Freshman Engineering Students Research Articles

Inducing Imitation Technique as a skill to acquire English Language Proficiency of Engineering Students

Abstract——Engineering students are tomorrow’s problem solvers. They are going to provide technical and innovative solutions and services to solve societal problems and make life easier. This necessitates today’s engineering student to acquire numerous skills to prepare themselves for not only national work front but also international work front. The ever evolving and challenging role of today’s engineer makes today’s students work on building and updating themselves on the required core technical skills but they fail to work on their English language skills. For many engineering students it has been observed that they have anxieties associated with the English language which in turn hinders their performance. This study is a humble try to induce Imitation Technique as a skill to help engineering students acquire English language Proficiency. Lot of work has already happened on how to improve students English Language skills but this study has an edge over by providing a unique method to not only learn English language but acquire English language without juggling through the tough grammatical rules of the language. The study focuses to strengthen the twelfth Program Outcome of the Engineering Attribute that is “Life Long Learning.” The study was conducted on freshman engineering students of a technical University. The study used quantitative research approach. The study investigated what are the apprehensions and anxieties students have towards English language and how Imitation Technique helps them overcome their apprehensions. The Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS) was used to find out the pre intervention status and post intervention results of the students. The post intervention status shows reduced English language anxiety level and how students have successfully been able to acquire English language through Imitation technique. Keywords—Engineering students; English language Anxiety; Imitation Technique.

Augmenting Freshman Rural Engineering Students’ Interaction in English Language using Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

Abstract— Today’s engineer constantly delivers on both national and international work fronts which gives interaction in English language a key role. This requires teachers to work on their interaction abilities especially for the students who come from rural background. It has been observed that rural students find it difficult to get acclimatized and comfortable with the usage of grammatical concepts in real time situations. This observation necessitates researchers to cater to the needs of these students through proper pedagogical interventions for continuous improvement. Over the years many researchers have used many theories and approaches to enhance interaction skills of rural students but these studies have given temporary solution. Here lies major lacuna thus the current study focuses on how rural freshman engineering students’ interaction can be augmented with the Task based language teaching approach. TBLT is an approach that emphasizes the learning of language through the completion of meaningful tasks. It is based on the belief that language is best learned when it is used to complete a real-world task. It provides students with immersive and engaging learning environment and promotes the practical and effective use of language in real-life situations. The study uses quantitative research approach. A sample of 35 rural freshman students of Technological University is obtained and analyzed. Based on the Pre-Intervention Test and the Post-Intervention Test the results reveal that TBLT strongly augments rural students’ interaction in English language using CEFR’s Common Reference Levels: Self- Assessment Grid. After the intervention, students were requested to evaluate their performance using the assessment grid once again. Encouragingly, there was a clear indication of improvement in their self-assessment outcomes. Keywords—Interaction; Engineers; Pedagogical Intervention; Task Based Language Teaching.

An Attempt to Enhance the Visualization, Imagination and Drawing Skill of Freshman Engineering Students through Problem Based Learning Approach

The Engineering Drawing is one of the important and compulsory course for all the engineering students in first year engineering. This course improves the visualization, imagination and drawing skill of the students which are helpful them to draw their ideas clearly and rapidly, to read the drawing drawn by others and to create successful design. Engineering Drawing course includes projection, section and development of solids in which students are expected to imagine, visualize and develop the drawing as per given conditions also it includes orthographic projections in which 3D objects are required to convert in 2D drawing. The students of first year engineering find this task difficult due to no prior basic knowledge of technical drawing, poor imagination and visualization skill. Hence the attainment of the course learning outcome related to these topics is recorded low. To overcome this problem, a problem based learning approach implemented along with classroom teaching in order to enhance the, visualization, imagination and technical drawing skill of first year engineering students. In this article, the author has presented the efforts taken to improve the visualization, imagination and drawing skill through active engagement of students for learning in the classroom and outside of classroom. Due to systematic implementation of problem based learning (PBL), student’s engagement towards learning, attainment of the course outcomes (COs) and overall exam result of the course have been improved. Keywords— Course Learning Outcome, Engineering Graphics, Engineering Drawing, Problem Based Learning

Sociocultural influence on engineering students’ collaborative design project: an Activity Theory perspective

Abstract In keeping with discipline-specific genre expectations for writing in scientific and technological fields, students enrolled in English writing classes for future engineers are often required to produce collaborative reports on team projects. For freshman engineering students, such collaborative report writing, which constitutes a cornerstone in their academic literacy, is an entirely new genre. Drawing on Engeström’s (Engeström, Yrjö. 1987. Learning by expanding: An activity theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit Oy) activity system and Storch’s (Storch, Neomy. 2002. Patterns of interaction in ESL pair work. Language and Learning 52(1). 119–158) interaction model, this paper explores two engineering freshmen’s experiences of working collaboratively in separate groups in the same writing class. Our focal students were both native-English-speaking women at a U.S. midwestern university. Over the course of one semester, they provided their class notes and project report drafts, and they and the course teaching assistant participated in interviews. Our findings demonstrate that while both students had similar levels of commitment to the collaborative project, their writing experiences differed depending on their respective group members and their own attitudes and experiences. Our case study has implications for engineering freshman writing education as we illustrate how the ESP class we examined can help students prepare for academic and professional communication. We also discuss ways to help apprentice future engineers overcome discipline-specific communication difficulties as they enter a new discourse community.

The Difficulties Encountered by English Professors when Attempting to Teach Writing Skills to Freshman Engineering Students

The aim of this study, which the researcher hopes to complete, is to investigate the difficulty faced by English professors when attempting to teach English writing skills to first-year engineering students. Participants of the study are 20 Assistant Professors, Male-7 and Female -13, from Department of English, in Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Avadi, Chennai. Problem Statement of the study is that the problems confronted by a language teacher in imparting writing skills, and possible solutions. It would be challenging to practise speaking and writing in a foreign language. It would be challenging for a class teacher to keep track of the students' progress and provide feedback. The provision of individualized learning might provide challenges. Returning corrected assignments. Challenges with maintaining discipline. Having trouble attending to every student during class. Finding pupils' names is difficult. It is impossible to build a strong rapport with students. Inability to give underprivileged students additional attention. Objective of the study to learn what challenges a language instructor faces when teaching writing. To recommend the best classroom size for teaching English writing skills. Research Questions of the study is 1. What challenges do language teachers in large classrooms face? 2. What is the appropriate class size for imparting second-language writing skills? The researcher employed two tools in the study to get the data. The types of tools and their intended uses are listed below: a questionnaire for teachers. The following justifies why the teacher was given the questionnaire: to comprehend the profile of the teacher. To learn the instructor's thoughts on the size of the classroom and how it affects the instruction of second languages.

Norwegian freshmen engineering students' self-efficacy, motivation, and view of mathematics in light of task performance

We report on 71 Norwegian freshmen engineering students' self-efficacy and motivation in mathematics. Students' responses to five-point Likert scales were analysed across three groups corresponding to different performance levels on a set of mathematical tasks. The groups were investigated to trace differences in self-efficacy, motivation, and the epistemological beliefs about the nature of mathematics. Results show that the Norwegian first-year engineering students' self-efficacy is closely related to task performance, but there is not a similar correspondence between task performance and the motivational values. The amount of higher performing students who regard mathematics as a set of (ready-made) tools for solving tasks is a little higher than the amount of lower performing students, while in the case of valuing problem-solving processes in mathematics, the distribution of students is opposite with lower performing students being a majority. The task performance levels are a significant predictor of how dynamic the distribution of the epistemological beliefs is.

Freshmen Engineering Students’ Perspectives on Engineering Ethics – A Qualitative Study

Engineering ethics is a vital topic in engineering education. Despite its importance, ethics is not much investigated in engineering education as compared to other disciplines. There is need to enhance understanding of undergraduate engineering student’s outlook on ethics at well-established levels to help them appreciate its importance. The study explores the assessment of freshman engineering students’ perception on engineering ethics by analyzing students’ perceptions qualitatively. Engineering ethics applies to every engineer and is very important in professional career which will impact lives. An open-ended survey was designed which was distributed to 23 freshman engineering students. Analysis of the students’ responses resulted in different themes: perceptions about ethics in engineering, ethical dilemma, role of ethics in engineering, morals and ethics, and training requirements on ethics. During the analysis the differences in students’ responses by discipline and gender were particularly examined. Responses from participants of computer sciences and its applied discipline showed relatively more detailed explanation on ethical values compared to other disciplines. Male participants’ responses were more elaborate and with better rationale than female participants. The output of this study will clarify undergraduate engineering students’ understanding on engineering ethics which could be used as a reference in introducing some workshops, webinars, courses, etc. related to engineering ethics to help advance students’ understanding. Keywords: engineering ethics, freshman students, qualitative study

Ethical Preparedness, Self-Efficacy and Challenges in Engineering Education – A Quantitative Study

Academicians and practitioners in engineering focus on promoting ethical behaviour in their field. Engineering ethics are essential for maintaining public faith in the field and its professionals, especially as engineers rapidly face global and socially complicated issues that involve technical and ethical challenges. Unethical engineering exposes companies to legal action, financial constraints, and decreased effectiveness. To enhance ethical awareness about one’s own ethical self- efficacy, ethical preparedness and the associated ethical challenges, ethical instructions are to be developed among students successfully. With this as the motivation, an attempt is made in this study to develop a survey instrument to capture the freshmen engineering students’ understanding related to ethical preparedness, ethical challenges, and ethical self-efficacy. Considering these three aspects, a survey instrument was created and distributed at an affiliated (autonomous) college in south India (Hyderabad Institute of Technology and Management) during spring 2021 to the freshman engineering students. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factor structure of the survey instrument and it results in three factors as hypothesized. The factors had a minimum and maximum loading of 0.56 and 0.90 and Cronbach’s α ranged from 0.83 to 0.88. This instrument could be used by institutions willing to assess students’ current levels of awareness regarding engineering ethics and decide nextsteps accordingly. Keywords: ethical challenges, ethical self-efficacy, engineering ethics, freshman engineering students

EVM: An Educational Virtual Reality Modeling Tool; Evaluation Study with Freshman Engineering Students

Educational Virtual Modeling (EVM) is a novel VR-based application for sketching and modeling in an immersive environment designed to introduce freshman engineering students to modeling concepts and reinforce their understanding of the spatial connection between an object and its 2D projections. It was built on the Unity 3D game engine and Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK). EVM was designed to support the creation of the typical parts used in exercises in basic engineering graphics courses with a special emphasis on a fast learning curve and a simple way to provide exercises and tutorials to students. To analyze the feasibility of using EVM for this purpose, a user study was conducted with 23 freshmen and sophomore engineering students that used both EVM and Trimble SketchUp to model six parts using an axonometric view as the input. Students had no previous experience in any of the two systems. Each participant went through a brief training session and was allowed to use each tool freely for 20 min. At the end of the modeling exercises with each system, the participants rated its usability by answering the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. Additionally, they filled out a questionnaire for assessment of the system functionality. The results demonstrated a very high SUS score for EVM (M = 92.93, SD = 6.15), whereas Trimble SketchUp obtained only a mean score of 76.30 (SD = 6.69). The completion time for the modeling tasks with EVM showed its suitability for regular class use, despite the fact that it usually takes longer to complete the exercises in the system than in Trimble SketchUp. There were no statistically significant differences regarding functionality assessment. At the end of the experimental session, participants were asked to express their opinion about the systems and provide suggestions for the improvement of EVM. All participants showed a preference for EVM as a potential tool to perform exercises in the engineering graphics course.

A Comparison between the Spatial Intelligence of the Freshman Engineering Students of Sharif University of Technology and Debrecen University

The goal of this paper is to compare freshman engineering students' spatial abilities (Spatial Intelligence) at two universities: Sharif University in Tehran and Debrecen University of Hungary, focusing on both their final mathematical exam performance and their gender so as to ascertain whether the students differ significantly in terms of their spatial abilities and/or their problem solving methods. The tests used to measure spatial intelligence performance and mental rotation was the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test (PSVT Branoff). The test results have been statistically evaluated and conclusions formulated. The results show that there was no significant difference between Iranian and Hungarian freshman engineering students in the performance of mental rotation tasks. However, a general gender difference in spatial ability performance was evident among the Hungarian students but not among the Iranians. The results also shed light on spatial rotation problem-solving methods that appear to be largely specific to females.

Factors Affecting Freshman Engineering Students’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics

Students’ attitudes toward mathematics play a key role in their academic achievements. Still, concerns regarding the low grades in mathematics tests of engineering students have raised questions about the reasons for their poor performance. Prior research has mentioned the impact of engineering students’ attitudes on their grades. Few studies have attempted to explore the factors that influence and form engineering students’ attitudes toward mathematics. The current study aims to investigate the factors that affect freshman engineering students’ attitudes toward mathematics using a qualitative research design. Interviews with 26 participants enrolled at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia provided insight into the students’ experiences through survey questions. Thematic content analysis was used in this study to analyze the interviews. The results of the interview indicate that the freshman engineering students’ attitudes are most affected by their fathers and their teachers. The causes that form students’ attitudes toward mathematics can be divided into two parts: internal and external. The internal causes result from the students themselves, which include practice and preparation, assessments and grades, effect of English proficiency, and time management. The external causes include teachers’ characteristics and parental support.

Attitude and Motivation affects English Language Proficiency of Engineering students: A Preliminary Survey through Adapted Attitude/Motivation Test Battery

Language proficiency is one domain everybody on earth wants to conquer. Administering language proficiency into oneself is not a cakewalk. There is a dire need to explore and better understand how factors like attitude and motivation affect the language proficiency of engineering students. Motivation is an integral part of almost everything we do in day to day life. It becomes an essential component when we are working towards imbibing some skills into ourselves as a trait. Lack of motivation will never lead us to make ourselves a skilled person. Attitude too is also a stepping stone towards being skilled. Today’s engineers are defined by their effective skills and not based on their grade cards. This research tries to find to what extent engineering students’ English language proficiency gets affected by the attitudes and motivation they carry towards English as a language. R. C Gardener’s Attitude/Motivation Test battery Questionnaire was adapted for conducting the quantitative survey. This study is also focused on enhancing the theoretical knowledge about how the factors like motivation and attitude towards the English language can affect the language proficiency of students. The respondents included freshman engineering students. The analysis shows that majority of the students do have a positive inclination and attitude towards the English language. The attitude and motivation can get affected by the course content, pedagogy, and assessment of the course at the university level. The relationship between the language trainers and students has a stake in affecting the levels of motivation and attitude of the students towards the English language. Students are highly motivated towards the English language to have shown a 100% inclination towards improvement during the semester. One on one interviews with the student and classroom observations have shown high motivation and positive attitude towards the English language has a tremendous effect on the proficiency levels of the students. English language proficiency enhances the competency of engineering students. Conducive and a healthy environment with a well-designed course can foster students’ English language skills. The effectiveness of the language can not only help them in in-classroom assessment but also fare better during their on-campus placement interviews.

Internet Addiction in Freshmen Engineering Students in India

Internet Addiction in Freshmen Engineering Students in India

Addressing Some Physical Misconceptions in Electrostatics of Freshman Engineering Students

While the electrostatics is important topic consisting one among the four pillars of electromagnetic theory, as being represented by Gauss’s law, students persist encountering difficulties in its understanding. Even though the trend looks universal, we triggered an investigation to search for the main reasons behind the students’ misconceptions of electric field and flux aiming to analyze their origins and to search for intervention pathways to make corrections and, thus, to enhance the students learning of these physical concepts. The subject of our statistical sample is a group of 211 freshman engineering students taking the course of “Physics and Engineering Applications II”. Tests were designed for the diagnosis of the origins of students’ struggles in an attempt to find plausible interventional solutions to reduce the effects. Indeed, the statistics of results shows evidence of deviation of students in figuring out the correct answers and characterizes the depths of the misconceptions and shortcomings. Under the light of our discussions, alternative interventions are suggested to reduce the size of difficulties in learning and to pave the way for better understanding of the physical concepts and achieving better results.

The Origins of Space Radio and Plasma Wave Research at the University of Iowa

AbstractThis paper discusses my recollections concerning the origins of space radio and plasma wave research at the University of Iowa. My career in space research started when I was hired as a freshman engineering student by Prof. James A. Van Allen in April 1958, shortly after his discovery of Earth's radiation belts with Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite. My early work mainly involved digital data system designs for the University of Iowa “Injun” series of satellites, the first satellites completely designed and constructed at a university. It was on Injun 3 that, at the suggestion of Prof. Brian J. O'Brien, I developed one of the very first radio and plasma wave instruments ever flown on a spacecraft. This instrument made the first pioneering studies of a wide variety of space radio and plasma wave phenomena, such as whistlers, chorus, and auroral hiss. These early studies were soon followed by somewhat similar NASA‐funded Iowa radio and plasma wave instruments that were used to explore Earth's magnetosphere with the Injun‐5, S3‐A, Hawkeye, IMP, and ISEE satellites, the solar wind with the Helios 1 and 2 spacecraft, and the outer planets and interstellar space with the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. My discussions of this very early era in space research, and the key people involved, are limited to the time period before roughly 1980.

Addressing Some Physical Misconceptions in Electrostatics of Freshman Engineering Students

While the electrostatics is important topic consisting one among the four pillars of electromagnetic theory, as being represented by Gauss’s law, students persist encountering difficulties in its understanding. Even though the trend looks universal, we triggered an investigation to search for the main reasons behind the students’ misconceptions of electric field and flux aiming to analyze their origins and to search for intervention pathways to make corrections and, thus, to enhance the students learning of these physical concepts. The subject of our statistical sample is a group of 211 freshman engineering students taking the course of “Physics and Engineering Applications II”. Tests were designed for the diagnosis of the origins of students’ struggles in an attempt to find plausible interventional solutions to reduce the effects. Indeed, the statistics of results shows evidence of deviation of students in figuring out the correct answers and characterizes the depths of the misconceptions and shortcomings. Under the light of our discussions, alternative interventions are suggested to reduce the size of difficulties in learning and to pave the way for better understanding of the physical concepts and achieving better results.

Are you better off alone? Mitigating the underperformance of engineering teams during conceptual design through adaptive process management

Teams are a major feature of engineering and are commonly thought to be necessary when solving dynamic and complex problems. Even though teams collectively provide a diversity of knowledge, skills, and perspectives to problem-solving, previous work has demonstrated that in certain scenarios, such as in language-based and more spatially oriented configuration design problems, the production by a team is inferior to that of a similar number of individuals working independently (i.e., nominal team). This research explores this comparison of individual versus group problem-solving within the domain of conceptual engineering design. Thus, a behavioral study was run with freshman engineering students, who solved a conceptual engineering design problem individually or collaboratively in a team. Results corroborate previous findings, exhibiting that individuals outperform teams in the overall quality of their design solutions, even within this more free-flowing and explorative setting of conceptual design. Exploiting this result, this work further considers whether adaptive feedback from a process manager can lessen the underperformance of collaborative design teams compared to individuals, by helping teams overcome potential deterrents that may be contributing to their inferior performance. Teams that are under the guidance of a process manager end up performing better than teams that are not in terms of solution quality, and almost as well as individuals, though not significantly different. This result suggests that process managers are able to mitigate some of the deficiencies in design teams. In an attempt to uncover some of the cognitive rationale and strategies that may be beneficial throughout problem-solving, the managerial interactions with the design teams are then investigated. Furthermore, to determine the reason of the collaborative teams’ underperformance, the effect of verbalization is studied as a possible cognitive hindrance. In the end, this work expands growing research on team problem-solving in engineering, and suggests that collaborative teams may not be optimal in every circumstance, but under the proper process management, can become substantially more effective.

Determinants of General Chemistry Success of Engineering Students in PLTL and Traditional Classroom: State Anxiety and Test Anxiety

The purpose is to find out whether state and test anxiety can predict general chemistry grade in peer-led team learning group (PLTL) and non-PLTL groups and to explore their predictability of the grade after controlling the influence of trait anxiety. The sample consisted of a total 128 freshman engineering students attending general chemistry in a private university. STAI and RTT instruments and exams were used to generate data which were analyzed by using standard and hierarchical multiple regression. The findings revealed that in both groups the combination of predictors is significantly related to general chemistry grade, having the strongest unique contribution of test anxiety; however, it was only statistically significant for PLTL group. After controlling the effect of trait anxiety, test anxiety still makes a unique significant contribution for PLTL group. Accordingly, test anxiety can be used to predict the general chemistry grade of PLTL students.

Academic Performance: Text Anxiety during examinations of Freshmen Engineering students MLRIT, Hyderabad

The main aim of this research was to find the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance of students at the under graduate level. A sample of 414 students was randomly selected from five different departments of Freshman Engineering at MLR Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, TS, India. Data was gathered by utilizing the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) developed and improved by Spielberger. Pearson correlation, multivariate English and regression analysis was run for data. It was found that a major negative relationship observed between test anxiety scores and students performance scores. Results proved that a cognitive factor contributes more in test anxiety than effective factors. Therefore, it is examined that test anxiety is one of the key factors that results the students’ underachievement and poor performance but it can be handled by rigorous training of individual students in linked with factors resulting test anxiety.

The effects of computer-aided design software on engineering students’ spatial visualisation skills

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to determine the influence of computer-aided design (CAD) software-based instruction on the spatial visualisation skills of freshman engineering students in a computer-aided engineering drawing course. A quasi-experimental design was applied, using the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test-Visualization of Rotations (PSVT:R) for both the pre- and the post-test. The participants were 116 freshman students in the first year of their undergraduate programme in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at a university in Turkey. A total of 72 students comprised the experimental group; they were instructed with CAD-based activities in an engineering drawing course. The control group consisted of 44 students who did not attend this course. The results of the study showed that a CAD-based engineering drawing course had a positive effect on developing engineering students’ spatial visualisation skills. Additionally, the results of the study showed that spatial visualisation skills can be a predictor for success in a computer-aided engineering drawing course.