to the project sponsor. When a colleague asks about the resolution to the design concerns, the P.E. tells your colleague that if they raise the concern again the P.E. will have them fired. How ethical is it for the P.E. to act this way? [Likert scale] How ethical would your peers think it is for the P.E. to act this way? [Likert scale] How ethical is it in the present-day engineering profession for the P.E. to act this way? [Likert scale] Would you have made the same decision as the P.E.? Why or why not? [Open-ended question] What would your response be if you were the colleague who asked about the resolution to the design concerns? Why would that be
-year scholar create a project proposal that isreviewed by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Faculty are encouraged to write theseproposals for a general audience and to write in such a way that first-year students will want tojoin that project. In the most recent year, 82 projects were submitted, with 8 rejected for variousreasons (e.g., missing sections of the application). The final 74 were posted online, and the studentapplication portal was then opened. In the past year, the College of Engineering and EngineeringTechnology had the most projects (17), followed by WellStar College of Health and HumanServices (11), Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences (10), College of Computing andSoftware Engineering (9), and College of
college student participation as well as30% Black and Hispanic students. The NHERI-REU Program also collects qualitative and quantitative data on the progressof students’ preparation of scholarly work including their self-efficacy and confidence levelsthroughout the program. This paper will include quantitative pre- and post-program data to showstudents’ increased confidence and levels of self-efficacy. An important element of the program is the multiple points of support for students. Thesesupports include faculty, graduate students, peer, and program mentors. The structure of thesupport system and the community building activities throughout the REU program also includecareer development workshops, a NHERI faculty and professional
thatstudents practice their understanding of the concept through examples and peer discussions. Forexample, in a typical engineering economics class, the instructor will assign a problem requiringstudents to draw cash flow diagrams and determine cash flow equivalencies. Students may be putin groups to discuss the problem as the instructor walks around in the classroom to check onstudents. The Covid-19 pandemic however removed such face-to-face classroom discussionsamong students and instructors. During the pandemic, methods such as flipped classroom,online breakout sessions, peer assessment and self-assessment were used to engage students. Inthe context of this study, students also engaged in self-assessment (self-grading). This studyreports initial
program onthe students’ affective and learning experience. To this end, a survey was administered to theeight students who participated in the program, after completion of the projects. All studentsparticipated in the survey, and the results revealed that 62.5% of the students reported beingextremely satisfied with the robotics program, including working with their peers and interactingwith the faculty. The students expressed that they found the academic program experienceenjoyable and useful in helping them to identify their future college interests and majors.IntroductionEducational robotics offers a stimulating and enjoyable environment for young individuals, whilesimultaneously introducing them to technological advancements. A growing number
Paper ID #34889Development of Multidisciplinary, Undergraduate-Led Research Program inSoft RoboticsMs. Adia Radecka, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I’m an undergraduate student studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois. My focus is in the bioengineering subdivision: imaging and sensing. I have experience working with SoftRobotics, Arduino, and writing literature review. Traveling is a passion of mine, I have studied abroad in Rus- sia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Italy. I love meeting new people, developing new experiences, and solving problems.Ms. Alyssa Bradshaw, University of Illinois at
undergraduate teaching assistantships in the flipped classroom, anenvironment in which TAs take on a more important role than in a traditional classroom. Flippedlearning builds upon active learning, a constructivist approach to learning that emphasizeslearning by doing [18-20]. Active learning is based on the principles that students are activelyresponsible for their own learning within a collaborative process with peers and tutors [21].Flipped learning takes this further by moving the passive and individual-focused parts of STEMlearning – the first introduction to the material – out of the classroom entirely. This frees classtime to be devoted to interactive activities, such as problem-based learning, that reinforce coursematerial without sacrificing
opportunities while reducing the need for external employment. • Increase students’ engineering self-efficacy. • Increase recruitment of aerospace and industrial engineering students. • Encourage students to pursue advanced degrees. • Increase student retention in engineering.The ASPIRE program strengthens and supports students through a program of mentoring,networking, and academic design. The primary features of the program include continuousmentoring of all ASPIRE students by peers, faculty, and industry representatives; four face-to-face interactions with all ASPIRE students, mentors, and faculty per semester; and enrollment incommon courses.A total of 36 undergraduate ASPIRE Fellows will have been directly supported
the semester. To varying degrees, these weekly meetings also serveas peer mentoring and community building activities among the teaching teams assigned to eachcourse. There is little communication between graduate students assigned to different courses,even among Graduate Teaching Fellows. Written, qualitative faculty evaluations were veryuseful to workshop leaders, while quantitative student evaluations using a standardized formwere not reflective of the responsibilities of workshop leaders. Recommendations includeexpanding the faculty teaching mentor role, redesigning the student feedback form, and addingsocial activities across course assignments.I. IntroductionThose holding academic faculty positions within a college or university are
within the scope of the syllabus for the course. In this study, a courserepeated over three years was considered. Students were directed to undertake engineeringdesigns in specialized areas of transportation engineering, technology and management. Designtopics related to these areas ranged from Flexible Pavements, Rigid Pavements, Asphalt PavingTechnology and Pavement Rehabilitation, to Signalized Traffic Intersections. These topicscovered not only conventional transportation systems but also intelligent transportation systems.The students’ presentations were peer-graded.The extent of improvement in design, discovery, and learning was documented extensively byapplying appropriate statistical tests. Assessment, grading formula and results are
with many local community agencies.Dr. Bimal P. Nepal, Texas A&M University Dr. Bimal Nepal is an Associate Professor in the Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M Univer- sity. His research interests include integration of supply chain management with new product development decisions, distributor service portfolio optimization, pricing optimization, supply chain risk analysis, lean and six sigma, and large scale optimization. He has authored 30 refereed articles in leading supply chain and operations management journals, and 40 peer reviewed conference proceedings articles in these areas. He has B.S. in ME, and both M.S. and Ph.D. in IE. He is a member of ASEE, INFORMS, and a senior member of IIE.Dr
populations, i.e. students who tend to be first generation, minorities, and/orcommuters. These universities encounter similar challenges in first-year retention and graduationrates, especially in the STEM disciplines. As they strive to improve the first year engineeringand/or mathematics student experience at their campuses, they have engaged in differentapproaches; including Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL), formation of an Engineering LearningCommunity (ELC), and engaging students in outreach as STEM Ambassadors. Incorporatingthese individual strengths with new activities that will be shared across institutions, the team iscurrently embarking on a multi-year research project to uncover how students develop STEMidentity in an urban context, identify
. The images shown in this paper were acquired with a Zeiss EVO-50 scanningelectron microscope and an Asylum Research MFP-3D atomic force microscope.Bridges between the classroom and undergraduate researchBridge 1 – Students learn to read and comprehend technical papers from theprimary literature through a novel writing assignment – the NanoTracts paperThe process of reading and acquiring an in-depth understanding of peer-reviewed articlesfrom the scientific literature is an essential research skill that is out of the comfort zone ofmost undergraduate students. These skills are developed with time and practice, andproficiency ameliorates potential for success with research endeavors over their futurecareers. A term project has been incorporated
project and at the project's completion. The reports provide practice of oraland written communication skills. It often happens that teams become more competitive afterthe mid-project report, each wanting to develop a finished product better than what the otherteams seem to be developing. Team members submit a peer rating form for themselves andother members of their team as part of the final project report. Individual grades are assigned byweighting the team's grade for the project using the peer rating form results. The course isentirely based on the projects; no written examinations are given.GoalsThe goals of the course are for each student: • To learn C# and gain experience with the FCL (Framework Class Library) and the .NET platform
achievement test at the end of the academic year includedgrammar, writing, and an oral lecture presentation in English. Out of the 50 faculty, 37persevered through the whole program and showed significant improvement in Englishproficiency. Information about this program spread around the university by word of mouth,and many more faculty members showed interest for the academic year 2012-13 with anenrollment of 170 faculty (out of 150 planned) and 15 study groups. After one semester, theprogram has achieved 100% retention with all members still attending the courses.This paper describes the program created at Kazan National Research TechnologicalUniversity to improve the English language skills of their faculty and will focus on analyzingthe academic
Paper ID #49561Evaluating the Impact of a Summer NSF REU Program on UndergraduateStudents’ STEM Career Aspirations and Educational Goals: A Case StudyDr. Sudipta Chowdhury, Marshall University Sudipta Chowdhury is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in Marshall University. His area of research includes Critical Infrastructure Resilience, Disaster Restoration Planning, Supply Chain and Logistics, and formal and informal STEM Education. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and multiple conference proceedings. He serves as a reviewer of multiple journals such
still lacking in engineering is communication and professionaldevelopment courses. Whether students strive to be in industry or academia, effectivecommunication skills are highly sought after and often a requirement. As students transition fromundergraduate courses to graduate courses, the amount of writing and conveyance of data shiftsdrastically; however, even after twenty years, there still lacks the requirement for formalinstruction of these soft skills. Students have identified that writing is stressful and, thereforecould benefit from more formal instruction in scientific writing.10, 11Teaching Assistantship While formal instruction of professional development and communication is not requiredin many institutions, 36 out of the 100
on First Doctoral Degree Milestones Work In Progress: Bridging the Gap in Doctoral Engineering Education: Critically Investigating Factors Influencing Performance Outcomes on First Doctoral Degree MilestonesAbstract It is well documented that Black students tend to enroll and complete engineering Ph.D.sat disproportionately lower rates than their peers. What is less understood are the most criticalfactors influencing their success at critical junctures in the Ph.D. program. Existing scholarshipon the socialization processes embedded in pursuing a graduate degree are based on the premisethat transitioning into a hyper-specialized area is challenging. One of the most challengingaspects of
should change as a result of thisexperience [3]. The lessons learned in online education cannot be understated, and while it iscritical that while faculty work on improving their online, they must also focus on the benefits ofin-person learning for when they are in the classroom. In-person learning has many benefits:improved learning outcomes, equity in learning, personalized attention, and easier access toresources. One of the largest benefits of in-person learning is the opportunity of socialinteraction. The impact of this pandemic is expected to affect social skills of those who werestudents during that time [4]. In-person learning provides opportunities for students to socializewith their peers and build relationships. It is important that
-of-class assignments and most involvereflective writing activities. Prior to submitting their essay, students exchanged papers andprovided one-another with a peer review. Essays were revised based on peer-feedback and thenwere turned-in for grading. Students were not aware that their essays would be analyzed relativeto the nine motivation areas.During a review of the essay produced by the first cohort of students, the grader generated a listof the most common motivations to the prompt. A total of ten different motivations wereidentified in the first administration. Those same ten motivations have been used in allsubsequent essay reviews. The ten response areas used were: Challenging, Family/mentor influence, Hands-on
achievedstandard format project reports. this outcome. Table 2: Summary of Assessment ResultsConclusionsThe three-week geotechnical project developed by the author for the ItE course successfullyachieved the desired student learning outcomes related to geotechnical engineering. There wereno significant challenges associated with the project; however, to improve student writing, anadditional day could be added to the project to provide opportunities for peer review of draftreports.The project provided many benefits beyond the achievement of the desired learning outcomesincluding low cost, easy course preparation, significant student interest and engagement, andimproved student
understanding of DC motor control and how to work with them (power, speed, torque, and tradeoffs using gearing) • Describe the many subdisciplines of ECE • Design autonomous robots that respond to sensor inputs and use motors/actuators to accomplish simple tasks • Assess the factors affecting the reliability and repeatability of the programmed tasks (How consistently does it work? How well does it work? Why?) • Work in teams, including: o Fair delegation of tasks o Communicate with peers (i.e., other team members) o Assess the performance of team members o Create a realistic time-line for a design project and stick to it or assess why it didn’t work o
attend monthlyluncheons with their mentors to talk about issues that concern them. In addition, all tenure trackwomen are invited to attend brown bags lunches in which topics such as how to negotiate the Page 11.647.4challenges of maternity leave, grant writing, and progress towards tenure are discussed. Thebrown bags provide a venue for peer mentoring among women faculty.Participants report that they find support from the program in ways that departments cannot orare not providing. Participants mention that being able to meet other pre-tenure women outsidetheir department helps them to discuss and solve problems and to feel less isolated. In
of Arizona Amee Hennig has her B.S. in physics and creative writing from the University of Arkansas as well as her M.A. in professional writing from Northern Arizona University. She oversees the education and outreach activities for the Center for Integrated Access Networks based out of the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. At the University of Arizona she manages a number of summer programs for Native American students and educators.Daniel Lamoreaux M.A., University of Arizona Daniel Lamoreaux is a current doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona’s School Psychology pro- gram. While working as a graduate assistant for the education office of the Center for Integrated Access
have assessed various programand participant activities with an emphasis on participant communication skills (oral, written,and graphical modes) throughout various phases of the summer research experience. Tools usedfor assessment included: learning style and communication style surveys; incremental and finalperception surveys; review of weekly journal entries; peer reviews; review of communication-focused assignments (i.e., mid-program and final oral presentations, poster presentations, andvoicemail reports); and documentation of experimental procedures and results in a summaryreport. Several activities in the program involved the use of different learning styles such asgraphics-only and rapid, oral-only communication exercises. The learning
to a studentcentric model, where students become part of the means of their own instruction. Active learningprovides a number of different strategies to accomplish this and these techniques have beenresearched and have been shown to be effective means of instruction2.Literature on active learning generally includes the following characteristics: • Students are involved in more than listening. • Less emphasis is placed on transmitting information and more on developing students’ skills. • Students are involved in higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation). • Students are engaged in activities (e.g. reading, discussing, writing). • Greater emphasis is placed on students’ exploration of their own attitudes and values3
standardof teaching has changed dramatically. In this paper, we present some of the tools that have madea positive difference: • New Faculty Forums, where each new instructor was given the basic tools of solid pedagogy in an active learning environment • Workshops on Active Learning, Assessment, and Writing Well • Formation of a Teaching Enhancement Committee • Classroom Assessment Techniques, Midterm Course Evaluations, and Teaching Triads • Development of a Teaching Statement • Recent Changes to the Annual Report Form that include a substantial section on Scholarly Engagement with Teaching The three co-authors have been involved with all of these initiatives
semester.Understanding and embracing the cultural dynamics in the United States requires internationalstudents to engage actively with faculty, peers, and staff from diverse backgrounds. In additionto regularly scheduled events such as attending classes, international students enhance theircultural experiences by participating in student organizations and multicultural events. Workingin teams in graduate courses also helps international students integrate into American culture,which helps them adapt to classroom dynamics.While international students must demonstrate English proficiency to be admittedunconditionally into most graduate programs in the United States, they sometimes hesitate toengage in conversation due to cultural background or speaking English as
students with the operation of business systems and related technology and how these systems enhance productivity and research. • Help students recognize the value and importance of oral and written communication. • Assist students in developing efficient, ethical, and accurate work habits.In addition to completing their industry internship, students will finish the course with a digitalportfolio. This portfolio analyzes their STEM and soft skills needed in the workplace. Variousassignments engage writing, reflective, and oral presentation skills that make our students betterprepared for the workforce. Components of the portfolio include weekly journals (22.5% of finalgrade), specialist interview summaries (2.5% of final grade
successfully used in many disciplines, including CS. Peer instructionincludes both pre-work and a sequence of activities conducted during class. The in-classactivities are a mini-lecture by the instructor, solo voting on a multiple choice question, groupdiscussion, group voting, and then an instructor-led class discussion. Zingaro et al. (2013)investigate the role of pre-class preparatory work, specifically the reading quiz assigned tostudents to complete prior to class. The reading quiz has 2-3 questions based on content andone open-response question asking about areas of confusion, difficulty, or interest. The contentquestions are graded in 4 categories: blank, incomplete, complete but incorrect, and correct.The authors noted a submission rate of