Engineering Commons^™

Engineering Students Reflect On Work-Life Relevant Learning, Camilla Björn, Kristina Edström, Viggo Kann

Research Papers

As engineering education is a professional education, it should prepare students for working life. However, there are obvious limitations to the amount of content that is possible to cover and the authenticity of the learning environments. In this study, we investigate the students’ awareness and perception of these limitations by answering the following two research questions: What competencies do the students view as work-life relevant? How do students reflect on their opportunities to learn these competencies? The context of the study is the five-year Master of Science in Engineering and Computer Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Throughout the …

Rethinking The Nature Of Experimental Learning: Moving Beyond Conventional Laboratory Experiences, David Lowe

Research Papers

Laboratory experimentation is an important educational tool across many disciplines, providing a mechanism for students to enhance their understanding of the relationships between theoretical models and physical reality. However, whilst laboratories are used extensively, the existing approaches to experimental learning have evolved little in the last 100 years, the intended learning outcomes are often poorly articulated and the connection between the learning outcomes and the student experiences is unclear. These limitations hasve meant that the development of laboratory experiences has tended to be driven by a combination of history, the capability of physical laboratory environments, and technological opportunity (e.g. the …

Effect Of Engineering Education On Students’ Ethical Attitudes, Ulla-Talvikki Anniina Virta, Hannu-Matti Järvinen

Research Papers

Integrating teaching about ethics in engineering degree has challenges: Teachers focused on the degree core topics may lack the expertise to handle the ethics, and teachers with an ethics background may struggle to connect the ethics teaching to the field-specific issues. In addition, a portion of the students themselves may consider the non-core topic to be unnecessary or demotivating, which poses further challenges for the teaching. In the paper, we explore the ethical attitudes of students based on a survey conducted on information technology, electrical engineering and computer sciences students at our university.

The survey received 224 responses. We compare …

Descriptions Of Peer Mentors As Told By Undergraduate Engineering Student Mentees, Darcie Christensen, Idalis Villanueva Alarcón

Research Papers

Peer mentorship is a relationship between two people who are at a similar level. In this study, the setting is academic, namely peer mentorship amongst undergraduate engineering students. Within peer mentorship, participants aim to help one another through various activities, such as sharing information, helping motivate, providing advice, lending support, etc. The outcomes of peer mentorship are generally positive and mutually beneficial for mentors and mentees, but the focus of peer mentoring research in undergraduate engineering has primarily been focused on implementing and evaluating formalized peer mentoring efforts, not necessarily on the needs of students who may be in these …

Emotional Labor Experienced In Team-Projects: A Comparison Of Engineering And Hospitality Students, Nihat Kotluk, Roland Tormey, Rachel Germanier, Annick Darioly

Research Papers

Team projects are an integral part of the student learning experience. However, emotions can significantly affect student performance during team projects. Students use different emotion regulation strategies, such as surface-acting (emotive dissonance) and deep-acting, to regulate their emotions during team projects. These strategies can result in different ‘emotional labor’ levels, leading to emotional exhaustion, dissonance, and burnout. The level of emotional labor may also vary depending on the discipline and the nature of the work. This study thus investigated if engineering and hospitality students have different levels of emotional labor in team projects. Data were collected using a modified Emotional …

Ai For Leadership: Implementation And Evaluation Of An Ai Education Program, Aikaterini Bagiati, Andrés F. Salazar-Gómez, Annalyn Bachmann, Kathleen D. Kennedy, Cynthia Breazeal

Research Papers

AI education is rapidly becoming the next frontier when it comes to solving the world's grand challenges; however, ways to introduce AI to large complex organisations are still vastly understudied. To address this gap in 2021, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entered into a collaboration with the US Air Force (USAF). The goal of this relationship is to develop, study, and evaluate different learning modalities and online/in-person experiences to introduce AI to the diverse USAF workforce. The USAF is a very complex organisation and its employees vary in terms of educational and cultural backgrounds, as well as in their work-related …

Experiences And Career Choices Of Female Engineering Undergraduates In China, Zeyi Liu, Inês Direito, Yuwei Xu

Research Papers

It is a global issue that the ‘pipeline’ leading to STEM occupations begins to ‘leak’ after graduation from STEM subjects, and the leakage tends to be much more severer for women. This study adds to current discussions on the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields, emphasizing the roles of gender and family engineering social capital in the career choices of female engineering students in China. The study follows an explanatory mixed-methods research design including a survey and interviews. The survey was completed by 508 Chinese engineering undergraduates at Chinese universities and created a quantitative descriptive landscape that situates the qualitative …

European And National Strategies Supporting The Implementation And Development Of Continuing Engineering Education At Scandinavian Universities, Ida Marie Lybecker Korning, Bente Nørgaard

Research Papers

Lifelong learning (LLL) and continuing engineering education (CEE) have been on the European Union’s agenda for almost three decades, formally initiated by the European Year of Lifelong Learning in 1996 and reinforced with several initiatives targeted at LLL since then. The current initiative, the European Year of Skills 2023, aims to promote a mindset of reskilling and upskilling. Nonetheless, before 1996, some universities were already developing diverse CEE activities and collaborating with external stakeholders such as the local industry. Many of these activities, however, have been initiated by passionate university staff or based on personal relationships within the organization. CEE …

Searching For Young Talent: Understanding Industrial Recruitment Practices For Hiring Engineering Degree Apprenticeship Students, Klara Kövesi, Christiane Gillet, Nathalie Krien

Research Papers

This study aims to investigate industrial companies’ recruitment practices and standards for hiring their engineering degree apprentices. We examine (1) how they find their future engineering degree apprentices, (2) their recruitment standards and (3) to what extent organisational characteristics shape their recruitment decisions. To answer these questions we have carried out an online quantitative study, comprising exclusively closed questions, with the participation of workplace mentors of engineering apprenticeship students (n=70). Subsequently, we have conducted a descriptive statistical data analyse on SPSS. Our results indicate that industrial companies find their engineering apprentices by means of students’ speculative applications or via engineering …

Varieties Of Project-Task Design In Interdisciplinary Engineering Education, Miles Macleod, Coralie Johnson, Jan Van Der Veen

Research Papers

Experience in interdisciplinary problem-solving is considered crucial if engineers are to be equipped to handle modern complex environmental and sustainability challenges. Such challenges cross disciplinary boundaries. Project-based learning is currently a central paradigm for providing that experience. Teams from different disciplines are formed to work together on a specific scientific or engineering projecttask (often a real-world inspired problem). Furthermore according to the paradigm projects should be open-structured to allow students to experience interdisciplinary problem-solving as it might occur in the real world. In this study we explore preliminary results of data collected on 5 project-based modules at a Dutch technical …

First-Generation Engineering Students' Identity Development: Early Forays Into The Workplace, Renee Smit

Research Papers

In the context of global shortages of engineering professionals, research into factors that impact on training and retention of qualified engineers is important – this includes first-generation engineering students, a largely under-researched group of students. Research has shown that an elaborated, well-developed engineering identity is important for the retention of both engineering students at university, and for engineers in practice. Professional identities are fluid, emerging and develop over the lifetime of the professional. However, we still know little about the nature of a professional engineering identity, and how it develops.

Drawing on insights from the philosophy of science, I make …

Effects Of Gaze Distribution On Woodworking Knowledge And Skills, Takashi Usuzaka, Yujin Mochizuki, Hiroaki Shoji

Research Papers

This study investigates the gaze distribution of learners who watched a video about making a screw joint (a woodworking process) and explores its relationship with knowledge comprehension and skill acquisition levels. Twenty university students who had never taken a specialized class on screw joints participated in the study. They watched approximately a three-minute video on making a screw joint and completed knowledge comprehension and skill acquisition surveys based on the video content. Gaze measurements were conducted using Tobii T120, a screenbased eye-tracking device manufactured by Tobii Technology. In the line-of-sight distribution analysis, the objects appearing in the video were categorized …

From Group Work To Team Work: Comparative Analysis In Three European Institutions, Isabelle Lermigeaux-Sarrade, Jean-Luc Sarrade, Stephane Perrin, Sorana Cimpan

Research Papers

Addressing the complex challenges of sustainability demands for good teamwork abilities for future technicians and engineers. In our three institutions we adopted project-based learning to facilitate the development of these skills – but is this enough? Since group project-based learning involves dealing with complex technical tasks and at the same time learning to work as a team, we wondered how students handle this double challenge. By analysing their perceptions, we attempt to identify what teaching practices could be helpful to shift their experience from groupwork to effective teamwork.

Development And Evaluation Of A Teaching Concept That Focuses On Increasing Modeling Competence In Technical Mechanics (Tm), Kristina Lampe, Martin Lang, Alexandra Dorschu

Research Papers

Engineering students often learn by retracing pre-calculated given solutions of tasks and try to understand this problem-solving way. This reconstruction is not always successful in solving new types of problem via modified tasks (Rossow 2008). Every mechanical exercise follows the same solution methodology (Müller-Slany 2018). Applying this basic problem-solving structure correctly is a Pre-condition for solution’s reflection and is therefore essential for teaching. To improve these competencies a strategy training is implemented in exercise-settings in Technical Mechanics (TM).

Teaching Excellence Programs – Lessons Learned At Two Universities, Kristina Edström, Cindy Poortmann, Marie Magnell, Priyanka Pereira

Research Papers

Universities are seeking novel ways to strengthen the collective educational competence of their faculty and promote educational merits. In this paper we describe and compare the experiences of two recently started initiatives for teaching excellence, the Program for Future Leaders for Strategic Educational Development at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (henceforth KTH) and the Teaching Fellowship Programme at the University of Twente. Both programs have recently completed one complete round of implementation. The programmes are similar in that the participants work on a project of their own for an extended time, while also being part of a community with regular …

Professionalising Science And Engineering Teachers In Guiding And Assessing Reflection, Elise Eshuis, Kariene Mittendorff, Heleen Daggenvoorde-Baarslag

Research Papers

The current knowledge society of the 21st century requires students, among other things, to have the ability to think reflectively. Various studies show however that educational programs and teachers, from engineering programs in particular, experience difficulties in integrating the development of students’ reflection skills in their curricula. This gave rise to a multi-year project on improving reflection in engineering educational programs. We worked with teacher teams of 6 programs to improve their curricula and teacher practices regarding reflection. Part of the project were training sessions for teachers focused on guiding and assessing reflection activities of their students.

This paper presents …

Impact Of Teacher Training On Enhancing Sustainability Integration Into Engineering Education, Paula Schönach, Noora Jaakkola, Meeri Karvinen

Research Papers

Engineering education institutions face a growing demand to provide graduates with adequate skills to respond to the sustainability crisis at hand. One approach to address this is to integrate sustainability as a cross-cutting theme into programmes and courses. At the same time competence development of academic staff is seen as an essential, yet underdeveloped prerequisite for a sustainability paradigm shift.

Aiming at enhancing sustainability integration into engineering education, this study investigates the impact of pedagogical training on the skills and motivations of teachers to embed sustainability into their teaching. A new pedagogical course (3 ECTS) on sustainability in teaching was …

Revolutionising Engineering Education: Creating Photorealistic Virtual Human Lecturers Using Artificial Intelligence And Computer Generated Images, Johannes H Moolman, Fiona Boyle, Joseph Walsh

Research Papers

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional classroom learning, making virtual and remote education increasingly important. In this context, the use of photorealistic virtual humans, or avatars, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) can offer an immersive and engaging environment for delivering traditional classroom-based lectures. This paper proposes a process that combines AI and Computer-Generated Images (CGI) to create photorealistic virtual human lecturers for educational purposes.

The proposed process flow involves generating audio from text inputs, which is passed to a 3-Dimensional (3D) facial animation rig that matches lip, tongue, eye and facial movements to the audio using AI. This generates a …

A Multimodal Measurement Of The Impact Of Deepfakes On The Ethical Reasoning And Affective Reactions Of Students, Vivek Ramachandran, Cécile Hardebolle, Nihat Kotluk, Touradj Ebrahimi, Reinhard Riedl, Patrick Jermann, Roland Tormey

Research Papers

Deepfakes - synthetic videos generated by machine learning models - are becoming increasingly sophisticated. While they have several positive use cases, their potential for harm is also high. Deepfake production involves input from multiple engineers, making it challenging to assign individual responsibility for their creation. The separation between engineers and consumers may also contribute to a lack of empathy on the part of the former towards the latter. At present, engineering ethics education appears inadequate to address these issues. Indeed, the ethics of artificial intelligence is often taught as a stand-alone course or a separate module at the end of …

Planned, Taught, Learnt: Analysis Of Transversal Skills Through Curriculum Using Portfolio, Helena Kovacs, Tamara Milosevic, Alexandra Niculescu

Research Papers

There is an everlasting effort in education to successfully ensure that the intended learning objectives are clearly taught and effectively learnt at the end of the educational cycle. This has been especially difficult in teaching and learning complex sets of competencies, for example, transversal skills in domains such as engineering education. Yet, studies focusing on transversal skills often address student learning outcomes, but rarely how teachers teach them, and even less so how they are represented in the written curriculum. In order to create a more comprehensive understanding of how transversal skills are communicated, taught and learnt in engineering education, …

Developing Teamwork Skills Through Simultaneous Group Project Courses, Tuomo Eloranta

Research Papers

The popularity of project-based learning (PBL) has led to a situation where engineering students take several group project courses at the same time. From a student perspective, this can generate considerable issues. Previous research has indicated that already single PBL courses can be challenging, especially time and task management-wise and intuitively overlapping PBL courses compound this complexity. As existing literature on this topic is relatively sparse, the goal of the present study is to examine what kind of student challenges simultaneous PBL courses generate, how students navigate those and what kind of additional learning can it foster. The results should …

Comicir- Commercialization Of Innovative Challenges From Industry And Research (Practice), Charlotte Norrman, Ali Moshfegh, Jeanette Engzell

Research Papers

At Linköping university, a model to facilitate impact and bridge the gap between research, education, and business creation, has been developed. It is named “ComICIR”, which stands for Commercialization of Innovative Challenges from Industry and Research. The model allows researchers, firms, and students to work in a co-creation process that are built on the following five steps: (1) research validation, (2) idea generation, (3) idea validation, (4) idea evaluation and, (5) innovation strategy. In the paper, we describe the model and analyse how challenges and ideas could be developed and experientially based pedagogical approaches could be adjusted in order to …

Develop An Interdisciplinary Course Using The Twente Interdisciplinarity Toolbox, Miles Macleod, Coralie Johnson, Klaasjan Visscher, Jan Van Der Veen

Workshops

The ability to engage in interdisciplinary research and problem-solving are essential skills for contemporary engineers, however designing and delivering effective learning opportunities to reach these ideals, is often not straightforward [1]. Educators are often faced with a plethora of challenges, and interdisciplinary courses often do not run as smoothly as disciplinary ones. In this workshop, the primary goal was to stimulate participants to consider a few common design scenarios modeled on real-life cases and to apply some of the main design concepts and questions employed by a new online platform the Twente Toolbox which aims to assist instructors with interdisciplinary …

Structuring Conversations Around Course Design, Jacques Lanarès, Marc Laperrouza, Emmanuel Sylvestre

Workshops

Constructive alignment helps both students and teachers to achieve intended learning outcomes. The workshop proposes to introduce participants to the elements and mechanics of the pedagogical coherence canvas (PCC), a tool developed to improve constructive alignment throughout course design. Participants will familiarise themselves with the process by applying it to the design of a course or training. This hands-on workshop will help participants to develop a practical understanding of how to use the PCC to design a course following constructive alignment principles.

How Diverse Are Global Perspectives On Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Engineering Education?, Jan Van Maele, Becky Bergman, Inês Direito, Homero Murzi

Workshops

The SEFI Special Interest Group on Gender & Diversity has recently been renamed as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, broadening the definition from a focus on gender to embrace a wider range of diverse identities – such as language and cultural background, religion, physical ability, and socioeconomic status – and to promote and support equity and inclusive practices within SEFI and beyond. In the process of redefining the Special Interest Group’s mission, it has become clear that definitions of diversity, equity and inclusion may vary considerably between different contexts and institutions. Therefore, it is relevant for the engineering education community to …

Using A Spiral Approach To Facilitating Engineering Research And Education In Real Industry Settings, Marcus Vinicius Pereira Pessôa, Kostas Nizamis

Workshops

Engineering research and education is often done in collaboration with industrial partners through the Industry as Laboratory (IaL), and Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) paradigms. However, its findings are not always adopted, despite the use of well-established and rigorous research methodologies. Academia employs oftentimes extensive and time consuming analyses, while industry operates in smaller cycles with tangible intermediate results. This can lead to the industry losing interest in the research. The Spiral Approach for Systems Engineering Research (SASER) is an approach that aims to mitigate that risk. This can have a twofold benefit in the industry remaining interested, but also the researcher …

How Can Continuing Engineering Education Approaches Meet Societal And Industry Needs For Future-Focused, Lifelong Learning Skills And Competences?, Christopher Smith, Aniko Kalman

Workshops

In this workshop run by the Continuing Engineering Education and Lifelong Learning SIG, attendees were first given an overview of the changing skills landscape from 2011 to 2023 to set highlight some of the international recognised priorities around skills. Next, the workshop attendees then examined in separate groups three questions around what and how Continuing Engineering Education (CEE) is being approached within different institutions. Shared experiences show that there are a variety of approaches (short courses and microcredentials) that were targeted at relevant local industries, and/or responding to a specific skills need. It was apparent that strategic direction is required …

Sustaining Engineering Education Research: Sharing Qualitative Research Data For Secondary Analysis, Jennifer Case, Holly Matusovich, Marie Paretti, Susan Lord, Lisa Benson

Workshops

The need for secondary data analysis practices emerges from multiple sources. Qualitative researchers often have rich data sets that far exceed the time available for data analysis, and many of us wish that someone could spend more time with the data. We also recognize that local data sets would benefit from further analysis that linked our data with related data collected in different contexts. Many also grapple with increasing data sharing requirements from funding agencies that raise concerns about participant confidentiality and data integrity. This workshop provides a chance to explore potential responses to these concerns through a robust dialogue …

Planning Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Courses For Engineering Students, Johannes Schleiss, Sebastian Stober

Workshops

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly important in engineering, instructors need to incorporate AI concepts into their subject-specific courses. However, many teachers may lack the expertise to do so effectively or don’t know where to start. To address this challenge, we have developed the AI Course Design Planning Framework to help instructors structure their teaching of domain-specific AI skills. This workshop aimed to equip participants with an understanding of the framework and its application to their courses. The workshop was designed for instructors in engineering education who are interested in interdisciplinary teaching and teaching about AI in the context of …

Application-Based Learning Of Signal Analysis Methods With The Help Of A Graphical Open-Source Software, Tim Hetkämper, Kevin Koch, Manuel Webersen, Leander Claes

Workshops

In almost all engineering disciplines, engineers need to evaluate and extract information from time-dependent quantities, making signal processing and analysis a central topic in engineering education. The theoretical foundation is anchored in many courses, however, often only few application-based learning opportunities are offered. To provide these opportunities without the need for expensive hardware, a graphical open-source software is developed. This workshop offers a first opportunity to explore how a graphical software can be used to learn signal processing and analysis methods.