strategic interventions that may combat observed trends. The intellectual merit of thisresearch project is that it will provide a greater understanding of the disparity between minoritystudents and Caucasian students, as it relates to engineering colleges’ dropout rates, and will helpcollege administrators devise a comprehensive research-based plan that could enhance thepersistence and retention rates of underrepresented minorities within their institutions. The broaderimpact of this research is three-fold: it will (1) strengthen working communities and the nation’sworkforce, (2) advance racial equity and justice, and (3) lead to the building of an economy forall.IntroductionIn the U.S., the social and political climate of the 1970s, including the
experiential learning in the form of a competition in the course. Someof the relevant studies are summarized in subsequent paragraphs.Sirianni et al. [1] carried out a survey of current civil engineering students and graduates ofRochester Institute of Technology for assessing the impact of the concrete canoe and steel bridgecompetitions on student learning and development. The study examined how participationaffected the growth of technical and non-technical abilities, confidence, motivation, andacademic success. Surveys, focus groups, and interviews were conducted for this study.According to the study's findings, taking part in these competitions helped students improve theirconfidence, motivation, and overall academic performance while also
States Coast Guard Academy (CGA), located in New London, Connecticut, is thesmallest of the United States military academies with approximately 1100 cadets. The mission ofthe CGA is to educate, train and develop leaders of character who are ethically, intellectually,and professionally prepared to serve their country and humanity [1]. CGA offers Bachelor ofScience degrees in nine majors, including civil engineering, and all cadets are required tograduate in four years. The civil and environmental engineering curriculum is broad and providesa solid background in the structures, environmental, geotechnical, and construction sub-fields ofcivil engineering. Graduates pursue several different career paths and many of them serve in theUnited States
continues to remain popular with college students, this video “paper”challenges the norm that academic documentation must appear in written form in either journalsor conference proceedings. However, for anyone who is not used to watching online videos tolearn new topics, a short, written paper will accompany the video.Act I: Exposition [1]Ace, short for Acero, is excited! After many years of studying, he is ready to enter his first collegeclassroom as the instructor. As he looks forward to his first class next week, he begins to feelnervous at the thought of presenting information in front of so many engineering students, manyof whom are much younger than he is and therefore, may have distinctly different ideas aboutclassroom instruction.Suddenly
project add in reinforcing material taught in theclassroom and often times help students gain a deeper knowledge of the material. In fact,product dissection style projects have been around since the mid- to late-1990s [1]. Hands-onprojects are often used in two applications: 1) to gain a deeper understanding of the course theorythrough application, 2) to motive learning of engineering topics. In this work the latter is thefocus for using a hands-on project in a first year engineering course. One goal of the hands-onproject development is to motivate the students make them excited to study mechanicalengineering. A second goal, is that the students leave the course with an introductory levelknowledge of the engineering design process. Specifically
. This paperwill detail the workshop format and supplementing documents, as well as the ideas generatedfrom the pilot workshop. The research practitioner hopes this brainstorming workshop can beused by other program managers to meaningfully engage with female engineering students,implement rapid change, and improve the learning environment for this underrepresented cohortof students.IntroductionDespite many research efforts and programs encouraging women into the STEM fields, in mostengineering disciplines there hasn’t been much progress for the past twenty years. As of datacollected in 2020, women earn only 24% of all undergraduate degrees granted in engineering andmake up 16% of the engineering workforce [1]. Female engineering students may
community created.1 Introduction“I'm mid-career, I'm seen as someone who knows things, who should be doing, officialmentoring, that type of thing. And I [think to myself], "Oh, please don't make me do this”… I'mpositioned as somebody who knows things or somebody who could be supportive or somebodywho can... I want to be those things. But if it's seen as more of a professional capacity, [I feel],‘My life is a lesson of what not to do’.”We see in this quote, someone who struggles with the complexities of navigating a mid-careerprofessional academic journey; a journey that can be fraught with dead ends, wrong turns, andhard-earned lessons. Irrespective of the challenges, formal mentoring for academics at this stageof their career can be sparse
they set out at the onset of everyacademic year.In a previous conceptual paper, we proposed a new framework, Black Student Thriving in Engineering(BSTiE, pronounced “bestie”), to describe what factors contribute to the thriving process based onseveral existing theories. Six components emerged: (1) internal environment, (2) competence, (3)motivation, (4) belongingness, (5) assimilation, and (6) external environment. The internal environmentprovides individual context – one’s cultural commitment and identity. Competence is how studentsperceive engineering concepts and their ability to achieve them. Motivation is a student's willingness tosucceed in engineering. Belonging is a student’s perception that they belong in their engineeringprogram at a
percent of students reported that their instructors werereceptive to their learning needs. At a microlevel, however, the data revealed certain areas in whichinstructors can make efforts to enhance current communication and instructional practices. Onewas the consistency for faculty to effectively communicate course expectations. Specifically,twenty-two percent of the participants mentioned the instructor did not clearly communicatecourse expectations during remote instruction.I. BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATIONBackgroundAccording to ongoing research efforts, classroom environment, which alludes to the tone, climate,or ambience influencing the setting, has a profuse impact on student engagement, success, andlearning in engineering education [1], [2], [3
starting salaries, these rarely come with defined benefit pension plans, but rather rely onemployees to navigate various investment plans for their retirement. At our school, civilengineering students take a senior seminar course that has a collection of topics to prepare themfor successful entry into and growth throughout their professional life. Among the topics in ourinitial offering of this seminar course was one seminar on the basics of financial literacy andmanagement, which proved to be very popular and highly rated as to its perceived usefulness bythe students. As a result of student feedback, the seminar was expanded to two seminar periods.This led the author to ask the questions: (1) is there a need for financial literacy education
Human Balance System, Co-creation, Graduate Education, Interdisciplinary, Sensor, Simulation I. Introduction In recent years, the limitations of traditional learning, such as instructor driven lecture style teaching,have been widely recognized, and there has been a growing interest in alternate approaches that em-phasize active engagement and collaboration. Research has shown that incorporating active learningstrategies such as group work, problem-solving, and hands-on projects can lead to improved studentmotivation, engagement, and performance [1]. To benefit from these strategies, it is important for grad-uate students to develop a sense of self-authorship and to take an active role in their own
the past worked as an assis- tant researcher in the group of educational Technologies at Eafit University in Medellin, Colombia. His research area is the online Laboratories ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2023 Learning Outcomes as a Self-evaluation Process Catalina Aranzazu-Suescun, Ph.D.1 and Luis Felipe Zapata-Rivera, Ph.D.2 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Cyber Intelligence and Security 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Computer, Electrical and Software Engineering Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott CampusAbstractLearning outcomes are measurable statements that can be used to
. For the sake of convenience,the majority with engineering backgrounds adopted IT (information technology) vs non-ITpeople.1 At the beginning more than 30 faculty members with diverse engineeringbackgrounds joined the program, while less than 5 members were recruited from humanities,entrepreneurship, social sciences, and arts (HESA). The curricular design principle was based on the integration of subjects, termed asnon-IT subjects, into core engineering subjects. The idea was very much like appropriatingusable/applicable dimensions of humanities as if they would lend imaginative power toengineering capacity. About one third of mandatory courses were composed of non-ITsubjects, whose teaching and learning models were project-based
made during a four-week period inwhich they design and build a physical device—a candy dispenser in the control course and astamping machine in the intervention course. A set of metrics of performance were comparedwith those of students in the control offering prior to the redesign of the course. 1IntroductionIn 2015, Stanford University’s Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME)curriculum underwent significant restructuring [1]. The program was altered to be comprised of aset of core classes and a set of concentrations in which students could choose to specialize. In theprocess, ME102 - Foundations of Product Realization was created. An introductory course to therelevant fields, ME
responses are analyzed to identify the need for shortcourse programs and the effectiveness of such training programs in expanding the knowledgebase and upskilling power systems engineers in modeling and simulation. The survey includesboth Likert scale questions (quantitative) and open-ended questions (qualitative), which areanalyzed using a mixed-method approach. Additionally, the responses from the industryprofessionals are compared with the ones from the students to investigate the differencebetween various target groups. The results show that 1) Simulation practice and studiesimprove participants’ competence not only in the use of the software package but also in theassociated knowledge in the field systematically, e.g., power system modeling
, the Canadian economy is the 9th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP[1] [2].However, real GDP growth in Canada has been staggering. Canada is currently investing inentrepreneurial activities to boost its economy in the coming decade. The Government of Canadahas established entrepreneurship as its main priority. Canada has been on a mission to promoteresearch and development (R&D) within the higher education sector with the aim of increasingthe production of new knowledge and attracting and retaining world-class researchers [2]. Canadahas reported a strong and stable state of entrepreneurship compared to other countries in the world[3]; however, there is a call for an increase in entrepreneurship education in Canada as it
) is due to the historical and demographic foundations that are not inclusive to womenand people of color that these fields were built upon. In their research, Lee et al. [1] andBlackwell et al. [2] both discuss how these factors continue to contribute to theunderrepresentation of women and people of color in the STEM industry. This is attributed to the“leaky pipeline” phenomenon where women lose interest in engineering as their careerprogresses due to continuous barriers such discrimination, inequitable resources andopportunities [2]. This further contributes to the loss of interest in STEM as young women andpeople of color achieve new milestones in their careers. Fixing the “leaks” in this pipeline,starting with addressing the dysfunctions
student readiness and contribute to the development of skilled professionalsin the engineering industry. This study provides insights for educators seeking to enhance onlinehands-on learning in engineering education.IntroductionOnline engineering education has seen significant growth in recent years due to advancements indigital technologies and the need for flexible, accessible learning opportunities [1]. However,traditional hands-on engineering courses present unique challenges in the online format. Thesecourses often involve laboratory or project-based work requiring access to specialized equipmentand collaboration with peers, which can be challenging to achieve in an online setting [2]. As aresult, educators are exploring new strategies to
for enhancing student participation, engagement, and retentionin engineering courses.In conclusion, the energy conversion course is a vital component of mechanical engineeringeducation, which plays a critical role in attracting undergraduate students towards pursuinggraduate studies in this field. The use of innovative teaching techniques can significantly enhancestudent participation, engagement, and retention in this course, which can ultimately lead toincreased interest in pursuing advanced studies in mechanical engineering.The energy conversion course was novel in several ways, as outlined below.1) Firstly, the course was taught in a unique manner that involved design and analysis problems, individual and group projects, and invited
environmental justice–namely whereengineers attend to their position as carrying out and reinforcing practices that create orexacerbate environmental racism but holding engineering as neutral.Recently, scholars published an editorial in the Journal of Engineering Education titled, “Theclimate is changing. Engineering Education needs to change as well” (Martin et al., 2022). Thescholars bring attention to the changing climate to emphasize four points (1) connect climate andsustainability to engineering design, (2) value cross-disciplinary perspectives, (3) “understandthe ethics and justice dimensions of engineering” and (4) “listen to and collaborate with diversecommunities.” (Martin et al., 2022, p. 740). In the third points, the authors discuss
feedback, we observethat digital badges facilitate the engagement of students and help prepare them for relevant skillspertaining to life/career, innovation, technology, research, and core subject matter.1 BackgroundOver the years, emerging technologies in transportation have resulted in new modes oftransporting people and goods such as ridesharing, unmanned aerial vehicles, smart city sensortechnology, and connected and autonomous vehicles. Due to such advances in technology, manyjobs in the transportation industry require a high degree of technical skills and often necessitatedegrees in STEM fields such as civil, mechanical, or electrical engineering ortransportation/supply chain programs. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, jobs in
UTSA and only about one-thirdat UTSA. Calculus I is a major predictor of future success in science and engineering programs,hence it is critical that students master the course material [1]-[2]. The future success of transferstudents is essential to a 4-year University like UTSA which has many transfer students. It isreported that transfer students often experience difficulty feeling part of the student communityand this can negatively impact their future academic achievements [3]. UTSA, like many 4-yearuniversity engineering programs work with local community colleges to create a detailedsemester-by-semester course plans for eventual transfer [4], some social and academicintegration activities [5] as well as cohort activities for transfer
responses too open-ended. In addition, it is important to equip students with the necessary research skills to findappropriate sources when conducting independent research on a topic. Therefore, students werealso asked to identify relevant articles to the course and instructed to leave comments for tworeading assignments.A questionnaire regarding the reading assignments was designed and distributed to students atthe end of the semester. The purpose of the survey was to gain insight into how students feltabout the reading assignments, evaluate the effectiveness of the assignments, and to locatepotential deficiencies for future improvement. In the paper, we discussed our observations fromthe survey results.1. IntroductionTextbooks are written by
%) veterans. There are 251 undergraduate students:123 (4.72%) active duty, 128 (4.91%) veterans. It offers ABET-accredited B.S. degrees in civilengineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, modelingand simulation engineering, and engineering technology (majors: civil engineering technology,electrical engineering technology, and mechanical engineering technology) with military andactive-duty representation in every major. See Table 1 for a breakdown of active duty andveteran students by class level and major for Spring 2023 as an example of military and veteranpresence within BCET. Student veterans/military students (SVMS) are a logical population toexamine when considering the critical STEM workforce and diversity
advancement of artificial intelligent technology, more and morepreviously unthinkable applications and services become possible. To meet this trend, more andmore new technical positions are created and are ready to be filled. Skilled and well-preparedengineers are highly demanded by such newly emerging positions. Computing programs in USuniversities cannot produce enough qualified graduates to fill these positions. To make theproblem even worse, computer programs suffer high dropout and failure rates, mainly due to thereason that students are unprepared and lose their interest in their entry-level courses[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. In fact, a significant shortage of skilled computer science graduates is observed andwill remain for the next decade [6, 7, 8]. The
also make the learning of digital circuit designmore enjoyable.1. IntroductionDigital circuit design is a fundamental course for many engineering majors including computerengineering, electrical engineering and computer science. This class covers the fundamentalknowledge of digital circuits, including Boolean algebra, logic minimization, binary arithmetic,circuit analysis and design. Digital circuit design also provides a foundation for understanding theinner workings of computers, which is essential for students who want to pursue careers incomputer engineering or related fields after graduation. From taking this class, students will learnhow to build digital circuits using basic components such as transistors, gates, and flip-flops
schedulesresulted in fewer students completing the formative assessments. More students completed thehomeworks before the exam date in the Strict semester, motivated by the partial credit deadline.Completion of formative assessments before the exams correlated with better performance, evenwhen controlling for student GPA.1 IntroductionThe blended teaching format has been rapidly popularized over the past years, especially duringthe COVID pandemic time. This form of combining online and in-class instructions providesstudents with an opportunity to learn how to distribute their time independently [1, 2]. It isimportant for instructors to understand how online engagement on assignments outside theclassroom affects students’ overall course performance, so
PIM? RQ2:What communication challenges are shown while working in a diverse team? RQ3: Whatstrategies did students learn from the PIM to overcome the communication challenges inteamwork? The data for the study were collected in the form of student reflections. The studentreflections were analyzed using both deductive and inductive thematic analysis. The Associationof American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Intercultural Knowledge and Competence(IKC) rubric was used to conduct deductive thematic analysis and answer RQ 1. The intent was toidentify the domains of intercultural competence reflected in two reflection questions. For both,the reflection questions following domains of IKC rubrics were identified they are, verbal and non-verbal
cultural and linguistic backgrounds, motivations, andresiliencies of the participants. This study assessed the relationships between HSIs that supportCulturally Relevant Pedagogy, Latinx Communities of Cultural Wealth, and students’motivational, cognitive, and behavioral engagement resulting in the development of self-efficacy. Introduction The need for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) is directly intertwined with thegrowing population of Latinx in the United States (U.S.). According to the Hispanic Associationof Colleges and Universities [HACU] [1], there are approximately 62 million Latinx people inthe U.S. The total Latinx population in the U.S. is greater than the populations of every