Engineering Commons^™

Exploring The Impact Of Brexit On Uk’S Engineering Education Sector From The Perspective Of European Students And Staff, I. Direito, B. Williams, Shannon Chance

Conference papers

The UK higher education attracts a far higher number of international academics from all over the world, who teach and do research, than any other country in Europe, being only surpassed by Switzerland [1]. Moreover, because engineering itself is considered a global field, this sub-field of higher education also relies on international mobility more than most academic disciplines in the UK The impact of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum of June 2016, commonly referenced as the Brexit referendum, is still unfolding and under continuing analysis. However, it is widely anticipated that it will disrupt European student and staff …

Assessing The Grit And Mindset Of Incoming Engineering Students With An Emphasis On Gender, Ines Direito, Shannon Chance, Emanuela Tilley, John Mitchell

Conference papers

Engineering programs can be very demanding, particularly in the first years where students encounter new forms of highly challenging coursework. To better prepare and support students, educators must acknowledge non-academic factors, such as the role of self-beliefs and personal attributes. Education research suggests that students are more likely to give up and disengage from their studies when they lack grit or assume a fixed mindset. Previous studies suggest that female students are generally grittier but less confident when compared to male students. This paper presents the initial work of an ongoing study to explore self-confidence and motivations to study engineering …

Assessing The Grit And Mindset Of Incoming Engineering Students With An Emphasis On Gender, Inês Direito, Shannon Chance, Emanuela Tilley, John E. Mitchell

Conference papers

Engineering programs can be very demanding, particularly in the first years where students encounter new forms of highly challenging coursework. To better prepare and support students, educators must acknowledge non-academic factors, such as the role of self-beliefs and personal attributes. Education research suggests that students are more likely to give up and disengage from their studies when they lack grit or assume a fixed mindset. Previous studies suggest that female students are generally grittier but less confident when compared to male students. This paper presents the initial work of an ongoing study to explore self-confidence and motivations to study engineering …

The Development Of A Psychometric Test Aimed At Aligning Students To A Range Of Professional Roles, Darren Brian Carthy, Brian Bowe, Kevin Gaughan

Conference papers

Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), working as part of the PREFER project, a European commission funded project, have developed a psychometric test in order to better align engineering students to three distinct professional roles within industry. This paper reports on the development process of the test, which took place between February and August of 2018.

What Do We Know About Eesd And How Do We Know It?, Eddie Conlon, Iacovos Nicolaou, Brian Bowe

Conference papers

Huckle (2004) has argued that critical realism (CR) can provide a philosophical framework for higher education for sustainability. This paper reflects on the process of researching EESD in the Irish context and the usefulness of our approach which used mixed methods and drew on CR as its guiding philosophy. We will argue that aspects of the CR approach: its emphasis on a depth ontology, the search for causal mechanisms, its model of agency/structure relations and its emphasis on the combination of extensive and intensive methods provide tools for exploring EESD as a system. CR requires us to focus on “deeper …

Engineering Ethics: Ontology And Politics, Eddie Conlon

Conference papers

“Ontology...acts as both gatekeeper and bouncer for methodology” (Archer 1995: 22). This exploratory paper, through a focus on the relationship between structure and agency, examines the underlying social ontologies informing the teaching, and researching of the teaching, of engineering ethics. It argues that current approaches are deficient and that Critical Realism can provide the basis for a more robust and inclusive research agenda for understanding engineering practice and the teaching of engineering ethics.

Exploring Programme Chairs' Understanding Of The Integration Of Sustainable Development: An Issue Of Professional Identity, Iacovos Nicolaou, Eddie Conlon, Brian Bowe

Conference papers

This paper is part of a wider study addressing the level of provision of sustainable development (SD) competencies in seven engineering programmes in three Irish Higher Education Institutions. The paper explores the influence that programme chairs’ professional identity has on their views of SD and their assessment of the extent to which SD is integrated in their programmes. The data for exploring this is taken from a thematic analysis of six interviews with programme chairs which shows that their assessments of the extent to which SD is integrated in their programmes are at odds with previous findings that highlight deficiencies …

A Critical Realist Approach To Engineering Ethics, Eddie Conlon

Conference papers

This paper is focused on the teaching of engineering ethics (EE). Through a focus on safety and the lens of what sociologists call the agency/ structure relationship it examimes various approaches to this teaching. Drawing on Critical Realism it argues there are deficiencies in both the dominant approach and a number of proposed alternatives as they suffer from various forms of conflationism . By drawing on Critical Realism (CR) a more robust agenda for teaching engineering ethics can be developed. It is argued that CR offers a basis for understanding the range of factors which lead to accidents and disasters. …

What Role Does Mathematical Preparedness Play For Engineering Students Who Transfer From And Ordinary Degree Into An Honours Degree?, Michael Carr, Marisa Llorens, Susan O'Shaughnessy, Anne Marie Mccarrick, Domhnall Sheridan

Conference papers

Students who have not achieved a high level of mathematics at secondary school but have a pass in ordinary level mathematics have the option of entering onto a 3-year Ordinary degree (Level 7). Upon successful completion of this award students may apply to progress to the third year of the Honours degree. Up until relatively recently an upper merit (60%) was the minimum required to make this transition. In recent years this requirement has been reduced with many students with lower marks being offered the possibility of transferring.

Relatively little work has been done on the transition from an Ordinary …

The Integration Of Sustainable Development Competencies In Irish Engineering Education: Findings Of A Curriculum Content Investigation Of Four Engineering Programmes, Iacovos Nicolaou, Eddie Conlon

Conference papers

This paper presents the initial findings of an investigation of the Sustainable Development (SD) content in five professional engineering degree programmes in a large Irish Institute of Technology.

A comprehensive investigation of the modules content was conducted to see to what extent the learning outcomes for SD as set out in the Barcelona Declaration and SD competencies were covered by the modules. It was found that 40% of the 137 modules included SD learning outcomes and/or addressed SD competencies. The modules have a focus on environmental issues and tend to address only one of the three dimensions, environmental, social and …

Surveying First-Year Students Prior Conceptual Understanding Of Direct Current Resistive Electric Circuits: An Update, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

There is an increasing diversity of educational background of students entering Level 7 and Level 8 programmes in engineering in Irish third level education. Student reasoning about basic electricity concepts often differs from accepted explanations. The paper reports, analyses and reflects on the results of a multiple-choice diagnostic test to assess student understanding of such concepts (developed by Engelhardt and Beichner (2004) for U.S. high school and college students) taken by four cohorts of students, on the same DIT Level 7 engineering programme, from 2008-12 (n=106) and two cohorts of students, on the same DIT Level 8 engineering programme, from …

Qualitative Research In Engineering Education, Kevin Kelly, Brian Bowe

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Marco, Micro, Structure, Agency: Analysing Approaches To Engineering Ethics, Eddie Conlon

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Evidence Based Evaluation Research In Engineering, Kevin Kelly

Conference papers

An argument for evidence based evaluation of sustainable engineering projects in buildings

The Measurement Of Success In External Engagement Activities, Mike Murphy

Conference papers

Our ambition is to identify, through the presentations and the discussion, a number of key insights and necessary actions for development of more and deeper partnerships between Higher Education Institutions and Employers.

Concurrent Masters Degrees Across The Atlantic: Innovations, Issues And Insights, Michael Dyrenfurth, Mike Murphy, Gary Bertoline, Robert Herrick, Kathryne Newton, Gareth O'Donnell, Donal Mchale, Nuria Castell, Miquel Barcelo, Didac Balas, Maria Ribera Sancho, Jordi Garcia

Conference papers

Atransatlantic degree consortium to implement a four-semester dual masters degree initiative across a three-institution consortium consisting of Purdue University (USA), the Technological University Dublin (DIT), and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain) is presented in this paper.

Quality Indicators For Engineering And Technology Education, Michael Dyrenfurth, Mike Murphy, Gary Bertoline

Conference papers

In recent years the development and use of university rankings, comparisons, and/or league tables has become popular and several methodologies are now frequently used to provide a comparative ranking of universities. These rankings are often based on research and publication activity and also not uncommonly focus on indicators that can be measured rather than those that should be measured. Further, the indicators are generally examined for the university as a whole rather than for university divisions, departments or programs. Implicit also is that placement in the rankings is indicative of quality. This paper provides an overview of the methodologies used …

An Integrated Approach To The Teaching Of Numerical Methods To Engineering Students, Garrett Keane, Michael Carr, Patrick Carroll

Conference papers

In Technological University Dublin, historically, numerical methods were taught to engineering students using a format of traditional mathematics lectures, to a large class group consisting of students from five different engineering disciplines, complemented by small class tutorials. Assessment was by a single, written exam only.

In order to improve the overall effectiveness of the students’ learning experience, it was deemed beneficial to also introduce practical computing classes in which the students would be required to apply the general mathematical methods covered in lectures to discipline-specific examples.

Three different practical computing assignments were devised for the students to undertake, and 20% …

Integrating Engineering Ethics And Research Skills In A First Year Programme, Eddie Conlon

Conference papers

A first year module which introduces students to the social dimension of engineering is described. The key teaching tool is the use of group projects to develop students’ learning skills. The importance of addressing the motivation for engineering students studying non-technical modules is emphasised. Data used to evaluate the module is presented. It is shown that the nature of the project undertaken affects the attainment of learning outcomes. The conclusion focuses on some shortcomings of the module and highlights the importance of appropriately structuring the learning environment to facilitate self-directed learning by early year students.

Recruitment And Retention: The Role Of The Public Image Of Engineering, Eddie Conlon

Conference papers

This paper presents findings of three surveys conducted with first year students in the Faculty of Engineering in the Dublin Institute of Technology. It focuses on their motivation for studying engineering and the people who influenced the decision to do engineering. It shows there are gaps in the students’ knowledge of their programmes and also between their expectations and their experience of their course. Some proposed areas of action are identified to increase both recruitment and retention. It is argued that projecting an image of engineering as a creative activity would help in addressing recruitment and retention issues.

Experiences With Virtual Learning Environments In Control Engineering Education, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

The twin pressures of the need for students to learn a wider variety of concepts, ideally in a self-learning mode, and the reduction in class contact time has led to the use of increased levels of information technology in control engineering education. This paper reports on, reflects on, and evaluates the author’s use of virtual laboratories (computer based laboratories available on the internet) in control engineering modules at DIT Kevin St. The use of the virtual laboratories helps in the ongoing evolution of the teaching approach from a traditional didactic lecture and laboratory course to a more learner-centred approach. The …

Educating Engineers For The 21st. Century: And Why Some Elements Of History And Philosophy Should Be Incorporated Into The Curriculum, William Grimson, Mike Murphy, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

It has been said that in some respects the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky was a magpie – borrowing styles and ideas from diverse sources for whatever musical project he was working on. The practice of engineering has this same characteristic in that it willingly takes ideas, knowledge and techniques from wherever in pursuit of completing its goal. Further, Engineering is, at least in part, in agreement with Fyodor Dostoevsky – ‘if everything on Earth were rational, nothing would happen’. Against such a background it is proposed that a framework based on both philosophy and the history of engineering, science and …

European And American Perspectives On Engineering Technology Vs Engineering Degrees, Michael Dyrenfurth, Mike Murphy, Robert Herrick, Manfred Hamann

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Women, Engineering And Research: Providing Choice And Balance, Cecilia Chan, Mike Murphy

Conference papers

“Research cannot reach its full potential when half the population is excluded from its activities”1. Women researchers in engineering remain a minority in both Higher Education and industry in Ireland. Recent statistics of women graduating in science and engineering indicated an increase (a slow increase) but the numbers moving through to completion of PhD and careers in academia or industry remain quite low. Statistics on women in professorial and senior positions within the engineering sector also remains low. The educated workforce produced in Ireland by its education system is acknowledged as a key factor in attracting international investment to the …

Recruiting First Year Engineering Undergraduates, Eddie Conlon

Conference papers

This paper presents findings of three surveys conducted with first year students in the Faculty of Engineering in the Dublin Institute of Technology. It presents evidence on the reasons students study engineering, their sources of information on higher education programmes and the people who influence their decision to do engineering. It shows there are gaps in the students’ knowledge of their programmes and also between their expectations and their experience of their course. Some proposed areas of action are identified to increase both recruitment and retention. It is argued that projecting an image of engineering as a creative activity would …