Engineering Education Commons^™

An Investigation Of Engineering Design Cognition And Achievement In Primary School, Greg J. Strimel, Scott R. Bartholomew, Eunhye Kim, Liwei Zhang

Faculty Publications

This study examined the design cognition and achievement results of both kindergarten and fourth grade students engaged in engineering design-based instructional activities. Relationships between design cognition and student grade level, as well as quality of student work, were investigated. 30 concurrent think-aloud protocols were collected from individual primary students as they worked in groups to design and make a solution to a design task. The concurrent think-aloud protocols were examined and coded to determine the duration of time the participants devoted to a pre-established set of mental processes for technological problem solving. Significant differences between kindergarten and fourth grade participants …

Metacognition As A Tool For Engineering Technology Students, Melanie L. Villatoro, Claudia E. Hernandez Feiks, Chen Xu, Navid Allahverdi, Serdar Ozlek

Publications and Research

New York City College of Technology, “City Tech,” is the designated senior college of technology within the 24-unit City University of New York (CUNY). The college plays an important role nationally in the education of future scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians by offering a broad range of engineering technology majors. These majors have high enrollment annually; However, the one–year retention rates of freshman in the engineering technology associates degrees are typically 10-20% lower as compared to college wide one-year retention rates. One common reason for students changing majors or discontinuing their education after their first year is poor performance in …

Teaching Cybersecurity In An Undergraduate Engineering Course, Xiuli Qu, Xiaohong Yuan

KSU Proceedings on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Organizations create a huge amount of sensitive and confidential data, which must be protected from unauthorized access or disclosure. Nowadays, most organizations store their business data in digital formats. With the increasing use of digital data, data breaches are more often and serious in recent years. Therefore, it is very important for next-generation engineers to be aware of the importance of information security, and be able to recognize vulnerabilities and threats to an information system and design user-friendly and effective security measures. To achieve it, two modules of information systems security, including lectures and in-class labs, were developed and taught …

Study Of Physical Layer Security And Teaching Methods In Wireless Communications, Zhijian Xie, Christopher Horne

KSU Proceedings on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

In most wireless channels, the signals propagate in all directions. For the communication between Alice and Bob, an Eavesdropper can receive the signals from both Alice and Bob as far as the Eavesdropper is in the range determined by the transmitting power. Through phased array antenna with beam tracking circuits or cooperative iteration, the signals are confined near the straight line connecting the positions of Alice and Bob, so it will largely reduce the valid placement of an Eavesdropper. Sometimes, this reduction can be prohibitive for Eavesdropper to wiretap the channel since the reduced space can be readily protected. Two …

Uncovering The Hidden Factors That Could Compromise Equitable And Effective Engineering Education, Idalis Villanueva, Janice Mejia, Renata A. Revelo

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Literacies are central to the social and cultural practices that are intertwined with identities, who gets to participate in engineering, and the knowledge that is valued in the discipline. However, identifying these literacies is not a straightforward process for engineering faculty. The purpose of this workshop is to help engineering faculty identify equity- oriented literacies that challenge hidden curriculum frameworks in engineering and influence engineering identity formation.

Integration Of An Electrical Engineering Capstone Course With Social Justice And Global Studies, David Parent, Patricia Backer

Faculty Publications

A four course package (six units total) consisting of two general education (GE) classes and two electrical engineering capstone classes that are taught in a highly integrated manner, that not only meets university GE requirements, but also meets the new ABET criteria in which the need to address a societal need is embedded with design criteria. The prompts for the new integrated GE/capstone Assessment results are also presented, along with methods to increase student motivation for studying GE.

Applying Design Based Research To New Work-Integrated Pbl Model (The Iron Range Engineering Bell Program), Bart Johnson, Ron Ulseth, Yuezhou Wang

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

A new project-based model of engineering education is being developed to deliver an upper-division (final two years of four-year bachelor degree) experience. The experience is centred on students working directly in industry through engineering apprentice (cooperative education/internship) employment. Students will work in industry, completing projects, for the last two years of their education while being supported in their technical and professional development by professors, facilitators, and their peers through use of digital communication. This new model focuses on learning being more imbedded in professional practice, in contrast to the more traditional model of engineering, where the learning about the profession …

Examination The Impact Of Various Factors On Student Success In An Introduction To Circuit Analysis Course, David Parent

Faculty Publications

In this work in progress, several models to predict student success in a sophomore introduction to circuit analysis class were created based on prior grade point average, grade in a pre-requisite physics class, the semester the pre-requisite physics class was taken, the number of units a student was taking, the number of times a student repeated the circuits class, and the number of times a student repeated any class prior to enrollment. While all models were statistically significant, the model that included prior GPA and the grade in a pre-requisite physics was the most significant for the data collection effort. …

Quality Function Deployment: More Than A Design Tool, Nadiye O. Erdil, Omid M. Arani

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

Purpose – This study investigates to what extent QFD can be used in quality improvement rather than design activities.

Design/methodology/approach – A framework was developed for implementation of QFD as a quality improvement tool. A case study approach is used to test this framework, and quality issues were analyzed using the framework in a ceramic tile manufacturing company.

Findings – The results showed considerable improvements in the critical quality characteristics identified and sales rates, demonstrating the potential of QFD to be used in assessing and prioritizing areas of improvement, and converting them into measurable process or product requirements. Research limitations/implications …

Girls Who Code 3rd-5th, Khristina Polivanov

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

The goal of the club is to encourage girls to be confident in themselves and their abilities while teaching them basic concepts used in computer science.

Development Of A Placement Exam To Increase Student Success In A Junior Level Circuits And Systems Class, David Parent

Faculty Publications

In this work, which is intended to be a Full Paper in the Innovative Practice Category, the implementation of an improved placement exam that increased the pass rate in a junior level systems course in the author’s electrical engineering department by 15% is presented. For almost 30 years the author’s EE department has used a face to face exam to place students in a junior level circuits and systems course or into a review workshop. The details of the exam and suggestions about future use in conjunction MyOpenMath analytics to increase student success are also given.

Critical Theoretical Frameworks In Engineering Education: An Anti-Deficit And Liberative Approach, Joel A. Mejia, Renata A. Revelo, Idalis Villanueva, Janice Mejia

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The field of engineering education has adapted different theoretical frameworks from a wide range of disciplines to explore issues of education, diversity, and inclusion among others. The number of theoretical frameworks that explore these issues using a critical perspective has been increasing in the past few years. In this review of the literature, we present an analysis that draws from Freire’s principles of critical andragogy and pedagogy. Using a set of inclusion criteria, we selected 33 research articles that used critical theoretical frameworks as part of our systematic review of the literature. We argue that critical theoretical frameworks are necessary …

“There Is Never A Break”: The Hidden Curriculum Of Professionalization For Engineering Faculty, Idalis Villanueva, Taya Carothers, Marialuisa Di Stefano, Md. Tarique Hasan Kahan

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this exploratory special issue study was to understand the hidden curriculum (HC), or the unwritten, unofficial, or unintended lessons, around the professionalization of engineering faculty across institutions of higher education. Additionally, how engineering faculty connected the role of HC awareness, emotions, self-efficacy, and self-advocacy concepts was studied. A mixed-method survey was disseminated to 55 engineering faculties across 54 institutions of higher education in the United States. Quantitative questions, which centered around the influences that gender, race, faculty rank, and institutional type played in participants’ responses was analyzed using a combination of decision tree analysis with chi-square and …

Taking Professional Development From 2d To 3d: Design-Based Learning, 2d Modeling, And 3d Fabrication For Authentic Standards-Aligned Lesson Plans, Darran R. Cairns, Reagan Curtis, Konstantinos A. Sierros, Johnna J. Bolyard

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

There is currently significant interest in 3D fabrication in middle school classrooms. At its best 3D printing can be utilized in authentic design projects that integrate math, science, and technology, which facilitate deep learning by students. In essence, students are able to tinker in a virtual world using 3D design software and then tinker in the real world using printed parts. We describe a professional development activity we designed to enable middle school teachers who had taken part in a three-year Math Science Partnership program to authentically integrate 3D printing into design-based lessons. We include some examples of successful design-based …

Printed Dot Quality In Response To Doctor Blade Angle In Gravure Printing, Bilge N. Altay, Alexandra Pekarovicova, Paul D. Fleming

The Hilltop Review

Doctor blade is one of the critical machine part of the gravure printing press that controls the amount of ink transfer on the substrate. The angle of the blade can be varied; however, an improper angle may cause major problems. In this study, the doctor blade angle was positioned at three different level to address its effect on the printed dot quality. Print trials were made on a web-fed gravure press at the speed of 650 ft./min. A high-resolution overhead camera was used to analyze the key dot attributes. The results showed that measuring only the density of printed dot …

Yelp’S Review Filtering Algorithm, Yao Yao, Ivelin Angelov, Jack Rasmus-Vorrath, Mooyoung Lee, Daniel W. Engels

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we present an analysis of features influencing Yelp's proprietary review filtering algorithm. Classifying or misclassifying reviews as recommended or non-recommended affects average ratings, consumer decisions, and ultimately, business revenue. Our analysis involves systematically sampling and scraping Yelp restaurant reviews. Features are extracted from review metadata and engineered from metrics and scores generated using text classifiers and sentiment analysis. The coefficients of a multivariate logistic regression model were interpreted as quantifications of the relative importance of features in classifying reviews as recommended or non-recommended. The model classified review recommendations with an accuracy of 78%. We found that reviews …

A Case Study Of Engineering Students’ Experiences With The Co-Op Application Process, Laura F. Long, Xinrui Xu, Joyce B. Main

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Engineering faculty and advisors emphasize the importance of obtaining industry experience in addition to academic learning. One way universities encourage their students to obtain hands-on work experiences is through cooperative education (co-op) programs. Previous studies have examined the advantages and disadvantages of co-op participation, but the application process for students has not been closely examined. Studying this process will show how academic institutions and companies can potentially enhance the student experience of applying for a co-op position. This study examines student experiences with the co-op application process based on interviews with engineering students at a research-intensive university in the Midwestern …

"I Don't Belong With All The Really Smart Kids Here": Student Characterizations Of Belonging In Engineering, Lisa J. Musselman, Jacqueline A. Rohde, Brianna S. Benedict, Allison Godwin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

This research paper is a qualitative study of how students with diverse demographics, mindsets, and identities describe what it means to belong in engineering. Engineering students’ sense of belonging has a significant impact on students’ decisions to leave engineering. Talented students who feel that they do not belong in engineering are more likely to leave than their peers. Previous studies have focused on belonging for underrepresented students in engineering (e.g., women or minorities) or specific factors contributing to student belonging (e.g., classroom performance). However, few have explored how students describe what it means for them to belong in engineering to …

Graduate School Of Engineering And Management Catalog 2018-2019, Graduate School Of Engineering And Management, Air Force Institute Of Technology

AFIT Documents

The Graduate Catalog represents the offerings, programs, and requirements in effect at the time of publication.

Senior Computer Science Students’ Task And Revised Task Interpretation While Engaged In Programming Endeavor, Andreas Febrian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Developing a computer program is not an easy task. Studies reported that a large number of computer science students decided to change their major due to the extreme challenge in learning programming. Fortunately, studies also reported that learning various self-regulation strategies may help students to continue studying computer science. This study is interested in assessing students’ self-regulation, in specific their task understanding and its revision during programming endeavors. Task understanding is specifically selected because it affects the entire programming endeavor.

In this qualitative case study, two female and two male senior computer science students were voluntarily recruited as research participants. …

An Experimental Comparison Of Student Motivation Between Two Computational Thinking-Based Stem Activities: Vex-Based Automation And Robotics And A Quadcopter Activity, Cory J. Ortiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to compare student motivation between two junior high level computational thinking based STEM curricular activities. These two activities were a newly developed quadcopter based curriculum and a VEX based curricular activity developed for Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology – Automation and Robotics course. Student motivation was assessed using an assessment called My Class Activities which broke motivation into four constructs: interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment.

This study assessed students in three schools in a northern Utah school district. Students were assessed after receiving each curriculum. Assessment responses were then coded and analyzed. …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Enhanced Hands-On Intervention Versus Textbook Interventions To Understand Student Misconceptions In Particle Dynamics, Gang Liu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present dissertation research examined the effects of applying the enhanced hands-on intervention to reveal and correct student misunderstandings of the concepts in engineering dynamics, especially particle dynamics. We involved 36 student volunteers for three different research topics. The student participants were divided into two groups in each research topic: enhanced hands-on intervention and pure textbook groups. An interview and intervention was conducted with each participant individually.

The author introduced the “Think-Aloud” method with two kinds of interventions mentioned above. The participants were required to speak out their thought process loud as they worked on the two sets of assessment …

Attracting Secondary Students To Stem Using A Summer Engineering Camp, Murad Mahmoud

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to study the benefits of having middle school students attend a summer camp focused on the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). A lot of research funding is being used in such camps to help get more students into STEM fields as there is a lack of graduates in those fields. Therefore, it is important to understand the benefits and effectiveness of such camps.

Students, teachers and parents were involved in this research. Students and teachers attended a one-week engineering camp at Utah State University while parents were involved via a blog …

Misconceptions And The Notional Machine In Very Young Programming Learners, Tony A. Lowe

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

This study looks at very young learners make mistakes and possibly form misunderstanding when learning to programming. A variety of national efforts are extending programming education to younger learners who are materials many adults struggle to learn. For decades literature has captured common misconceptions in using programming constructs (e.g. conditionals, loops, and recursion) in older learners, but early learners may wait years before they tackle these complex concepts. Many model misconceptions as a missing or inaccurate notional machine. The notional machine is an individual’s mental model, representing how a programming language executes on a real device. The notional machine aligns …

Pathfinder: Affordable And Effective Web-Books For First Year Engineering Courses, Jess Everett, Scott Steiner

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

This paper describes the implementation of PathFinder (https://pathfinder.rowan.edu/), a website that facilitates the creation and dissemination of affordable web-books for college students. The purpose of this paper is to describe its implementation in an introduction-to-engineering curriculum at a public university in the north east, and to discuss the use of Pathfinder (or similar websites) in first and second year engineering courses in general.

The PathFinder website allows professors to create, maintain, and access an electronic database of engineering topic folders. Each folder contains information on a single topic and may contain an article and other content, e.g., variables, equations, images, …

Recommended Corrective Security Measures To Address The Weaknesses Identified Within The Shapash Nuclear Research Institute, Khadija Moussaid, Oum Keltoum Hakam

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The Shapash Nuclear Research Institute (SNRI) data book was issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2013. The hypothetical facility data book describes the hypothetical site, which is divided into two areas: the low-security area, known as the administrative area, and the very high-security area, known as the protected area. The book contains detailed descriptions of each area’s safety and security measures, along with figures of multiple buildings in both areas, and also includes information about the site’s computer networks.

This paper aims to identify security weaknesses related to the institute’s location, the Administrative Area (AA), the Protected …

What Does Hidden Curriculum In Engineering Look Like And How Can It Be Explored?, Idalis Villanueva, Laura Gelles, Marialuisa Di Stefano, Buffy Smith, Renetta G. Tull, Susan M. Lord, Lisa Benson, Anne Therese Hunt, Donna M. Riley, Gery W. Ryan

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

This work in progress paper describes the initial stages of a project which aims to characterize the mechanisms of hidden curriculum (HC) in engineering and identify methods for exploring this phenomenon. To effectively study the complex nature of HC, this work brings together researchers with a range of expertise (sociology, engineering education, engineering, statistics, policy analysis, curriculum and instruction) to develop a holistic approach to explore HC in engineering. This work describes the process of gathering input from this multidisciplinary team as well as the literature to develop a mixed-method instrument and model to explore the mechanisms behind HC in …

Developing An Evaluation Tool To Examine Motivational Factors Of Non-Student Community Partnership Participants, Julia Thompson, Jinny Rhee

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

Research of engineering community engagement has primarily focused on the experiences and outcomes of students, yet it is often the faculty, administrators, and community partners who have a long-term commitment to the program’s success. In this study, we are developing and validating an assessment instrument that combines two previously identified aspects of community engagement programs: participant motivation and the nature of engagement relationships. Participant motivation refers to the reasons people stay engaged in the community engagement experience and can be categorized into: student learning and growth, personal and professional development, and benefits to the community organization. The nature of an …

The Redshirt In Engineering Consortium: Progress And Early Insights, Janet Callahan, Donna C. Llewellyn, Ann E. Delaney

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The NSF-funded Redshirt in Engineering Consortium was formed in 2016 with the goal of enhancing the ability of academically talented but underprepared students coming from lowincome backgrounds to successfully graduate with engineering degrees. The Consortium takes its name from the practice of redshirting in college athletics, with the idea of providing an extra year and support to help promising engineering students complete a bachelor’s degree. The Consortium builds on the success of three existing “academic redshirt” programs and expands the model to three new schools. The Existing Redshirt Institutions (ERIs) help mentor and train the new Student Success Partners (SSPs), …

A Project-Based Learning Approach In Teaching Simulation To Undergraduate And Graduate Students, Gokhan Egilmez, Dusan Sormaz, Ridvan Gedik

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

In this study, application of experiential learning into graduate and undergraduate curricula of a industrial system simulation course is presented. Simulation has been among the courses against which students feel uncomfortable or frightened due to heavy software use, prerequisite of probability, and statistics knowledge, and its application requirements. To minimize this fear and improve student’s understanding about the subject matters and have them develop ample skills to build complex models, a project-based learning approach is proposed and used in undergraduate and graduate teaching settings. To achieve the project-based learning goals, a 15-week curriculum is designed to have a balanced lecture …