Undergraduate Engineering Degree Research Articles

Examining the Gender Wage Gap between Engineers with Paraprofessional Qualifications versus Undergraduate Degrees in Trinidad and Tobago

The literature on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field reveals that even with incentives to encourage women into the field of engineering, their level of enrolment and graduation remains low. This study aims to first examine the overall wage returns of all engineers in Trinidad and Tobago and second their gender wage gap at the paraprofessional (certificate/diploma) and undergraduate (first-degree) level of qualifications. Using Labour Force Survey (LFS) data for the 1991-2015 period, the returns of engineers are analysed by estimating a Mincerian earnings equation, and then an Oaxaca-Blinder wage decomposition, using a statistical level of significance, i.e., 0.1% it was found that in the first instance, the earnings of paraprofessional engineers were generally negative (fewer earnings) and significantly smaller than undergraduate engineers. Undergraduate engineers’ earnings appeared to be larger, and positive, and exhibited rising returns, with the highest returns shown at q80 of 18.8%, and the lowest returns at q20 of 13.2%. The earnings of undergraduate female engineers, although higher than their male colleagues, appeared to be falling across the wage distribution, i.e., from 12.7% to 8.2% between q10-q90, but benefit from higher earnings if employed in a low-income job. In the second instance, when looking at the field of engineering as a whole there is a gender wage gap of 1.7%, but when the type/level of qualification is considered, it produces a gender wage gap of 19.6% for engineers with paraprofessional qualifications, and 12.3% for engineers with an undergraduate degree in engineering. The largest gender wage gap is observed amongst engineers holding paraprofessional qualifications. Further analysis into the different components of this gap (unexplained, explained and interaction) reveals that female engineers are more likely to be discriminated against, especially when holding an undergraduate degree in engineering (4.8%), when compared to a paraprofessional qualification (3.6%). Thus, the gender wage gap does not favour female engineers. The paper expands on existing research on the gender wage returns associated with different fields of study and provides detailed evidence of the gender wage gap and the wage patterns emerging from the field of engineering in Trinidad and Tobago, regarding key groups of engineers holding paraprofessional and undergraduate qualifications in the field. It also gives important insights into the earnings of men and women in engineering for the period 1991-2015.

Raising awareness of the important role of engineering in sustainable development

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) professions play a crucial role in transforming 21st-century society, as they contribute to developing new technologies that support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Aligning engineering education with sustainable development requires raising awareness among students, fostering commitment among future generations of engineers, and promoting technical vocations. In this paper, an educational experience designed with these objectives is presented, in which more than 130 students from five undergraduate degrees in engineering and architecture at the Higher Polytechnic School of Zamora (HPSZ) of the University of Salamanca actively participated. To carry out the project, an online course was designed to train all participating students on general aspects of the 2030 Agenda, and research works were proposed in the ten involved degree subjects. The assessment of students' prior knowledge and learning regarding the 2030 Agenda was conducted through an objective multiple-choice pre-test and post-test. Additionally, their satisfaction with this educational experience was assessed through a questionnaire. The results revealed a considerable improvement in the students′ knowledge of the general contents of sustainable development, especially after participating in classroom debate sessions. The initial objective test showed a low average score, indicating the lack of knowledge about the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs among engineering students. However, the final objective test revealed a significant improvement of 3 points out of 10. Regarding the research works, out of a total of 91 students, 53 papers addressing complex issues related to sustainable development and current engineering solutions were presented. This approach facilitated collaborative learning and the celebration of World Engineering Day at the HPSZ. The results of the satisfaction survey demonstrated that the experience was positive for both students and faculty Furthermore, its media impact was essential for increasing engineering vocations′ visibility and social recognition.

Dispersing the misconceptions of molecular iodine in medical uses

Dispersing the misconceptions of molecular iodine in medical uses There are many uses for molecular iodine (I2) for infection prevention. Dispelling misconceptions about its toxicity, Dr. Jack Kessler, Chief Scientist at I2Pure, discusses the reality of I2 across medical indications and seeks to grow its application. With a Ph.D. in biochemistry and an undergraduate degree in engineering, Dr. Kessler has a passion for iodine chemistry and has been working to unlock its properties for various applications, including therapeutics, medical devices, water purification, and agriculture. He has encountered misconceptions about iodine and its usage throughout his career, rooted mainly in historic medical norms.

Transitions in development - an interview with Aydan Bulut-Karslioglu.

Aydan Bulut-Karslioglu is a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Germany, where her research focuses on the epigenetic and metabolic mechanisms regulating embryonic development. After completing her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, Aydan shifted focus to molecular biology for her Master's degree and epigenetics during her PhD in Thomas Jenuwein's lab. After a stint in the USA for her postdoc at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Aydan was awarded the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award to move back to Europe in 2018 to start her own lab. Since then, Aydan has been awarded Development's Outstanding Paper Prize for 2022 and, most recently, a European Research Council Starting Grant Award for 2023. We caught up with Aydan over Zoom to hear more about her path from chemical engineering to molecular genetics, her research and what it means to be awarded these prizes.

Training strategies from the undergraduate degree in chemical engineering focused on bioprocesses using PBL in the last decade

Global engineering education addresses the development of professional competencies in undergraduates to prepare professionals capable of solving complex technical problems under social, environmental, and economic challenges. In this work, training was carried out to incorporate the bioprocess research of the chemical engineering students at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin, Colombia, using a project-based learning methodology (PBL). An open call was made to the students, and they were challenged to build a prototype which they had to support together with a written report as evidence for their admission to the research hotbed and assign them research projects in bioprocesses. In the last decade, 276 students participated in the hotbed generating 21 conference presentations, four software, 14 research articles, and 16 academic awards. In parallel, a survey was conducted to analyze the perception of graduates participating in the hotbed according to a list of 17 competency criteria relevant to the chemical engineering program. It was found that the average perception is at the highest levels (4−5), which indicates that most of the graduates value the significant contribution made by the CIBIOT hotbed to the development of a professional in experimentation, communication, and acquisition of new knowledge.

Examining how social networks influence women and under-represented minority students’ pursuit of engineering in university: when, who, and how?

BackgroundWomen and under-represented minority (URM) students continue to be under-represented in STEM and earn the lowest proportion of undergraduate engineering degrees. We employed a mixed methods research approach grounded in social capital theory to investigate when they first consider pursuing engineering as a college degree major, who influences this decision, and how the influence occurs. First, we surveyed 2186 first-year undergraduate students entering engineering programs at 11 universities in the U.S. during the fall of 2014. Next, we interviewed a subsample of 55 women and URM students.ResultsSurvey findings indicated that women were more likely than men to consider pursuing engineering while in high school, before admission into college, or while in college rather than considering it earlier in their education. Black and Latinx students were more likely than white students to consider pursuing engineering after high school. In addition, Black and Latinx students were more likely than white students to identify a school counselor (rather than a family member) as having the most influence on their engineering academic and career decisions. In interviews, women and URM students provided examples of influential people who connected their aptitude and enthusiasm for mathematics, science, and problem-solving to engineering, explained the benefits of being an engineer, and provided advice about engineering academic and career pathways.ConclusionsEncouraging earlier consideration of engineering majors, such as during middle school, could allow women and URM students time to take requisite courses and take advantage of college preparatory programming. Likewise, universities can engage in intentional efforts to identify women and URM students with engineering interests and provide guidance. Such efforts should also include connecting them with other women and URM students in engineering. In addition, universities should support K-12 and university personnel in offering advice that can influence students’ decision to declare an engineering major, which could help recruit more women and URM students into engineering.

Enabling in-depth analysis in heat exchanger network synthesis via graph-theoretic tool: Experiences in Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus

The ability and capability to analyze and benchmark alternative designs on top of the optimal network are deemed valuable competencies for current and future chemical engineers. In this context, a process graph (P-graph)-inspired tool – P-HENS is introduced to an integrated plant design unit in an undergraduate chemical engineering degree program at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus in Malaysia. The energy recovery aspect is one of the key design elements in the integrated plant design unit. The introduction of P-HENS, which is capable of mathematically determining multiple optimal and sub-optimal solutions is considered useful for the students to (i) identify plausible heat exchanger networks (HENs) structures that may be overlooked using conventional approaches and (ii) enable a more in-depth analysis to justify the selected design. Overall, the implementation of P-HENS shows positive outcomes, where this free-of-charge software complements the learning of conventional manual approaches used in HENs synthesis. Furthermore, recommendations suggested by the users (students) are collected and compiled for potential future software development. This work serves as an essential reference for other chemical engineering educators who are teaching pinch analysis or heat integration-related courses.

Interview with Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos, Molecular Microbiology Poster Award winner at 2nd Workshop in Microbial Molecular Biology in Campinas, Brazil.

Molecular Microbiology Poster Award—Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos, master's student at the University of São Paulo for their poster entitled ‘Characterization of an antibacterial Type IV Secretion System effector/inhibitor pair with nuclease activity in Xanthomonas citri’. My name is Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos. I have an undergraduate degree in biochemical engineering from the University of São Paulo (USP). And, I am a final year master's student at the Institute of Chemistry. Bacteria sharing the same niche must compete for nutrients and space. In this project, our goal was to understand the bactericidal type IV secretion system of Xanthomonas citri, an important phytopathogen that causes large damage to citrus crops. The type IV secretion system, which is part of a new family of type IV secretion systems, can transport several types of bactericidal proteins to the periplasm of other bacteria. I work under the supervision of Professor Shaker Chuck Farah, who is a pioneer in the study of this system. In this project, I worked with a putative effector-inhibitor pair of the type IV secretion system. Computational analyses predicted that this effector had nuclease activity, leading us to hypothesize that this effector acts as a toxin that degrades the target cell's DNA. We showed, by using heterologous expression, that the effector protein is toxic on microbial growth. Bacterial competition assays further showed that the effector confers a strong competitive advantage. Using a reporter strain, we then showed that the effector activates the E. coli DNA repair response, and that this protein can degrade plasmids in in vivo assays. We finally showed that the putative related inhibitor can suppress the activity of the effector, confirming that the proteins form an effector-inhibitor pair. After finishing my master's degree, I intend to continue developing studies with bacterial effectors. To this end, I intend to enroll in a doctoral program in biochemistry and molecular biology of microorganisms, probably in another research center, as this would allow me to have a greater variety of academic experiences. Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos, Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo. E-mail: [email protected]

Melissa I. Chang, MD, MSE, FACS, FASCRS.

Dr. Melissa Chang was born and raised in a small suburban community of East Los Angeles, CA. She eventually moved to the East Coast to attend Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her undergraduate bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering and a Master of Science in chemical and molecular engineering. She then went on to attend Tufts University outside of Boston, MA, for medical school and completed her General Surgery training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, NY, during which she also spent 2 years as a research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital, with plans to become a Pediatric Surgeon. Things changed, and she completed her Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. As she tells it, “In trying to ‘figure it out,’ I made my way to Boston for medical school where I first fell in love with Colorectal Surgery during my surgical clerkship at the Lahey Clinic; during my research years where I returned to Boston is where I met my husband (Morris, a lifelong Bostonian); and meeting one of my future partners at a fellows' robotics course is how I ended up in Michigan.”

Black Men Committed to Making Engineering More Humane: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Two Engineering Education Scholars

Despite an abundance of scholarship on Black men in engineering, including both meta-narratives of underperformance and counter-narratives of success, there is scant literature written by Black men in engineering giving insight into their own experiences. Even less scholarship exists about Black men who have earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and are now working to shift the engineering education landscape. The purpose of this paper is to critically engage the narrative surrounding broadening participation in engineering by closely examining the experiences of two Black male engineering education faculty aiming to make engineering more humane. Drawing on the two authors’ experiences in engineering education, we use methods from collaborative autoethnography and Du Bois’ notion of double consciousness to analyze our interpersonal experiences of being both Black men and engineering education researchers within engineering education's larger systems of power, oppression, and social privilege. In comparing and contrasting our narratives, we were able to generate a better understanding of our complicated commitment to engineering education. In sharing our narratives, we intend to present a dialogic engagement that offers new insights into the sociocultural context of engineering education.

Curriculum Setting and Practice of Biological Engineering in the Context of Engineering Education: A Case Study of Qilu University of Technology

China has become a full member of the Washington Accord, an international agreement on mutual recognition of undergraduate engineering degrees. Under this background, the cultivation of undergraduate bioengineering talents in engineering majors has to fully meet the requirements of engineering education accreditation. Based on the practice of Qilu University of Technology for many years, the theoretical courses and experimental and practical courses have formed a curriculum system with three orientations and three main sections. This paper summarizes this to provide a reference for similar majors.

Process to Draft the Program Educational Objectives for Undergraduate Engineering Degree Programs

Process to Draft the Program Educational Objectives for Undergraduate Engineering Degree Programs

RealEngineering: Space – Designing the Community-Applied Space Engineering Program

Engineering education is still largely offered through traditional, content-heavy approaches, with key technical topics in individual courses separate from those that emphasize the practice of the engineering profession, resulting in fragmented student workloads. Traditional assessments do not accommodate students’ unique, diverse learning perspectives. These issues fail to recognize that engineering is above all else a community-of-practice, requiring practitioners to demonstrate innovation and resilience to address today’s complex challenges in sustainable ways.
 More recent programs adopt project-based pedagogies, that engage learners in engineering problems that affect their communities. This paper proposes taking the project focus further, with a structure that allows faculty and students to collaborate on real-world engineering work that is not just done for, but also with, the community, and with sustainability built in. Such an approach establishes an overarching connection between the “work” of an engineer and what it is to be a future engineer for society.
 The authors are developing a 4-year space engineering program proposal, where students from all years will collaborate to design, build, launch and operate a cubesat for, and with, the community as the full focus of their 4-year degree. A six-week pilot slice of the program took place in the summer of 2021 with 20 students from all undergraduate year groups collaborating on a community-focussed, sustainable small space-mission design activity to change power dynamics around water quality data in northern and indigenous Canadian communities. Students worked in organizational teams, with structured teambuilding and collaboration time, focussed working sessions from subject-matter-experts, microcredential learning and unstructured team time to advance their project. This culminated in a mission concept review with a team of expert, industry and community partners.
 This paper presents some of the key ideas that informed the program, and the tools used to frame the learning journey in an undergraduate engineering degree. The pilot demonstrated students’ readiness to take on complex, unstructured challenges and organize themselves, and the potential to offer undergraduate learning spaces that have a very different connection to community and global issues.

Novel Work-Integrated Learning Model Based on the German Education System: UQTR’s Dual Approach for its Mechanical Engineering Program.

This paper presents the German-inspired education model called Dual, as pioneered by l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Drummondville Campus) for its mechanical engineering undergraduate degree. Focus is on the program structure itself and the ongoing research project which aims to determine and measure outcomes of this novel approach from the student, industry-supervisor and professor perspectives’, specifically pertaining to their respective experience, impact on academic performance, employability, and the development of work-related skill sets. The methodology is set forth in this paper and results from similar experiences across Europe are presented. Qualitative and quantitative data for this specific project are still being collected and analyzed. The proposed model for this research stems from studies on active, experiential and work-integrated Learning. Motivated by a desire to better prepare engineering students for the ever-changing realities of the profession and as a response to the shortage of qualified personnel faced by the industrial sector, the program combines parallel on- and off-site learning over a consecutive two-year period. This differs from the more commonly known co-op structure where students alternate between study terms and work terms. With the proposed dual model, students complete the program within 4 years earning 24 credits, of a total 120, through work-integrated learning directly at the workplace (off-site). Courses completed jointly at the school and in partnership with the company include a 9-credit capstone design project and two 3-credit complementary courses, where reflective journaling and mentorship are central to both. In addition, three 4-month internships are also completed. Since June 2021, the program is accredited by Engineers Canada.

Low-cost System for Transmitting and Receiving Data by 433MHz Wirelessly for Educational Purposes

The concept of project-based learning is very popular among students as it allows them to solve problems and gain the necessary skills to design and implement wireless communication systems. However, it can be very challenging to implement and operate a system due to its high cost and closed architecture. This model uses project-based learning methodology to teach students how to design and construct wireless communication systems. It is a good study case for those pursuing their undergraduate degrees in electrical and electronic engineering. During the course, the students exhibited a lot of interest in the tool. This is due to the various theoretical and practical issues that are covered in the lectures. The project-based learning method is designed to prepare students for the job market by equipping them with the necessary skills and knowledge to make informed decisions. In this study, a simple wireless communication system is designed and implemented. That has ability to transmit and receive data in various ranges and environments to enhance the learning process of undergraduate students in the field of communication. Considering the length of the antenna and the environment (in/out door) the range of transmission and receiving data can be extended clearly in reality.

Racism, sexism and disconnection: contrasting experiences of Black women in STEM before and after transfer from community college

BackgroundRepeated calls to diversify the population of students earning undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have noted the greater diversity of community college students and their potential to thus have an impact on the racial/ethnic composition of 4-year degree earners. In this paper, we investigate barriers and supports to Black women’s success in STEM, using longitudinal interview data with seven Black women who were enrolled at community colleges and stated an interest in majoring in STEM at 4-year institutions.ResultsOur findings highlight a contrast between community colleges and universities. At community colleges, Black women were able to form supportive relationships with professors and peers, downplayed the potential of racism and sexism to derail their STEM ambitions, and saw little to no impact of bias on their educational experiences. Those students who transferred characterized university climates very differently, as they struggled to form supportive relationships and experienced racism and sexism from professors and peers.ConclusionsWe conclude using Patricia Hill Collins’ Domains of Power framework to categorize students’ experiences, then end with recommendations for change that will result in less alienating experiences for Black women, among other minoritized students.

Development of an Undergraduate Quantum Engineering Degree

Quantum technology is exploding. Computing, communication, and sensing are just a few areas likely to see breakthroughs in the next few years. Worldwide, national governments, industries, and universities are moving to create a new class of workforce - the Quantum Engineers. Demand for such engineers is predicted to be in the tens of thousands within a five-year timescale. However, how best to train this next generation of engineers is far from obvious. Quantum mechanics - long a pillar of traditional physics undergraduate degrees - must now be merged with traditional engineering offerings. This paper discusses the history, development, and first year of operation of the world's first undergraduate degree in quantum engineering. The main purpose of the paper is to inform the wider debate, now being held by many institutions worldwide, on how best to formally educate the Quantum Engineer.

Development of a student engagement score for online undergraduate engineering courses using learning management system interaction data

AbstractAlthough researchers agree that student engagement in online courses is a function of time dedicated to course‐related activities, there is little consensus about the best way to quantify the construct. This study introduces a measure for undergraduate engineering students' engagement in online courses using their interactions with their online course learning management system (LMS). Data from 81 courses offered by three fully online, undergraduate engineering degree programs generated a total of 3848 unique student–course combinations (approximately 2.7 million rows of LMS interaction data), to which we applied a five‐step process to calculate a single score representing student LMS engagement. First, we converted the students' LMS interaction data into a set of natural features representing the time they spent per 3‐day period on various course elements, such as quizzes, assignments, discussion forums, and so forth, and how these times changed across the duration of the course. We then used the natural features to derive 216 relative features describing deviations from typical interaction patterns among students in the same course. Next, we conducted association rule mining on a training portion of the data set to generate rules separately describing the behavior of students who completed the course (completers) and those who chose to drop early (leavers). The rules generated were applied to students from the testing portion of the data set to compute the percentage of unique rules met by completers and leavers. Finally, the mathematical difference between the percentages of completer and leaver rules met by each student was found to be the best measure of student engagement.

The status of medical physics in radiotherapy in China.

To present an overview of the status of medical physics in radiotherapy in China, including facilities and devices, occupation, education, research, etc. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The information about medical physics in clinics was obtained from the 9-th nationwide survey conducted by the China Society for Radiation Oncology in 2019. The data of medical physics in education and research was collected from the publications of the official and professional organizations. By 2019, there were 1463 hospitals or institutes registered to practice radiotherapy and the number of accelerators per million population was 1.5. There were 4172 medical physicists working in clinics of radiation oncology. The ratio between the numbers of radiation oncologists and medical physicists is 3.51. Approximately, 95% of medical physicists have an undergraduate or graduate degrees in nuclear physics and biomedical engineering. 86% of medical physicists have certificates issued by the Chinese Society of Medical Physics. There has been a fast growth of publications by authors from mainland of China in the top international medical physics and radiotherapy journals since 2018. Demand for medical physicists in radiotherapy increased quickly in the past decade. The distribution of radiotherapy facilities in China became more balanced. High quality continuing education and training programs for medical physicists are deficient in most areas. The role of medical physicists in the clinic has not been clearly defined and their contributions have not been fully recognized by the community.

The Gender Gap in Engineering Programs in Colombia

In Colombia, engineering is an unattractive field for women. As of 2018, 63,7% of undergraduate engineering graduates were men, and only 36,3% were women. This gap has not changed significantly between 2001 and 2018. This paper analyzes the gap between women and men who obtain undergraduate or graduate engineering degrees in Colombia. The analysis is based on data from the Labor Observatory for Education (OLE) and the National Information System for Higher Education (SNIES) between 2001 to 2018, and it is presented according to degree levels (undergraduate, master and Ph.D.), regions, specific fields of engineering, and salary. The data show a clear difference between the number of women and men graduating from engineering programs at all levels. This gap disappears in programs related to environmental, biomedical, and chemical engineering, where more than 50% of the graduates are women; but, in programs such as electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering, the gap is more critical, with less than 20% of women’s representation. To propose public policies or national programs to improve this situation, this paper also presents a review of international initiatives that have succeeded in improving the representation of women in engineering programs.