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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Katherine Pettrey, Louisiana State University and A&M College; Andrew Becnel, Louisiana State University and A&M College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

also the faculty advisor for the Formula SAE team at LSU.Dr. Andrew Becnel, Louisiana State University and A&M College 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE): Boston, Massachusetts Jul 28 GIFTS: Career Guidance 101Students are frequently under the assumption that an engineering degree guarantees a job atgraduation. Our Mechanical Engineering department at Louisiana State University (LSU) beganembedding career planning into the first-year engineering courses during the 2022-23 academicyear to give students a model for what it takes to be a top-tier job candidate (or candidate forgraduate school) at graduation. By providing students with the tools to set themselves up forsuccess

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Lisa Lampe, University of Virginia; Esther Tian, University of Virginia

reflection and planning to take ideas back to their campus. Thepresentation will include advising standards, resources, and recommendations.Learning goals: Attendees will be able to name 2 best practices within Academic Advising thatare feasible to implement in their program.Content: We will review National Academic Advising (NACADA) definitions of academicadvising, advising values, and resources. We will also cover some terminology and most citedliterature on Advising Structures, and how academic advising should be seen as teaching [1]. Wewill also review the Academic Advising Handbook to help participants understand StudentLearning Outcomes (SLOs) and recommended assessment practices [2].Activities: The welcome will include a poll to hear more

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Mohammed El Kihal, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Cassie Wallwey, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Juan David Ortega Álvarez, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; James Nathaniel Newcomer, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

goals and set off on academic trajectories to help them achieve those goals. 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE): Boston, Massachusetts Jul 28 Full Paper: Self-Regulated Learning in First Year Engineering: Opportunities for Practical ImplementationIntroduction & BackgroundThe first year of an engineering program plays a large role in shaping students’ academic andprofessional trajectories, as it helps them shape and inform their academic plans and careerinterests by teaching them foundational skills needed to be successful in an engineering program.Over half of the engineering programs in the U.S. and abroad surveyed in a study (~70%) haveimplemented some sort of ‘common

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Natalie C.T. Van Tyne, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Michelle Soledad, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Benjamin Daniel Chambers, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

environment, the built environment as a tool for teaching at the nexus of biology and engineering, and creativity-based pedagogy. He earned his graduate degrees from Virginia Tech, including an M.S. Civil Infrastructure Engineering, M.S. LFS Entomology, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning. 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE): Boston, Massachusetts Jul 28 WIP: “Tell Us What Works”: Exit Surveys for Formative FeedbackThis Work-In-Progress paper describes current work to leverage exit survey results for formativefeedback in a project-based, first-year engineering course. The following sections contain ourpurpose, methods, and preliminary results to demonstrate how we used Exit Surveys to

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Melissa C Kenny, Wake Forest University

astudent must still complete. A drop down menu for ‘designation’ options is shown.The goal of this assignment is not to have a set plan for each semester, but to guide studentstowards the resources they must use to choose classes and understand what they require.Students explore major and minor requirements, consider graduation requirements, find pre-requisite courses, and discover any relevant programs (e.g. study abroad). Students can resubmittheir curricular map an unlimited number of times in response to comments until they achievefull credit in order to develop mastery learning. This assignment ultimately helps students todiscover how they can find the answers to many of their advising questions on their own,empowering them to explore the

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Ashish D Borgaonkar, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Jaskirat Sodhi, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Lucie Tchouassi, New Jersey Institute of Technology

portion of the major linked deliverablefor the topic. Through the activity, students will be encouraged to reach a meaningfulmilestone toward completing the full assignment or project. This approach guaranteesthat all in attendance have at least started working on the deliverable and have a clearidea and understanding of what needs to be done. Instructors and support staff areavailable to answer any questions or to provide further clarification. The authors havepiloted this approach in a multidisciplinary first-year engineering design course andhave observed a significant increase in student participation, engagement, andperformance. This approach does require some advanced planning and redesigning oflesson plans but also provides an added

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Angela Jin Sadlowski, The Johns Hopkins University; Eileen Haase PhD, The Johns Hopkins University; Gyeongtae Sun Moon, The Johns Hopkins University; Meera R Bhat, The Johns Hopkins University

ethical Communication considerations, and accessibility[7]. Technical communication is an important skill for the LMs and first-year students, as it has been found to guide students through the “planning, drafting, and design of documents that will matter in their professional lives [8].” Public Speaking Public speaking focused on how students and LM can best prepare for oral presentations and what strategies one could use to become a better speaker[9]. Table 1: Leadership modules provided to LMs and their justifications.Project ApproachWe plan to conduct a single-site study at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore,Maryland and approved by the JHU Institutional Review

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Jeffrey Harris, York University; Tania Bakshi, York University

analysis is planned, including analyzing the impact of the block model for specificgroups such as first-generation learners. More detailed focus group analysis is planned, includinga follow-up focus group 4-months after the block model pilot. This pilot will continue into the2024-2025 academic year, allowing for additional data collection.AcknowledgmentThe authors acknowledge financial support from the York University Academic Innovation Fundand are gracious for ongoing support from the Lassonde Educational Innovation Studio. Data werecollected under York University’s research certificate e2023-264.References[1] J. Harris, P. Molicard-Chartier, and M. Jadidi, “Redesigning the common engineering first- year (Part 1): Designing for 21st

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Benjamin Goldschneider, University of Virginia; Shaylin Williams, University of Virginia; Esther Tian, University of Virginia

to improve the engineering education experience for future generations of engineers. As a McNair Scholar, Shaylin worked on chemical engineering projects creating thermal barriers for food packaging and studying soil remediation. Additionally, she completed an REU project in healthcare engineering at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. She earned a master’s degree in industrial and systems Engineering with a Management Systems Concentration in December 2022. Shaylin recently completed her Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Mississippi State University, using Self Determination Theory to analyze freshmen and continuing Summer Bridge students’ experiences and senior engineering students’ graduation plans. She

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Toluwani Collins Olukanni, Norwich University; Majd Khalaf, Norwich University; Michael Cross, Norwich University; David M. Feinauer P.E., Virginia Military Institute; Ali Al Bataineh, Norwich University

do you wish you had developed previously to help you with the project? Why? • What did you learn about your partner(s)? How did you learn this? • What have you learned about yourself? • What have you learned about the engineering process? Why? / Which aspects helped you learn this? 4. Norming • Did you establish performance expectations and behavior norms? If so, how and when? • If something wasn't meeting your expectations, what did you do to correct it? 5. Action Plan • What advice would you give about how to conduct a joint project like this in the future? • What

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Edward T. Bednarz III, Wilkes University

successfully for three straight years with plans to continue running in the future. Therecord for the cheapest bridge is $164,000 and the record for the most physical load held beforefailure is 141.5 pounds. The in-class presentations are exciting because students get to reveal theirfinal cost. The in-class testing is even more exciting because the students in each group get handson experience to test their own bridge to failure. Overall, the bridge design project, through the learning community, has been verysuccessful in engaging engineering students early on in their curriculum. It gives them experiencein designing an optimal product under constraints in a team environment and connects engineeringto fundamental courses. Student feedback at

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Cory Budischak, Temple University; Haritha Malladi, University of Delaware; Brian Patrick O'Connell, Northeastern University

Northeastern University. He studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006 then worked in industry as a Mechanical Engineer working on ruggedized submarine optronic systems. He returned to academia in 2011 at Tufts University planning to work towards more advanced R&D but fell for engineering education and educational technologies. His research now focuses on developing engineering technologies and learning environments, specifically makerspaces, to support engineering education at many levels. He’s also heavily involved with his local FIRST Robotics Challenge team as a mentor. 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE): Boston, Massachusetts Jul 28 Panel Discussion: Rethinking

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Kurt Ryan Rhoads, Case Western Reserve University; Kathleen A Harper, Case Western Reserve University; Michael William Butler, Case Western Reserve University

came to visit, I was able to laser cuthim a cool design in about 10 minutes because of my newfound experience”.A final benefit was strengthening the collaboration between the first-year experience and themakerspace staff. Throughout the process of developing and evaluating this module, wediscovered that we have similar attitudes and values. Both groups treat every activity as a workin progress and believe that every aspect of the project could possibly be modified and improved.Future WorkTo further increase makerspace utilization and student identity, we will consider using class timeto visit our maker space as demonstrated in [1]. We also plan to analyze card access data fromour maker space to see if students participating in this module were

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

David Gray, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Lisa D. McNair, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Atlas Vernier, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

tocollaborate in hands-on experiential learning; often this kind of experience is not available againuntil their senior year. Likewise, in other majors beyond engineering there is a dearth ofopportunities for students to participate in authentic experiential learning. Finally, opportunitiesfor undergraduate students to work in interdisciplinary project teams are even more limited andprimarily occur in Pathways electives. While every student is required to take the same numberof electives to satisfy learning standards of a liberal education, most departments and studentsstrategically select coursework that relates to their disciplinary area. Many official plans of studyare constructed to count courses from Pathways electives that also satisfy

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Longfei Zhou, Gannon University; Varun K Kasaraneni, Gannon University; Longyan Chen, Gannon University; Ahmed Abuhussein, Gannon University

studies, exposing them to engineering fundamentals, and fosteringa sense of community. The benefits include smoother academic transitions, career orientation, skilldevelopment, retention, and motivation [2]. By offering a broad overview of engineeringdisciplines, the course helps students make informed decisions about their interests and careerpaths [3]. It emphasizes essential skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, and basic engineeringdesign, crucial for later success [4]. However, designing such a course poses challenges, includingbalancing content, accommodating diverse preparedness levels, resource allocation, assessmentstrategies, and scalability [5]. Effective planning, resource allocation, and innovative teachingpractices are essential

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Brian Patrick O'Connell, Northeastern University

Paper ID #45064GIFTS: Marching LEGO Ducks towards Critical IdeationProf. Brian Patrick O’Connell, Northeastern University Dr. O’Connell is an associate teaching professor in the First-Year Engineering program at Northeastern University. He studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006 then worked in industry as a Mechanical Engineer working on ruggedized submarine optronic systems. He returned to academia in 2011 at Tufts University planning to work towards more advanced R&D but fell for engineering education and educational technologies. His research now focuses on developing engineering technologies and

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Cassie Wallwey, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; David Gray, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

bring the academic success knowledge, experience, and lessons possessed by theadvising team to the GE classroom. It is important to note that academic success, in the scope ofthis initiative, encompasses not only academic skills (e.g., study skills, campus resource seeking,etc.) to successfully navigate college, but also transferable skills that are necessary inprofessional contexts (e.g., time management, goal setting, planning, reflection, etc.).First-Year Engineering Course & Advising Programmatic IntegrationIn Summer 2023, a team of advisors, instructors, and graduate students explored ways ofsupporting student success and implementing strategies for helping students in FYE classroomsdevelop academic success skills. Through

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Cory Budischak, Temple University; Shawn Fagan, Temple University

started allnine STEPS scholars were enrolled in the same Introduction to Engineering and First-Year Seminarcourse. This Intro course was taught by the faculty member who would also be their faculty mentorthroughout the STEPS program and the Seminar course was taught by the STEPS researcher who wouldalso serve as their academic advisor. The Intro course had many other students in it, but the seminar coursewas limited to the nine STEPS scholars. By intentionally scheduling the students in this manner, acohesive cohort was organically formed, enhancing the scholars’ sense of belonging and providing themwith easy access to student support services.Peer Mentoring and Social Events: Before the Fall semester, the plan was for peer mentors to scheduleone

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Lucie Tchouassi, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Jaskirat Sodhi, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Ashish D Borgaonkar, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

capability to have privacy filters when needed.These suggestions would make the design more inclusive.Figure 3: Engineering products that can be improved to be made more inclusive. (a) Cochlear Implant. (b) SchoolChair. (c) Current version of a Body Scanner and (d) Improved more inclusive version of a Body Scanner.Future WorkAs we develop this activity more, here is our current plan for assessing its success. A bias detectionexercise and lively discussion will be the first week's evaluation. This evaluation will use studentreflection journals and qualitative feedback. We will also use Likert scale pre-activity surveys toassess students' understanding and attitudes on DEIBJ and Inclusive Design. Students will beassessed in the second week on their

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Sukeerti Shandliya, University of Cincinnati; Cedrick Kwuimy, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Topics

Diversity

data collection andanalysis process. Mezirow described transformative learning process in a ten-stage framework,which included: Stage 1. Experiencing a disorienting dilemma, Stage 2. Self-examination withfeelings of guilt or shame, Stage 3. A critical assessment of epistemic, sociocultural, or psychicassumptions, Stage 4. Recognition that one’s discontent and the process of transformation areshared and that others have negotiated a similar change, Stage 5. Exploration of options for newroles, relationships, and actions, Stage 6. Planning a course of action, Stage 7. Acquisition ofknowledge and skills for implementing one’s plans, Stage 8. Provisional trying of new roles,Stage 9. Building competence and self-confidence in new roles and

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Charity Obaa Afi Ampomah, Ashesi University; Heather Beem, Ashesi University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

, modified by the authors to better suit the context of first-yearAfrican engineering students. The Agency for Learning Questionnaire (AFLQ) tool looks atthe behavior of individuals as it applies to functionalities such as intentionality, forethought,self-regulation, and self-efficacy [16]. The AFLQ was modified to suit the context of this study.The original tool contains about forty-two questions on the long form and twenty-eightquestions on the short form. In order not to overburden the students, one question from each ofthe six functionalities under agency was used in the surveys. Thus, questions fromintentionality-planned competence, intentionality-decision competence, forethought-intrinsicmotivation, forethought–intrinsic motivation, self

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Kathleen A Harper, Case Western Reserve University; Kurt R Rhoads, Case Western Reserve University

2024 semester-end survey asked students to rate twelve course elementson a 4-point scale from “not at all effective” (1) to “highly effective” (4) in aiding their learning.The majority of the class found the quiz effective, giving it a mean ranking of 2.66. However, itis notable that only the exam corrections assignment (the other major metacognitive activity) wasrated lower than this. It is the perception of the instructors that the fall semester cohorts tend toengage more with these aspects of the course, and they plan to repeat this survey for severalsemesters to determine if there is a difference between the semesters. Regardless, there is roomfor improvement in how metacognition is encouraged in the course.AttendanceAttendance is

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Adithya Jayakumar, The Ohio State University; Raymond Smith Brooks

course, mastering these tools will ensure my safety in the workshop.’The results seem to suggest that the lab experience was a positive one for most students acrossdifferent proficiency levels. For ‘Beginner’ students this was often the first time were beingtaught how to safely use hand tools and while ‘expert’ students had experience with hand tools, itwas still important for them to get used to this specific space in a controlled environment. Giventhat this laboratory activity was done with about 1650 students in a less than 2 week period, theauthors are confident that similar activities can be implemented in a variety of different settingsand course contexts in other universities. Currently, there are plans to study the downstreamimpact of

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Rui Li, New York University

exploration. Undergraduate students earn academiccredit for their work and have direct experience with the innovation process, while faculty andgraduate students benefit from the extended efforts of their teams.At New York University, first-year students are allowed to participate in Vertically-integratedProjects (VIPs)[3]. The first-year students have the option to take 0 or 1 credit for VIPs. If thestudents take 0 credit for the VIP team, they still need to fulfill the course requirements.Moreover, the VIPs’ group activities could be in a hybrid format, combining in-person studentson campus with remote students from different campuses, even different universities, so studentshave the flexibility of planning their academic schedules with their

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Joshua Eron Stone, University of Maryland College Park; Forrest Milner, University of Maryland College Park; Abigail Guicheteau, University of Maryland College Park

cameras in the survey responses.An additional interesting finding occurred when students were asked in the surveys to identify:“What are some everyday applications of ML / AI you can think of?” Before the lesson,“ChatGPT” was the most common phrase in responses. Following the lesson, “recognition” wasthe most common phrase. The responses suggest a slight shift in how students view ML andwhat it can be used for. The responses are indicative of the lesson’s ability to shift students’perspective of ML to how it can be applied in engineering beyond just generative AI chatbots.Conclusions and Future PlansFor the future, one planned change is to give students the ability to utilize more than one model.Additionally, the course aspires to support other

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Matthew Cavalli, Western Michigan University; Anetra Grice, Western Michigan University

CEAS. 4) Students will be aware of neuroscience-based learning tools and will understand responsible personal, academic, and social behaviors needed to be a successful student. 5) Students will create a personalized wellness plan highlighting the importance of emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual wellness. 6) Students will develop skills in academic research and technical writing. 7) Students will develop a resume and elevator speech. 8) Students will understand the importance of financial planning.ENGR 2100 is intended to include activities and discussions related to all aspects of the ‘EightDimensions of Wellness Model’ which has been adopted by WMU for

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Atheer Almasri, West Virginia University; Akua B. Oppong-Anane, West Virginia University; Carter Hulcher, West Virginia University; Todd R Hamrick, West Virginia University; Xinyu Zhang, Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE); Lizzie Santiago, West Virginia University

1 0.5 0 Write technical Communicate Communicate Work in teams Manage your reports effectively in effectively effectively time writing orally 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Manage a Present ideas Apply the Conduct proper Use proper project using using engineering literature career planning appropriate appropriate code of ethics to review using tools to build

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Angelika Aldea Tamura, University of California, Davis; Tiffany Marie Chan, University of California, Davis; Xianglong Wang, University of California, Davis

Tagged Topics

Diversity

-binary students inengineering, audiovisual materials, and field visits to places such as prototype/manufacturingfacilities. Inclusion of non-binary engineers’ experiences and audiovisual materials will makeour seminar more inclusive to identities and learning styles, while field visits will serve as hands-on experiences for our students to experience and develop their confidence in engineering.Based on the feedback, we will incorporate improvements into the next iteration of the course,adding in new course material on negotiation with multiple engineering identities and field tripsto engineering labs. Our plans include continuing to offer our seminar in Academic Year 2024-2025 and expanding it into a First-year Learning Community (FLC) in early

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

David M. Feinauer P.E., Virginia Military Institute; Michael Cross, Norwich University; Ali Al Bataineh, Norwich University; Toluwani Collins Olukanni; Majd Khalaf, Norwich University

Project and Teams Week 2 Work with partners on own time (Brainstorm, set norms, discuss work plan) Week 3 Lab devoted to project Spring Break Week 4 Work with partners on own time Week 5 Special University Event Lab devoted to project Week 6 Evening project presentationsStudents were assessed on their team presentation (delivery, organization, use case, and visuals),solution design (down-selection process, component selection, software developed, schematic),and self-reflection. When introducing the project to the teams, in addition to detailing thetechnical requirements for the project deliverables, the instructors encouraged the students tocommunicate with their partners

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15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)

Authors

Kapil Gangwar, Wentworth Institute of Technology

findings in future publications. These findings can also beextrapolated to encompass students’ GPA, Co-op opportunities, job availability during Co-ops,and post-graduation salaries. To achieve this, we plan to conduct a survey of junior and seniorstudents to understand how the proposed curriculum has impacted their ability to think creativelyand provide solutions that are verified and justified to the best of their engineering judgment.6. Work Cited:[1] J. E. Froyd, P. C. Wankat, and K. A. Smith, “Five Major Shifts in 100 Years of EngineeringEducation,” Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 100, no. Special Centennial Issue, pp. 1344–1360,2012, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2012.2190167.[2] E. Constans and J. Kadlowec, Using a Project-Based Learning Approach to