Modern Engineering Curriculum Research Articles

Engineering students’ perceptions of problem and project-based learning (PBL) in an online learning environment

ABSTRACT Modern engineering curricula often rely on approaches such as problem and project-based learning (PBL) as a core teaching and learning strategy. With a growing need to move these student-centred active learning curricula to online and blended learning environments, it is essential that practitioners understand the impact that these different modes of delivery may have on student collaboration. This paper aims to identify factors that affect students’ perceptions of PBL in an online learning environment. This case study was carried out in an Irish university over a seven-week period with first-year engineering students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study utilised a questionnaire (n = 94) and semi-structured interviews (n = 7) to collect participant data. Qualitative data were analysed using Braun and Clark’s thematic analysis. The analysis identified 6 themes and 18 sub-themes that are linked to students’ perceptions of problem and project-based learning (PBL) in an online environment. The identified themes and sub-themes in this study are uniquely reported findings within the context of online PBL in engineering education.

Improving students’ freehand sketching skills in mechanical engineering curriculum

Freehand sketching is a fundamental skill in mechanical engineering and many other engineering disciplines. It not only serves as a communication tool among engineers, but plays a critical role in engineering design and problem solving. However, as computer-aided drafting has replaced traditional drawing classes nowadays, the training of students’ freehand sketching skills has been almost completely eliminated in modern engineering curricula. This paper describes the attributes of freehand sketching and its roles in several essential aspects of engineering; in particular, in its roles in problem solving, of which current literature has ignored. Representative examples are provided to show students’ freehand sketching skills in problem solving in a foundational undergraduate mechanical engineering course. Pedagogical suggestions are made on how to teach freehand sketching to engineering students.

Integrating innovation skills in an introductory engineering design-build course

Modern engineering curricula have started to emphasize design, mostly in the form of design-build experiences. Apart from instilling important problem-solving skills, such pedagogical frameworks address the critical social skill aspects of engineering education due to their team-based, project-based nature. However, it is required of the twenty-first century engineer to be not only technically competent and socially and culturally aware, but also innovative and entrepreneurial. This paper discusses a reformulated first-year engineering course at the University of Pretoria, which was adopted 6 years ago to better address the required innovation skills of engineering students. This design-build-innovate course employs a unique creative problem-solving strategy in designing and building solutions to set technological problems. The students further investigate the provisional patenting of their design concepts. Mini business plans are developed and the students participate in a university- and in a national innovation competition. This introductory engineering course has been successful as measured by overwhelmingly positive student feedback, several provisional patents, and a number of small start-up companies that emanated from the students’ work.

Promoting peace in engineering education: Modifying the ABET criteria

Modifications to the ABET Criterion 3 are suggested in support of the effort to promote the pursuit of peace in engineering education. The proposed modifications are the result of integrating the United Nations' sponsored "Integral Model of Education for Peace, Democracy and Sustainable Development" into the modern engineering curriculum. The key elements of the model are being at peace with oneself, being at peace with others, and being at peace with the planet. In addition to proposing modifications, specific classroom activities are described and implemented, and students' reactions and the effectiveness of the various exercises are discussed.

Designing the Design Engineer

The modern engineering curriculum has evolved to be heavily weighted with science and analysis. Recent concern with the need for instruction in design has led to the introduction of capstone design courses. These courses give the student an opportunity to produce a design, using the scientific principles and analytic methods learned previously. However, students are often thrown into such a course with little preliminary instruction on design methods. Though much of our early understanding of design consisted of broad generalities combined with sets of unrelated, uncodified tips and pointers, there is now a growing body of rigorous knowledge, first suggested 20 years ago, that might be called the science of design. This material is primarily related to techniques for generating, evaluating, and selecting among alternatives. Development of this science must be continued, but its incorporation into the curriculum should not wait for its perfection. Many of its components can and should be taught now, prepar...

The modern engineering bandwagon

An outstanding educator in the field of electrical engineering expresses his concern over the trend to distort modern engineering curricula into a virtual maze of mathematics and theory. The practical aspects of electrical engineering are being neglected, since there is not enough time for both practical work and theory. To paraphrase, an expert on energy conversion theory could freeze to death in a lumberyard because he doesn't know how to light a fire. The editors of Spectrum have endeavored to present Professor Moore's thoughts, first expressed to the 2nd Canadian Conference on Electrical Engineering, in his own words and in his own style.

Physical Theory and the Fall of Causality

Experimentation and observation, mathematical correlation of observable data, engineering design, and physical theory, are today interwoven in many ways in modern engineering education. Particularly, modern engineering curriculum encourages a thorough investiagation into the fundamentals of physical theory. For a successful inquiry into the intricacies of classical and modem physical theory, the engineering student must develop an affinity for the correct attitudes, techniques, and scientific language used by the theorists. In its broad, deep, and diverse inquiry, physical theory uses methods and techniques which often run contrary to common sense. In this paper we have attempted to bring about some of the most fundamental attitudes in modem physical theory in its language and in the use of analogies.

The analog computer as an aid in teaching mathematics

The analytical portion of a modern engineering curriculum rests primarily upon mathematics. Courses in engineering science can only be presented in a logical and rational manner when they are solidly based upon fundamental disciplines. This must be accomplished by presenting the subject matter in as general a format as possible - i.e., not from the point of view of any single engineering area - to provide the student with a broad background which he can later bring to bear upon his more specialized studies. Such comprehensive treatment of subject matter necessarily relies heavily on mathematics, which derives power and utility from its great generality and abstract viewpoint. At least some of the present mathematics curriculum must be rearranged and reoriented toward the computer. Analog and numerical techniques for solving mathematic problems will have to be an integral part of every mathematics course taught to engineering students and interwoven with the abstract concepts - i.e., the << puremathematics. The analytical methods to be stressed in such courses should be those which are most useful for the analog or numerical solution of relevant problems on a computer. Here several examples are presented to show how the analog computer can help to clarify and strengthen the student's understanding of some important mathematical concepts. The examples are drawn from several areas of mathematical analysis.

Physics for Engineers

The role that courses play in modern engineering curricula is discussed in the light of a very rapid development in the so-called engineering sciences. The importance of basic training in modern physics for the engineer is discussed. It is strongly recommended engineering students be taught physics by a physics department which is actively contributing to knowledge in the field of physics rather than to follow what appears to be a trend of having physics taught to engineering students by engineers.