Digital Commons Network^™

Raising Algorithm Bias Awareness Among Computer Science Students Through Library And Computer Science Instruction, Shalini Ramachandran, Steven Matthew Cutchin, Sheree Fu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We are a computer science professor and two librarians who work closely with computer science students. In this paper, we outline the development of an introductory algorithm bias instruction session. As part of our lesson development, we analyzed the results of a survey we conducted of computer science students at three universities on their perceptions about search-engine and big-data algorithms. We examined whether an information literacy component focused on algorithmic bias was beneficial to offer to students in the computational sciences and designed an instructional prototype. We studied qualitative data, including feedback from students and colleagues on our initial instruction …

Bcr Affinity Influences T-B Interactions And B Cell Development In Secondary Lymphoid Organs, Alec J. Wishnie, Tzippora Chwat-Edelstein, Mary Attaway, Bao Q. Vuong

Publications and Research

B cells produce high-affinity immunoglobulins (Igs), or antibodies, to eliminate foreign pathogens. Mature, naïve B cells expressing an antigen-specific cell surface Ig, or B cell receptor (BCR), are directed toward either an extrafollicular (EF) or germinal center (GC) response upon antigen binding. B cell interactions with CD4+ pre-T follicular helper (pre- Tfh) cells at the T-B border and effector Tfh cells in the B cell follicle and GC control B cell development in response to antigen. Here, we review recent studies demonstrating the role of B cell receptor (BCR) affinity in modulating T-B interactions and the subsequent differentiation of B …

Developing Diversity And Inclusion Initiatives And Measuring The Effects Of A Pandemic In A Civil And Environmental Engineering Department, Tiago Forin, Stephanie Farrell, Harriet Hartman, Sarah Bauer, Stephanie M. Lezotte

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

The Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department at Midsized Northeastern University was awarded The National Science Foundation’s Revolutionizing Engineering and computer science Departments (RED) grant in 2016 with the hopes of allowing engineering programs to improve the inclusion of minorities over the course of five years. The CEE Department used this opportunity to create a research group called Revolutionizing Engineering Diversity (RevED) that focuses on all underrepresented and underserved groups. The researchers used the grant to help change admissions as well as incorporate inclusive pedagogical practices. Currently, RevED is in the fifth year of the grant and has since spread …

Perceptions Of The Engineering Curricula From Women And Lgbtqia+ Students, Stephanie M. Lezotte, Harriet Hartman, Stephanie Farrell, Tiago Forin, Theresa F. S. Bruckerhoff

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

The National Science Foundation’s Revolutionizing Engineering and computer science Departments (RED) grant was awarded to the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department at Midsized MidAtlantic University in 2016. This RED grant enables the institution to improve the inclusion of underrepresented and underserved engineering students over the course of five years. One of the ways our RED research team implemented this grant was to conduct climate surveys distributed to all engineering students to document students’ academic preparation and participation, feelings of otherness in the College of Engineering, engineering self-efficacy, sense of inclusion and belonging in the College of Engineering, and their …

Lemons Into Lemonade!, Thad B. Welch, Cameron H. G. Wright, Michael G. Morrow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper discusses a trial of offering two senior/first-year graduate classes in a 7-week format, one following the other. Thus, a student could complete two courses (6-credits), dealing with two closely related topics, in one semester. In this case, the courses were Digital Communication Systems and Wireless Communications.

During the first week of the first 7-week course, all of the in-class demonstrations and hands-on experiences needed to be shifted to online/remote delivery. This was primarily accomplished using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) AppStream, cloud computing system.

The planned real-world signal capture and analysis project changed to an optional attendance …

Tinkering With Theoretical Objects: Designing Theories In Scientific Inquiry, Shakayla Moran, Leslie Atkins Elliott

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The EDISIn Project (Engineering Design in Scientific Inquiry), taught in an undergraduate teacher preparation program, is investigating where engineering design opportunities emerge within contexts of scientific inquiry, with implications for how science teachers might productively engage in engineering design in their science courses without compromising on either the science or the engineering. In some inquiries, the opportunities for engineering were obvious, particularly with respect to novel experimental designs and in developing physical representations of models. In other inquiries, however, the investigations were either largely theoretical or the experimental designs were readily developed without a need for deliberate attention to design …

Gaining Glycemic Control In Patients With Uncontrolled Type 2 Diabetes In Rural Health, Demetric Childs-Hicks

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Diabetes is a significant global healthcare problem. The number of individuals diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is alarmingly high and the numbers are steadily increasing. Because of various barriers, individuals living in rural communities are at greater risk of having uncontrolled T2D.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was “Will patients with uncontrolled T2D in rural health have better control of their glucose levels when using telephone or web-based monitoring by healthcare providers than patients with uncontrolled T2D in rural health who do not use technology to achieve glycemic control as evidenced by lower pre-prandial …

Evaluating Stem Course Re-Design Strategies In Light Of Covid-19, Ulises Juan Trujillo Garcia, Krishna Pakala, Samantha Schauer, Diana Bairaktarova, Bhaskar Chittoori

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on unprecedented challenges to the teaching and learning communities that required faculty to make purposeful changes in their teaching approaches. Many faculty members had to shift rapidly from in-person to online mode of instruction. This study documents perceptions of STEM faculty who made the change to online teaching. It reports on what strategies faculty used to transition to remote/online teaching and how this change impacted student learning. The study results indicated that almost two-thirds of the faculty changed how they evaluated their students. Results also showed that the sudden change to remote learning negatively impacted student …

“She’S More Like A Guy”: The Legacy Of Gender Inequity Passed On To Undergraduate Engineering Students, Jeanne Christman, Randy Yerrick

Presentations and other scholarship

Despite decades of effort to increase the number of female graduates in engineering, women remain vastly underrepresented in the discipline. As millions of dollars in recruitment and retention programs have failed to reverse the underrepresentation problem, we as engineering education researchers need to refocus our efforts. Too often research is framed in student deficits and does not include an examination of the culture in engineering. In light of inertia to change, we must better identify the root cause of sustained gender inequity. Many scholars argue it is time start re-examining the undergraduate engineering culture. This includes the pedagogical practices, long-standing …

An Insight Into Students’ Feedback On Synchronous Distance Learning During Covid-19 Lockdown, Amanda Bao

Presentations and other scholarship

The fast growth of technology and internet in the last decade has built the necessary infrastructure for distance learning, and made the rapid transition to online teaching possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are still a lot of uncertainties about the impact of distance learning on students’ learning effectiveness in engineering education. This paper presents the survey results about distance learning in a Civil Engineering course during the COVID-19 lockdown period and is aimed at understanding students’ challenges and preferences in distance learning. The survey results reflect the students’ perspective on online learning and provide an insight into students’ …

A Look Into User Privacy And Third-Party Applications In Facebook, Sovantharith Seng, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Matthew Wright

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

Purpose

A huge amount of personal and sensitive data are shared on Facebook, which makes it a prime target for attackers. Adversaries can exploit third-party applications connected to a user’s Facebook profiles (i.e. Facebook apps) to gain access to this personal information. Users’ lack of knowledge and the varying privacy policies of these apps make them further vulnerable to information leakage. However, little has been done to identify mismatches between users’ perceptions and the privacy policies of Facebook apps. This paper aims to address this challenge in the work.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a lab study with 31 participants, where …

Development And Implementation Of An Assessment Model In A Sophomore Electromechanical Systems Design Laboratory For The Etac-Abet Accreditation, Lili Ma, Benito Mendoza, Lorrington A. Hamilton, Luis Alberto Aponte, Sergey Drabkin, Mauricio Cardena

Publications and Research

In the field of assessment in higher education, practitioners regularly mention two features as key for success at implementing a sustainable assessment model, i) it has to be faculty-driven, and ii) it has to become part of the curriculum. This paper describes an assessment model incorporating these features. The model was developed and implemented for assessing both the ETAC-ABET Program Criteria for an associate degree in Electromechanical Engineering Technology program and the new ETAC-ABET (2019-2020) student outcome (2), which regards students' ability to design systems, components, or processes for well-defined engineering technology problems appropriate to the discipline. This paper describes …

Radio Continuum Sources Behind The Large Magellanic Cloud, Thomas G. Pannuti

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

We present a comprehensive multi-frequency catalogue of radio sources behind the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) between 0.2 and 20 GHz, gathered from a combination of new and legacy radio continuum surveys. This catalogue covers an area of 144 deg2 at angular resolutions from 45 arcsec to 3 arcmin. We find 6 434 discrete radio sources in total, of which 3 789 are detected at two or more radio frequencies. We estimate the median spectral index (; where 𝑆𝑣 𝜈) of 𝛼 = 09 and mean of 088 0.48 for 3 636 sources detected exclusively at two frequencies (0.843 and 1.384 …

Learning Experiences Of Social Science Students In An Interdisciplinary Computing Minor, Valerie A. Carr, Maureen C. Smith, Belle Wei, Morris E. Jones

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The rapid growth of the digital economy and an associated increase in user-generated data has created a strong need for interdisciplinary computing professionals possessing both technical skills and knowledge of human behavior. To help meet this need and with funds from NSF IUSE, we developed an academic minor in Applied Computing for Behavioral and Social Sciences at San Jose State University. The minor involves a four-course sequence that includes programming fundamentals, data structures and algorithms, data cleaning and management, and a culminating project. At our institution and nationwide, social science students are more diverse than engineering students, with respect to …

Competency Based Learning In "Aerospace Structures I" In An Online Environment - Work In Progress, Maria Chierichetti, Nataliya Grigoryan, Radha Aravamudhan, Joseph Rodriguez

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In Fall 2020, we converted the engineering upper division class “Aerospace Structural Analysis I” from a traditional format to a competency-based learning model. “Aerospace Structural Analysis I” is a combination of topics from statics and strength of materials applied to aerospace systems. A total of about 100 students were enrolled in the class. Due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this class was conducted in an online environment for the first time in Fall 2020. Competency based learning assesses students on how many topics/skills they are proficient, and allows students to engage with more complex topics only after mastering prerequisite …

Mechanix: An Intelligent Web Interface For Automatic Grading Of Sketched Free-Body Diagrams, Matthew Runyon, Vimal Viswanathan, Kimberly Grau Talley, Tracy Anne Hammond, Julie S. Linsey

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Sketching free body diagrams is an essential skill that students learn in introductory physics and engineering classes; however, university class sizes are growing and often have hundreds of students in a single class. This situation creates a grading challenge for instructors as there is simply not enough time nor resources to provide adequate feedback on every problem. We have developed a web-based application called Mechanix to provide automated real-time feedback on hand-drawn free body diagrams for students. The system is driven by novel sketch recognition algorithms developed for recognizing and comparing trusses, general shapes, and arrows in diagrams. We have …

Virtual Fluidization Labs To Assist Unit Operations Courses, David R. Wagner, Fanny Huang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

As technology advances, educational platforms are changing, evolving towards partially or entirely virtual environments. New emerging virtual tools are used to enhance topics discussed in lecture settings. In chemical engineering education, one of the fundamental courses for undergraduate pathways is the unit operations labs; however, physical lab settings have a few drawbacks. Costs required to store and maintain the equipment in the physical labs can add up, and a limited number of students can access the equipment in labs. Thus, virtual lab platforms are viable and economical options for either an alternative or a lab preparation tool. For this study, …

Engineering Students Coping With Covid-19: Yoga, Meditation, And Mental Health, Kacey Beddoes, Andrew Danowitz

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In 2020, we conducted a nationwide online survey of undergraduate engineering students in the United States to examine how the novel coronavirus pandemic was affecting engineering students' mental health and what strategies they were using to cope with mental health challenges. The survey was a compilation of validated mental health instruments that screen for depression, anxiety, somatoform disorders, eating disorders, non-specific psychological distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Given that prior research has shown that yoga and meditation can help people suffering from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, we were interested in exploring the subset of respondents who said that …

The Effects Of Covid-19 On Faculty In The College Of Engineering At San Jose State University, Patricia R. Backer, Laura E. Sullivan-Green, Maria Chierichetti

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper reports on a survey of all engineering faculty at San José State University (SJSU) in Spring 2020. The purpose of the survey was to determine the impact of the shelter-in-place on faculty. Overall, 104 faculty completed this survey. Based on the number of COE faculty in Spring, 287, this equates to a confidence level of 95% with a margin of error of 8%. Because of this low margin of error, we can be fairly confident that this survey is representative of the faculty teaching in the College in Spring 2020. The majority of the respondents who answered the …

Learning From The Voices Of Faculty: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Shelter-In-Place On Faculty At San Jose State University In Spring 2020, Maria Chierichetti, Patricia R. Backer, Laura E. Sullivan-Green, Liat Rosenfeld

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This is a research paper based on an in-depth study conducted in Spring and Summer 2020 at San José State University College of Engineering that focuses on the students and faculty experiences during the shelter-in-place due to COVID-19. There were four parts to this study. In this paper, we focus on the interviews of 23 faculty members that taught in Spring 2021 (18 lecturers and five tenure-track and tenured faculty members). Seven women and 16 men were interviewed and they worked in almost every department in the College. The interviews were conducted via Zoom in Summer 2020. The faculty members …

2021-July-26-Dr. Keith Johnson Is Newest Asee Fellow, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY (July 26, 2021) — Dr. Keith Johnson, vice president for Equity and Inclusion and chair of the Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology and Surveying at East Tennessee State University, has been selected as one of nine new fellows to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

“I was delighted to receive notice that I have been awarded such a prestigious recognition. When I was a junior faculty member starting out at ETSU, I always admired the folks who were chosen for their outstanding contributions to the Engineering and Engineering Education disciplines,” said Johnson. “Their contributions were so outstanding …

Bovine Mammary Alveolar Mac-T Cells Afford A Tool For Studies Of Bovine Milk Exosomes In Drug Delivery, Mojisola Ogunnaike

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bovine milk exosomes (BMEs) have attracted attention as vehicles for delivering RNA therapeutics. BMEs originate in mammary alveolar cells. Here, we determined whether bovine mammary alveolar MAC-T cells are a promising tool to assess RNA delivery by BMEs. MAC-T cells exosomes (MAC-T BMEs) and BMEs were harvested by differential ultracentrifugation. Exosome size, morphology, microRNA content and marker proteins were assessed using nanoparticle tracking analysis, transmission electron microscopy, real-time PCR and immunoblot analysis, respectively. MAC-T cells were genetically engineered to secrete MAC-T BMEs endogenously labeled with a near-infrared fluorescent protein and tissue distribution was compared to fluorophore-labeled BMEs following intravenous injection …

Two Um Law Students Land Steiger Fellowship, Christina Steube

University of Mississippi News

Natalie Lowry and Madison Reightler are spending their summer in state attorney general offices

Reducing “Treble” With Performance Focused Music Programs In Medical School: A Student Driven Needs Assessment To Clarify Participation Barriers Amongst Undergraduate Medical Students, Alexander Tu, Tiffany Truong, Kristy J. Carlson, Matthew J. Brooks, Jayme R. Dowdall

Music Faculty Publications

Introduction: The beneficial impact of performing arts involvement within undergraduate medical education, such as music, has been studied, but support for the arts varies significantly by institution. Research has suggested that medical student involvement in the arts can help develop their identities as physicians and may reduce stress and burnout, an increasingly difficult problem within the medical student community.

Methods: We used a mixed-method cross-sectional study design, using a questionnaire and semi-structured interview designed amongst a team of music professionals and healthcare providers with music backgrounds. Out of 511 enrolled medical students, 93 students participated in the study for a …

Embedded Curriculum With Industry-Recognized Certifications To Improve The Marketability Of Engineering Technology Graduates, Immanuel Edinbarough, Jesus A. Gonzalez-Rodriguez

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Embedded Curriculum with Industry Recognized Certifications to Improve the Marketability of Engineering Technology Graduates

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is challenging the industries to change the way they manage and operate the manufacturing environment. This leads to the transformation of the world through artificial intelligence, next-generation robotics, automation, big data analytics, 5G technology and Internet of Things. This idea of Industry 4.0 forces the change in the industries of today and tomorrow. In this, cyber physical systems communicate with one another using the Internet of Things. The manufacturing sector takes full advantage of these technologies to produce innovative products to enhance …

Peer-Led-Team Learning In Introductory Engineering Courses: An Analysis Of An Interventional Method Of Support For Underrepresented Students At A Two-Year, Hispanic-Serving Public Institution, Kimberly T. Luthi, Lisa Macon, Mohua Kar

Publications

The three-year project entitled Engagement in Engineering Pathways funded by the National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM education grant explored the conditions that led to increased academic outcomes and non-cognitive factors related to persistence of nontraditional undergraduate students in engineering education. The study was conducted at a multicampus, federally-designated, Hispanic-serving, public, two-year college in the southeast United States. This paper presents one aspect of the effects of peer-led team learning (PLTL) on academic success through the inclusion of active learning modules in introductory undergraduate engineering course. The researchers found that PLTL introduced in engineering courses, to include statics and dynamics, …

An Evolving Face-To-Face Freshman Experience Course During A Pandemic, Allen Estes, John Lawson

Architectural Engineering

With the full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic reaching the United States in March 2020, almost all colleges and universities went exclusively to virtual on-line instruction during the spring semesters and quarters. In the fall, according to the College Crisis Initiative study at Davidson College of 3000 schools, as colleges opened back up 4% were fully in person, 23% primarily in person, 21% were hybrid, 34% primarily on line, 10% fully on line and 8% either undetermined or other. Some colleges selectively reopened specific classes for face-to-face instruction with varying degrees of success and some had to quick shut down …

Water Regulation For Enhancing Soil Quality Using Cactus Mucilage: A Theoretical And Experimental Analysis, Khuloud Alrashdi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As water is one of the primary sources of life, it is essential in an endless number of systems and processes to be utilized efficiently in nature and in practical applications. One of these applications includes farming, which depletes a lot of water as the water irrigation systems cover large soil areas. While water is a critical factor in growing crops, a question here stands, can the irrigation process be transformed? This is the overarching goal of my work since it is centered on studying if cactus mucilage, a natural substance, is capable of improving water absorption processes on crops …

Content Analysis Of Two-Year And Four-Year Data Science Programs In The United States, Elizabeth Milonas, Duo Li, Qiping Zhang

Publications and Research

Data has grown exponentially in the last decade, and this growth has resulted in vast challenges for both business and IT domains (Hassan & Liu, 2019). This growth has given rise to the Data Science field, which has also grown exponentially in the last few years (Hassan & Liu, 2019; Song & Zhu, 2016). The Data Science field has its origins in the statistics and mathematics domain (Cao, 2017b), but is now considered a multidisciplinary field (Aasheim et al., 2015). Data Science warrants knowledge of data analytics, programming, systems, applications, informatics, computing, communication, management, and sociology (Aasheim et al., 2015; …

It’S A Context Gap, Not A Competency Gap: Understanding The Transition From Capstone Design To Industry, Marie C. Paretti, Julie Dyke Ford, Susannah Howe, Daria A. Kotys-Schwartz, Robin Ott

Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper describes the completion of a multi-year, multi-institution study to explore students’ transitions from capstone design courses into engineering workplaces. Numerous studies and industry reports point to gaps between school and work with respect to engineering practice. Such misalignment poses a serious challenge to the professional formation of engineers within the academy. Industry-oriented capstone courses are key opportunities to bridge these gaps. These courses provide a direct connect to industry, and faculty view them as vehicles to help students synthesize prior coursework and engage in real-world projects. Yet few if any studies have examined the effectiveness of capstone courses …