Engineering Education Commons^™

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 …

Supporting Women In Engineering And Technology Through A Collaborative Practice And Support Network Using Targeted Interventions, Michelle Looby, Marie Armstrong, Una Beagon, Emma M Dunne, Svetlana Hensman, Farrah Higgins, Paula Kelly, Isabelle Killane, Susan Lynott, Orla Mcmahon, Bahareh Pahlevanzadeh

Practice Papers

Despite ongoing efforts to recruit and retain women in third level engineering programmes in Ireland, there is still a lack of diversity in these programmes with typically fewer than 20% of students being female. This paper will describe the evolution of a female focused university wide network called WITU (Women in Technology United), which aims to retain female students in engineering and technology programmes, and to increase the number of gender minorities coming onto these programmes. It is also a response to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly, SDG 4 (quality education), and SDG 5 (gender equality), and addresses actions highlighted …

Sustainable Energy-Efficient Living – A First-Year Project-Based Workshop For Energy Engineers, Melanie Kitzig, Martin Lang, Alexandra Dorschu

Practice Papers

For many engineering students a lack of study motivation plays a significant role in their drop-out process (Heublein 2014). Therefore, students’ motivation to study should be encouraged as early as possible. A proven strategy for increasing the study motivation is the integration of project-based learning (PjBL) in the course of studies (Kokotsaki et al. 2016).

This paper introduces a PjBL-workshop concept which was developed for first-year energy engineering students at a university of applied sciences in Germany. During this one-semester workshop, the students are working weekly as student trainees in a fictitious engineering office. Guided by the teacher as the …

How Does Involvement In Student Associations Contribute To The Development Of An Engineer's Skills? Example Of Magiepoly: Raising Awareness Of Gender Equality Through Games., Vinciane Lamy, Sarah El Addouli, Cathel Zitzmann

Practice Papers

Some engineering students get involved in student associations during their studies. They develop multiple skills such as: leadership and management, communication, project management, supervision and transmission of knowledge, service to others, etc. However, they are not always aware of it. Helphi, a student association of EPF Engineering School, was responsible for organising an afterwork event to be held on International Women's Rights Day. As student members were brainstorming, the idea of a board game, both informative and entertaining came up: MagiePoly was born. MagiePoly is a game, inspired by a wellknown board game, which aims to raise awareness of gender …

Moving Constructive Alignment Beyond The Curriculum: Embedding Mental Health And Wellbeing Into The Uk Engineering Student Experience, India Palmer, Nicky Knowles, Jane Andrews, Robin Clark, Gill Cooke, Graeme Knowles

Practice Papers

This paper addresses the tricky question of how the Engineering Curriculum can be better designed so as to nurture and improve the mental health of university engineering students. Since the end of the Pandemic, the UK has seen an increase in the numbers of young people aged 18-25 self-reporting mental health problems (Young Minds, 2023). Taking a wider perspective, there has been a rise of 450% in the numbers of young people informing UCAS that they have a mental health problem over the last decade (NUS, 2022). Yet, Engineering Education has the lowest rate of self-declared mental health problems on …

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

Practice Papers

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

Nine Years Of Systematic Cad Course Development: What Did We Learn?, Kaur Jaakma, Panu Kiviluoma

Practice Papers

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) plays a vital role in the curriculums of mechanical engineering degree programs, empowering students to conceptualize and visualize their designs, thus enhancing their abilities as engineers. This abstract presents the implementation of a multi-CAD course conducted between 2014 and 2022, catering to hundreds of students from diverse disciplines, including mechanical and civil engineering. Throughout the course, student feedback was systematically collected to assess learning outcomes and measure the effectiveness of different learning tools and methods.

The course employed a range of tools, including automatically graded quizzes and a dedicated CAD model assessment system, which not only lightened …

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

Practice Papers

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

Can Designing For Mars Stimulate Our Thinking About Designing More Sustainably For Earth?, Lucy Berthoud, James Norman, Ella Good, Nicola Kent

Practice Papers

This work describes the use of an arts-based project to stimulate creative thinking about design and sustainability for engineering students of all disciplines and years. ‘Building a Martian House’ was a public art project where a house designed for Mars was built in the centre of the city of Bristol, UK. It was conceived by artists, designed by the public, architects and engineers and built by construction companies. In this work, a workshop for students was developed and run based on this art project. Its aim was to use the challenge of designing for Mars as a provocation to thinking …

Problem Solving Skills Deconstructed And Implemented In An Adaptive Learning Tool, Arne Duyver, Jozefien De Keyzer, Els Wieers, Kris Henrioulle, Kris Aerts

Practice Papers

The development of problem-solving skills is an important subject in engineering curricula. Helping novice students develop such skills can be challenging because problem solving is a complex skill in the sense that it is accompanied with an internal thinking process that many experts are even unaware of doing. From a combination of literature and a thinking-aloud exercise with the entire teaching team, a scheme with building blocks and strategies that are commonly used by engineers was constructed. In addition to commonly named steps such as Identify/Define, Plan/Choose, Carry Out/Do and Look back/Inspect the scheme refines the first step into multiple …