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Effect of Evolving Design Requirements on Students' Motivation

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Tagged Topic

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37008

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37008

Download Count

253

Paper Authors

biography

Karinna M. Vernaza Gannon University

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Dr. Karinna Vernaza joined Gannon University in 2003, and she is the Dean of the College of Engineering and Business and a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Her B.S. is in Marine Systems Engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. She was awarded the 2012 ASEE NCS Outstanding Teacher Award, 2013 Gannon University Distinguished Faculty Award and 2013-2014 Gannon University Faculty Award for Excellence in Service-Learning. Dr. Vernaza does research in engineering education (active learning techniques) and high-strain deformation of materials. Recently, she has focused on systemic strategies for the retention and advancement of STEM faculty and students, and academic interventions to improve student success. She is currently the Principal Investigator of a $1 million dollar National Science Foundation S-STEM award (2017-21), and she has secured over $2.5 million in grants during her tenure at Gannon University. She is currently the PI of an NSF S-STEM and ADVANCE-PAID grants.

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biography

Saeed Tiari Gannon University

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Dr. Saeed Tiari is an Associate Professor in the Biomedical, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Gannon University. Prior to joining Gannon University in 2016, Dr. Tiari obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Temple University. His main research interests include bioheat transfer, biofluid mechanics, heat transfer and thermal energy storage systems. Dr. Tiari received his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in 2012. He also received his Mechanical Engineering undergraduate degree from the University of Tehran in Iran.

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biography

Scott Steinbrink Gannon University

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Dr. Scott Steinbrink is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, primarily tasked with teaching computer methods and design.

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biography

Lin Zhao Gannon University

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Lin Zhao received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada in 2006. She received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Shandong University, Jinan, China, in 1993 and 1996 respectively. From 1996 to 2002, she was a Faculty Member with the School of Control Science and Engineering and the School of Electrical Engineering, Shandong University. From 2002 to 2007, she was first a Research and Teaching Assistant and then a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Applied Electrostatic Research Center, the University of Western Ontario. Since 2007, she has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gannon University, Erie, PA, where she is currently a Professor. Her research interests include electrical machinery design, modeling and analysis of electric drives, and control of electric drives.

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Varun K. Kasaraneni Gannon University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-3128-7537

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Abstract

In 2008, XX University was awarded a National Science Foundation S-STEM grant (Award No. 0806735), known as Scholars of Excellence in Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) which provided scholarship funding for academically talented students having financial need. Since then, the grant has been funded twice more in 2011 (Award No. 1153250) and 2016 (Award No. 1643869); the current award period started in 2017 and will run until 2021. As a requirement for the SEECS program, all students must participate in a community-based design project, undertaken for a non-profit entity in the local region. This project is nominally a two-year effort, though some projects have taken longer to complete. Recently, a couple of the projects have experienced several significant setbacks due the decommitment of the original sponsor of the project, change of the project location, and significant change of the scope of the design. The current study presents the evolution of different parameters such as students’ enthusiasm, motivation, perception of values and group dynamics at different stages of the projects among five groups of SEECS students. The data was collected through student satisfaction surveys, which are administered to all SEECS students each semester. The results indicated that for the projects with no or minimal change in the design requirements, almost every parameter showed increasing behavior until the completion of the project. On the other hand, all parameters showed decreasing behavior during the time that the project was proceeding for the two projects with significant change of requirements. In addition, SEECS alumni have been surveyed as to their perception of the change of requirements and how (if at all) those changes mirror their working experiences. The paper will present summary results of those surveys.

Vernaza, K. M., & Tiari, S., & Steinbrink, S., & Zhao, L., & Kasaraneni, V. K. (2021, July), Effect of Evolving Design Requirements on Students' Motivation Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37008

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