Tecnologico de Monterrey. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2020 A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT MODEL TO ENHANCE ACADEMIC QUALITY IN ENGINEERING PROGRAMSAbstractOne of the main challenges in all areas of education is to ensure that the academic quality of theteaching – learning process is enhanced continuously. In this work, we present a continuousimprovement process based on Deming´s Plan-Do-Check-Act (also known as PDCA) continuousquality improvement model which was implemented in the School of Engineering and Sciencesat Tecnologico de Monterrey campus Puebla. This model encompasses a one-year cycle, it startsin August and ends in July. Faculty of the Academic Departments participate in the
learning objectivesand activities associated with an entrepreneurial mindset were previously described in [8].Throughout a capstone project, students must collaborate with diverse individuals in a teamenvironment, which makes it also an important venue for teaching and assessing teamwork. Themost recent ABET criteria for engineering programs explains that a team “consists of more thanone person working toward a common goal and should include individuals of diversebackgrounds, skills, or perspectives” [9]. The Student Outcome 5 states that students will have“an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create acollaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives” [9
design and analysis,emphasizing in signal processing and conditioning gives students’ better hands-on experience asthe fundamentals are covered in ME335/L. The assessment plan, which is discussed in the nextsection, will help both the faculty tune the curriculum even further. Fundamental concepts taught in ME335: measuring signals, error identification, uncertanity analysis, intro to data acquisition
sustainability b. Evaluate a product/ engineering system’s environmental impacts using Life Cycle Assessment c. Design/ redesign a product/ engineering system to using the engineering principles to improve environmental impactsThe achievement of these goals was assessed through students’ self-evaluations and analysis ofstudents’ coursework. In addition, the objectives are also planned to be assessed throughstudents’ capstone senior projects. But at the time of creation of this work-in-progress paper, thestudents who took this course have not worked on their senior project yet, as a result, this part ofthe assessment is planned to be conducted once the students worked on their senior projects. Toextend and complete this work-in-progress, it
andimplementation of practices and initiatives for increasing diversity of the student and faculty inthe mechanical engineering discipline must be a focus. Additionally, we believe that having awelcoming, inclusive environment is a precursor to improving diversity and thus should be animportant consideration in mechanical engineering education. We propose that introducing a fewcarefully designed practices that require very few resources and cause minimum disruption couldresult in a more welcoming and inclusive environment.Bringing about change for a more inclusive environment can be challenging, namely in that itcan be disruptive and require resources, but careful planning and strategic use of resources canhelp alleviate these challenges. A more inclusive
Civil Engineering and Director of Construction Engineering at The Citadel in Charleston, SC. His academic experience includes: transporta- tion infrastructure planning and design, infrastructure resilience, traffic operations, highway safety, and geographic information systems. His research interests include: constructing spatial databases for bet- ter management of transportation infrastructure, improving transportation design, operation, safety and construction, understanding long-term effects of urban development patterns, and advancing active living within the built environment for improved public health. He teaches courses in interchange design, trans- portation engineering, highway design. engineering
sessions, created engineering graphics tutorials, and recorded solutions for homework and example problems. Students have recorded final presentations for classes, design competition entries, and promotional videos for philanthropic and extra-‐curricular organizations. Numerous other schools have constructed Lightboards from our plans and specifications, which we have offered as open-‐source hardware ( http://lightboard.info ). Neither we nor the other schools have yet completed assessments of effectiveness of Lightboard videos as a learning tool, as compared to other methods of video creation. At the present time, we and other early adopters of the
Monitoring and advising. Their approach to achievethese objectives consists of five-step plan: 1) recruiting a substantial pool of high-achievingminority students with interests in math and science who are most likely to be retained in thescientific pipeline; 2) offering merit-based financial support; 3) providing an orientation programfor incoming freshmen; 4) recruiting the most active research faculty to work with the students(it takes a scientist to train a scientist); and 5) involving the students in scientific researchprojects as early as possible, so that they can be engaged through the excitement of discovery [3–5]. The similarities between the two programs suggest the importance of their objectives andapproach in the design and
project proposal, students were asked to document evidence of the plan they haddeveloped for their final coaster via concise descriptions, annotated sketches/graphics, roughlayouts in NoLimits, and notes they had made during the first half of the semester. At aminimum, they were expected to provide: • A list of major roller coaster features and the order of their arrangement. • A sketch or graphic showing the geometric layout of the major features. • Reasoning behind early design choices such as what makes the designed coaster unique, exciting, and attractive and why the particular layout was chosen.In the preliminary calculations, students were expected to present calculations for their out-and-back test track involving hills
that gamification of education provides both intrinsic and extrinsicmotivation is outlined. In this source, it’s further outlined that this type of gamification seems “to fosterhigher order thinking such as planning and reasoning”. Hence, badging fits well into our stated goals.This type of learning is only amplified by the feedback loop a badge system invites. Students all begintheir college experience with different backgrounds and levels of learning in written and oralcommunication. The badge feedback loop is designed to bring students to a solid integration of thecommunication skills at a developing or foundational level as outlined in the AAC&U VALUE rubrics,which provided the framework for our University’s Core Curriculum. The switch
interaction with a customer with well (or sometimes poorly) defined specifications andconstraints. To fill this need, and to help build community relationships, one of this past year’ssenior design projects sought to design and build a bike rental system. The product will connectthe college campus to the downtown York business district. Two representatives fromcompanies in the business district were the customers who helped the students developspecifications, participated in planning meetings, and attended design reviews of the bike rentalsystem. We and our business partners hope that the bike rental system will increase the numberof students frequenting downtown York and its businesses.In the first stage of this project, in the 2014-15 academic year
readings from Engineering: Its Role and Function in Human Society (Davenport and Rosenthal, editors, 1967).7 Page 26.1153.6 The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (ASCE 2006)8Uncertainty, Risk, Climate Change, and the Future (Sorting Fact, Fear, and Fiction) The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Cannot Solve Our Global Problems (Petroski 2010)9 The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future (Oreskes and Conway 2014)10Energy: Public Reactions and Engineering Alternatives (Or, is there really a “War onCoal”?) The Essential Engineer (Petroski 2010)Infrastructure: Planning for the Future (Or
orderto do so, the School of Engineering developed a zero-credit course that was given at the end ofthe sophomore year. This course was originally developed in response to the ABET 2000Criteria, and has been modified over the years to meet changes in protocol, curriculum, andtechnology8. During this course, the students go through an individual interview with theinstructor and take an exam based on the courses from the first two years of the curriculum. Thisinformation is then used during the department’s internal assessment process.This paper gives an overview of this exam, as well as how it is used to help in our internalassessment process and outlines recent plans to use the exam to aid students in their upperdivisional years as well. It also
students as seniors, comparing the maleversus female students.Another area where gender showed differences was the change in skills reported by thestudents between freshman and senior year. As shown in table 1 there was some change ineach skill for both genders, however the women had much greater variance betweenfreshman and senior year. The male students did not have any area that changed more than10%, while the women had several. They had a greater than 10% decrease in DecisionMaking, Flexibility, Futuristic Thinking, Goal Orientation, Interpersonal Skills, Leadership,Persuasion and Presenting. The two areas they had a greater than 10% increase wereDiplomacy Tact and Planning Organizing.Table 1: The percentage change in soft skills between
Radiation heat transfer 13 View factor for radiation heat transfer 14 Mass diffusionSeveral open courses referenced A Heat Transfer Textbook by Lienhard and Lienhard [30]. Theauthors hold the copyright, so this is not OER, but the authors have made the book availableelectronically at no charge. Since one main goal of the project was to reduce the cost of requiredcourse materials, it was decided to use this no-cost digital textbook as the main textbook for theSpring 2020 course while other OER materials were planned and created for this course.Therefore, the instructor’s efforts to create content shifted to producing short videos andplanning to eventually create an open textbook for the course. The textbook that was previouslyused in
productive.In addition, part of this program must include appropriate training and support for those who arementoring the students. Assessments need to continually redefine desired outcomes and goals ofsuch programs.Another shortcoming was that the program gave students and faculty a stipend, but it did notprovide any research related expenses. This is potentially limiting for some projects if faculty donot plan for student researchers far enough in advance.Changes that will be made for the upcoming summer program will include faculty sessions toprovide structure and methods for appropriate mentoring. In addition, SURE students will bepaired with a faculty member who is not a part of the research project, serving as a role modeland guide for
component as an integral part of the system; 3- Real-time evaluation of resources (i.e., time, money, human, etc.) as the system develops; 4- Assurance that when the system is realized, it meets Specific, Meaningful and Measurable goals (referred to in industry as SMM); and 5- Quantification of risk and mitigation plans (e.g., multiple options for an interface).Thus, the System Level Diagram approach is not only integrated within the synthesis andanalysis phases, but it also serves as a team integration tool that compels students to discuss andcommunicate together on regular basis. Additionally, it can be used during procurement andmanufacturing by setting ordering and fabrication plans since it shows dependency relationshipsbetween
3.67 5. I felt comfortable asking questions or getting help during the Math Review Sessions 4.28 6. I plan to continue using academic support services (such as SI, Math Lab or STEM Lab) for the Math Course I’m currently taking 4.41 7. My Math skills improved during this time due to the evening Math Review Sessions 3.64 8. My Math skills improved during this time
2015) since the nature of the learning experience, i.e.both quality and quantity of student activity, and methods of assessment vary in two settings. A carefulevaluation of student learning outcomes is necessary to determine the suitability of Mechanical Engineeringcourses for online education ensuring proper alignment of course outcomes with the instructional medium.Researchers have structured teaching roles in online courses into four categories, namely (i) a managerialor organizational roles concerned with planning, leadership, and monitoring the process, (ii) a social roleas the facilitator of discourse and discussion, (iii) an intellectual or pedagogical role sharing scholarlyknowledge, and finally (iv) a technical role providing
2 Practices for Conducting Engineering Research Student Presentations: Research 5 3 Topic and Plan of Work Special Topics in Mechanical 7 4 Engineering: Acoustics (Guest Lecture) My Experiences in Graduate 9 5 School (Guest Lecture) How to Create a Research Poster 11 6
ME-Practice classes replacing all traditionallab classes as part of a curriculum revision.The real course content planning started in summer 2013 with the finalization of the detaileddefinition of learning goals and identification of possible practice session experiments (not labs)that accomplish the learning goals in a particular sequence (scaffolding knowledge). Softwarepackages were chosen and coordinated for use in the curriculum to minimize the students havingto learn more software packages than needed. For the two-credit class, 13 weeks of materialswere created that cover safety training and writing instruction, data acquisition, reverseengineering of a consumer product and manufacturing techniques, tension and bending testing
-PBH students.Inspired from the first round of PBH implementation in Dynamics, the authors plan to refine thePBH implementation process in future offerings of this course. Specifically, the authors plan toconduct a multiple semester based study. In the second round of implementation, the PBHassignments will be kept optional in the first semester. The students who do not opt to completethe PBH assignments will serve as the control group of students for data comparison for the PBHstudents. The incoming grades of all students will be looked at by obtaining student grades fromthe previous “Statics” course in sequence through the University IKM (institutional knowledgemanagement) database to gauge the type of student and their interest. The
detailed the team’s work. Completion of the prototype was alsorequired which covered the building, testing, and evaluation of the prototype. Additionally, eachstudent was required to maintain an engineering logbook of the efforts on the project, keepingtrack of the time spent, the tasks being worked on, etc. The project required planning, proposalpresentation, scheduling, engineering, implementation, and written and oral presentations ofproject results.The assessment of the course was twofold: 1) learning of a design process and 2) developing aprototype by utilizing concepts and technical skills learned from courses throughout themechatronics curriculum. Based on the course objective, the following items were used to assessstudents’ learning
students. From student-led design and construction teamsthrough surveys of recent alumni, the methods and results of this single case study can serve as atemplate for development and evaluation of new maker spaces to review as they plan andimplement their own spaces to foster design, innovation, and entrepreneurship skills inundergraduate engineering students.2 Overview of the Design StudioThe Design Studio is a 5,500 square foot student-run space consisting of several interconnectedrooms on the ground floor of a building primarily used to house the mechanical engineeringdepartment offices and labs (Figure 1). It began in 2012 with just one room that was previouslybeing used as a large storage space, and grew strategically as departmental needs
initiated and/or promoted by theME S-STEM program. Typically, all ME undergraduate students receive advisement by staff members in theDean’s office during the 1st year and later by a faculty member in ME. Undergraduate studentsmay talk to their advisor once a semester to get clearance on their registration for the nextsemester. “Extra faculty mentoring” refers to the mentoring from a faculty mentor assigned toeach scholar in our scholarship program. The ME S-STEM scholars are encouraged to meet theirfaculty mentors when needed to discuss not only their academic progress, but also their futurecareer plan and personal issues. Most of the scholars had talked to their faculty mentors morethan three times each semester, suggesting that they felt
monitor Test Create a test protocol Create a test protocol for 9 protocol home security systemThe first few activity lessons were designed to facilitate planning for and designing a system. Thissub-module incorporated lessons on system architecture, how to solicit requirements, and thenhow to design a platform that addresses those requirements. The later lessons are focused oncreating system prototypes for simple tasks and the basics of programming and hardware. Lessonswere technical, but approachable for new students. The activities in each lesson allowed teams tocreate and make mistakes without having to fear broken components or harming themselves
importance of team development and performance. Next, the instructor provided the 3)lecture highlights, 4) example problem(s), and 5) group work as done in the Fall 2014 semester(described above). Three two-stage exams were also utilized as was done in the Fall 2014semester.Table 1. Sample of team-building questions Sample of Ice Breaker Questions What kind of place do you currently live (dorm, house, apartment, fraternity, sorority, etc.)? What is your favorite restaurant and why? What is the most beautiful place you have ever visited? Describe one volunteer experience in the last few years? What adventure did you do in the last year or plan to do in the next year? What is your #1 hobby
. Assessment establishes thatraise in student engagement and learning is significant. Student engagement calculated for thetotal class registration against the actual number of students present for that day. Actualengagement will be little higher, if the student engagement is computed against the actualnumber of student present in the class. However, it is evident that student engagement andlearning improved, using above method to solve problems through active learning. As a futurework, authors plan to establish a method to measure and present the increased effectiveness ofactive learning in such courses.References[1] Jenny A. Van Amburgh, et al, A Tool for Measuring Active Learning in the Classroom,American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2007
during homework applications. This 7-minute time constraintwas decided upon originally to align with the desires of GenZ students for short bursts ofviewing, but also fit well into the 12-minute restriction which is required under softwarelicensing terms. It was discovered early in our pilot that a strict adherence to the 7-minutelimitation was too restrictive for many of the planned videos and would require the instructor toeither reduce the included material or to artificially separate the footage into two videos. Neitherof these points were considered sufficient to maintain the original, relatively arbitrary 7-minuteframework and we modified the concept to allow for single-topic review videos which weresimply as short as possible to cover the
activities from the pilot program to be leveraged across multiple K-12 age ranges as part of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) outreach activities. To date, this program has been in place for three academic sessions of each course. Thework presented here will cover results and observations to-date, preliminary evaluations ofeffectiveness relative to standard (non-pilot) program instances, and plans for future work. Gradedistribution, pass/fail percentage, and anonymous student feedback surveys are utilized asmetrics to evaluate the impact of the pilot program’s changes for each of these courses.Description of Program The pilot program utilizes experiential learning tools in the form of hands-on projects,classroom