Engineering Commons^™

Should Teaching Guides Be Used As Indicators Of Gender Dimension In A University Degree?, Elisabet Mas De Les Valls, Marta Peña, Noelia Olmedo-Torre, Amaia Lusa

Research Papers

In order to achieve a truly equality society, universities are making significant efforts towards gender mainstreaming. One of the main pillars of this approach is the implementation of a gender dimension in teaching. To assess the degree of progress towards this goal, suitable indicators, both qualitative and quantitative, are desirable. Surveys could be used to gather students’ perceptions or educators’ efforts as indicators, but an underutilised source of information is available in the teaching guides. Teaching guides are understood as those open-access documents where the public can find a subject’s description, goals, and contents, among other universityspecific features.The aim of …

Exploring Women’S Teamwork Experiences In Engineering Education: A Phenomenological Analysis, Sandra Ireri Cruz Moreno, Shannon Chance, Brian Bowe

Research Papers

Teamwork, project or problem based learning, and other collaborative learning strategies are often presented as approaches that benefit women and other minorities during their studies in Science and Engineering fields of education. This is based on the assumption that underrepresented groups will respond positively to the social integration and cooperation encouraged by these learning methods. However, research also shows that gendered stereotypical presuppositions about attributes and interests can influence the performance of team members and the tasks developed, potentially providing opportunities to sexism, racism, and other exclusionary social behaviours.

A Look Inside The Engineering Students’ Backpack: Differences In Engineering Capital According To Gender Or Migration Background., Mieke Cannaerts, Sofie Craps, Veerle Draulans, Greet Langie

Research Papers

Every student has a unique combination of experiences, resources and social networks related to engineering, called ‘engineering capital’, derived from Archer’s concept of ‘science capital’. The engineering capital gathered throughout life creates a backpack that impacts someone’s aspirations to study engineering, as well as the performance and persistence in the programme itself. Engineering technology is one of the most homogeneous fields within the STEM domain, being mostly white and male. To stimulate a more diverse engineering technology field, this research paper investigates the relationship between the level of engineering capital and gender or migration background, as well as the influence …

The First Annual Teaching And Research Showcase Poster Tu Dublin – The Proof Is In The Pudding – Using Perceived Stress To Measure Short-Term Impact In Initiatives To Enhance Gender Balance In Computing Education, Alina Berry, Sarah Jane Delany

Other resources

The problem of gender imbalance in computing higher education has forced academics and professionals to implement a wide range of initiatives. Many initiatives use recruitment or retention numbers as their most obvious evidence of impact. This type of evidence of impact is, however, more resource heavy to obtain, as well as often requires a longitudinal approach. There are many shorter term initiatives that use other ways to measure their success.

First, this poster presents with a review of existing evaluation measures in interventions to recruit and retain women in computing education across the board. Three main groups of evaluation come …

Engineering Society: The Role Of Intersectional Gender And Diversity Studies For A Sustainable Transformation On The Case Of Interdisciplinary Engineering Education, Jennifer Bosen, Sebastian Bernhard, Evamaria Fauster, Marie Decker, Miriam Lämmerhirt, Carmen Leicht-Scholten

Practice Papers

Technological innovations are impacting societies in manifold ways and can accelerate a transformation toward sustainability. To enable a sustainable transformation through engineering, engineers educated to create technological solutions for global challenges must be educated in sustainability principles as postulated under ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD) in the Agenda for Sustainable Development. In technological fields, the ecological, as well as the economical perspective of sustainability, are often addressed, but as recent research has highlighted, sustainability needs to be addressed holistically; this means including the social dimension to a greater degree and applying an intersectional understanding of gender and diversity throughout all …

Digitalisation As An Opportunity For Women In Stem: Researching The Nexus Of School, University And Labour Market, Yves Jeanrenaud, Anna-Kathrin Wimmer

Practice Papers

In Germany, women are still dramatically underrepresented in the fields of STEM, especially in engineering: less than 25 percent of engineering students are female. Correspondingly underrepresented are women in engineering positions, too. Research has shown that diversity in the work force is crucial to develop successful solutions for a complex and sustainability-oriented world.

Therefore, our ongoing research project (01FP22M01), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), focusses on the underrepresentation of women in STEM, especially in mechanical and plant engineering. Using mixed methods of qualitative interviews and quantitative online surveys with female pupils, students and employees, as …

The Use Of Data Balancing Algorithms To Correct For The Under-Representation Of Female Patients In A Cardiovascular Dataset, Sian Miller

Dissertations

Given that women are under-represented in medical datasets, and that machine learning classification algorithms are known to exhibit bias towards the majority class, the growing application of machine learning in the medical field risks resulting in worse medical outcomes for female patients. The Heart Failure Prediction (HFP) dataset is a historical dataset used for the training of models for the prediction of heart disease. This dataset contains significantly fewer female patients than male patients, and as such it is expected that models trained using this data will inherit a gender bias to favour male patients. This dissertation explores the use …

Fairness And Inclusion For Users Of Surface Transport—An Exploratory Thematic Study For Irish Users, Ajeni Ari, Maria Chiara Leva, Lorraine D'Arcy, Mary Kinahan

Articles

This paper explores the conditions of public transport with respect to user accessibility, design of infrastructure, and safety from a gendered perspective. Our investigation aims to understand the factors that direct a citizen’s choice of whether or not to use public transport. Our discussion is focused on gender disparities among user experiences, so we confine our focus to that of women’s perspectives and their experiences with public transport use. A framework for our discussion was formed with consideration of the theoretical aspects of fairness, justice, and gender in transport, as well as user statistics. We identified several spaces where public …

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Engineering Education: An Exploration Of European Higher Education Institutions’ Strategic Frameworks, Resources, And Initiatives, I. Direto, Shannon Chance, L. Clemmensen, S. Craps, S.B. Economides, S.R. Isaac, A.M. Jolly, F.R. Truscott, N. Wint

Conference papers

Significant efforts have been made to promote gender equality in higher education (HE) in Europe. Examples include the establishment of the Athena Swan Charter in the UK in 2005 and the 2019 launch of the Irène Curie Fellowship scheme by Eindhoven University of Technology. But which initiatives address broader diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenges in HE? And which are specifically focused on engineering education? This exploratory study aims to improve our understanding of the ways in which a set of European HE Institutions engaged in engineering education address DEI at an organisation level, and how this is communicated within …

Here You Have To Be Mixing: Collaborative Learning On An Engineering Program In Ireland As Experienced By A Group Of Young Middle Eastern Women, Shannon Chance, Bill Williams

Articles

This research project uses grounded theory to analyze interviews conducted with eight women from Oman and Kuwait. Members of the sample group were studying together at an institute of technology in Dublin, Ireland. The paper reports patterns in 15 interviews collected in the years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 to provide a longitudinal overview of the experience of the learners. During the coding process, three major themes emerged having to do with the experience of learning with others and/or learning in groups. The first theme involved communication within the group and the group's approaches to working together. The second identified …

Computational Solutions Based On Bayesian Networks To Hierarchize And To Predict Factors Influencing Gender Fairness In The Transport System: Four Use Cases, Gemma Dolores Molero, Sara Poveda-Reyes, Ashwani Kumar Malviya Ashwani Kumar Malviya, Elena García-Jiménez, Maria Chiara Leva, Francisco Enrique Santarremigia

Articles

: Previous studies have highlighted inequalities and gender differences in the transport system. Some factors or fairness characteristics (FCs) strongly influence gender fairness in the transport system. The difference with previous studies, which focus on general concepts, is the incorporation of level 3 FCs, which are more detailed aspects or measures that can be implemented by companies or infrastructure managers and operators in order to increase fairness and inclusion in each use case. The aim of this paper is to find computational solutions, Bayesian networks, and analytic hierarchy processes capable of hierarchizing level 3 FCs and to predict by simulation …

Gender-Related Differences In Flood Risk Perception And Behaviours Among Private Groundwater Users In The Republic Of Ireland, Cillian P. Mcdowell, Luisa Andrade, Eoin O'Neill, Kevin O'Malley, Jean O'Dwyer, Paul Hynds

Articles

Extreme weather events including flooding can have severe personal, infrastructural, and economic consequences, with recent evidence pointing to surface flooding as a pathway for the microbial contamination of private groundwater supplies. There is a pressing need for increasingly focused information and awareness campaigns to highlight the risks posed by extreme weather events and appropriate subsequent post-event actions. To date, little is known about the presence, directionality or magnitude of gender-related differences regarding flood risk awareness and behaviour among private groundwater users, a particularly susceptible sub-population due to an overarching paucity of infrastructural regulation across many regions. The current study investigated …

Is It Time To Give Athletes A Voice In The Dissemination Strategies Of Concussion-Related Information? Exploratory Examination Of 2444 Adolescent Athletes, Mark Beakey, Brian Keenan, Stephen Tiernan, Kieran Collins

Other Resources

Objective: The objective of the research was to screen male and female adolescent athletes on their concussion educational histories and preferred future methods of education in terms of educational messenger, modality, and concussion-related areas of interest.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Examination setting within the classroom.

Participants: Adolescent male (n = 1854) and female (n = 590) athletes aged 12 to 18 years.

Main outcome measures: To explore the concussion educational histories and preferred future methods of education in Irish male and female adolescent athletes.

Results: 19.7% (n = 482) of the sample received education in the past 12 months. Male …

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 …

Preliminary Findings Of A Phenomenological Study Of Middle Eastern Women’S Experiences Studying Engineering In Ireland, Shannon Chance, Bill Williams

Conference papers

This paper reports analysis of phenomenological interviews conducted with eight women studying engineering, all Arabic speakers and practicing Muslims, and all from the countries of Oman and Kuwait. Data were collected as part of a larger study of women’s experiences learning engineering in institutions of higher education in Poland, Portugal, and Ireland. The eight women contributing data for the analysis for this paper were all enrolled on engineering degree programs in Dublin, Ireland, where they studied together. The larger study involves conducting longitudinal data via interviews with 47 women around Europe to understand what their undergraduate experiences in STEM have …

Form, Function Or Fiction: Gender And Diversity In Engineering Programmes In Ireland, Domhnall Sheridan, Una Beagon, Eabhnat Ni Fhloinn

Conference papers

Messe agus Pangur Bán, cechtar nathar fria shaindán: bíth a menmasam fri seilgg, mu menma céin im shaincheirdd.

I and Pangur Bán, my cat 'Tis a like task we are at; Hunting mice is his delight Hunting words I sit all night.

The poem Pangur Bán [1] was written by an unknown Irish monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Reichenau, in southern Germany in the ninth century. The Abbey, founded in 724 by Saint Pirim, was a centre of learning in Europe for many centuries, reaching its apex under Abbot Berno of Reichenau (1008–48). The Christian church was the sole …