Undergraduate Engineering Courses Research Articles

Hands-on activities in experimental high-energy physics for attraction and motivation to engineering careers

The Brazilian economy has experienced a considerable growth in the last decade, and the demand for engineers has increased significantly as a direct consequence. In order to deal with this novel scenario, it is important to attract new students to engineering and technology careers and also to motivate the current students to finish their undergraduate courses. It was observed that the overall interest for high-energy physics had recently increased, mainly due to the large media exposure of the modern experiments and their discoveries, including the Higgs boson. This work presents the results obtained in an educational project, which was aimed to include students in hands-on research activities related to high-energy physics experiments, in order to augment their interest in engineering and technology. Students from both the first-years of undergraduate engineering courses (from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil) and secondary/high-school courses (from the Federal Institute for Science, Education and Technology of Bahia, Brazil) were selected to participate in experimental activities within a research group composed mainly of master students and senior researchers. As a result, it was observed that the involved students increased their technical knowledge and became more motivated to pursue advanced studies in engineering, technology and related areas.

Effects of the Traditional and Flipped Classrooms on Undergraduate Student Opinions and Success

AbstractThe flipped classroom is becoming increasingly popular at universities because of its perceived benefits in promoting active learning and decreasing educational costs. Studies have found positive benefits associated with flipped classrooms; however, many have failed to control for confounding factors. Examples of confounding factors include comparing courses taught by different instructors or across courses taught in different semesters using different quizzes. The objective of this paper is to compare the traditional and flipped classrooms in an undergraduate civil engineering course while controlling for potential confounding factors. The quasi-experimental study incorporates students’ online behaviors, in-class performance, office hour attendance, and responses to both attitudinal and behavioral questions to assess student opinions and learning outcomes. It was found that student performance on quizzes was not significantly different across the traditional and flipped classrooms. A key shortcom...

ATTRIBUTE 7 AND ASSESSING WRITTEN COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN ENGINEERING

This paper will focus on Attribute 7,“Communication Skills” – and, specifically, on writtenassignments. This paper has grown out of twoinitiatives, one at my institution and one undertakenindependently as part of a national study. For thefaculty-wide initiative, we are preparing rubrics thatcan be used throughout the faculty as guidelines forattribute assessment in undergraduate Engineeringcourses. However, we have little information onAttribute 7; which courses, for example, target Attribute7 and how is it assessed? What kinds of assignments arestudents being asked to complete? More broadly, whatshould we be teaching and assessing if we choose totarget Attribute 7 in our outlines?Interestingly, it is the independent nationalstudy that may help us in this endeavor. After collectingcourse outlines from all the Engineering departments,we can first determine which courses target Attribute 7and then analyze the written course assignmentsaccording to 20 identifiable variables, such as length,genre and grading criteria. The challenge will be incalibrating Attribute 7 and our undergraduate program,including the undergraduate communication courses inour school that instantiate Attribute 7. In this paper, wewill report on our progress thus far, both in the processof identifying the written assignments our students arebeing asked to do and in the development of facultywiderubrics.Finally, although linking attributes to learningobjectives and determining the levels of communicativecompetence can be very challenging, we hope to showthat these two initiatives may help to make the tasks lessdaunting and more manageable for all the stakeholdersin the education of our Engineering students.

Design and implementation of a flipped classroom learning environment in the biomedical engineering context.

The design and implementation of a learning environment that leverages on the use of various technologies is presented. The context is an undergraduate core engineering course within the biomedical engineering curriculum. The topic of the course is data analysis in biomedical engineering problems. One of the key ideas of this study is to confine the most mathematical and statistical aspects of data analysis in prerecorded video lectures. Students are asked to watch the video lectures before coming to class. Since the classroom session does not need to cover the mathematical theory, the time is spent on a selected real world scenario in the field of biomedical engineering that exposes students to an actual application of the theory. The weekly cycle is concluded with a hands-on tutorial session in the computer rooms. A potential problem would arise in such learning environment if the students do not follow the recommendation of watching the video lecture before coming to class. In an attempt to limit these occurrences, two key instruments were put in place: a set of online self-assessment questions that students are asked to take before the classroom session and a simple rewards system during the classroom session. Thanks to modern learning analytics tools, we were able to show that, on average, 57.9% of students followed the recommendation of watching the video lecture before class. The efficacy of the learning environment was assessed through various means. A survey was conducted among the students and the gathered data support the view that the learning environment was well received by the students. Attempts were made to quantify the impacts on learning of the proposed measures by taking into account the results of selected questions of the final examination of the course. Although the presence of confounding factors demands caution in the interpretation, these data seem to indicate a possible positive effect of the use of video lectures in this technologically enhanced learning environment.

Re-engineering an Engineering Course: Exploring the Affordance of Flipped Classrooms for Transformative Teaching, Learning, and Workplace Competency

This research brief is investigating the extent to which a flipped classroom model enhances student learning of threshold concepts (TCs) in an undergraduate engineering course at a New Zealand university. This project extends the team’s previous research confirming the effectiveness of the TC theoretical framework across multiple disciplines including engineering.

Incorporating computational fluid dynamics code development into an undergraduate engineering course

The teaching of computational fluid dynamics at the undergraduate level usually focuses on giving students an understanding of the numerical methods and details involved, supported by what are little more than code fragments, followed by learning an abstract form of computational fluid dynamics skills and processes, without any real interaction with the complex core computer coding behind what is often just ‘easy-to-use’ or ‘push button’ commercial interfaces. Quite often, as the student progresses in his/her use of computational fluid dynamics, especially in the research area, it becomes clear that an ‘off-the-shelf’ commercial computational fluid dynamics package is not able to satisfy all requirements to simulate a given problem fully, nor to obtain accurate results. The purpose of this paper is to outline what must be taught to add computer coding to what usually is a well-protected, though capable of being compiled and linked, core computer code so that the complexity of interacting is lessened and better understood.

Strategies to Remove Barriers and Increase Motivation to Use the Tablet PC in Formative Assessment

This paper investigates how engineering academics can be encouraged to integrate the use of the Tablet PC to improve student understanding of course content through formative assessment feedback. In particular, it looks at the barriers and motivators for using the Tablet PC. Based on the results obtained from studies conducted on the utilisation of Tablet PCs in preparatory mathematics courses, incorporation of the technology into engineering undergraduate courses would appear to benefit students. The Tablet PC is both an innovative and adaptive form of technology which is able to support the teaching and learning process. Through the recognition of the observed positives and negatives of Tablet PC application in other courses strategies will be implemented that remove the recognised barriers and provide benefits thus encouraging engineering academics to use the Tablet PC to provide feedback on formative assessment.

Staff and Students Views on Industry-University Collaboration in Engineering

The university-learning environment in engineering is not sufficient for students to become engineers. The practical role of engineering is working on real world problems in an industry environment. Industry-university collaboration seems to be actively increasing in the development of engineering education in various parts of the globe. The close relationship between industry and university is a vital component of engineering pedagogy in Australia. This research paper is focuses on analyzing staff and students views on industry-university collaboration in engineering. The staff and students are playing vital role in industry-university collaboration. It is always worth analyzing staff and students’ views about their experience on industry-university collaboration. This research inclined to conduct a paper based survey with a cohort of students in second year undergraduate engineering course and also conduct face-to-face interview with staff members in the School of Engineering at Deakin University.

Water management capacity building to support rapidly developing mining economies

Many developing countries are experiencing rapid expansion in mining with associated water impacts. In most cases mining expansion is outpacing the building of national capacity to ensure that sustainable water management practices are implemented. Since 2011, Australia's International Mining for Development Centre (IM4DC) has funded capacity building in such countries including a program of water projects. Five projects in particular (principally covering experiences from Peru, Colombia, Ghana, Zambia, Indonesia, Philippines and Mongolia) have provided insight into water capacity building priorities and opportunities. This paper reviews the challenges faced by water stakeholders, and proposes the associated capacity needs. The paper uses the evidence derived from the IM4DC projects to develop a set of specific capacity-building recommendations. Recommendations include: the incorporation of mine water management in engineering and environmental undergraduate courses; secondments of staff to suitable partner organisations; training to allow site staff to effectively monitor water including community impacts; leadership training to support a water stewardship culture; training of officials to support implementation of catchment management approaches; and the empowerment of communities to recognise and negotiate solutions to mine-related risks. New initiatives to fund the transfer of multi-disciplinary knowledge from nations with well-developed water management practices are called for.

Learning by Simulations

Using a pedagogic case study in a traditional learning environment, in this paper, the authors demonstrate how an innovative yet practical computer-based simulation of a complex nano device was an effective tool that improved the learning outcomes of academically less-prepared Bachelor of Nanoscience students in an undergraduate engineering course in a rural university. The authors' case study presented in this paper strongly suggests that innovations in content delivery, and adaptive learning such as via simulations, can transform what it means to educate students in the 21st century.

A project-oriented approach for power electronics and motor drive courses

Power electronics and motor drives are major topics covered in undergraduate electrical engineering courses. Nevertheless, current teaching methods are usually based on intensive mathematical analysis, which can be difficult for students to understand but mainly to apply. This article provides ideas and practical experiences of a project-oriented approach implemented in power electronics and motor drives courses at the Automation and Control Department of the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Querétaro, México. By using a microcontroller-based motor drive and a more practical approach in class, it is possible to introduce students to these courses in a more attractive and efficient way. The results presented prove that this methodology improves student competency, increases motivation and promotes teamwork in such technical courses.

Research-based implementation of peer instruction: a literature review.

Current instructional reforms in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses have focused on enhancing adoption of evidence-based instructional practices among STEM faculty members. These practices have been empirically demonstrated to enhance student learning and attitudes. However, research indicates that instructors often adapt rather than adopt practices, unknowingly compromising their effectiveness. Thus, there is a need to raise awareness of the research-based implementation of these practices, develop fidelity of implementation protocols to understand adaptations being made, and ultimately characterize the true impact of reform efforts based on these practices. Peer instruction (PI) is an example of an evidence-based instructional practice that consists of asking students conceptual questions during class time and collecting their answers via clickers or response cards. Extensive research has been conducted by physics and biology education researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of this practice and to better understand the intricacies of its implementation. PI has also been investigated in other disciplines, such as chemistry and computer science. This article reviews and summarizes these various bodies of research and provides instructors and researchers with a research-based model for the effective implementation of PI. Limitations of current studies and recommendations for future empirical inquiries are also provided.

Mapeamento e análise de desempenho da graduação e da pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção no Brasil

A universidade se afirma como instituição por excelência, em todas as suas dimensões, para o cultivo do saber num constante processo de construção e reconstrução, em busca do desenvolvimento da cultura e pensamento. Nesse sentido, este artigo tem como objetivo analisar os cursos brasileiros de graduação e de pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção, considerando a ênfase do curso, as áreas de pesquisa, a situação geográfica e a sua classificação. Para isso, desenvolveu-se um estudo qualitativo e quantitativo, do tipo descritivo, tendo como plano de coleta dos dados uma pesquisa bibliográfica a partir dos dados disponibilizados nos sitesda Associação Brasileira de Engenharia de Produção (ABEPRO) e do Ministério da Educação (e-MEC). O estudo aponta que, apesar do curso de graduação e de pós em Engenharia de Produção terem se desenvolvido no país, a sua distribuição é heterogênea e a qualidade se encontra aquém das necessidades do mercado.

Using blended learning for self-learning

In this paper, blended learning has been used as a tool for enhancing the students' perceptive for undergraduate engineering courses. The experience contains producing material and distributing to the students through a website as well as via YouTube channel. The material of the video was carefully chosen based on the students' feedback regarding the most crucial topic of the course. The choice is based on the course challenges and the difficulties that the students encounter due to some misunderstandings. The responses from the students were collected and analysed based on both advantages and disadvantages, where the positive feedback was the most predominant one.

Multiagent Route Choice Game for Transportation Engineering

In undergraduate transportation engineering courses, traffic assignment is a difficult concept for instructors to teach and for students to learn because the concept involves advanced mathematical modeling and computations. A multiplayer game, called multiagent route choice, is designed to engage students in making route choices so that they can visualize how traffic gradually reaches a user equilibrium. In addition, the Braess paradox phenomenon, a concept not generally taught in undergraduate transportation courses, is embedded in the game for students to explore. A before-and-after comparison and a case–control study are performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the game as a curriculum tool. The impact of students' learning preferences is also investigated.

Motivating Students to Pursue Transportation Careers

General lack of awareness of the transportation profession and of its diversity of content has been cited as critical issues affecting transportation workforce recruitment. University engineering programs have a crucial role in recruitment and training of the next generation of transportation professionals, but in focusing mostly on automobile travel, undergraduate transportation engineering courses do not properly introduce students to the multimodal, environmental, and public service facets of the profession. Moreover, several surveys have cited that engineering students aspire to careers in which they can make a difference in the world, improve the lives of others, and better the natural environment. Service learning is one way to link course content better with students' motivation to study a subject while introducing non-traditional transportation engineering concepts in an effort to increase students' awareness of the diverse nature of the profession. This paper showcases how a transit feasibility study for Joshua Tree National Park was framed as a service-learning project and documents the lessons learned in facilitating student and community stakeholder involvement. A survey of student job placement after graduation showed that many of the participating students went on to transportation-related careers, as compared with their peers who had not participated. Although this unique service-learning project cannot be replicated exactly, it is a good model for forming future projects that highlight the multifaceted roles of transportation professionals and better leverage students' intrinsic motivation so that they persist through their degree programs to become members of the transportation workforce.

Using PDCA as a General Framework for Teaching and Evaluating the Learning of Software Engineering Disciplines

Software engineering disciplines need to be taught in contexts as diverse as undergraduate courses and large corporations training programs. A primary challenge in teaching such disciplines, in any context, is to quickly and effectively evaluate the students learning and measure their strengths and weaknesses. Another challenge is to make students of different instances of a discipline end up with the same basic foundations, making the knowledge independent of the instructor. To overcome these challenges we propose an approach for software engineering teaching based on adapted PDCA cycles and checklists as instruments of evaluation. We also report a case study which shows the implementation of this approach in teaching a first year undergraduate software engineering course. With a careful definition of checklists, the use of the adapted version of PDCA as a methodology for software engineering teaching is promising, allowing an efficient form of evaluation.

Developing Scholarly Teachers Through an SoTL Faculty Fellowship

The increasing interest in incorporating evidenced-based teaching in higher education has created a pronounced need for faculty to learn the theory and practice of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This article describes a program designed to prepare faculty to (a) draw on existing SoTL studies when designing and implementing evidenced-based teaching methods, (b) design SoTL studies to test the effectiveness of those methods, and (c) integrate their new knowledge of SoTL into the practice of “scholarly teaching.” This program has proven to be a successful model for incorporating evidenced-based teaching into undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses at our university.

Using UML Modeling to Facilitate Three-Tier Architecture Projects in Software Engineering Courses

This article presents the use of a model-centric approach to facilitate software development projects conforming to the three-tier architecture in undergraduate software engineering courses. Many instructors intend that such projects create software applications for use by real-world customers. While it is important that the first version of these applications satisfy the customer by providing the functionality the customer expects and perform reliably and efficiently, it is equally important to be able to accommodate the customer's change requests over the period of the product's lifetime. The challenges in achieving these goals include the lack of real-world software development experience among the student developers and the fact that postdeployment change requests will almost certainly have to be handled by students who are not among the original developers. In this article, we describe how a model-centric approach using UML has been effective in enabling students to develop and maintain eight software applications for small businesses over a 9-year period. We discuss the characteristics of our modeling technique, which include the application of modeling patterns and quality check rules that enable students to create a model that can be clearly and consistently mapped to code. We also describe the nature of these mapping-to-code techniques, emphasizing how they reduce coupling among the implementation's classes. We then discuss our experiences in the classroom with these techniques, focusing on how we have improved our teaching over the years based on the analysis of student performance and feedback. Finally, we compare our approach to related work teaching modeling and the development and maintenance of code in software engineering courses with both extensive and minimal modeling.

Lessons from an innovation-leader and tools to learn them

Purpose: A number of recent reports have suggested that communication and management skills are important competences for engineers today and are likely to continue so in the future. While participation in strategy management decisions is expected to be important for engineers in technology driven firms, little attention is given to strategy management tools in many undergraduate engineering courses. The paper demonstrates one approach to tackling this issue. Design/methodology/approach: The authors initially present a critique of the use of standard strategy management tools SWOT analysis and Porter’s 5 Forces for decision making about future company policy. This critique is then complemented by a case-study of a university start-up, a recognized innovation-leader, in which SWOT analysis, Porter’s 5 Forces and PESTLE analysis are applied retrospectively as sense-making constructs to understand the firm’s previous policy decisions.