Facilitating Engineering Students' Creativity and Teamwork Ethos Using Smart Learning Platforms during Covid-19

Covid-19 has brought some revolutionary changes in Higher Education with a shift from traditional face-to-face teaching and learning to online or hybrid-based delivery. There is a strong emphasis on the integration of technology and smart platforms to deliver an effective teaching and learning environment that can withstand the unpredictable challenges of the ongoing pandemic. But many researchers have noted a lack of social interaction and motivation among students in an online setting. Also, with limited face-to-face interactions, many students had issues with collaboration and other group-based activities. Now with the availability of pre-recorded lecture videos and course materials in several universities, there is a noticeable drop in student engagement. To retain and boost students' motivation in the current complex environment, there is an added pressure among educators to create teaching content by utilizing smart and innovative teaching approaches that are efficient and effective. Smart learning platforms might offer the potential solutions to address some of the issues with the changing landscape of teaching and learning due to the pandemic. Such platforms are versatile and therefore, can work seamlessly across in-person and virtual teaching and learning environments. They can provide an interactive platform to facilitate active learning and the quality of teamwork experience among students. The objective of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of some of the smart teaching-learning platforms used in the MSc Engineering Management programme in the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology at the University of York. A survey was conducted among the cohort from this programme in the Summer of 2021 to review their engagement and experiences with these platforms. Can such smart platforms facilitate creativity and improve teamwork ethos among students? The paper will discuss the findings of this study and also highlight if such approaches can transform the educational setting post Covid-19. © 2022 IEEE.

Hypertonic Saline Use and Traditional Nasal Irrigation: A Possible Preventative Measure against COVID-19

Saline nasal irrigation (SNI) is a clinically established treatment that has been used to manage upper respiratory infections and allergies;there is also some indication that it may be effective in the setting of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). The possible advantages of SNI include the following benefits due to the well-known antiviral impact of sodium chloride (NaCl) and the mechanical cleansing effect arising from the irrigation method. First, there will most likely be a decrease in COVID-19 infection rates;second, illness severity will be lowered;and third, community transmission will be mitigated. Despite the need for more concentrated research into these aspects, public health organizations should emphasize alternate infection mitigation measures such as SNI in light of the ongoing COVID-19 problem, low global vaccine supply, and the rapid introduction of SARS-CoV-2 variants. © The Author(s). 2022 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and non-commercial reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

How do high-tech software smes in china manage risks and survive in today’s complex environment?

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the national economy in China. However, the average life expectancy of Chinese SMEs is only 3.7 years with more than half of the SMEs failing to survive beyond their first five years. And in 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has further aggravated the pressure among SMEs to survive. As a result of this pandemic, many Chinese SMEs struggled with their risk management approaches. Some had to lay off employees, cut salaries and even suspend operations in exchange for a chance of survival. The ongoing pandemic has raised many questions about the risk management strategies and the resilience of SMEs. Some researchers even questioned the effectiveness of some of these risk-management strategies. There is now a crucial need to understand the importance of effective risk management strategies so as to attain a competitive advantage in an unpredictable market. However, there are very limited studies that shed light on the risk management of Chinese SMEs, especially in the high-tech market and in the complex times of COVID-19. How do successful Chinese SMEs sustain and survive in such competition in the high-tech market? What strategies do they apply to manage risks and how effective are these strategies? How do they respond to changes in the market to retain and drive their organizational sustainability and survival? This paper explores some of these gaps by using case studies of 10 successful SMEs from the Chinese High-tech market. Using interviews with the founder-entrepreneurs from these SMEs, the paper discusses how these SMEs approach different risk management strategies including that of COVID-19. The paper will also explore the crucial role played by the founder-entrepreneurs in the decision-making process of risk management.

Facilitating gender inclusivity in the engineering profession

UK has one of the lowest percentages of female engineering professionals in Europe, representing only 24% of the total UK STEM workforce. The logistics show that women in technical roles have increased from merely 15.7% in 2009 to 16.4% in 2019. The engineering profession is perceived as male-oriented, thereby discouraging women’s interest in this sector. Now with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the future of various industries and the growing skills gap is becoming a matter of high concern. To secure the future of the engineering sector following the pandemic, there is now more than ever a critical urgency to look at skills shortages, especially the underrepresentation of females. The main objective of this paper is to therefore discuss how gender inclusivity can be facilitated so as to inspire, attract and retain people from diverse backgrounds. Using semi-structured interviews with a sample of female engineers and academics in the UK, this paper explores their views and perspectives on engineering as a career choice, the gender imbalance in the engineering sector, and how to address some of the gender-based stereotypical misconceptions about engineering as a profession. It explores some of the root causes of the “leaky pipeline” leading to gender disparity in STEM and in engineering in particular. It also looks at the future of STEM and engineering post-Covid and questions how the experience and changes will impact young students’ interest in some of these fields. The successful contribution and impact of a sector like engineering in today’s environment relies on talent and interdisciplinary collaboration which is why gender inclusivity is very crucial. This paper makes an important contribution towards the discussion of gender inclusivity and equality in engineering something which is being actively pursued by organizations such as the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) in the UK. © The Authors, 2021. All Rights Reserved.