Engineering Commons^™

Ethical Concerns And Responsible Use Of Generative Artificial Intelligence In Engineering Education, Aditya Johri, Euan Lindsay, Junaid Qadir

Practice Papers

The use of educational technologies that use elements of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming common across the engineering education terrain. With the wide adoption of generative AI based applications, this trend is only going to grow. Not only is the use of these technologies going to impact teaching, but engineering education research practices are as likely to be affected as well. From data generation and analysis, to writing and presentation, all aspects of research will potentially be shaped. In this practice paper we discuss the ethical implications of the use of generative AI technologies on engineering …

A New Approach To Encourage The Next Generation Of Female Engineers In Spain: A Young And Fresh Podcast To Attract More Girls To The Field: “Clau, Quiero Ser Ingeniera”, Marta Olea, Francisco Javier Jiménez Leube, Claudia Rebollo

Practice Papers

The underrepresentation of women in STEM fields is a complex issue with multiple factors that remain unclear. At Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), we have dedicated years to devising strategies aimed at attracting more girls to this domain. As the coordinating institution of the EELISA alliance, where we endeavor to define the European engineer, we confront gender inequality as one of the foremost challenges. To address this need, a 4th year student at UPM conceived an initiative: a podcast with three primary objectives. Firstly, it aims to highlight the accomplishments of female engineers who can serve as role models for …

Designing A Curriculum For A Sustainable Entrepreneurship Major: A Case Study, Meri Kuikka

Practice Papers

This practice paper explores the process of developing a curriculum for a sustainable entrepreneurship major program in a higher education institution. The paper aims to address the need for embedding sustainability and entrepreneurship into higher education, considering global challenges such as climate change, social inequality, and unsustainable consumption and production. The paper fills a gap in the existing body of knowledge by providing a case example of a curriculum development process that can be adapted to integrate sustainable entrepreneurship into curricula at other universities.

The paper outlines a three-part curriculum development process which involves identifying stakeholders and clarifying the program's …

Sustainability Leadership For The Energy Transition: A Case Study Of Role-Playing To Enhance Authentic Learning, Anthony Paul Heynen, Elliot J Tonkes

Practice Papers

To lead the energy transition, effective sustainability leadership requires a spectrum of skills, knowledge and understanding across technical, financial and even political disciplines. An innovative, authentic learning initiative has been designed and implemented in which Master of Sustainable Energy students conducted team-based role-playing activities, responding to a realistic, hypothetical energy policy scenario in the form of a government announcement and other mock collateral. Groups were assigned the personas of a range of industry stakeholders and prepared presentations (and accompanying media statements and position papers) for a mock online media conference. The initiative leveraged the diversity of the cohort, enabling constructive …

Use Of The Triple-Bottom Line Framework To Examine The Design Tendencies Of First Year Engineering Students, Kimia Moozeh, Josh Zacks, Michael Chabot, Paul Hungler

Practice Papers

Engineering design often requires the examination of multiple different factors and a design selection based on compromise between these factors. An engineer's preexisting values and experiences can influence design decisions. Therefore, knowing and understanding these design tendencies can prove valuable in guiding engineering students with their future design selections. The purpose of the project is to examine the design tendencies of first year engineering students using an interactive web-based virtual reality (VR) module focused on the triple-bottom line framework. The triple bottom line sustainability framework measures design in three key areas: people, profit and planet. The course for which the …

Realising A Centre For Educational Development: Experiences, Challenges, Lessons Learnt, And Future Ambitions, Reidar Lyng, Guri Sivertsen Korpås, Gabrielle Hansen, Geir Egil Dahle Øien

Practice Papers

In order to develop high-quality engineering education with a focus on students’ learning, academic staff must themselves develop new skills, with a lifelong learning perspective to their own teaching. This requires coordination and support. For this purpose, three faculties at our university decided to jointly fund a Centre for Science and Engineering Education Development. Among the aims were to boost educational quality, strengthen educational competence among academic staff, and build educational quality culture on the institutional level. The faculties also recognized a need to establish a stronger and more focused didactic perspective for the university’s programme STEM portfolio, beyond and …

On A Computer Science Master Program For Sustainable Development, Daniel Einarson

Practice Papers

Sustainable development and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals have been pointed out as crucial for our common future, addressing several aspects of a world to be considered as sustainable. From a university perspective it is certainly interesting, and important, to see how research and education contribute to that context, which may be seen from both disciplinary, and multi-disciplinary perspectives.

A one-year Master Program in Computer Science for Sustainable Development, at Kristianstad University (HKR), Sweden, has a background in the UN’s Agenda 2030, and in statements, claiming that ‘at the edge’-techniques, from areas such as Artificial Intelligence, and Datamining are crucial …

Supporting Teaching Staff: A Phenomenological Study Of The Innovation Readiness Of Teacher Support Staff, Leonie Chapel, Adina Imanbayeva, Nikola Petrova, Sonja Borst

Practice Papers

Educational institutions that want to successfully innovate regarding the education they provide must synchronise organisational growth with educational growth. To support such innovation, a maturity model can help identify successful teaching and learning practices by encouraging experimentation, collaboration and alignment with strategic goals. Although maturity models that support staff in the process of innovating education are valuable, they are scarce. This phenomenological study explored the views of staff from the Centre for Expertise in Learning and Teaching (CELT) on readiness for innovation at the University of Twente (UT). We surveyed staff members who were actively involved in projects or teacher …

Communicating Complexity To Prepare For Complexity, Magnus Lilledahl

Practice Papers

A trend in higher education is a stronger focus on the content of a study program as a whole rather than the individual courses that make up the program. The Norwegian university of science and technology (NTNU) has recently completed a large project, The future of technology studies (FTS), that attempt to describe how study programs should prepare students for a technological career in a rapidly evolving society. A central recommendation from the project is the necessity of an integrated, programdriven curriculum. Hence, there is a need for a useful description of the content at the program level. However, a …

Towards Perceiving Teaching As A Joint Task In An Individualized Teaching Qualification Program For Mid-Level Academics At A German University Of Technology, Ulrike Bulmann, Nicole Podleschny

Practice Papers

Empowering teachers for facilitating modern engineering education is essential. Thus, universities put much effort in qualifying teachers in didactic training programs. Especially individualized programs have been positively evaluated in the Covid-19- year 2020 by participated teachers. However, participants missed (informal) networking opportunities. Two questions arise: How do participants perceive their qualification program in the coming years? And second, how can we design a program that balances the participants’ thirst for an individual program compilation while establishing university-wide networking opportunities among teachers? This paper presents participants’ perceptions on a qualification program at a German University of Technology for the years 2021 …

Returning To On-Campus Activities For First-Year Engineering Skills Development - A Comparative Study, Gavin Buskes, Huey Yee Chan

Practice Papers

Prior work by the authors on student skills development detailed the implementation of a suite of skills modules in a first-year engineering course. These modules were instrumental components in supporting the course’s project-based framework that offered flexibility of choice and timing in a low-risk setting. It was found that, while receiving overall favourable student feedback, most students only completed the minimum requirements and largely chose technical modules according to the relevance to their project topic. Due to the cessation of on-campus teaching activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, these modules were delivered wholly online. With the lifting of restrictions the …

Integrating Sociotechnical Issues In The Introduction To Circuits Course, Cynthia Finelli, Susan Lord

Practice Papers

Engineers frequently encounter sociotechnical issues in their work, so it is critical that they are prepared to address complex, real-world issues that require both technical and social expertise. Engineering accreditation criteria further underscore the importance of understanding sociotechnical issues by expecting engineering undergraduate programs to address ethical, global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic considerations in student outcomes. However, most engineering instructors were educated with a deep technical focus, have little experience outside of engineering, and feel ill-equipped to integrate non-technical topics. As a result, engineering is often taught in the undergraduate curricula from a purely technical perspective, with an emphasis …

Improving Communication Procedures By Means Of Videorecorded Proposals, Marta Aguilar, Jordi Olivella

Practice Papers

There is an agreement regarding the importance of communication in the promotion processes of all types of technical or entrepreneurial initiatives. Communication skills have to make it possible to obtain the maximum interaction with the agents involved and facilitate the commitment of these agents to a project. In this context, communicators’ erroneous perception of their own abilities and of how they are transmitting the information is a significant drawback that calls for improvement. Video-recording someone when speaking creates an impact on them given that the possibility of seeing themselves implies a significant change in the learning process. This technique has …

A Survey To Evaluate Laboratory Activities Across An Undergraduate Engineering Degree Programme: Data From Five Years Showing Repeatability And Sensitivity, Peter Johnson

Practice Papers

Laboratory activities are an essential part of an undergraduate engineering education. This paper focuses on evaluating the student experience of laboratory activities. We present a laboratory-specific survey used with large cohorts of students (200) about laboratory activities across an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering degree programme. The key question we try to answer is whether the results of the survey can be used to inform teaching decisions such as which activities need improvement; how to improve them; and to validate these interventions.

We present nine common questions that were used to evaluate activities across a programme. We present five years of data …

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 …

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 …

Learn And Work: A Hybrid Educational Model For Engineering Education, Katherine A. Looby, Catherine M. Deegan

Practice Papers

Traditional models of education are undergoing significant change in recent times due to evolving graduate attributes, shaped in no small part by the changing demands of modern industrial practices. Technology is one of the key elements of the factory of the future. Advances in manufacturing and digital technologies facilitate automation and offer significant benefits in a variety of areas. Academic programmes that feature industrial work placement have long been a feature of engineering education in TU Dublin. The BSc in Process Instrumentation and Automation is a three-year programme that goes further in that it evenly balances on-campus instruction with work …

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 …

Teaching Sustainable Logistics As A Project-Based Learning Course, Carsten Deckert, Ahmed Mohya

Practice Papers

Sustainable logistics combines the task of the 6R of logistics (right product, right place, right time, right condition, right cost) with social and environmental sustainability, especially low emissions and low resource consumption. This means that a problem that is already challenging, namely planning, executing, and controlling logistical processes, gets even more complex and requires aspects of systems thinking to incorporate environmental and social impacts. Classical approaches of teaching, e.g. lectures with presentations and short exercises on closed problems, do not do justice to the complexity and intricacies of the topic sustainability. In such a context, projectbased learning (PBL) where students …

Exploring The Impact Of Problem-Based Learning On Student Learning Outcomes: Findings From The Pbl South Asia Project, Andrius Jurelionis, Gintare Stankeviciute, Avinash Dhital, Ellen Van Andel, Julia Sundman, Laura Stasiuliene, Shakuntala Acharya, Riina Subra

Practice Papers

This paper presents the results of surveys conducted among students and teachers / mentors in Nepal, Bhutan, and India, regarding the impact of implementing Problembased learning (PBL) methodology in engineering and multidisciplinary projects. The surveys were carried out under the Erasmus+ funded project, "Strengthening Problembased learning in South Asian Universities" (PBL South Asia). The project aimed to address the issues of education quality, employability, and sustainable development in the region by enhancing students’ practical experience, communication skills, teamwork abilities, as well as academic knowledge through PBL-adapted courses. As a result, South Asian higher education institutions have implemented PBL courses in …

Discovering Sustainability Practices In Research And Innovation Sites, Robin Ann Downey

Practice Papers

This practice paper is a descriptive account of an experience with a sustainable development learning project for engineering students in a Science, Technology and Society (STS) course at Bilkent University. The students participated in the STS Sustainability Awards competition for two semesters in one academic year, an event that was inspired by Bilkent University’s 2021–2022 Sustainability Year. As part of the project, the students found a company or laboratory, consulted them on their innovation practices and asked questions that were grounded in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approaches. RRI can provide an opening for students to explore how various values, …

Supporting Women In Science, Engineering And Technology Programmes: A Tu Dublin Approach, Leslie Shoemaker, Sharon Feeney

Practice Papers

The under-representation of women studying engineering in higher education is gaining increasing attention in Universities throughout Europe and other jurisdictions. This has led to underrepresentation of women in many of the professions in the Science, Engineering and Technology fields also. Numerous initiatives and programmes are being developed in universities to gain more information about the embedded issues in these disciplines that inhibit female applicants or lead to unsuccessful outcomes in university programmes. One such initiative that has been developed and piloted in Technological University Dublin (Ireland) is a mentoring programme called ‘Equality in Science and Technology by Engaged Educational Mentoring …

Assessment Of Different Platforms For Online Virtual Lab Demonstrations, Owen M Clarkin, Anne Morrissey, Muhannad Ahmed Obeidi, Alma Ryan

Practice Papers

As we move to a more sustainable world, expansion of education is key to the eradication of poverty (SDG1) and societal inequalities (SDG10). Global expansion of tertiary education offers opportunities to deliver Sustainable Development Goals by providing wide access to education in flexible learning environments. However, the quality of education (SDG4) must be maintained and enhanced as it is key to a partnership for the goals (SDG17). While increased learning online can facilitate achievement of these SDGs, there is also a move, within the education sector, to a constructivist approach and a more active learning environment. Interactive virtual learning environments …

Using Padlet On Math Collaborative Learning In An Engineering Course, Cristina M. R.Caridade, Deolinda Maria L. Dias Rasteiro

Practice Papers

This paper describes a study, with the objective of evaluating the possibilities of knowledge construction through collaborative learning (CL) in the innovative Padlet environment. During the practical classes of a math curricular unit of an engineering course, activities and assessments were carried out using Padlet. Program themes are organized by columns as a wall. Each students group accesses a problem proposal using a QR-Code. In the first part of the class, the group must solve the problem correctly, using all the materials and technologies they deem necessary. In the second part, each group will correct another group’s problem. The teacher …

Cslinc - Development Of A National Outreach Vle, Keith Nolan, Keith Quille

Conference Papers

Over the last year an online learning platform has been developed and piloted to the Irish second level education system allowing both students and teachers to participate in introductory computing modules. This poster will outline the development of the registration process of a system that is capable of managing potentially 728 schools, 1000+ classrooms and one million students (the entire Irish second level school system). CSLINC is an online student virtual learning environment for computing consisting of several modules built by academics and industry leaders and disseminated to schools through Moodle, our selected virtual learning environment. While Moodle has a …

Analysis And Design Of Secure Sampled-Data Control Subject To Denial-Of-Service Attacks, Hira Sana, Ghulam Mustafa, Owais Khan, Nouman Ashraf, Abdul Qayyum Khan, Muhammad Abid, Haroom Ur Rashid Khan

Articles

This study addresses the issue of secure control design for cyber-physical systems (CPS) against denial of service (DoS) attacks. We take into account a continuous-time linear system with a convex quadratic performance measure and a sampled linear state feedback control. DoS attacks impose constraints on the CPS, where packets may be jammed between the sensor and controller by a malicious entity, potentially resulting in system instability and performance degradation. We assume that the attacker can perform DoS attacks with a limited time and frequency due to energy restrictions. We devise an efficient procedure using the linear matrix inequality approach to …

Difference In Bioimpedance Across The Knee In Un-Injured Young Adults, Patrick J. Atkinson, Theresa Atkinson, Allison Seeley, Seerut Dhillon

Mechanical Engineering Publications

Background

Knee injuries induce swelling and resolution of swelling may be a useful factor in identifying states of healing and time to return to sports activities. Recent work has suggested that bioimpedance can provide an objective measure of swelling following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and therefore may also provide guidance for clinical decision-making following knee injury. This study measures knee bioimpedance in young, active people to help define baseline variability and factors that influence limb to limb differences.

Methods

Bioimpedance was measured via sensors placed at the foot/ankle and thigh, in positions similar to those suggested for monitoring post-TKA swelling. …

An Aggregation-Based Algebraic Multigrid Method With Deflation Techniques And Modified Generic Factored Approximate Sparse Inverses, Anastasia Natsiou, George A. Gravvanis, Christos K. Filelis-Papadopoulos, Konstantinos M. Giannoutakis

Articles

In this paper, we examine deflation-based algebraic multigrid methods for solving large systems of linear equations. Aggregation of the unknown terms is applied for coarsening, while deflation techniques are proposed for improving the rate of convergence. More specifically, the V-cycle strategy is adopted, in which, at each iteration, the solution is computed by initially decomposing it utilizing two complementary subspaces. The approximate solution is formed by combining the solution obtained using multigrids and deflation. In order to improve performance and convergence behavior, the proposed scheme was coupled with the Modified Generic Factored Approximate Sparse Inverse preconditioner. Furthermore, a parallel version …

Opportunities Of Iot In Fog Computing For High Fault Tolerance And Sustainable Energy Optimization, A. Reyana, Sandeep Kautish, Khalid Abdulaziz Alnowibet, Hossam Zawbaa, Ali Wagdy Mohamed

Articles

Today, the importance of enhanced quality of service and energy optimization has promoted research into sensor applications such as pervasive health monitoring, distributed computing, etc. In general, the resulting sensor data are stored on the cloud server for future processing. For this purpose, recently, the use of fog computing from a real-world perspective has emerged, utilizing end-user nodes and neighboring edge devices to perform computation and communication. This paper aims to develop a quality-of-service-based energy optimization (QoS-EO) scheme for the wireless sensor environments deployed in fog computing. The fog nodes deployed in specific geographical areas cover the sensor activity performed …

Survey Data On Dysfunctional Attitudes, Personality Traits, And Agreement With Persuasive Techniques, Annye Braca, Pierpaolo Dondio

Articles

Persuasion techniques play a vital role in human commu- nication, influencing various aspects of our lives. With the increasing prevalence of digital platforms, these techniques have permeated online spaces such as websites, mobile apps, games, and social media. This article presents a dataset col- lected via a survey, designed to gather information about in- dividuals’ demographics, personality traits, dysfunctional at- titudes, and their responses to statements embedded with persuasion techniques. Core messages promoting paid news subscriptions, blood donations, and exercise serve as the fo- cus, while definitions and examples of persuasive techniques are provided. By analyzing this comprehensive dataset, re- …