Digital Commons Network^™

How Does Involvement In Student Associations Contribute To The Development Of An Engineer's Skills? Example Of Magiepoly: Raising Awareness Of Gender Equality Through Games., Vinciane Lamy, Sarah El Addouli, Cathel Zitzmann

Practice Papers

Some engineering students get involved in student associations during their studies. They develop multiple skills such as: leadership and management, communication, project management, supervision and transmission of knowledge, service to others, etc. However, they are not always aware of it. Helphi, a student association of EPF Engineering School, was responsible for organising an afterwork event to be held on International Women's Rights Day. As student members were brainstorming, the idea of a board game, both informative and entertaining came up: MagiePoly was born. MagiePoly is a game, inspired by a wellknown board game, which aims to raise awareness of gender …

Achieving Strong Chemical Interface And Superior Energy-Saving Capability At The Crosslinks Of Rubber Composites Containing Graphene Oxide Using Thiol-Vinyl Click Chemistry, Rui Zhang, Jiaye Li, Zongchao Xu, Stephen Jerrams, Shui Hu, Li Lui, Shipeng Wen, Liqun Zhang

Articles

Rapidly developments in international transportation inevitably lead to an increase in the consumption of energy and resources. Minimizing the rolling resistance of tires in this scenario is a pressing challenge. To lower the rolling resistance of tires, enhancing the interaction between fillers and rubber molecules while improving the dispersion of fillers are required to reduce the internal mutual friction and viscous loss of rubber composites. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) was modified using γ-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS) with thiol groups. A modified GO/natural rubber (MGO/NR) masterbatch with a fine dispersion of MGO was then introduced into solution-polymerized styrene butadiene rubber (SSBR) …

Moving Constructive Alignment Beyond The Curriculum: Embedding Mental Health And Wellbeing Into The Uk Engineering Student Experience, India Palmer, Nicky Knowles, Jane Andrews, Robin Clark, Gill Cooke, Graeme Knowles

Practice Papers

This paper addresses the tricky question of how the Engineering Curriculum can be better designed so as to nurture and improve the mental health of university engineering students. Since the end of the Pandemic, the UK has seen an increase in the numbers of young people aged 18-25 self-reporting mental health problems (Young Minds, 2023). Taking a wider perspective, there has been a rise of 450% in the numbers of young people informing UCAS that they have a mental health problem over the last decade (NUS, 2022). Yet, Engineering Education has the lowest rate of self-declared mental health problems on …

Nine Years Of Systematic Cad Course Development: What Did We Learn?, Kaur Jaakma, Panu Kiviluoma

Practice Papers

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) plays a vital role in the curriculums of mechanical engineering degree programs, empowering students to conceptualize and visualize their designs, thus enhancing their abilities as engineers. This abstract presents the implementation of a multi-CAD course conducted between 2014 and 2022, catering to hundreds of students from diverse disciplines, including mechanical and civil engineering. Throughout the course, student feedback was systematically collected to assess learning outcomes and measure the effectiveness of different learning tools and methods.

The course employed a range of tools, including automatically graded quizzes and a dedicated CAD model assessment system, which not only lightened …

What’S Law Got To Do With It? How The Degree Of Legalization Affects The Durability Of Post-Conflict Autonomy Agreements, Felix Schulte, Gene Carolan

Articles

Research has identified several factors that impact the sustainability of post-conflict territorial autonomy arrangements (TAA), including previous levels of violence, economic development in a given territory, or the strategic importance thereof. We argue that a hitherto neglected variable lies in the legal form of the autonomy agreement – that is, the degree to which it has been ‘legalized’ by the language and processes prescribed in the agreement. Based on a qualitative evaluation, we assess the legalization degree of 236 TAA signed between 1990 and 2019. Survival analyses and Cox regression models show that a higher degree of legalization has a …

Development Of Holographic Optical Elements For Use In Wound Monitoring, Pamela Stoeva, Tatsiana Mikulchyk, Brian Rogers, M. Oubaha, Suzanne Martin, Dervil Cody, M.A. Ferrara, G. Coppola, Izabela Naydenova

Conference Papers

Wounds that fail to heal impact the quality of life of 2.5 % of the total population. The costs of chronic wound care will reach $15–22 billion by 2024. These alarming statistics reveal the financial strain for both the medical industry and society. A solution can be found in compact and accessible sensors that offer real-time analysis of the wound site, facilitating continuous monitoring and immediate treatment, if required. Benefits of these sensors include reduction of cost and can extend the reach of healthcare to remote areas. The progression of a wound site can be closely monitored with holographic optical …

Investigation Of Dielectric And Mechanical Properties Of Lignocellulosic Rice Husk Fibril For High And Medium Voltage Electrical Insulation Applications, T. Rajamanikandan, S. Banumathi, B. Karthikeyan, R. Palanisamy, Mohit Bajaj, Hossam Zawbaa, Salah Kamel

Articles

The insulating material is made from rice husk and epoxy resin which are ecologically friendly and incredibly durable. When coarse Rice husk is mechanically disintegrated, fibrils are formed. By weaving together fibrillated threads, and robust biodegradables, lightweight dielectric fibers are created. Then the Composites are examined utilizing a blend of agave Rice husk fibers (10–35%) and an epoxy resin solution. The Chemical treatment of the Rice husk fibers increases the composites’ mechanical strength and electrical insulating properties. The tensile strength of Rice husk in epoxy composites is increased from 37.84 MPa to 48.32 MPa. The experimental results are compared using …

Circular Pedagogy And Digitisation A New Educational Paradigm, Lucia Morales, Lia Pop, Jon-Hans Coetzer, Iulia Stefan, Ivaylo Peev

Working Papers

Existing educational systems and models are insufficient to address the challenges associated with our evolving socio-economic and environmental systems. In this paper, we offer critical insights on the core elements defining Higher Education Institutions, the digitisation of teaching and learning practices with a dominant trend favouring STEM education that overlooks the value of social sciences. The neglection of social sciences and the criticism and negative connotations that affect research in the field of pedagogy are also considered as they are essential in articulating our vision of the need for pedagogical innovations that acknowledge our new learning and teaching realities and …

A Simulation-Based Tdabc Model To Manage Supply Chain Costing: A Case Study, Siham Rahoui, John Crowe, Amr Mahfouz

Conference Papers

Effective management of supply chain costing is crucial for decision-making during times of disruption. It provides accurate cost indicators, enabling organizations to adapt to the risks of disruptions and mitigate their adverse effects. The supply chain costing literature has shown that traditional cost accounting approaches are inadequate in addressing the dynamic and complex nature of supply chain performance and the nonlinear behavior of the involved processes. Consequently, this paper presents a simulation-based supply chain costing framework that integrates discrete event simulation and time-driven activity-based costing to explore the dynamics of management accounting tools in a real context with all their …

Can Designing For Mars Stimulate Our Thinking About Designing More Sustainably For Earth?, Lucy Berthoud, James Norman, Ella Good, Nicola Kent

Practice Papers

This work describes the use of an arts-based project to stimulate creative thinking about design and sustainability for engineering students of all disciplines and years. ‘Building a Martian House’ was a public art project where a house designed for Mars was built in the centre of the city of Bristol, UK. It was conceived by artists, designed by the public, architects and engineers and built by construction companies. In this work, a workshop for students was developed and run based on this art project. Its aim was to use the challenge of designing for Mars as a provocation to thinking …

Problem Solving Skills Deconstructed And Implemented In An Adaptive Learning Tool, Arne Duyver, Jozefien De Keyzer, Els Wieers, Kris Henrioulle, Kris Aerts

Practice Papers

The development of problem-solving skills is an important subject in engineering curricula. Helping novice students develop such skills can be challenging because problem solving is a complex skill in the sense that it is accompanied with an internal thinking process that many experts are even unaware of doing. From a combination of literature and a thinking-aloud exercise with the entire teaching team, a scheme with building blocks and strategies that are commonly used by engineers was constructed. In addition to commonly named steps such as Identify/Define, Plan/Choose, Carry Out/Do and Look back/Inspect the scheme refines the first step into multiple …

Exploring The Application Of Chatgpt In Mechanical Engineering Education, Joan Puig-Ortiz, Rosa Pàmies-Vilà, Lluïsa Jordi Nebot

Practice Papers

The use of language models such as ChatGPT in the field of engineering has gained popularity in recent years due to their ability to assist engineers in their projects and tasks. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of ChatGPT in supporting students' learning in the Mechanism and Machine Theory (MMT) subject. The study involved participants who were asked to interact with ChatGPT to obtain concept clarification and factual information related to MMT.

Our results show that the majority of participants were familiar with ChatGPT and had used it for academic or technical questions. They also found it easy to …

Enhancing Quality Teaching Through Informal Community Learning In Knowledge Centres, Sonia M. Gomez-Puente, Esther Ventura Medina

Practice Papers

Teaching and learning have always been at the heart of the missions of universities. The growing interest nowadays to pay attention to the quality of higher education teaching results in initiatives such as the establishment of Teaching and Learning Centres (TLCs). The Academy for Learning and Teaching (ALT) at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) has recently been created, and it is still under construction, with the purpose of promoting quality of teaching through engaging staff in interaction and in learning lessons from evidence-based educational practices and innovation in engineering education. Furthermore, ALT supports the professional development of faculty teaching staff …

Fabrication And Characterisation Of Large Area, Uniform And Controllable Surface Relief Patterns In Photopolymer Material, Owen Kearney, Izabela Naydenova

Conference Papers

As the risk of antibiotic resistant pathogens increases, development of convenient point of care devices is essential. Such devices would help avoid infection – ensure cleanliness of environments and assist in bacteria analysis. The ultimate aim of the research presented here is to develop a compact, cost effective, easy to use optical device which is capable of detecting and quantifying bacteria in an aqueous sample. The surface relief patterns have a dual role, they provide a diffracted light signal, and control the adhesion of the bacteria to the surface. The strength of the diffracted signal is expected to provide a …

A Critical Approach To Engineering Mathematics Activities For Sustainable Development, Matheus Oliveira De Andrade, Mariam Makramalla

Practice Papers

Engineering projects are frequently experienced through the complexity of knowledge co-production between experts and local communities. This involves an ability to work critically and creatively within unfamiliar epistemologies, drawing from quantitative, social and scientific methods to realise high-impact solutions. In this work-in-progress paper, we put forward a prototype for a case-control study aiming to evaluate student buy-in and learning outcomes for a cross-cultural implementation of critical mathematics approaches contextualised by sustainability challenges. We outline and discuss aspects of mathematical modelling activities that can scaffold an environment where human subjectivity amplifies the quality and relevance of quantitative arguments. As proof-of-concept, we …

Reflections On Engineering Home Lab Kit Use In A Post Pandemic Environment, Joel Ross, Sean Lancastle, Becky Selwyn, Greg Richards, Sarah Jones, Dominic Hardman, James Saunders

Practice Papers

Laboratory experience in engineering significantly impacts upon how students view their courses. Whilst there may be nostalgic memories of what this offered the educator on their own route through further education, it is often far from the modern reality: time bound, pre-configured, minimal student agency over input variables, and something of a data grab and dash.

Home Lab Kits (HLK), one of the innovations whose use was accelerated as a COVID-19 mitigation, have provided some long-term improvements in the educational lab experience of undergraduate engineering students in the School Civil, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering (CAME) at the University of Bristol. …

The “Eagle” Approach To Train Electrical Engineers With Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills, Fereshteh Poormohammadi, Merijn Van Deyck, Martijn Deckers, Abdul Saboor, Bowen Wang, Pouya Mehrjouseresht, Zhenda Zhang, Arne Symons, Pieter Pas, Alexander Bodard, Hans Van Rooij, Marian Verhelst, Alexander Bertrand, Ruth Vazquez Sabariego, Panagiotis Patrinos, Peter Coppens

Practice Papers

Engineering education plays a critical role in addressing the ever-increasing environmental and societal challenges, and collaborative problem solving (CPS) is a vital skill for engineers to tackle such complex multidisciplinary challenges and develop high-quality solutions. The EAGLE project at KU Leuven exemplifies CPS implementation in electrical engineering education, providing students with real-world connections and deep learning opportunities to develop teamwork, problem-solving, and negotiation skills.

This paper presents the development and implementation of EAGLE, a year-long hands-on, multidisciplinary challenge in which teams of 10-12 students design and develop an autonomous drone capable of flying to a remote landing station. It focuses …

The Effect Of Campus Praktikum On The Choice Of University Studies, Ester Gimenez-Carbo, M.Francisca Collado López, M.Asunción Torralba Navarro, M. Esther Gómez-Martín

Practice Papers

In some Spanish universities in recent years, there has been a decrease in the number of students, mainly due to the drop in the birth rate and the increase in the number of universities throughout the country. In addition, the number of (unknown)bachelor's degrees that can be studied at university has also increased.

For these reasons, since 2010, an activity called Campus Praktikum has been carried out at the Universitat Politècnica de València to bring the university studies taught at this centre closer to secondary school students. The aim is to show the studies taught at the UPV (mainly engineering …

The Relationship Between Ventilation Rates In Schools And The Indoor Airborne Transmission Potential Of Covid-19, Seamus Harrington, Mark Mulville, Spyros Stravoravdis

Articles

The requirement for natural ventilation strategies in classrooms to perform in respect to both their inherent and adaptive capacity is necessary to mitigate the risk of transmission associated with infectious airborne pathogens such as COVID-19. This paper assesses the performance of ten classrooms considering (a) the designed versus actual ventilation capacity; (b) the probability of airborne disease transmission by unit time resulting from calculated ventilation rates and (c) the reduction of transmission risk associated with mask wearing by all occupants.

Monitored air changes per hour (ACH) range from 0.26–1.7, demonstrating that none of the classrooms meet designed ventilation rate whilst …

Use Of Insect-Derived Chitosan For The Removal Of Methylene Blue Dye From Wastewater: Process Optimization Using A Central Composite Design, Ilham Ben Amor, Hadia Hemmami, Salah Eddine Laouini, Soumeia Zeghoud, Mourad Benzina, Sami Achour, Abanoub Naseef, Ali Alsalme, Ahmed Barhoum

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Insects are a readily available source of chitosan due to their high reproductive rates, ease of breeding, and resistance to changes in their ecosystem. This study aimed to extract chitosan from several widespread insects: Blaps lethifera (CS-BL), Pimelia fernandezlopezi (CS-PF), and Musca domestica (CS-MD). The study was also extended to using the obtained chitosans in removing methylene blue dye (MB) from wastewater. The source of the chitosan, the initial concentration of MB dye, and the reaction time were chosen as the working parameters. The experiments were designed using a central composite design (CCD) based on the dye removal efficiency as …

Traumas And Exile, Music As An Instrument Of Psychoanalysis, Marco Ramelli

Conference papers

Gerhard was able to create works of great richness that connect distant musical styles, extra- musical narratives, autobiographical references, and abstract musical concepts. The composer lived through extraordinarily tumultuous times, including the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, as an exile in England. Away from his homeland, he maintained a pacifist stance, firmly opposing Franco's regime. It was Gerhard's personal connection to the Civil War that may have prompted the BBC to commission him to write incidental music for adaptations of two important books set during the Spanish Civil War. In both compositions,9 The Revenge for Love (1957) …

Ammonia Cycling And Emerging Inorganic Secondary Aerosols From Arable Agriculture, Vivien Pohl, Alan Gilmer, Vivienne Byers, John Cassidy, Aoife Donnelly, Stig Hellebust, Eoin J. Mcgillicuddy, Eugene Mcgovern, David J. O'Connor

Articles

No abstract provided.

What Is Engineering Ethics Education? Exploring How The Education Of Ethics Is Defined By Engineering Instructors, Diana Adela Martin, Eddie Conlon

Books/Book chapters

The literature on engineering ethics education highlights the diversity of goals and topics employed in its instruction. The contribution aims to examine the conceptualisation of engineering ethics education in terms of how it is defined and how its goals are articulated. The research is conducted in cooperation with the national accrediting body Engineers Ireland. It is based on interviews with instructors teaching courses self-identified by engineering programmes as having a strong ethical component and evaluators serving on accreditation panels. The main findings confirm the existence of a varied and uneven understanding of engineering ethics education. The study encountered conflicting views …

Industry Update October 2022, Elaine Harris

Articles

Company news Bend Bioscience invests in expansion of drug-delivery capabilities Bend Bioscience (OR, USA) and NovaQuest Private Equity, have announced plans on 11 October 2022 to invest in a new facility in Bend, Oregon. The group will focus on developing new R&D partnerships, and early phase manufacturing and development activities based on proprietary particle engineering-based drug-delivery technologies. This new facility will consist of approximately 20,000 square feet of laboratory and processing areas and it is anticipated that manufacturing and analytical capabilities will operational by the end of Q2 2023. Announcing the investment decision, Dan Dobry, Bend Bioscience’s co-founder said “We …

An Investigation Of 3.5 Μm Emission In Er3+-Doped Fluorozirconate Glasses Under 638 Nm Laser Excitation, Haiyan Zhao, Ke Tian, Xin Wang, Dejun Liu, Shunbin Wang, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

Intense 3.5 μm mid-infrared emission has been achieved in Er3+-doped ZBYA glasses, which is ascribed to the Er3+: 4F9/2→4I9/2 transition. Based on the absorption spectrum of Er3+ ions, a 638 nm laser was utilized to directly pump the upper level (Er3+: 4F9/2) to achieve 3.5 μm emission with enhanced quantum efficiency. Spectroscopic parameters were predicted by Judd-Ofelt theory. The maximum emission cross-section of the Er3+-doped ZBYA glass was estimated to be 5.5×10-22 cm2 at 3496 nm. Additionally, the fluorescence spectra and energy level lifetimes of ZBYA glass samples with different Er3+ ions doping concentrations were also measured. The theoretical and …

How Will Air Source Heat Pumps Affect Electricity Load Profiles In Buildings In Ireland? A Data Logger Used To Model Electrical Energy Profiles, Michael Mcdonald

Conference papers

There are many global factors that are challenging the colossal transition to Zero Carbon Economy, ranging from regional conflicts, possible new cold wars, inflation to rising interest rates. The climate challenge is, de facto, an energy transition challenge, which historically takes generations. Governments all over the world are working to implement policy that encourages society to foster clean energy and low carbon technologies. It is a fine balance between supply and demand of energy networks, whilst maintaining energy security. This was evident in Ireland during the winter of 2022 which witnessed several Systems Alerts, from the Transmission System Operator (TSO), …

Basic Concepts Of Radiation Biology, Ans Baeyens, Ana Margarida Abrantes, Vidhula Ahire, Elizabeth A. Ainsbury, Sarah Baatout, Bjorn Baselet, Maria Filomena Botelho, Tom Boterberg, Francois Chevalier, Fabiana Da Pieve, Wendy Delbart, Nina Frederike Jeppesen Edin, Cristian Fernandez-Palomo, Lorain Geenen, Alexandros G. Georgakilas, Nathalie Heynickx, Aidan D. Meade, Anna Jelinek Michaelidesova, Dhruti Mistry, Alegría Montoro, Carmel Mothersill, Ana Salomé Pires, Judith Reindl, Giuseppe Schettino, Yehoshua Socol, Vinodh Kumar Selvaraj, Peter Sminia, Koen Vermeulen, Guillaume Vogin, Anthony Waked, Anne Sophie Wozny

Books/Book Chapters

Radiation biology is the study of the effects of ionizing radiation on biological tissues and living organisms. It combines radiation physics and biology. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the terminology and basic concepts of radiobiology to create a better understanding of the ionizing radiation interactions with a living organism. This chapter firstly describes the different types of radiation, the sources, and the radiation interactions with matter. The basic concepts of radioactivity and its applications are also included. Ionizing radiation causes significant physical and chemical modifications, which eventually lead to biological effects in the exposed tissue or organism. …

Shaping A Sustainable Future Through Integrating Sustainability, Creativity And Entrepreneurship In Engineering Education At Aalto University, Paulo Roberto Nicoletti Dziobczenski, Elina Kähkönen, Håkan Mitts

Practice Papers

This paper reports the authors’ experiences integrating sustainability, creativity, and entrepreneurship in engineering education at Aalto University under the project called the Aalto Co-Educator team. The Aalto Co-Educator team was formed to support the university strategy application into education through three main actions: course development, curriculum development and competence development. The goal of this paper is to share engineering educators' experiences in providing sustainability, creativity and entrepreneurship education to engineering students in a rapidly changing nature of work.

A Way To Get Students Consider Ethics And Sustainability In Iot Projects, Jean-Luc Sarrade, Isabelle Lermigeaux-Sarrade

Practice Papers

Sustainability and ethical topics can be embedded and assessed in existing technical courses within an engineering curriculum. This article describes how we integrated a reflection on the importance of ethical and environmental aspects of connected objects through team-based project learning with computer science students in the second semester of their Bachelor degree. Small groups of three were given different projects, in which they had to implement the technical concepts learned in class using both virtual and physical components. The projects followed realistic scenarios chosen at random, each of them using a specific set of sensors and built to question either …

Constructing A Fine Dispersion And Chemical Interface Based On An Electrostatic Self-Assembly And Aqueous Phase Compound In Go/Sio2/Sbr Composites To Achieve High-Wear Resistance In Eco-Friendly Green Tires, Rui Zhang, Jiaye Li, Stephen Jerrams, Shui Hu, Shipeng Wen, Ligun Zhang

Articles

The hazard to the ecosystem caused by rubber microparticles generated from tire abrasion has been a constant concern. Therefore, to protect this ecosystem, the development of a tire tread with high abrasion resistance is especially significant. Herein, γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) was used to modify graphene oxide (GO) and silica (SiO2) to obtain GO and SiO2 with positive charges (NG and NS). Furthermore, NG and NS were electrostatically self-assembled by using maleic anhydride (MAH) hydrolysis, thereby obtaining composite particles (NG-NS) with “bridged structures”. Also, the NG-NS/styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) compounds possessing fine dispersion of NG-NS were prepared by the aqueous compounding method. …