and a labor force, and the raw materials, roads, buildings, and other items they extracted, constructed, or manufactured equally as “products” of the regime.

Transdisciplinarity / cross-disciplinarity / multidisciplinarity in language teaching projects for future translators

The article discusses the role of transdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, multidisciplinary approach in translators' training. The paper provides an overview of this cluster of terms, underlining, on the one hand, their problematic ambiguity and, on the other, their conceptual similarity a better match either between a professional environment and academia or borrowing from (lending to) the knowledge and skills from different disciplines to solve a problem. The paper dwells on the educational potential of transdisciplinary education and the direction it has taken in recent decades. The authors claim the academic translator training can benefit from a suchlike approach. The transdisciplinary / cross-disciplinary project is outlined as the way by which a better practice-oriented and practice-based cumulative knowledge and learning can be formed. Specifically, the paper focuses on some academic translator projects aimed at students' dealing with audiovisual translation of video, infographics and multimedia resources for academic purposes and international events support. The paper illustrates how these projects can be implemented. The authors have stepped up their efforts towards including more transdisciplinary / cross-disciplinary / multidisciplinary projects in their curricula to show how the constructive correlations between educational and professional environment can be built providing more practice-focused knowledge and skills integration for students.

A synthesis of approaches to support integrated assessments of hazards for the emerging Blue Economy

Growth in offshore blue economies is predicted to accelerate as emerging food and energy production industries look to expand into these environments. Operating in novel environments for these industries inherently fosters uncertainty in outcomes generated by a complex suite of hazards, some of which are unknown prior to deployment. Faced with such uncertainty, a precautionary, flexible, and cross-disciplinary (integrated) approach is recommended to optimize the potential for hazards to be identified in a timely, comprehensive, and robust manner, and mitigated. However, relevant disciplines – such as aquaculture production, marine engineering, and marine renewable energy design, and associated interactions with society and the environment – often evolve with their siloed techniques and lexicons. Here we first provide an overview of selected discipline-specific approaches to hazard analysis as a first step in a pathway that can generate a holistic synthesis of hazards to and from multiple emerging sectors in novel environments. Despite challenges of applying these individual methods to cross-disciplinary projects for emerging industries, we then identify where disciplines share methodological approaches and where opportunities exist to develop integrated methods. With a growing focus on sustainable economic growth and optimizing the use of ocean space through multi-use, our review highlighted that the emerging offshore Blue Economy could benefit from the development of a flexible, integrated approach to identify and assess hazards in a comprehensive, robust and useful manner for successful planning, development, and operations.

Language and identity: past concerns, future directions

Abstract “Identity” as an operating variable and/or explanatory concept continues to pervade sociolinguistic scholarship. This article reflects on and discusses the continuing dominance of post-structural and social constructionist accounts of identity and debates whether recent work has led to an “unrestrained embracing of speaker agency” (Bell 2017: 592) with a comparative neglect of social structure, or whether this work is contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between local meaning-making practices and macro-socio(linguistic) processes, and thereby challenging extant binaries in sociolinguistics, in particular: the treatment of stability versus fluidity, agency versus structure and the traditional dichotomy between micro- and macro-sociolinguistics. Reflecting on historical developments and recent trends, it outlines the significant contribution of theoretical models and empirical studies to sociolinguistics, whilst noting obvious gaps, e.g. insufficient studies of the Global South. It is argued that recent work is contributing to a sociolinguistics which foregrounds and problematises the concept of “context” and the contingency of difference and belonging. The paper also argues that recent identity scholarship opens up opportunities for cross-disciplinary projects, drawing on the combined expertise of sociolinguistics, cognitive sociologists and psycholinguists to explain inter alia such phenomena as fluidity and variation in speaker/community attitudes and practices.

A review of Scandinavian research on medieval church roofs

The remarkable clusters of preserved high medieval church roofs in Scandinavia have been known since the early 20th century but surveys aimed at mapping and document these structures began first around 2000. The author reviews the State of Scandinavian research and presents recent and ongoing survey projects in Swedish dioceses. These cross-disciplinary projects have enhanced the value of historic timber structures as archaeological source material. A reading of craft techniques and tool marks provides insight into the work of the medieval carpenters. An example is presented of how a structured survey followed by moderate cleaning shaped a basis for maintenance and restoration in compliance with international principles.

Instructions for COVID-19 self-tests

Abstract This paper summarises a cross-disciplinary project that explored ways of making instructions, funded as part of the UK COVID-19 rapid-response initiative. The project explored ways of making instructions for COVID-19 Lateral Flow Tests easy for lay people to use. Our method comprised rapid design decision making, where we used existing research, good practice in information design and consultation with diagnostic experts as part of the design process. Iterative review by a panel of users informed the development of prototype instructions: small studies investigated user preference for diagrams, and gathered feedback on the graphic articulation of the procedural steps involved in carrying out the test.

Representing Normal and Abnormal Physiology as Routes of Flow in ApiNATOMY.

We present (i) the ApiNATOMY workflow to build knowledge models of biological connectivity, as well as (ii) the ApiNATOMY TOO map, a topological scaffold to organize and visually inspect these connectivity models in the context of a canonical architecture of body compartments. In this work, we outline the implementation of ApiNATOMY’s knowledge representation in the context of a large-scale effort, SPARC, to map the autonomic nervous system. Within SPARC, the ApiNATOMY modeling effort has generated the SCKAN knowledge graph that combines connectivity models and TOO map. This knowledge graph models flow routes for a number of normal and disease scenarios in physiology. Calculations over SCKAN to infer routes are being leveraged to classify, navigate and search for semantically-linked metadata of multimodal experimental datasets for a number of cross-scale, cross-disciplinary projects.

Four elders journeying ageing in isolation during uncertain or anxious times: an elder-directed, cross-disciplinary project about faith

ABSTRACT The role of spirituality and faith remains crucial for positive ageing. However, the voices and experiences of elders during and post-pandemic are understated. This elder-directed autoethnography considers the question: What role did your faith play in coping with social isolation? Four Christian elders narrate their spiritual journey leading to hope in uncertain times. The narratives highlight how their faith, routine, and rituals are bringing them calm, building resilience, and helping them cope with the dynamism of living in isolation. While the pandemic is immensely challenging, it is also providing the opportunity for reflection, faith-building, and encouragement to surrender to God.

« Science et fiction », un projet interdisciplinaire novateur en collège au regard des œuvres de Jules Verne et d'Albert de Lapparent

Les pages qui suivent rendent compte d’une expérience pédagogique menée durant les années scolaires 2019 à 2021, sous la forme d’un Enseignement Pratique en Interdisciplinarité (EPI). Le projet s’inscrit dans une réflexion sur l’accès au savoir de manière générale, et spécifiquement à la connaissance scientifique. Dans le cadre du sesquicentenaire de la Société Géologique du Nord, et en conformité avec les programmes scolaires, une équipe d’enseignants de disciplines à première vue éloignées mais pourtant si proches, a travaillé avec deux classes de 3e, en collaboration avec le Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Lille et l’Université des Sciences de Lille. Deux textes ont été proposés à l’étude : Voyage au centre de la Terre de Jules Verne, publié en 1864, et La question du charbon de terre d’Albert De Lapparent en 1890. L’enseignement en interdisciplinarité (Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre SVT, Français, Technologie et Histoire-Géographie-Enseignement Moral et Civique EMC) avait notamment pour objectif de faire comprendre aux élèves que la connaissance scientifique ne se réduit pas aux spécialistes qui en font leur domaine de réflexion ou d’application mais, au contraire, que la diffusion des connaissances scientifiques ainsi que le débat scientifique nous concernent tous. À l’époque de J. Verne, la littérature destinée à la jeunesse se donne pour mission d’instruire autant que de divertir. L’auteur diffuse, expose des savoirs : en géologie et minéralogie, mais aussi en géographie et en histoire. Il permet au lecteur d'aller à la rencontre des connaissances, de les expérimenter sous la forme de l'aventure. Afin de rendre compte du parcours muséal des personnages verniens, les élèves ont réalisé la programmation d’une application pour tablette qui prend la forme d’un « Musée virtuel », à partir du logiciel APP INVENTOR©. Le visiteur peut découvrir le texte du romancier, agrémenté de lectures à voix haute, mais aussi de connaissances scientifiques acquises grâce à l’étude des deux textes et à des rencontres avec des spécialistes extérieurs à l’établissement. Les élèves sont ainsi devenus des passeurs de science et de littérature. Comme J. Verne, ils rapportent des savoirs et exposent ce qui n’est pas encore montré. Dans l’application sont intégrées des reconstitutions paléoenvironnementales des passages de l’œuvre (Carbonifère, Jurassique), des approches scientifiques de processus géologiques et biologiques (minéralogie, volcanisme, paléontologie, évolution des organismes vivants dont la phylogénie des Primates et donc de l’Homme). De plus, J. Verne prédit déjà la fin de l’exploitation minière, thèse reprise par A. De Lapparent quelques années plus tard en 1890 dans son écrit scientifique. Une des salles de ce musée virtuel est consacrée à l’époque carbonifère. Une réécriture de l’expédition dans la houillère y est présentée ainsi que la reconstitution de l’histoire géologique et une réflexion économico-historico-environnementale comparant l’exploitation de la ressource fossile du XIXe siècle à nos jours.

Oral History as Creative Practice at Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling

Oral history is a field of research that is uniquely positioned to thrive at a time of intense public and scholarly interest in sharing personal stories. Unlike ethnography, oral history has not found an institutional home in North American universities given its often fraught relationship to the history discipline. History is typically grounded in distance—the more the better; whereas oral history is based on the idea of closing distance by learning with the communities we study. Yet oral history is thriving in Canadian universities in the in-between spaces of collaborative cross-disciplinary projects and research centres. After introducing readers to the situation in Canada, the article explores the ways that oral history and storytelling have come together at Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS). Oral history is a creative practice, and one of its great strengths is its openness to a diversity of approaches. This can be seen in the range of research-creation projects undertaken by oral historians at Concordia in the classroom and in our communities. Montreal Life Stories was the most ambitious of these projects, recording the life stories of 500 genocide survivors and integrating their stories in a range of public outcomes such as theatre plays, online digital stories, art installations, radio programming, documentary and animated film, and a museum exhibition. The article ends with consideration of the online Living Archives of Rwandan Genocide Exiles and Survivors as well as the new digital tools under development.

Digital Transformation and Ethics in the Context of Responsible Artificial Intelligence

This new book by Peter Kirchslager discusses digitalization, robotization, and automation of the economy, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) from an ethical perspective. The book can be read in the context of the responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework, where ethics is one of the key elements. The Horizon Europe programme of the European Union has several cross-disciplinary projects and interventions to research on ethical dimensions of the digital economy. Read More ...

Photosynthetic Bacterial Band-Aids for Enhanced Wounds Healing

Treating wounds with multidrug-resistant bacterial infections remains a huge and arduous challenge. In this work, we prepared a “live-drug”-encapsulated hydrogel dressing for the treatment of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections and full-thickness skin incision repair. Our live dressing was composed of photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) and extracellular matrix (ECM) gel with excellent photothermal, antibacterial and antioxidant properties, as well as good cytocompatibility and blood compatibility. More interestingly, the live PSB could be regarded as not only photothermal agents but also anti-inflammatory agents to promote wound healing owing to their antioxidant metabolites. In vitro and in vivo studies showed the PSB hydrogel not only had a high killing rate against methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) but also accelerated collagen deposition and granulation tissue formation by promoting cell proliferation and migration, which significantly promoted skin tissue regeneration and wound healing. We believe that these large-scale production of PSB Gel-based therapeutic band-aids possess the advantage of easy-to-use and promising clinical applications. Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21977024, 21601046 and 31971304), the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Basic Research Cooperation Project (19JCZDJC64100), Cross-Disciplinary Project of Hebei University (DXK201916). One Hundred Talent Project of Hebei Province (E2018100002). Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of Nature Science Foundation of Hebei Province(B2021201038). Declaration of Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: Animal experiments conducted in the work are in accordance with the Medical Comprehensive Experimental Center of Hebei University (Approval No. 2018004).

Developing a cooperative learning project: bridging the design, merchandising and retail processes

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a cross-disciplinary collaborative project where students can engage in a cross-disciplinary collaborative learning environment in which students jointly develop a semester-long project designed to bridge the design, merchandising, and retailing processes. The cooperative learning model was employed for the development and implementation of the project. After completing the project, we evaluated the student learning experiences against the Student Learning Outcomes through qualitative (i.e. reflection papers) and quantitative analysis (i.e. pre and post surveys). Findings suggest that, through the Cotton Capsule Wardrobe project, students from both programs gained insights and knowledge of professional practices within the fashion industry. Despite the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had in interrupting the later segments of the project, this research still provides valuable insight to the literature by demonstrating the application of the cooperative learning modules in cross-disciplinary environments.