Engineering Education Commons^™

Enablers And Barriers Of Communication In Virtual Engineering Teams: The Role Of Teamwork Skills And Emergent Conflict, Pilar Pazos, Francisco Cima

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Communication is a critical process that facilitates team members' coordination, expertise exchange, decision-making, and, consequently, team elfectiveness. A focus on effective communication is critical in virtual teams due to their lack of face-to-face interactions and social presence. Communication becomes challenging in remote settings, and specific skills emerge as more essential to success. It is known that effective teams rely on planning, execution, and interpersonal skills to be successful. Still, the specific impact of these skills on virtual team effectiveness is not well understood. Additionally, conflict can emerge as a significant barrier to collaboration for remote teams that can hinder their …

Predicting Engineering Integration In K-12 From The Perspective Of Pre-Service Teachers, Pilar Pazos, Francisco Cima, Jennifer Kidd, Kristie Gutierrez, Dorothy Faulkner, Minjung Lee, Krishna Kaipa, Orlando Ayala

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The integration of engineering content at the pre-college level is gaining global traction as a strategy to improve learning outcomes and to promote inclusion and diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Preservice teacher (PST) programs have become natural insertion points for integration efforts by providing future K-12 teachers with the resources and preparation to teach engineering as part of their academic preparation. There is a need to understand the socio-cognitive mechanisms by which teacher preparation programs can help teachers to integrate engineering in their future classrooms. This work examines how an innovative cross-disciplinary program impacted important social-cognitive drivers …

Integration Of Omnet++ Into A Networking Course In An Electrical Engineering Technology Program, Murat Kuzlu, Brian Emmanuel Tamayo, Salih Sarp, Otilia Popescu, Vukica M. Jovanovic

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Networking courses are an integral part of electrical engineering technology programs as the majority of electronics in the modern day are required to communicate with each other. They are also getting more attention in manufacturing engineering technology programs because of the development of emerging technologies in Industry 4.0 arena. From laptops, computers, cellphones, modern day vehicles and smart refrigerators, these devices require a certain level of networking in order to communicate with other devices, whether it be locally, or even across the other side of the world. The objective of networking courses in an electrical engineering program is to demonstrate …

Enhancing Online Hands-On Learning In Engineering Education: Student Perceptions And Recommendations, Dalya Ismael

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Designing effective online engineering courses that include hands-on components or labs requires a thorough understanding of student perspectives and the development of strategies to improve learning outcomes. Despite the growing number of studies on online learning, little information exists on the unique challenges engineering students face in hands-on courses. To address this gap, this study used a questionnaire to gather engineering students’ perspectives on course design and delivery. The findings highlight the challenges faced by students in online engineering courses with hands-on components, such as difficulty in collaborating with peers. To address these challenges, recommendations are proposed, such as incorporating …

Development Of Sensing And Programming Activities For Engineering Technology Pathways Using A Virtual Arduino Simulation Platform, Murat Kuzlu, Vukica Jovanovic, Otilia Popescu, Salih Sarp

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The Arduino platform has long been an efficient tool in teaching electrical engineering technology, electrical engineering, and computer science concepts in schools and universities and introducing new learners to programming and microcontrollers. Numerous Arduino projects are widely available through the open-source community, and they can help students to have hands-on experience in building circuits and programming electronics with a wide variety of topics that can make learning electrical prototyping fun. The educational fields of electrical engineering and electrical engineering technology need continuous updating to keep up with the continuous evolution of the computer system. Although the traditional Arduino platform has …

Development Of A Simevents Model For Printed Circuit Board (Pcb) Assembly Processes, Siqin Dong, Mileta Tomovic, Krishnanand Kaipa

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the foundational building blocks of most modern electronic devices. PCB assembly is defined as the process of mounting different electronic components on a PCB. Circuit board assembly utilizes an automated technique with most steps completed by machines for different operations (e.g., pick-and-place components, soldering, etc.). In this paper, details of a student course project, carried out at Old Dominion University, on the design and simulation of PCB assembly processes based on MATLAB discrete-event system are presented. An essential component in the advanced manufacturing technology course is the hands-on experience where students implement multiple software simulation …

Global Engineering Ethics: What? Why? How? And When?, Rockwell F. Clancy Iii, Qin Zhu

Journal of International Engineering Education

Even though engineering programs, accreditation bodies, and multinational corporations have become increasingly interested in introducing global dimensions into professional engineering practice, little work in the existing literature provides an overview of questions fundamental to global engineering ethics, such as what global engineering ethics is, why it should be taught, how it should be taught, and when it should be introduced. This paper describes the what, why, how, and when of global engineering ethics – a form adopted from a 1996 article by Charles Harris, Michael Davis, Michael Pritchard, and Michael Rabins, which has influenced the development of engineering ethics for …

Two Sides To Every Psyche: Implications Of Positive Psychology For "Mental Health" Research In Engineering Education, Muhammad Asghar, Angela Minichiello

Engineering Education Student Research

“Mental Health.” Throughout the 20th century, these familiar words have been quietly commandeered by a physiological model of health (Greenspoon & Saklofske, 2001). Unknowingly, society conspired to use these words—colloquially, academically, and scientifically—for the sole purpose of depicting (or implying) negative states of the human mind. Since the origins of psychological research over 100 years ago, our understanding of what mental health is has been conflated with notions of mental illness. Resultantly, we have tacitly agreed that the presence or absence of suffering is the sole implication of our mental health (Horwitz & Scheid, 1999).

Comparing Importance Of Knowledge And Professional Skill Areas For Engineering Programming Utilizing A Two Group Delphi Survey, John F. Hutton

Theses and Dissertations

All engineering careers require some level of programming proficiency. However, beginning programming classes are challenging for many students. Difficulties have been well-documented and contribute to high drop-out rates which prevent students from pursuing engineering. While many approaches have been tried to improve the performance of students and reduce the dropout rate, continued work is needed. This research seeks to re-examine what items are critical for programming education and how those might inform what is taught in introductory programming classes (CS1). Following trends coming from accreditation and academic boards on the importance of professional skills, we desire to rank knowledge and …

Perceived Factors Contributing To The Subjective Wellbeing Of Undergraduate Engineering Students: An Exploratory Study, Muhammad Asghar, Angela Minichiello, Assad Iqbal

Engineering Education Student Research

Engineering education is perceived to be a tough field of study with detrimental effects on the mental health of undergraduate engineering students. High levels of anxiety and depression are reported among this population. Overall, mental health research is often biased toward looking at mental health from a deficit perspective and investigating mental health as a negative phenomenon. This trend also persists in engineering education research. The purpose of this exploratory study, therefore, is to investigate the condition of subjective wellbeing (SWB) of undergraduate engineering students to understand the factors that they perceive as positively contributing to their overall wellbeing in …

Student Engagement In An Online Engineering Afterschool Program During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Virginia Snodgrass Rangel, Jerrod A. Henderson, Chelsea Martinez, Rick Greer

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The COVID-19 pandemic forced much of schooling online and limited students’ access to informal learning opportunities such as afterschool programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how fourth- and fifth-grade students engaged in an online engineering program and what factors influenced their engagement. We drew on a four-dimensional model of student engagement to describe how students engaged in the afterschool engineering program and to identify the factors that enhanced or inhibited engagement. Using a case study design, we drew on interviews with six program mentors and ten students and observation data from weekly Zoom sessions throughout the 2020–2021 …

Undergraduate Engineering And Education Students Reflect On Their Interdisciplinary Teamwork Experiences Following Transition To Virtual Instruction Caused By Covid-19, Kristie S. Gutierrez, Jennifer J. Kidd, Min Jung Lee, Pilar Pazos, Krishnanand Kaipa, Stacie I. Ringleb, Orlando Ayala

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This study explores undergraduate engineering and education students’ perspectives on their interdisciplinary teams throughout the rapid transition to online learning and instruction from a face-to-face to a virtual format. In this qualitative study, students’ reflections and focus groups from three interdisciplinary collaborations were analyzed using the lens of Social Cognitive Theory. COVID-19 created a dramatic change in the environment such that the most immediate and direct impact on students’ experiences was on the environmental aspects of Bandura’s triadic reciprocal determinism model, which then triggered behavioral and personal responses to adapt to the new environment. Subsequent evidence of reciprocal effects between …

Laying The Foundation For Education 4.0: Access, Value And Accountability, Jennifer Karlin, L. Eric James, Lauren Singelmann, Dan Ewert

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

The complexity of the global problems engineers are working to solve has long been discussed in both engineering and engineering education circles. The Grand Challenges for Engineering are grand because of the complexity of the challenges. While the challenges stand over a decade later, the speed at which the terms in which they are described, the shift from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0, has been slow. As the world becomes more deeply connected, as the internet of things becomes more commonplace in all parts of our lives, as technologies like machine learning and cyber physical systems become accessible to even …

A Multi-Decade Response To The Call For Change, Bart Johnson, Ron Ulseth, Mike Raich

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Engineering and society have always been intertwined, especially with the accepted realization of technology's significant and rapidly increasing influence on the evolution of society. As a profession, engineering has a vital role in sustainably meeting needs and exploring opportunities that are ever changing and evolving. As societal and industry needs have evolved, engineering education itself has raised the call several times for evolving the way engineers are educated; however, the recent history of engineering education is, overall, one of missed opportunities. This was brought to a headline recently as ASEE leadership authored an article entitled “Stuck in 1955, Engineering Education …

“But I’M Not An Engineer”… Collaboration Between A Librarian And An Upper Division Project-Based Engineering Program, Rebecca Bates, Robert Sleezer, Heidi J. Southworth

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Since 2013, a librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato has collaborated with faculty and students in an upper division project-based engineering program. While having several years of experience in university libraries plus advanced degrees in history, the librarian had a limited background in science, engineering, and technology, and lacked a formal engineering degree. At first glance, this match may appear to be a recipe for failure. Indeed, in those first few years, the librarian’s angst about the missing engineering degree caused many sleepless nights of worry and concern. However, there came a time when the words “but I am not …

A Community Framing Of Integrated Engineering, Rebecca Bates, Susan Lord, Emanuela Tilley, Jenna Carpenter

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

The term “integrated engineering” is being used in new education programs. As a framing concept, we believe it has value for the wider engineering education community. A small group of program heads has facilitated conversations about how integrated engineering could benefit other programs and the community in general. This paper provides background and describes some of the outcomes of past conversations with the goal of including more voices in the conversation and initializing the formal use of integrated engineering as a prompt for improving engineering education.

Building Partnerships To Bridge The Transfer Gap And Increase Student Success, Cody Mann, Andrew Hanegmon, Anthony Venditto, Katherine Ulseth, Frankie Wood-Black, Liz Cox, Michelle Soledad

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Transfer partnerships continue to be one of the most critical elements of student success. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the bridges and transfer gaps from a two-year college to a university and respect the value of the support and knowledge students are currently receiving at their community college, from the context of the practices and experiences of Iron Range Engineering - Bell. The transfer process, afterall, can be daunting to some students who plan to transition from a community college to a university to finish a Bachelor’s degree. Iron Range Engineering - Bell is a unique, co-op …

Examination Of Ableist Educational Systems And Structures That Limit Access To Engineering Education Through Narratives, Marissa Tsugawa, Brady Webster, Sakshi Solanki, Autumn Cuellar, Catherine Mcgough Spence

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

The purpose of this paper is to examine how higher education systems limit access to engineering education for disabled and neurodivergent engineering students. Throughout this paper we will discuss ableism in higher education systems. Particularly, U.S. institutions and education are designed for non-disabled and neurotypical people rather than with accessibility for all despite legal efforts to improve access to education. We also provide two narratives from the authors that describe their experiences with having a disability and being neurodivergent in engineering education. Finally, we suggest other paradigms and methodologies engineering education researchers can utilize when conducting research on disability and …

Complexity In The Classroom Workshop: Teaching And Learning The Cynefin Framework By Applying It To The Classroom, Jennifer Karlin, L. Eric James, Lauren Singlelmann

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Complex adaptive systems are both an important fundamental principle in systems engineering education and a reality of all engineering education. The Cynefin framework, as created by Snowden and Boone (2007), is a decision-making tool that helps the engineer recognize the type of system within which they are operating and then respond in a manner that is appropriate for the cause-and-effect relationships associated with that system type. The types of system, or the domains, fall into five categories and their liminal spaces: obvious, where the cause-and-effect relationships are clear to everyone involved; complicated, where the cause-and-effect relationships are clear to those …

An Integrated Engineering Model For Advising, Rebecca Bates, Catherine Mcgough Spence, Darcie Christensen, Robert Sleezer, Jodi Nelson, Ryan Walerius, Rachael Johnson

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

This evidence-based practice paper describes the theoretical foundations of the supportive advising practices used by the Integrated Engineering Department (IE) at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The driving motivation for the advising model is to support the development of student engineers as whole people. Generally in academia, faculty in traditional professor roles serve as formal advisors, mentors, facilitators, evaluators, and coaches and are joined by full-time staff that serve in roles to support student development. Integrated Engineers at Minnesota State University, Mankato are supported to become the engineer they want to be. This paper describes the unique model employed by IE …

Tessellated Structural-Architectural Systems: Experimental Testing And Interdisciplinary Student Projects, Grace F. Crocker

All Dissertations

This dissertation discusses a new structural system called a Tessellated Structural-Architectural (TeSA) system. These TeSA systems utilize architecturally appealing tessellations in load-bearing structures comprised of interlocking tiles in a pattern. This dissertation focuses on the design, construction, and structural behavior of these TeSA systems, as well as their value as an interdisciplinary learning tool.

This dissertation has 4 research objectives: 1) Demonstrate the fabrication and construction of a precast reinforced concrete (RC) TeSA shear wall system; 2) Measure the structural performance of the RC TeSA shear wall system; 3) Compare simplified shear and flexural analysis methods for RC TeSA shear …

An Applied Electromagnetics Course With A Conceiving-Designing-Implementing-Operating Approach In Engineering Education, M. R. Pérez-Cerquera, Hurtado Londono, Juan M. Cruz-Bohorquez

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

This paper describes and discusses the implementation of a project-based undergraduate course on applied electromagnetics in electronics engineering with a conceiving-designing-implementing-operating (CDIO) approach involving active project-based learning (PBL). The course, which requires a combination of mathematical and physics concepts for its completion, allows students to understand the principles of electromagnetic transmission theory in wireless communication systems. This paper presents the course proposal, its project description, and results hinting at the relationship with the CDIO process. The proposed projects allow students to engage in core concepts such as complex vectors, Maxwell’s equations, boundary conditions, Poynting's theorem, uniform plane waves, reflection and …

A Narrative Investigation Of Black Familial Capital That Supports Engineering Engagement Of Middle-School-Aged Youth, Delean Tolbert Smith, Tamecia Jones, Monica E. Cardella

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

A major concern in engineering education involves ensuring that youth belonging to minoritized groups have equitable access to engineering career pathways. Related research often highlights the effect of student and school characteristics on engineering success but few studies have investigated the engineering-related assets that Black families provide. This work aims to provide counterstories that highlight the presence of Black families along the pre-college engineering pathways of three Black youth from the Midwest region of the United States. The application of a counternarrative approach centers the familial capital of Black families and serves as the analytical frame for this work. The …

Interpreting Multi-Stage Teaching And Learning Initiatives For Mechanical Engineering Students - A Knowledge Management Perspective For Students, Kevin Delaney, Ger Nagle, Mingzhu Chen

Conference papers

Encouraging students to “think differently”, to “think like an engineer”, to “just solve the problem” is challenging and depends upon many factors such as the prior learning and experiences of the particular students involved. Sometimes it is difficult to convince students to really engage with activities outside their own comfort zones if they cannot see the potential benefits that might accrue through such engagement.

This paper describes a paradigm, inspired by knowledge management, which the authors have used to explain the importance of engaging with teaching and learning activities to undergraduate students. More importantly it helps these students to understand …

Flipping The Digital Switch: Affective Responses Of Stem Undergraduates To Emergency Remote Teaching During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Angela Minichiello, Oenardi Lawanto, Wade Goodridge, Assad Iqbal, Muhammad Asghar

Engineering Education Student Research

The Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) catalyzed a global shift to distance education known as an emergency transition to remote teaching (ERT). While prior research investigates students' experiences during traditional online learning, fewer studies examine students' affective responses (i.e., feelings, emotions) to those experiences, particularly when remote learning is unexpected and unplanned. To understand how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates responded affectively to the COVID-19 ERT, researchers generated open-ended survey data with 1340 undergraduates (253 female) in 27 courses across seven U.S. institutions. Using an inductive qualitative approach, researchers developed a three-tier thematic model to synthesize the self-reported reasons …

Secondary Science Teachers’ Curricular Use Of Ngss Engineering Practices, Elizabeth Hasseler, Amy Tankersley, Ana M. Rivero, Lyrica L. Lucas, Elizabeth B. Lewis

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

We investigated how often teachers integrated engineering into science lessons to address Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectations using data from a multi-year study of secondary science teachers. Only 7.14% of middle school (MS) lessons contained engineering practices. Engineering was included in lessons for students to apply or support the learning of scientific content.

Presider: Amy Tankersley

What Makes An Expert? Characterizing Perceptions Of Expertise And Intuition Among Early-Career Engineers, Caroline Bolton

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to characterize if and how practicing engineers’ perceptions of expertise development, decision-making processes, and engineering intuition vary by aspects of identity, specifically gender and career stage. This thesis is built from ongoing work of the Miskioğlu group on the relationship between expertise and intuition in engineering. Intuition is a characteristic of experts used in decision-making, and the importance of experience in the development of expertise is well documented in literature. There is a gap around how intuition relates to experience, prompting the need to compare the perceptions of early career engineers and mid-to-late career engineers. This thesis …

Preparing Engineering Students For The Challenges Of The Sdgs: What Competences Are Required?, Una Beagon, Klara Kövesi, Brad Tabas, Bente Nørgaard, Riitta Lehtinen, Brian Bowe, Christiane Gillet, Claus Monrad Spliid

Articles

Despite the emerging discussions about the growing role of engineers in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a lack of agreement on which competences should be prioritised to prepare engineering students to resolve future sustainability challenges. This study examined and compared the views of key stakeholders of engineering education (Academics, Employers and Students) using twelve focus groups in Denmark, Finland, France and Ireland. The findings were mapped against competences identified in previous studies to highlight gaps and opportunities for development. The results confirm the strong emphasis on normative, strategic and systems thinking competences in engineering. However, the outcomes …

Project-Based Learning In Non-Traditional Settings In Engineering Education, Mary Foss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of utilizing the principles of Project-based learning (PJBL) in nontraditional settings in engineering education. There is ample literature related to the usage of PJBL techniques in engineering education but there are also challenges with incorporating PJBL within the curriculum. It is the aim of this dissertation to build upon this understanding of the advantages and limitations of PJBL in engineering education and identify areas within the existing body of knowledge in which more research is needed. This dissertation divides this topic into 4 sub-topics. The first sub-topic explores how PJBL …

A Narrative Inquiry Into Veterans In Engineering, Miracle David Solley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Much research has been conducted on student veterans, in general; however, research on student veterans in engineering majors is very sparse. There is national recognition of the importance of student veterans in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields as evidenced in the passage in 2020 of a bill investigating the lack of veteran students in these fields. This study adds to the literature by answering the following two research questions: What are the experiences of veteran engineering students? How has military service impacted those experiences? Twelve students and five professors from a Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity in …