Engineering Commons^™

The Art Of Repairing - Or How To Teach Engineering Students Sustainable Design Principles, Stefan Kühne, Christian Forbrig, Anja Marckwardt, Julian Kober, Juri Rappsilber, Dirk Oberschmidt

Practice Papers

Project-based learning bridges the gap between theoretical training and practical applications. The motivation of students to participate is increased especially by working out real-life problems. To provide this kind of practical learning experience, we are establishing a repair project for broken, otherwise discarded, lab equipment. It will not only help to reduce waste and save money by repairing research equipment, but will also encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Providing a space to learn about the underlying functional properties of various often highly specialized lab instruments, students identify malfunctions, deepen understanding of vulnerable designs, and discuss and perform strategies for repairing …

Student Engagement In Sustainability Issues Through Video Production: A Multimodal Critical Consciousness-Based Approach To Engineering Education, Joel Alejandro Mejia, Luis Montero

Practice Papers

The formation of engineering students should prioritize both technical skills in engineering and a critical awareness of the designed world. This qualitative methods study aimed to analyze the extent to which a teaching approach, based on the in the integration of Freire’s critical pedagogy and Multimodal literacy frameworks, promotes first-year engineering students’ development of critical consciousness. Drawing from Paulo Freire’s work on critical pedagogy, the critical consciousness framework emphasizes that individuals and their practice in community awaken critical awareness of their surroundings, including the interconnectedness that exists between economic, social, political, cultural, historical, and environmental factors. To this end, we …

Making Meaning Together: An Autoethnography Study On Our Role In Ethics Education, Diana Bairaktarova, Lenka Lhotska, Amirouche Moktefi, Aive Pevkur, Constantin Vică

Practice Papers

Representation of diverse people’s perspectives, cultures, and ideas enriches societies. Equally important for communities to flourish is to have diverse perspectives on what good ethics education is. For 50 years the European Society of Engineering Education (SEFI) has been uniting and supporting engineering educators and researchers from around the globe and particularly from Europe. However, involvement from institutions in Eastern Europe is still very low. To diversify and strengthen the community by bringing perspectives from these countries, we engaged in an autoethnography study to share insights on participation barriers broadly and ethics education, more specifically. We choose autoethnography as this …

Automatically Scored, Multiple-Attempt, Recurring Weekly Exams In A Physics Course: Can They Improve Student Wellbeing And Learning Outcomes?, Sami Suhonen

Practice Papers

This paper describes the arrangements and assessment methods employed in the engineering physics online courses offered by Tampere University of Applied Sciences. The grading process involves the use of automatically assessed weekly online exams in Moodle, which comprise mostly numerical questions, as well as conceptual questions, force diagrams, and multiple-choice questions. Students are allowed to attempt each exam three times, and their best score is recorded. The questions and initial values were randomized for each try to reduce possibilities for trial-and-error method and copying from peers. By completing the week exams with enough points, the students were able to pass …

Challenge-Based Learning And Constructive Alignment: A Challenge For Information Systems’ Educators, Joao Moreira, Wallace Ugulino, Marcos Machado, Luís Ferreia Pires

Practice Papers

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) is an emerging approach to the design of education activities known for its benefits in fostering student engagement and, consequently, positively affecting their learning outcomes. For the educator, the ’challenge in the challenge’ is to guarantee that the CBL-based education design follows certain regulations, like ensuring proper curriculum coverage with Constructive Alignment. This challenge becomes particularly difficult to address in the field of Information Systems, within Computer Science, where multiple practices can be followed to solve the same problem. This is even more challenging when CBL is applied at course-level, where the curriculum of the course focuses …

Are E-Assessments The Future Of Assessments For Engineering Students?, Zohaib Akhtar, Esther Perea Borobio

Practice Papers

Replacing traditional examinations with electronic assessments (e-assessments), also known as digital assessments, is gaining more popularity. However, it has become controversial as people have raised serious concerns about the limitations of these e-assessments, especially when the assessments have high stakes, like the end-of-term examinations. In this paper, we have evaluated whether e-assessments will replace the traditional end-of-term exams for engineering students in the future. Although this topic is equally valid for non-engineering fields, a few factors that make it unique to engineering are discussed. Different aspects of e-assessments are critically compared to paper-based (off-print) examinations based on existing literature and …

Innovative Engineering Education In The Wake Of Smart Agriculture. Revision Of The Agricultural Engineering Curriculum, Andreas Mandler, Giovanni Carabin, Lorenzo Becce, Francesco Fabio Nicolosi, Fabrizio Mazzetto

Practice Papers

Global developments request ever more productive agricultural production systems to ensure food security. Agricultural production must be environmentally, socially sustainable and economically efficient. Innovative digital technologies are central to sustainable production systems. This poses challenges to the education of agricultural engineers, as technologies for real world challenges result from highly interdisciplinary innovations.

Agricultural engineering (AgEng) as academic discipline is not universally established, which leaves voids in educational curricula and formal training areas. A substantial conflictual dualism remains between the biological and engineering domains. There are currently no homogeneous pathways through which these domains merge on common scientific and cultural foundations, …

Improving Employability With A Competence Profile (Practice), Giajenthiran Velmurugan, Dennis Friedrichsen

Practice Papers

Employability has become a central focus for Higher Education Institutions. The European University Association’s report states that graduates should acquire a mix of transversal and discipline-specific skills. An educational approach known for providing students with this is Problem-Based Learning. An institution known for successful implementation of PBL is Aalborg University located in Denmark. In this paper we will look at an initiative they have recently launched to improve the employability of their engineering graduates. Employability can be defined from different perspectives. In this paper we develop a framework where employability is viewed from three different perspectives. 1) Internal values, beliefs …

Becoming An Expert In Soft Robotics In One Week And Beyond!, Peter Stassen, Guy Van Looy, Sam Peerlinck, Elias De Smet, Imran Qayyum Mundial, Alexis Van Merris, Benjamin Gorissen

Practice Papers

The Athens network of technological institutions and universities offers students international exchange experiences through intensive specialization courses during a brief period. Yet, it is challenging to effectively explain complex research topics to students in only one week, while offering at the same time self-paced learning perspectives instead of absorbing expert lectures as a passive student. Furthermore, students often experience a knowledge gap with the 'international experts' they are consulting, which hinders vivant exchange of ideas during discussions. In this context, we report our experiences of a newly designed crash course within the field of soft robotics that was offered to …

A Game-Based Learning Approach To Enhance Understanding Of Interface Design Principles In Design Education, Deborah Carberry, Colm O'Kane, Kevin Delaney, Ulrich Kruhne, Martin Andersson, Donal Mchale

Practice Papers

The design of user interface is an important and challenging topic for student designers to understand and master. The eight principles of good User Interface (UI) design are often taught using primarily cognitive approaches, which can leave room for improvement in students’ ability to apply the principles in a variety of contexts. Game-based learning tools are recognised to be beneficial in university classrooms across a variety of discipline areas and topics due to their capacity to increase engagement. This project presents a first prototype for an instructional tool that leverages constructionism and embodied learning to enhance students’ understanding and application …

Screw Loose Toolbox, Anton Schaefer

Practice Papers

Blue Engineering is a student-driven course on the environmental and social responsibility of engineers. It has been developed by student initiatives at two German universities since 2010. By 2023, there are more than 15 courses at universities in Germany and in the Netherlands using the open source course design. In assessing the learning outcomes of the participants, the need to promote the skill of transfer of learning of the students became clear. This practice paper presents the current approach: 24 metaphorical tools have been developed, each of which functions like a special lens, allowing to recognise certain patterns of action, …

Exploring The Potential For Scripting With Simulation In Engineering Education – Practical Examples Using Python And Ansys, Susannah Cooke, Susan Coleman, James Derrick

Practice Papers

The ability to use scripting tools to harness the power of complex engineering software is not only critical for research and industry, but also offers opportunities for student learning and development. This paper covers two ways in which undergraduate engineering students have been exposed to Ansys simulation tools to be controlled from Python programs. A pilot series of ‘CodeFests’ have been held in partnership with university engineering departments, offering a fun way for students to engage with Python coding while exploring the power of scripting to optimise or iterate on solutions. These have used the PyMAPDL structural simulation library, leveraging …

Certificate-Based Good Practice To Motivate Engineering Students To Learn Sustainability Skills, Orsolya Barna, Mária Szalmáné Csete

Practice Papers

Engineering plays a crucial role both in addressing sustainability challenges and in helping to achieve the sustainability transition. However, tackling the complex problems of sustainability needs a broader understanding of these issues from nonengineering perspectives as well. The Department of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences (GTK), has developed a unique method for a uniform certification of studies in the fields of sustainability, environmental economics, and environmental management for engineering students. The so-called green certificate is provided after the successful completion of at least five elective …

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. …

Engineering For One Planet: Resources For Infusing Sustainability And Leadership Competencies Across All Engineering Disciplines, Cindy Cooper, Cynthia Anderson, Michael Milligan

Practice Papers

Engineering for One Planet (EOP) is an initiative to transform engineering education and equip all future engineers across all disciplines with the fundamental skills and principles of social and environmental sustainability.

Catalyzed by The Lemelson Foundation and VentureWell in collaboration with hundreds of sustainability advocates across sectors, the EOP initiative envisions a world in which all engineers play a critical role in ensuring that the solutions of today do not become the problems of tomorrow, restoring and regenerating our environment, and improving lives for all.

EOP is accelerating curricular transformation by supporting faculty change efforts and fostering collaboration among stakeholders …

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 …

Using Systems Thinking To Design Education To Make A Difference – A Progress Report, Bruce J Elliott, Merve Ersoy, Zena Green

Practice Papers

The Birmingham Centre for Rail Research and Education (BCRRE) delivers research and education to benefit the international rail industry, including an MSc programme which is designed to equip students with the skills needed to lead multidisciplinary engineering projects. The authors are trying to apply some of the systems thinking taught in the programme to the programme itself. It is established practice to maintain learning outcomes for an educational programme and we do that, but we describe how we are trying to improve the information available to us about what the industry wants and the varying needs of our student population. …

Enhancing Engineering Students' Mathematics Learning Through Digitised Effective Feedback, Tugce Akkaya, Fulya Kula

Practice Papers

This practice paper explores the impact of effective digitised feedback on engineering students' mathematics learning in the digital environment. By using a schematic framework, an online repository will be developed to provide effective feedback to the first-year students taking mathematics courses. The repository takes into account calculus topics and focuses on providing guidance to students who give incorrect answers to questions by incorporating sub-questions based on Polya's heuristics. The sub-questions aim to motivate students to draw on simpler connections and stimulate learning by encouraging students to check their answers and reflect on their initial responses. This study is currently an …

Reshaping The Bio Medical Curriculum To Include Socialisation And Subjectification, Renate Gerarda Klaassen, Linette R.H. Bossen, Costanza Milano, Hans Hellendoorn

Practice Papers

University students are asked to become all-round human beings, knowing how to be engaged in Engineering in the future, as well as wholly socialised and going through personal development steps. However, how and where are the students supposed to acquire these skills? Do we already have them in the Higher Education programmes and curricula? This article explores low threshold steps that can be taken to tweak the curriculum and implicit professionalisation of staff towards incorporating transversal skills and reflective activities that allow students to develop to their full potential.. One is a roadmap Workshop identifying guiding principles and touchpoint activities …

Ethics4eu: Designing New Curricula For Computer Science Ethics Education: Case Studies For Ai Ethics, Dympna O'Sullivan, J Paul Gibson, Andrea Curley, Anna Becevel, Emma Murphy, Damian Gordon

Practice Papers

The computing ethics landscape is changing rapidly, as new technologies become more complex and pervasive, and people choose to interact with them in new and distinct ways. The resultant interactions are more novel and less easy to categorise using traditional ethical frameworks. It is important that developers of these technologies do not live in an ethical vacuum, that they think about the consequences of their creations, and take measures to prevent others being harmed by their work. To equip developers to rise to this challenge and create a positive future for the use of technology, it important that ethics becomes …

Integrating Ar Technology Into Cbm Laboratory Experiments, Alan Mcdonnell, Brian Vaughan, David Mcdonnell, Bernard Capraro

Practice Papers

This paper examines the pilot phase integration of Augmented Reality (AR) technology into a Condition Based Monitoring (CBM) engineering taught module. Students participate in a laboratory cycle within the CBM module, engaging in multiple experiments on a weekly basis, including Shaft Alignment, which provides meaningful, industry-relevant experience in an engineering environment. During the laboratory sessions, multiple pairs of students complete the experiment simultaneously on multiple custom engineering rigs. The Shaft Alignment procedure, although very relevant to industry needs, is also complex and time consuming, with students often struggling to complete the task within the designated laboratory time. AR technology has …

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 …

Designing Of Curricula Of Environmental Engineering And Constructions Engineering For Sustainability, Enrica Caporali, Johann Antonio Facciorusso, Riccardo Gori, Elena Palmisano

Practice Papers

The experience carried out at the University of Florence, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in designing two new undergraduate curricula in “Environmental Engineering” and “Civil and Building Engineering for sustainability”, is reported. The bachelor in Environmental Engineering aims to train engineers capable of working in the field of protection of environment, territory and natural resources. The bachelor in Civil and Building Engineering for sustainability aims to train engineers capable of working in the field of structures, infrastructures, and constructions in general, as well as management and safety of construction processes. The development of the two curricula was based preliminarily …

Shared Interests In Live Case-Based Learning – Students’ Dynamic Role In An Innovation Ecosystem, Villads Keiding, Sara Grex, Giana Carli Lorenzini, Giulio Pantano

Practice Papers

Teaching engineering students to navigate complex innovation ecosystems and deal with wicked problems is vital for contributing to sustainable development. Research shows that case-based learning with real-life challenges boosts motivation and learning outcomes. This paper presents a course that is in the core of an ecosystem where engineering students engage with hospitals, and work on the hospitals’ documented innovation needs. By design, the course setup has a double purpose: in a learning context, the course strengthens intrapreneurship education, with students acting in an empowered role like professional consultants. In an organizational context, the course enhances knowledge sharing, filling in the …

Engagement In Technical Student-Run Organizations: How Do This Effect The Students’ Well-Being And What Does It Mean To The Future Of Education?, Ingrid Berg Sivertsen

Practice Papers

Loneliness among Norwegian students has never been higher than after the Covid-19 pandemic (Lervåg et al. 2022). In recent surveys, over 50% of Norwegian students report they felt troubled by loneliness (Lervåg 2022, Tekna 2022). One article written by a student representative implies that loneliness may be counteracted if engineering students participate in student organizations, and that the universities needs to facilitate for that (Nitschke 2022). Engineering students worldwide engage in student-run organizations (SRO) where they design, develop, and build technical solutions (Li et al. 2023, Dol 2016). At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) those student organizations …

Fostering A Sustainable Future Through Inclusive Design, Samara Omar, Kate Youmans, Aubrey Wigner, Henry Archer, Carrie Mcclelland

Practice Papers

Fostering a sustainable future requires a balance between human necessities, societal institutions, and environmental systems; and this delicate equilibrium is best attained through strategic and innovative design. With this, and the growing diversity of our communities, it is imperative to equip engineering students with inclusive perspectives that allow them to critically assess the socio-technical elements of sustainable design. Recent research within engineering education has elevated the importance of empathy as a design practice and inclusivity as a design principle; exploring topics of bias and exclusion are essential to this work. As part of a first-year design course, we introduced these …

Comparing Engineering Students Perceptions Of Online And Traditional Face To Face Environments During A Problem And Project Based Learning (Pbl) Module, Sean O'Connor, Jason Richard Power, Nicolaas Blom, David A Tanner, Eamonn Stack Mulvihill

Practice Papers

Research examining the future of engineering education has highlighted forthcoming challenges for engineering institutions, such as increasing cohort sizes, limited budgets and a demand for the delivery of flexible, diverse and student-centred curricula. To this end, scholars have suggested the use of problem and project based learning (PBL) methodologies that can be implemented within hybrid learning environments. This paper examines and compares students' perceptions of a PBL module that was delivered by means of online and traditional face-to-face environments. The goal of this paper is to highlight the students' voice over other stakeholders to provide valuable insights into their preferences …

Problems Without Solution? Challenges Of Climate Change And Sustainability In Engineering Education, Sahra Dornick

Practice Papers

The issues of climate change and sustainability are urgent and critical concerns of our time. The rise of climate disasters, such as floods, droughts, forest fires, and hurricanes, poses a threat to the survival of humans, animals, and plants. Despite scientists having warned about the impending dangers of high CO2 emissions, particularly from the global North for many years, there has been no political or technical solution in sight.

Engineers are known for being problem-solvers, but what happens when the problem is complex and the consequences of technical interventions are hard to predict? In my paper, I propose measures to …

Re/Upskilling The Agricultural Labour Force: Micro-Credentials As Innovative Lll Strategy, Vladana Vidric, Christina Paulus, Simon Grebner, Maximilian Treiber, Martin Mayr, Andreas Mandler

Practice Papers

Industry 4.0 had a strong impact on globalization by changing the workforce and increasing access to new skills and knowledge. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2025, 50% of all employees will need reskilling due to new technology. Industry 5.0 addresses long term prospects such as sustainability, resilience and human-centricity regarding efficiency and productivity. Agriculture is the most exposed economic sector to climate change with cascade effects on agro ecosystems. Innovations in the agricultural sector are inevitable to ensure food security and social and environmental sustainability. This paper presents two Erasmus+ projects that highlight the importance of future engineering …

An Experimental-Numerical Study Of Heat Transfer Enhancement In A Minichannel Using Asymmetric Pulsating Flows, Parth S. Kumavat, Sajad Alimohammad, Seamus M. O'Sullivan

Articles

The development of current and next-generation high-performance electronic devices has led to miniaturization in more densely packed spaces. The increasing power levels have resulted in ever-increasing heat flux densities which necessitates the evolution of new liquid-based heat exchange technologies. Implementation of single-phase cooling systems using pulsating flow is viewed as a potential solution to the problems involving high energy density electronics. This work involves a combined experimental and numerical analysis of pulsating flows in a rectangular mini channel undergoing asymmetric sinusoidal flow pulsation formats. The mini channel design includes a heated bottom section approximated as a constant heat flux boundary …