Sustainability In Engineering Education Research Articles

Teaching assistants’ contributions to creating inclusive and equitable learning spaces in engineering

ABSTRACT Sustainable engineering education requires us to address discrimination and inequity of experience, thereby contributing to a renewal of the engineering profession that reflects a rich diversity of experiences and perspectives. Many students experience discriminatory events in their classrooms, however the presence of teaching assistants in relatively high numbers means that they could provide both proactive support and reactive intervention to support inclusion and combat discrimination. This paper examines teaching assistants’ (TAs) contributions, employing observations from students (3988), student teaching assistants (277) and doctoral teaching assistants (65). We found that (i) students overwhelmingly reported respectful interactions with their TAs, (ii) while both student assistants and doctoral assistants see inclusion as part of their role, student assistants expressed more confidence in their ability to foster inclusion. Our analysis indicates that TAs are a constructive force to build inclusive engineering classrooms, informing our recommendations for improvingcampus culture.

Traversing the Evolution of Research on Engineering Education for Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review (1991–2022)

Engineering education plays a pivotal role in cultivating the engineering capacity for sustainable development. Nonetheless, there has been no comprehensive review that examines sustainability as a distinct knowledge domain within engineering education. This review filled this gap by conducting a bibliometric review to document the research landscape, analyze the intellectual structure of the literature, and identify emerging research themes. The review sourced 2738 Scopus-indexed documents published between 1991 and 2022. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, co-citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis. The study identified consistent growth in research output and geographic diversity. Four predominant conceptual themes were identified in the literature: (1) Engineering Education Reform, (2) Engineering Competencies, Pedagogy, and Curriculum, (3) Curriculum Assessment and Benchmarks, and (4) Sustainable Technologies. Findings emphasize the need for defining precise engineering competencies related to sustainability, incorporating diverse teaching methods, and ensuring that sustainability learning outcomes align with changing industry norms, regulations, and accreditation criteria. The study also highlights a growing focus on the use of Industry 4.0 technologies as a means of achieving sustainability outcomes. The review underscores the need for sustained curriculum reform to successfully transform engineering education toward sustainability.

Faculty Perspectives on Integrating Sustainable Development Into Engineering Education

Faculty Perspectives on Integrating Sustainable Development Into Engineering Education

Augmented Reality in A Sustainable Engineering Design Context: Understanding Students’ Collaboration and Negotiation Practices

This study reports on the use of augmented reality (AR) within the context of sustainable engineering design education. The objective of this study is to understand students’ collaboration and negotiation practices in a sustainable engineering design context using AR. The technology used in this study includes MERGE Cube (a physical cube that acts as a digital canvas for AR) and CoSpaces Edu (an online platform for students to build 3D creations and animate them with code). There have been 48 instances of student participation from upper elementary to middle school in four iterations of this study since February 2022. The research was conducted based on a design-based research methodology, and the data was collected through qualitative methods and analyzed using the intra-action analysis method. This study’s outcome revealed that interactions among participant dyads and with the technology shed light on distinct dynamics within collaborative sustainability-oriented learning and design processes. These diverse interactions collectively emphasize the multifaceted nature of collaborative design, where individual experiences, communication styles, and technological proficiency all play integral roles in shaping the collaborative process. In addition, the results of our research showed that the complexities inherent in negotiating ownership and collaboration dynamics are influenced by individual attitudes, timing of involvement, and previous experiences. Given the importance of collaboration in achieving sustainability-oriented goals, these findings are relevant to the field of sustainable engineering education, especially when working with younger children.

Case hacks in action: Examples from a case study on green chemistry in education for sustainable development

This paper aims to outline an approach for case-based chemistry and chemical engineering education for sustainability. Education for Sustainability is assumed to offer a holistic approach to equip students with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes needed to contribute to a more sustainable society in their future careers. While Case-Based Education traditionally focuses on disciplinary learning in simulated settings, it can also effectively teach essential sustainability-related skills like integrated problem-solving, critical thinking, and systems thinking. The approach we propose is “case hacking”, which should be understood as utilizing existing business cases while incorporating supplementary resources to align the assignment with intended learning objectives. This expansion of the cases involves, among other things, introducing additional questions and assignments, perspectives from stakeholders previously unexplored in the original case, and the integration of recent research articles from relevant fields. We advocate for the use of case hacking when educators want to harness the educational benefits of Case-Based Education while emphasizing the complexity of sustainability-related challenges faced by industrial companies today. As an illustrative example, we demonstrate the process of hacking a case related to Green Chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry, highlighting specific challenges for chemistry and chemical engineering education. We hope this example will inspire educators in these disciplinary contexts to engage with the case hacking approach as they navigate the complex terrain of sustainability.

Pedagogical Perspectives of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research: An Energy System Modelling Outlook in Relation to Energy Informatics

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss pedagogical frameworks and approaches to developing, delivering, and evaluating a new interdisciplinary course within the domain of energy informatics at both Master’s and PhD levels. This study is needed because many papers on sustainable energy engineering education concentrate on course content but provide very little information on the pedagogical methods employed to deliver that content. The proposed new course is called “smart energy and power systems modelling” and is aimed at discussing how mathematical optimization, in the context of computer science, can contribute to more effectively managing smart energy and power systems. Different pedagogical frameworks are discussed and adapted for the specific domain of energy informatics. An ASSURE model coupled with Bloom’s taxonomy is presented for the design of the course and identification of learning objectives; self-regulated learning strategies are discussed to enhance the learning process; a novel model called GPD (Gaussian Progression of Difficulty) for lecture planning was proposed; a teaching-research nexus is discussed for the course planning and enhancement. Adopting qualitative analyses and an inductive approach, this paper offers a thorough reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the new course, together with improvement possibilities based on fieldwork and direct experience with the students and colleagues. Opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinary teaching are presented in light of real-world experience, with a particular focus on the interaction between mathematics and computer science to study the specific application of energy and power systems.

The Development of Sustainable Engineering with PjBL during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Sustainable Engineering education must provide cyber-physical and distributed systems competencies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The COVID-19 pandemic caused profound impacts arising from a traditional on-site teaching model rupture and demanded distance learning for engineering students. In this context, we considered the following Research Questions (RQ): How can Project Based Learning (PjBL) be applied in hardware and software courses from the Engineering curriculum to foster practical activities during the COVID-19 pandemic? Is the student performance in the fully remote offering comparable to the face-to-face offering? (RQ1); Which Sustainable Development Goals are related to the Engineering students' project themes? (RQ2). Regarding RQ1, we present how PjBL was applied in first-, third- and fifth-year Computer Engineering Courses to support 31 projects of 81 future engineers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Student grades in a Software Engineering course indicate no relevant differences between student performance in remote and face-to-face offerings. Regarding RQ2, most Computer Engineering students from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo in 2020 and 2021 decided to create projects related to SDG 3-Good Health and Well-being, SDG 8-Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 11-Sustainable Cities and Communities. Most projects were related to health and well-being, which was an expected behavior according to how health issues were brought into highlight during the pandemic.

Capacity Building for Engineering Training and Technology via STEAM Education

This paper reports the “Capacity building for innovative engineers through STEAM education” project conducted at Kazakhstan’s Saginov Technical University (‘STU’) and funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AR09260338). The problem of intercultural communication and the ability to collaborate, the issues of critical thinking development, and using the creative approach to solving professional tasks remain weak in the system of engineering higher education in Kazakhstan. STEAM Education appears to serve a role in overcoming the problem. Conducting a comprehensive study of the world experience and developing strategies for introducing STEAM into the educational process at Kazakhstani universities based on multifactor SWOT analysis made it possible to form several STEAM approaches for innovative engineering education. In the paper, we present the STEAM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-Mathematics) Education framework for innovative training of engineers developed based on the best practices from around the world. This framework focuses on sustainable engineering education for intercultural communication, creative industry, and creative cooperation. In developing the STEAM Education framework, the researchers applied a methodology that included classification and comparison of international STEAM Education practices, analysis of regulatory documents, and statistical data in the sphere of education and multifactor SWOT analysis.

Acquiring, Analyzing and Interpreting Knowledge Data for Sustainable Engineering Education: An Experimental Study Using YouTube

With the immersion of a plethora of technological tools in the early post-COVID-19 era in university education, instructors around the world have been at the forefront of implementing hybrid learning spaces for knowledge delivery. The purpose of this experimental study is not only to divert the primary use of a YouTube channel into a tool to support asynchronous teaching; it also aims to provide feedback to instructors and suggest steps and actions to implement in their teaching modules to ensure students’ access to new knowledge while promoting their engagement and satisfaction, regardless of the learning environment, i.e., face-to-face, distance and hybrid. Learners’ viewing habits were analyzed in depth from the channel’s 37 instructional videos, all of which were related to the completion of a computer-aided mechanical design course. By analyzing and interpreting data directly from YouTube channel reports, six variables were identified and tested to quantify the lack of statistically significant changes in learners’ viewing habits. Two time periods were specifically studied: 2020–2021, when instruction was delivered exclusively via distance education, and 2021–2022, in a hybrid learning mode. The results of both parametric and non-parametric statistical tests showed that “Number of views” and “Number of unique viewers” are the two variables that behave the same regardless of the two time periods studied, demonstrating the relevance of the proposed concept for asynchronous instructional support regardless of the learning environment. Finally, a forthcoming instructor’s manual for learning CAD has been developed, integrating the proposed methodology into a sustainable academic educational process.

Sustainable Development in Higher Engineering Education: A Comparative Study between Private and Public Polytechnics

In Bangladesh, a four-year diploma program is the highest level of technical education provided by private and public polytechnic institutions. Using representative primary data of 1372 sample sizes from Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology, Gazipur, we examined whether students graduating from private polytechnics perform worse in higher engineering education than their public school counterparts. We mainly employed a multivariate regression model and found that students from private polytechnics receive lower grades by 0.120 cumulative grade points average (CGPA) despite similar socioeconomic, academic, and demographic backgrounds. These estimated effects imply that private polytechnics fail to significantly affect sustainable engineering education. These findings suggest that policy makers increase the number of teachers and laboratory facilities for sustainable engineering education.

Implementation of Integrative Projects as a Contribution to the Major Design Experience in Chemical Engineering

The training of chemical engineers requires creating dynamics that bring them closer to the reality of professional practice and providing active learning experiences to develop skills that strengthen critical thinking, autonomy, teamwork, and communication, as a contribution to sustainable engineering education. However, these experiences are isolated, and sometimes do not show an integrated vision between different areas of knowledge. This work aims to introduce the lessons learned by creating capstone integrative projects as tools for the design and control of processes in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. The capstone project was developed in randomly selected groups to develop a basic engineering proposal for an industrial process of local or national interest. Validation was carried out, consisting of surveys of 54 students in the last year of the program, an opinion query of 60 recent graduates, and a focus group of five graduates, with a profile of employers, management of innovation, development, and design of chemical processes. Between 2016 and 2020, more than 43 processes were evaluated with students, evidencing a significant improvement in the skills defined by the faculty in the graduation profile. A total of 94% of the graduates in that period recognize the capstone project as an integrator of design and process control, and it is concluded that this contributes positively to the professional development of the chemical engineer.

Grade Prediction Modeling in Hybrid Learning Environments for Sustainable Engineering Education

Since mid-March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education has been facing a very uncertain situation, despite the hasty implementation of information and communication technologies for distance and online learning. Hybrid learning, i.e., the mixing of distance and face-to-face learning, seems to be the rule in most universities today. In order to build a post-COVID-19 university education, i.e., one that is increasingly digital and sustainable, it is essential to learn from these years of health crisis. In this context, this paper aims to identify and quantify the main factors affecting mechanical engineering student performance in order to build a generalized linear autoregressive (GLAR) model. This model, which is distinguished by its simplicity and ease of implementation, is responsible for predicting student grades in online learning situations in hybrid environments. The thirty or so variables identified by a previously tested model in 2020–2021, in which distance learning was the exclusive mode of learning, were evaluated in blended learning spaces. Given the low predictive power of the original model, about ten new factors, specific to blended learning, were then identified and tested. The refined version of the GLAR model predicts student grades to within ±1 with a success rate of 63.70%, making it 28.08% more accurate than the model originally created in 2020–2021. Special attention was also given to students whose grade predictions were underestimated and who failed. The methodology presented is applicable to all aspects of the academic process, including students, instructors, and decisionmakers.

An integrated numerical visualization teaching approach for an undergraduate course, Flow in Porous Media: An attempt toward sustainable engineering education

AbstractThe complexities of observing flow phenomena in porous media have made it difficult to teach the course, Flow in Porous Media, to undergraduate students majoring in petroleum engineering. In this study, we propose an integrated numerical visualization teaching (INVT) approach that is based on MATLAB Pdetool, graphical user interface, and Visual Basic Programming. The effectiveness of the INVT method was evaluated in two ways: First, via statistical analyses of the examination grades of two groups (experimental and control groups) of selected undergraduate students from the school of petroleum engineering, after a carefully designed INVT tutorial program was conducted on the experimental group, and finally, by interviewing the selected students to ascertain their psychological wellbeing. The following results were obtained: (1) From the statistical analysis, it was observed that the grade distribution, arithmetic mean, median, and maximum scores of students in the experimental group were relatively higher, suggesting that the INVT approach was effective and suitable for the majority of the students. (2) The interviews revealed that the INVT method provides students with a better classroom experience and help them identify their area of interest. (3) The INVT method will provide other benefits, such as cost‐saving, greener classroom​s, decrease carbon footprint, talent and skill enhancement, and achieve sustainable development goals for education. This paper introduces an effective teaching method for environmental and sustainable energy education. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the INVT method is adopted in teaching a petroleum engineering professional course.

Incorporating sustainability in engineering curriculum: a study of the Australian universities

PurposeLiterature limited in scope regarding the incorporation of sustainability into engineering curriculum encouraged authors to look at the current approaches of universities to the integration of sustainability into university curricula. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the literature published and analyse the university secondary data (information published on the university websites and magazines and programme catalogues) to understand the current status of Australian universities regarding the integration of sustainability in engineering.Design/methodology/approachArticles and reports from different trustworthy sources have been analysed in this study. A text mining methodology was used to gather information from websites, magazines and programme catalogues.FindingsObtained information and data indicate that the universities are considering sustainability seriously with both internal and external stakeholders of universities working towards embedding sustainability in engineering curricula. Most of the Australian universities have successfully implemented sustainable engineering education and the rest are focussing on integrating sustainability into their engineering education curriculum.Originality/valueThis is the first review, which focusses on incorporating sustainability into the engineering education of Australian universities. However, considering current progress and also some drawbacks of the universities regarding the integration of sustainability into engineering curriculum, 15 future research questions have been developed, which should be considered to make the integration process more efficient and equip engineers who would be able to engage and tackle the environmental, personal, social and economic challenges of the twenty-first century.

Design of seed paper coaster for sustainable engineering and environmental education in kaxabu niumian community

The consumption of natural resources in the world is increasing. People consume a lot of energy in daily products, such as air and water, cause soil pollution, consumption of natural resources, and the Kaxabu Niumian tribe from a natural pollution-free environment the current excessive development and disintegration of agricultural waste materials. Therefore, it is necessary to understand and promote the entire educational process of new environmental protection technologies. Through the learning of school science and technology education, everyone can inspire ideas, starting from the community and school’s environmental education, making products that do not harm the environment, and continue to operate the environmental technology market through technology to improve the living environment. The material used in this product’s design is made of natural bamboo or environmentally friendly PVA material shared in the community, so there is almost no burden on the environment. The principle of use will be made through diversified geometric shapes and high-pressure forming of customized shapes. Starting from elementary school education, the primary school students collect water drops on the coaster to become a small potted plant. The water resources are recycled, and the coaster has new functions. This product design principle is taught as a whole set of environmental protection and sustainable engineering methods. The ultimate goal of this research is to integrate technology into education to understand the use of environmentally friendly materials in life, achieve innovative and sustainable energy technologies, and promote environmental awareness.

Sustainable and Flipped STEM Education: Formative Assessment Online Interface for Observing Pre-Service Teachers’ Performance and Motivation

Sustainable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education involves lifelong education in various domains. Active learning strategies are receiving increased attention as an important tool, and particularly online-based formative assessment interfaces, although challenges to their use remain in sustainable and flipped STEM education. In this research, we observed pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) performance and motivation in a university STEM course that was planned as a randomized examination of 71 students during a 2017/2018 course with an online interface for sustainable and flipped formative assessment. In terms of PSTs’ standardized performance and the motivation effect survey, we gathered and examined the data to observe pre- and post-test results on adaptive assignments. Additionally, feedback from/to instructors and their log records were recorded by the proposed interface. The results demonstrate the PSTs’ positive performance and motivation, and the feedback and log records reiterate its positive influence with 98.6% participation in the sustainable and flipped online formative assessment interface. Consequently, the foremost drawbacks and challenges that current and traditional STEM education are facing are meaningfully reflected by the results obtained. Thus, the platform allows PSTs to be more involved in experimental contexts and validates learning performance, and the motivations effect survey provides a sustainable and active learning methodology for their future profession.

Sustainable Software Engineering:A Perspective of Individual Sustainability

Sustainable software engineering is a mean of developing sustainable software with sustainable software engineering process activities while balancing its various dimensions for instance economic, environmental, social, technical and individual. It is conveyed that the economic, technical, environmental and social dimensions are explored to satisfactory degree however the individual dimension of sustainable software engineering which is concerned with wellbeing of software engineers is not explored to satisfactory degree with respect to its understanding and challenges. Therefore, the aim of the study is to highlight and prioritize the challenges regarding individual sustainability dimension. The study also provides the mitigation strategies for the top five individual sustainability challenges. The systematic literature review has been performed to report the challenges and mitigation strategies. The study finding shows that lack of domain knowledge, lack of methodologies and tool support, lack of education, varying and unidentified situations and lack of sustainable software engineering practices are top most challenges regarding individual sustainability. These challenges need an urgent attention to achieve the goal of sustainable software engineering. The study also reports various mitigation strategies to overcome the risk of identified top most individual sustainability challenges such as to introduce sustainable software engineering education and knowledge in software engineering curricula, development of knowledge sharing frameworks and awareness regarding unclear and varying situations for each software engineering activity etc. The study will be beneficial for sustainable software engineering body of knowledge, sustainable software engineering practitioners and researchers by providing classified list of individual sustainability challenges and their mitigation strategies.

Green Growth for achieving education and technology transformation in the mining industry

Green growth has emerged as an important means by which developing countries may achieve sustainable development. It means that fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies. This study aims to elaborate the economic growth and enhance the synergy between environment, education, economy, and technology. Those parameters are linkage with the roles of the mining industry. The study method is focused on literature review by extracting the information on green growth, technology, education, and mining. The study found that sustainable economic growth achieved through green environmental technologies to maintain and restore environmental quality and ecological integrity while meeting human needs with the lowest possible environmental impacts. In addition, the mining industry contributes significantly to the economy and “Greening” the engineering curriculum is an important consideration for sustainable engineering education from fundamentals to design in the 21st century. The engineering curriculum integrates green engineering concepts horizontally and vertically by taking existing courses and integrating topics as appropriate through examples, problems and case studies. On the other hand, the mining industry is moving towards digitization and digitalization. The digital evolution creates the opportunity for the mining industry, it can change the business model, reducing costs in the value of chain, improving safety and creating opportunities for new business.

A web-based tool framing a collective method for optimizing the location of a renewable energy facility and its possible application to sustainable STEM education

Abstract In this study, a prototype web-based tool is introduced for the estimation of the Location Suitability Assessment of a Biomass Plant (LSABP): input demands, inner procedures, and output results in response to various levels of government strategies. A collective methodology of Geographic Information System-Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA) and the Fuzzy-DEcision-MAking Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (F-DEMATEL) is presented. After implementing the Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) and two-way sensitivity analysis, we accomplish the most suitable biomass plants’ locations. The developed web-based tool framing the collective method targets and generates Multi-Criteria-Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS). Precisely, four main sections are described as general overview, MC-SDSS, two-way sensitivity analysis, and final result section for the LSABP. In final result section, users particularly test the location suitability option for five biomass plants with the chosen criteria. The results confirm that the suitable locations of biomass plants are situated near forests and in zones with low transport costs, which comprise only 9.25% highly suitable area. Five plants are not located in the highly suitable areas. The most influential criteria of the LSABP are the vegetation cover, agricultural area, transport cost, and potential demand criteria. By assessing diverse alternatives, the LSABP assists certain decisions for adjusting and analyzing the setting of biomass facilities on a strategic, tactical, and operational level. Therefore, this work demonstrates the novelty of framework development as a cleaner production for integrating globally accessible spatial and environmental algorithms and datasets in computing with newly designed and implemented an interactive web-based tool for the evaluation purpose of various personal and government levels. Particularly, it is necessary to apply its experience to the possible sustainable Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, which requires constant acquisition of knowledge and its dissemination.

Sustainable BIM-Based Construction Engineering Education Curriculum for Practice-Oriented Training

The latest IT technology integration movements, such as building information modeling (BIM), have engendered changes in the technology and participatory organizations in the construction industry, which have resulted in process innovations and productivity gains. BIM lays the foundation for using a variety of new information that is not applicable to traditional construction methods. Construction companies are applying such information to various analyses, simulations, and learning and education projects to stimulate innovation. In Korea, however, since BIM was introduced in 2008, it has been used in various ways across diverse fields, but its contribution remains minimal. This is due to the inadequate competence level of BIM managers, who emerge from a system incapable of adequately educating BIM managers. In other words, the curriculum has not been able to impart the BIM skills necessary to accommodate the requirements of the industry. Only the most basic BIM modeling course is offered, and even such a course is dependent on external instructors. This creates a gap with the existing construction engineering educational curriculum. This study proposes a BIM-based construction engineering educational curriculum that has not been attempted before to overcome these limitations and generate a BIM workforce to cater to the industry.