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Towards Building A Framework For Continuing Engineering Education In Higher Education Institutions: A Comparative Study, Sonia M. Gomez Puente, Christopher Smith, Matias Urenda Moris, Bente Nørgaard, Hans-Ulrich Heiss, Patricia Caratozzolo, Katriina Schrey, H-R Myllymäki, Rigas Hadzilacos

Practice Papers

Continuing engineering education (CEE) is becoming an attractive notion of continuously enhancing and upgrading the engineering skills required by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Current developments in science and technology and the challenges to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda require updating theoretical knowledge, skills, and specific practical work. Even though higher education institutions (HEIs) can provide CEE or CPD (Continuing Professional Development) within or external to degree programs, CEE focuses on training engineers as lifelong learners to meet societal and industrial needs. A comparative study was conducted among eight universities to analyse the …

Work Performance Evaluation As A Motivational Approach For Early-Career Self-Management, Francesc Torres, Santiago Silvestre, Ariadna Llorens, Antoni Elias

Practice Papers

This article presents the main characteristics of an academic experience based on the concept of "work performance evaluation", whose objective is to facilitate a smooth transition to the technological labor market. Its aim is to motivate STEM graduates to acquire relevant early professional skills and a self-management attitude in their careers. The results of a satisfaction survey after a pilot course experience with 30 bachelor engineering students at UPC, within the framework of the Engine4STEMers project [Torres, 2022], are also presented. This experience starts with the concept of “direction of service” and the rapid change in attitude and work methodology …

Stem Education And Research At The University Of Aruba For Sustainable Development Of Small Island Developing States: Case Studies On Energy Efficiency And Waste Management., Alba De Agustin Camacho, Mieke De Droog, Wim Van Petegem

Practice Papers

SISSTEM “Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” is a higher educational programme created in 2019 at the University of Aruba in response to the need for engineering education and research in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In this contribution, the SISSTEM programme is introduced, and how SISSTEM equips engineering students with hard and soft skills while addressing local sustainability challenges is showcased through two case studies. The first case study presents a bachelor course that combines sustainability theory with a teamwork project in which students conduct an energy audit to a local institution. With this course, students …

Amplifying New Voices And Making Space For Alternative Knowledge Systems In Engineering Curricula – The Example Of Ubuntu, Anita Occhio, Fiona Caroline Saunders, Gladson Chikwa, Dawn Theresa Nicholson

Practice Papers

Engineering projects are ubiquitous; from developing COVID-19 vaccines to building new cities and developing climate change solutions. An inclusive approach to teaching engineers how to master the complexities of engineering project management is vital to the deliverability of sustainability and net zero initiatives (Hockings 2010). Yet, our engineering curricula remain deeply rooted in Western epistemology (Winter et al. 2022, Mbembe 2015). Arguably, this is an opportune time to consider decolonising our curricula. At a fundamental level, ‘decolonising the curriculum’ means introducing previously ignored voices, images, authors, theories and arguments into our teaching (Rogers et al. 2022). This is a challenge …

Management Education In An Engineering Environment. The Case Of Bme, Mária Szalmáné Csete, Emma Lógó, Bence Bodrogi, Tamás Koltai

Practice Papers

Engineering higher education institutes need to integrate new skills and competences into their practice and curricula to accelerate the sustainability transition.

This paper introduces the interdisciplinary upskilling of engineering students enrolled in engineering programs at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) and which has been provided by the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (GTK) since 1998. The BME GTK delivers an educational experience that fits into the environment defined by the engineering faculties at BME. The BME GTK has experience of more than a quarter of a century in engineering education related to socio-economic and management upskilling. …

Challenge-Based Learning In Courses: The Implementation Continuum, Adina Imanbayeva, Robin De Graaf, Cindy Poortman

Practice Papers

Given the increasing criticality and complexity of societal challenges, higher education institutions are urged to equip students with the ability to develop sustainable solutions for 'wicked' problems. Consequently, the Challenge-based Learning (CBL) framework has attracted considerable interest in higher engineering education. However, transforming existing course curricula to CBL is a challenging endeavour since it requires careful and paced execution for maintaining the quality, synergy, and flow of existing education. Therefore, this paper proposes a perspective on CBL implementation that exemplifies a gradual transition towards educational CBL innovation while reflecting on the alignment, consistency, and coherence educators aspire to when designing …

Enhancing Professional Skills Among Engineering Students By Interdisciplinary International Collaboration, Thomas Mejtoft, Helen Cripps, Melissa Fong-Emmerson, Christoper Blöcker

Practice Papers

Providing necessary knowledge and skills for engineering students to become successful professionals is a tricky task. Besides disciplinary knowledge, e.g., communication skills, ability to work in teams, and international experience are often mentioned as important. Regarding internationalization, most engineering programs in Sweden rely on either student exchange or low-level internationalization-at-home, such as international literature and lecturers. This paper explores sustainable international experiences for students on their home turf provided through an international interdisciplinary collaboration where engineering students in Sweden and marketing students in Australia work together on a project. The setup simulates a consultancy firm with development and marketing offices …

Continuous Assessment In Electric Power Engineering For Marine Engineers, Jimmy Ehnberg, Stefan Lundberg

Practice Papers

To tackle the climate challenge, all sectors need to contribute, including electrified shipping. Electrified shipping is not only propulsion but also loading and unloading equipment. This transformation requires increased skills and understanding of electric power engineering for the personal onboard, not least for the marine engineers. Therefore, a changed in the curriculum was needed. However, when more theoretical course content was added to two consecutive courses, the student view and passing rate dropped. Although the student view improved quickly, the passing rate recovered slower. To address this issue, continuous assessment was introduced to counteract the drops. The aim of this …

Embedding Sustainability In The Engineering Curriculum: Meeting The Requirements Of Professional Accreditation, Darren Carthy, Richard Manton, Louise O' Gorman

Practice Papers

Professional accreditation agencies are increasing requirements on sustainability in engineering education as a response to ethical obligations, industry needs and emerging academic best practice. In 2021, Engineers Ireland increased sustainability requirements in new accreditation criteria. This paper reports on a thematic analysis carried out by Engineers Ireland on the self-assessment and achievement of these new accreditation criteria on sustainability. The analysis was conducted on the self-assessment reports from a large Irish University, referred to as University A hereafter. The results indicate that, for the purpose of meeting accreditation requirements, University A has interpreted sustainability in their programmes as either meeting …

Centering Meaning-Filled Design Within Engineering Education: Recommendations On How To Integrate Interdisciplinary Architectural Design Charrettes, Community Engagement, Sustainability Principles, And Adapted Agile Methodologies Into A Student-Centered, Project-Based Engineering Program, David D Gillette, Michael Haungs, Thomas Fowler

Practice Papers

The Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies program (LAES) is a hybrid engineering and humanities degree housed in both the engineering and liberal arts colleges. LAES requires the same required math and science courses of standard engineering degrees, adding upper-level concentrations split equally between advanced engineering and humanities courses.

LAES was designed for retaining and recruiting a diversity of students in engineering, and to address recent innovations in industrial practice, technology design, and community-centered education. Through fifteen years of trial and error, the LAES program has developed a set of meaning-filled design guidelines for project work, combining engineering and humanistic problem …

Mapping The Sustainable Developmental Goals And Student Perspectives On Skills Development Using Alternative Assessments For Engineering Education, Janet Mckennedy, Zeinab Bedri

Practice Papers

Student-created video and in-class debate were introduced in the assessment of education for sustainable development (ESD) in an environmental engineering module. This work was undertaken with a group of structural and civil engineering students in their stage 3 of study for a level 8 degree. There were 63 students registered for this course: 40 civil and 23 structural. Prior to any intervention, a linking exercise was undertaken to map the words in the module descriptor to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This informed the design of the assessments.

After completion of the respective assessments, student surveys were used to understand …

Engineering Student Belonging To Prevent Early Leavers Through Curriculum Decolonization, Academic Self-Concept, And Psychologically Safe Teamwork, Neil Cooke, Jacqueline Chetty, Claudia Favero, Zena Green, Neil Drury, Pieter Joubert

Practice Papers

The proportion of early leavers from engineering degrees closely follows the higher education sector throughout Europe; around 10% leave before graduation. Students are more likely to drop-out if they do not feel that they belong in the learning community. While research shows that academic achievement is a primary factor contributing to student drop-out, other student-centric social factors, such as belonging are equally important to student drop-out rates within higher education. The aim of this paper is to present a model constructed on student belonging. The model consists of 3 pillars, namely academic self-concept & professional identity, psychologically safe teamwork, and …

The Use Of Peer Assessment And Group Peer Moderation To Develop ‘Soft’ Skills In Engineering Students Researching Sustainable Energy, Reena Cole

Practice Papers

Since the change to an outcomes-based approach in Engineers Ireland’s accreditation criteria almost 20 years ago there has been an emphasis placed on ‘soft’ skills such as teamwork and ensuring graduate engineers are not only well versed in their chosen discipline, but that they can communicate their knowledge – to other Engineers and also non-Engineers. Energy Management is a module taught to 4th year Mechanical Engineers, and the learning outcomes are best assessed by how students can communicate the energy topics they are researching. As an individual they will research an area that interests them and write a paper at …

Improving Motivation And Continuous Assessment In Engineering Classrooms Through Student Response Systems, María Dolores Merchán Moreno, Elena Pascual Corral, Cristina Prieto Calvo, Mario Miguel Hernández, María Jesús Santos Sánchez

Practice Papers

The use of Student Response Systems (SRS) is highly recommended to encourage the active and meaningful learning of students in each lecture. SRS promotes the motivation of students and improves the system of continuous assessment. One of the most popular applications designed for SRS is Socrative (Socrative n.d.). The use of Socrative gives real meaning to continuous assessment, since the teacher has an easily manageable record of the evolution of their students‘learning and will help the teacher to schedule both formative and summative assessment. The application allows the detection of topics that each student may not have understood and determines …

Project “Acércate A La Ingeniería”: Impact Assessment And Satisfaction Questionnaire, Annabella Narganes-Pineda, Roberto E. Araña-Suárez, Mariana Hernández-Pérez, Paula González-Suárez, Pedro M. Hernández-Castellano, María Dolores Marrero-Alemán

Practice Papers

Engineering is a key discipline in today’s society, as it is sustainability. Therefore, this are concepts that must be introduced in early educational levels. In this context, the project “Acércate a la Ingeniería” (Get closer to Engineering), designed and carried out by the Department of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands in collaboration with the Industrial and Civil Engineering School (EIIC) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), has arisen. This project brings together eighteen secondary schools (IES) from five of the eight Canary Islands. The aim of this project is to educate students to …

Experience With Remote Laboratories For On-Campus Engineering Degrees, David P. Reid, Timothy D. Drysdale

Practice Papers

Remote laboratories extend the teaching and learning opportunities available for oncampus courses, by increasing the overall capacity for practical work and enabling new types of activities. We present three case studies from different types of usage within the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh over the last three academic years. Each case study provides an overview of the experimental hardware and user interface, the learning context and reflections on their development from our perspective as providers of the system. The case studies include a pendulum lab that provided large cohorts of students access to lab equipment in a …

Eng+ | Ethics For Sustainable Development In Engineering Programmes A Praxis Report Of Tu Berlin’S Think Tank Technology Reflection, Sabine Ammon, Mareen Derda, Tim Hildebrandt, Stefan Kühne, Nadine Klein

Practice Papers

Many technical universities alike, TU Berlin is in a future-oriented process of programme transformation to invite a holistic perspective on technology which includes critical thinking and ethical reflection. To this end, TU Berlin recently issued a general study guideline calling for an orientation of all programmes toward sustainable development. Accordingly, students should know about the historical, social and cultural contexts of science and technology and learn to reflect on the ethical consequences of their actions. Together with training in good scientific practice, this content should comprise 12 ECTS in each respective BA and MA programme. With only minor integration of …

Lessons From Redefining Traditional Work Placements For University Students In Tu Dublin, Kevin Dominic Delaney, Norah Cussen, Deirdre Ryan

Practice Papers

There is strong support for ensuring all university students have an option to undertake relevant work placement. Work-placements enable students to engage with enterprise and develop experiential learning while linking their academic study and theory to real industrial practice. Such placements, or internships, offer students an opportunity to build their self-confidence while refining their transversal skills such as creativity, innovation, communication, team-working and problem solving. Furthermore, placements broaden students’ knowledge base and improve their employability upon graduation.

While student cohorts benefit from engaging with enterprise the enterprise also benefits, such as from the energy, new perspectives and ideas interns can …

Why And How Do Students Need To Have Their Mental Health Considered In Engineering Schools?, Shirley Bayle, Manon Bocahut, Loïc Champeau, Alya Muneaux, Cathel Zitzmann

Practice Papers

This paper addresses the students’ mental health in higher education and more specifically in engineering schools. Several studies have shown student mental health and wellbeing can affect students’ academic performance. We investigate how student’s mental health is considered in engineering schools as well as how it should be and study the case of our engineering school. First, we present several research and studies conducted on how mental health is considered in higher education and its impact on academic performance. In the second part, we study the case of our engineering school with the implementation of a survey among students and …

Unlocking Deeper Insights: A Qualitative Approach To Evaluating Stem Outreach In Engineering Education, Yiduo Wang, Lauren Schrock, Jane Andrews, Robin Clark

Practice Papers

Much previous research and evaluation has been conducted of STEM Outreach activities in schools using quantitative approaches. Surveys in particular are popular as they are low-cost and time-saving. However, quantitative methods are limited in that they do not generally generate deeper insights into students’ experiences in STEM; usually lacking rich detail about the context and complexity of the data being analysed. Hence, this paper proposes a different approach to evaluating STEM outreach: a unique multi-method, qualitative approach.

Starting with the Research Question “How to qualitatively evaluate STEM outreach in Engineering Education?”, this paper is grounded in ongoing doctoral research that …

Help – Home Electronics Laboratory Platform –Development And Evaluation, Martin Hill, Michael Murray, Tom O Mahony, Raul Onet, Marius Neag

Practice Papers

In response to the COVID pandemic, many of our undergraduate students were supplied with custom development kits to undertake their electronic laboratory activities at home. Following our return to on-campus teaching, we plan to combine on-campus laboratory sessions with at-home experiments taking advantage of both on-campus and at-home experimental work while avoiding some of the limitations experienced during remote teaching. The goal is to embed active learning as a key part of a long-term strategy to enable students to better manage their learning and to maximise the analytical engagement with lecturers in a hybrid blend of on-campus and remote activities. …

The Immersive Placement Experience: Sink Or Swim?, Mohammed Shaikh, Abed Alaswad, Sarah Junaid

Practice Papers

To excel in their respective engineering fields, engineering students need to be equipped with a combination of technical and interpersonal skills. Central to excellent interpersonal skills is good communication. The aim of the study is to evaluate how well-prepared mechanical and design engineering students felt entering into their industrial placements, using a UK university as a pilot case study. For the study interviews were carried out with final year students who had previously completed an industrial placement year, focussing on communication, workplace diversity, technical working methods and university teaching styles. Reponses were anonymised, coded and analysed using quantitative and qualitative …

Investigating The Perceptions Of Science And Engineering University Educators And Students Around Sustainability Integration And The Role Of Digital Tools, George Giannopoulos, Vasiliki Kioupi, Alfred Oti, Tatiana Vakhitova

Practice Papers

Last year we presented the first phase of our on-going research project - a collaboration between researchers at UCL and Academic Development team members at Ansys Ltd on sustainable digital transition in education. The results of the first phase were published in proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2022). We developed a framework to explore how technology companies, with a focus on education, approach sustainability in education through their products and their practices and what makes them impactful, focusing on a specific case of Ansys Granta EduPack.

The framework was the amalgamation of two previous analyses …

Engineering Solutions For A More Inclusive Society: A Case Study With Europe-Wide Challenge-Based Learning, Lennart Osterhus, Ulrike Bulmann, Viktoria Constanze Schneider, Kaline Furlan

Practice Papers

Engineering practices directly impact our society and yet, traditional engineering courses often present a lack of emphasis on social and sustainable responsibility. Therefore, a course was designed to increase societal awareness and promote social-conscious engineering practices, and also interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration. The course followed the concept of challenge-based learning (CBL) and was offered within the framework of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). In such framework, students from 13 European partner universities could join, as well as professionals and citizens as so-called continuous learners. The challenge addressed the issue of an increasingly aging European society and the physical …

Host Perceptions Of Socio-Cultural Impacts Of Volunteer Tourism In Vietnamese Farm Communities, Tuan Nien Tran

Theses, Doctoral

Volunteer tourism has grown significantly, contributing enormous economic, environmental, and socio-cultural impacts to host communities over 20 years (Aquino & Andereck, 2018; Lee & Zhang, 2019; Olsen et al., 2021). There appears to be limited research on the impacts of volunteer tourism on host communities, especially the socio-cultural impacts. The academic literature lacks an agreed framework to understand the socio-cultural impacts (Zamani-Farahani & Musa, 2012). The aim of this study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the socio-cultural impacts of volunteer tourism in Vietnamese farms on the host communities. Drawing on the multiple forms of capital perspectives and theoretical …

Identifying The Characteristics, Constraints, And Enablers To Creating Value In Applied Performance Analysis, Denise Martin, Peter G. O'Donoghue, Jonathan Bradley, Sam Robertson, Denise Mcgrath

Articles

While applied performance analysts (PAs) are a well-established applied sports science practitioner group, there is no clear definition of the purpose of an analyst, their key relationships, or the expertise required to execute the role successfully. This research sought to understand how PA practitioners and educators perceive their role as applied PA practitioners. Twenty-seven applied PAs and educators with applied PA experience participated in six online focus groups, completing an online survey in advance. Reflexive thematic analysis of transcripts and survey data generated an overarching theme: embedded applied PA practitioners have a value co-creation role within performance ecosystems which is …

Detection Of Truthful, Semi-Truthful, False And Other News With Arbitrary Topics Using Bert-Based Models, Elena Shushkevich, John Cardiff, Anna Boldyreva

Conference Papers

Easy and uncontrolled access to the Internet provokes the wide propagation of false information, which freely circulates in the Internet. Researchers usually solve the problem of fake news detection (FND) in the framework of a known topic and binary classification. In this paper we study possibilities of BERT-based models to detect fake news in news flow with unknown topics and four categories: true, semi-true, false and other. The object of consideration is the dataset CheckThat! Lab proposed for the conference CLEF-2022. The subjects of consideration are the models SBERT, RoBERTa, and mBERT. To improve the quality of classification we use …

Determining Child Sexual Abuse Posts Based On Artificial Intelligence, Susan Mckeever, Christina Thorpe, Vuong Ngo

Conference papers

The volume of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) created and shared daily both surface web platforms such as Twitter and dark web forums is very high. Based on volume, it is not viable for human experts to intercept or identify CSAM manually. However, automatically detecting and analysing child sexual abusive language in online text is challenging and time-intensive, mostly due to the variety of data formats and privacy constraints of hosting platforms. We propose a CSAM detection intelligence algorithm based on natural language processing and machine learning techniques. Our CSAM detection model is not only used to remove CSAM on …

A Real-Time Machine Learning Framework For Smart Home-Based Yoga Teaching System, Jothika Sunney, Musfira Jilani, Pramod Pathak, Paul Stynes

Conference papers

Practicing yoga poses in a home-based environment has increased due to Covid19. Yoga poses without a trainer can be challenging, and incorrect yoga poses can cause muscle damage. Smart home-based yoga teaching systems may aid in performing accurate yoga poses. However, the challenge with such systems is the computational time required to detect yoga poses. This research proposes a real-time machine learning framework for teaching accurate yoga poses. It combines a pose estimation model, a pose classification model, and a real-time feedback mechanism. The dataset consists of five popular yoga poses namely the downdog pose, the tree pose, the goddess …

The Role Of Soc In Ensuring The Security Of Iot Devices: A Review Of Current Challenges And Future Directions, Hajar Bennouri, Abdiaziz Abdi, Iqbal Hossain, Alexandre Pujol

Conference papers

The growing popularity and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has led to serious security concerns. The integration of a security operations center (SOC) becomes increasingly important in this situation to ensure the security of IoT devices. In this article, we will present a summary of IoT device security issues, their vulnerabilities, a review of current challenges to keep these devices secure, and discuss the role that SOC can bring in protecting IoT devices while considering the challenges encountered and the directions to consider when implementing a reliable SOC for IoT monitoring.