Emergency transition to remote learning: DoIt@Home Lab in engineering

PurposeThe interruption of on-campus teaching and learning, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forced universities around the globe to rethink their pedagogical models and adopt innovative strategies and approaches that enabled continuity of learning. Engineering schools and faculties were faced with the challenge of how to continue to engage students with the practical component of coursework, especially in terms of lab work and experimentation, which are mandatory requirements for degree awards.Design/methodology/approachThis study documents how the Faculty of Engineering in a university in Oman engaged students with the practical component of their course during the pandemic by launching the remote DoIt@Home Lab. The DoIt@Home Lab approach included the design and development of video recorded labs, virtual labs, simulation exercises and DoIt@Home experiments which were provided to students as teaching tools and guides to conducting home experiments remotely.FindingsThis study presents the DoIt@Home Lab approach introduced to Year 2 Chemistry for engineering students. Students' grades improved by 11% over the previous year when the course was delivered face-to-face. Failure rates dropped by 8% while the number of students earning a 3.25 grade point average (GPA) or higher increased by 18%.Originality/valueThe DoIt@Home Lab for engineering courses could enhance students' learning experience and create an effective remote learning environment. While the DoIt@Home Lab was created to supplement on-campus activity in the event of a temporary disruption, it can also be used to supplement regular face-to-face program delivery.

Knowledge Transfer in Support of the Development of Oxygen Concentrators in Emergency Settings During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic simultaneously disrupted supply chains and generated an urgent demand in medical infrastructure. Among personal protective equipment and ventilators, there was also an urgent demand for chemical oxygen. As devices to purify oxygen could not be manufactured and shipped rapidly enough, a simple and accessible oxygen concentrator based on pressure swing adsorption was developed at ETH Zurich in spring 2020. Instead of building devices locally and shipping them, it was decided to educate others in need of oxygen. The implementation encompassed education on process chemistry, material choice, and assembly and optimization of the concentrator and was realized using synchronous teaching tools, such as video call, and asynchronous ones, such as a website and video streaming. The project gained traction and interaction with engineering teams from universities and non-Governmental Organizations (Red Cross and the UN Development Program) in developing countries and emerging market economies, including Ecuador, Mexico, Somalia, and Peru. At the end of the project, the teams were surveyed regarding their experience in the educative knowledge transfer. It was reported that the learning experience prepared these groups well to build the device and to teach others as well. Major challenges were accessing some parts of the device and optimizing its performance. While synchronous communication is expected to be a very effective teaching method, the survey results showed that explanations via a website and video streaming have contributed the most to the implementation of the oxygen concentrator and thereby provide autonomous and sustainable education tools.

Knowledge Transfer in Support of the Development of Oxygen Concentrators in Emergency Settings During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic simultaneously disrupted supply chains and generated an urgent demand in medical infrastructure. Among personal protective equipment and ventilators, there was also an urgent demand for chemical oxygen. As devices to purify oxygen could not be manufactured and shipped rapidly enough, a simple and accessible oxygen concentrator based on pressure swing adsorption was developed at ETH Zurich in spring 2020. Instead of building devices locally and shipping them, it was decided to educate others in need of oxygen. The implementation encompassed education on process chemistry, material choice, and assembly and optimization of the concentrator and was realized using synchronous teaching tools, such as video call, and asynchronous ones, such as a website and video streaming. The project gained traction and interaction with engineering teams from universities and non-Governmental Organizations (Red Cross and the UN Development Program) in developing countries and emerging market economies, including Ecuador, Mexico, Somalia, and Peru. At the end of the project, the teams were surveyed regarding their experience in the educative knowledge transfer. It was reported that the learning experience prepared these groups well to build the device and to teach others as well. Major challenges were accessing some parts of the device and optimizing its performance. While synchronous communication is expected to be a very effective teaching method, the survey results showed that explanations via a website and video streaming have contributed the most to the implementation of the oxygen concentrator and thereby provide autonomous and sustainable education tools. © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Noncontact liquid–solid nanogenerators as self-powered droplet sensors

Liquid–solid triboelectric nanogenerators (L–S TENGs) can generate corresponding electrical signal responses through the contact separation of droplets and dielectrics and have a wide range of applications in energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. However, the contact between the droplet and the electret will cause the contact L–S TENG's performance degradation or even failure. Here we report a noncontact triboelectric nanogenerator (NCLS-TENG) that can effectively sense droplet stimuli without contact with droplets and convert them into electrical energy or corresponding electrical signals. Since there is no contact between the droplet and the dielectric, it can continuously and stably generate a signal output. To verify the feasibility of NCLS-TENG, we demonstrate the modified murphy's dropper as a smart infusion monitoring system. The smart infusion monitoring system can effectively identify information such as the type, concentration, and frequency of droplets. NCLS-TENG show great potential in smart medical, smart wearable and other fields.

A Review on Current Nanofiber Technologies: Electrospinning, Centrifugal Spinning, and Electro‐Centrifugal Spinning

Nanofiber‐based products are widely used in the fields of public health, air/water filtration, energy storage, etc. The demand for nonwoven products is rapidly increasing especially after COVID‐19 pandemic. Electrospinning is the most popular technology to produce nanofiber‐based products from various kinds of materials in bench and commercial scales. While centrifugal spinning and electro‐centrifugal spinning are considered to be the other two well‐known technologies to fabricate nanofibers. However, their developments are restricted mainly due to the unnormalized spinning devices and spinning principles. High solution concentration and high production efficiency are the two main strengths of centrifugal spinning, but beaded fibers can be formed easily due to air perturbation or device vibration. Electro‐centrifugal spinning is formed by introducing a high voltage electrostatic field into the centrifugal spinning system, which suppresses the formation of beaded fibers and results in producing elegant nanofibers. It is believed that electrospinning can be replaced by electro‐centrifugal spinning in some specific application areas. This article gives an overview on the existing devices and the crucial processing parameters of these nanofiber technologies, also constructive suggestions are proposed to facilitate the development of centrifugal and electro‐centrifugal spinning.

Preface

We are pleased to provide you with the proceedings of 2022 4th International Conference on Resources and Environment Sciences (ICRES 2022).The conference was expected to be held during June 10-12, 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand, while the situation of COVID-19 pandemic is unpredictable and unstable. Most of conference participants could not travel to attend the conference venue to do oral presentations. Taking all conditions into consideration, conference committee decided to change physical conference into virtual conference. It was held online by ZOOM application successfully during the same date.The conference was highlighted by four outstanding Keynote Speakers and two invited speakers. Keynote speakers include Prof. Kaimin Shih, The University of Hong Kong, China with his topic "Metal Stabilization and Resource Recovery Examples in Urban Environment”;Prof. Nur Islami, University of Riau, Indonesia who presented a talk on "An Valuable Approach to Study Groundwater Contamination in a Shallow Aquifer System”;Prof. Danny Sutanto, University of Wollongong, Australia who shared a speech on "Solid-State Transformer for Smart Power Grid Applications”;Assoc. Prof. Phebe Ding, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia who presented a talk about "Role of Postharvest Technology in Producing Quality Fresh Horticultural Produces”. Additionally, two excellent invited speakers, Assoc. Prof. Chunrong Jia from University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA with speech title "Apportioning variability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the ambient air in the Memphis Tri-State Area, USA”, and Assoc. Prof. Farhad Shahnia from Murdoch University, Australia with speech title "Recent and Future Research on Microgrid Clusters”.Each normal oral presenter had about 12 Minutes of Presentation and 3 Minutes of Question and Answer. Conference was organized in 5 sessions with various topics: Environmental Management, Waste Utilization and Sustainable Development, Wastewater Treatment, Water Analysis and Hydraulic Engineering, Renewable Energy Technology, Chemical Engineering and Fluid Mechanics, Resources and Environmental Science & Sustainable Development, Energy and Chemical Engineering.All accepted papers presented at the ICRES 2022 were included in this volume, which contained three chapters with topics: (1) Environmental Pollution and Control (2) Waste Management and Utilization (3) Clean Energy and Technology. All papers were subjected to peer-review by conference committee members and international reviewers. The papers were selected based on high quality and high relevancy to the conference scope.We would like to express our sincere gratitude to organizing committee and the volunteers who have dedicated their time and efforts in planning, promoting, and helping the conference. We hope that the readers would gain some valuable knowledge from this effort.List of Committees, Statement of Peer Review are available in this Pdf.

EMPHASIZING SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL SALTED WATERS' AREAS, USED FOR PUBLIC HEALTH IMPROVEMENT

In recent years, more and more data has become available about the benefits of green in and around cities. Vegetation helps people to recover faster from illness;this reduces costs of healthcare and improves the patients ' quality of life. In highly urbanized locations, the design of green elements requires special attention. Our paper presents a multidisciplinary study of areas located near the old salt mines and their use by entering in the spa and leisure circuit. Specific components were monitored, like the salted waters quality in lakes and/or springs and the identification of different plant species adapted to high salinity of the soil and able to enrich a green zone. In recent years, the continuous degradation of environmental quality due to factors such as air pollution, noise, chemical compounds, the pandemic state due to COVID-19 and disappearance of natural areas, in combination with lifestyle changes led to the emergence of a growing number of diseases such as different forms of diabetes, cardiovascular and nervous system disorders and cancer.

Two Chemical Engineers Look at the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Chemical engineering involves a skill set that is transferrable to a broad range of other areas. A case in point is the work that is being done by chemical engineers to better understand and fight the COVID-19 epidemic. In this study, we consider a problem that has eluded the COVID-19 research community, which is nevertheless very tractable with a chemical engineering mindset: the true or intrinsic mortality rate of COVID-19, i.e., the fraction or percentage of COVID-19 infected people that die of the disease. We solve this problem in two locations (Spain and the state of New York) for the epidemic's first wave with a combination of daily death data, a fit of a computer simulation of an epidemiological model with adjustable parameters, and independent results of immunological blood testing on a random sample of the population. Parallels are drawn with the problem of determining the turnover frequency of a catalyst based on a similar combination of data and approaches. It is concluded from the study that the intrinsic mortality rate of COVID-19 was 1.45 ± 0.45 % during the first wave, a number that reflects OECD countries. By incorporating data on the age dependence of the mortality rate, a relationship f mort = (3.0 ± 0.7)×10-5 exp(0.1a), where a is the age in years, is tentatively put forward for the mortality rate as a fraction. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

A Decade with DYSS: Lessons Learned and Looking Forward

Each summer over the past decade, the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Washington has hosted the "Distinguished Young Scholars Seminar" (DYSS) series, bringing outstanding research trainees from top-tier programs around the country for day-long campus visits filled with student discussions, faculty meetings, mock interview questioning, and a research seminar. Here, we discuss the history and evolving structure of DYSS, highlighting prior successes and lessons learned, as well as opportunities for ongoing improvement.

Student Perspectives of Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This qualitative study examines the student experience in a chemical engineering program at a large, public research-intensive university during the shift to remote teaching due to COVID-19. Data sources include a free response survey completed by 380 students and focus groups including 35 graduate and undergraduate student instructors. The most common challenge students identified was staying engaged in their studies, especially during class. Several instructional practices emerged that can transfer back to in-person instruction.

Student Outcomes Related to Academic Performance, Motivation, and Mental Health in an Online Materials and Energy Balances Course during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study evaluates students' outcomes in an online materials and energy balances course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using multiple linear regression, we found that students' "competence" and "autonomy" beliefs decreased across the semester, with a negative change in competence beliefs predicting higher grades for students, especially women. Also, we used path analysis to model the relationship between "psychological distress," motivation, and final grades. These results give insight into how to support students during difficult circumstances.

Entrepreneurially Minded Learning in the Unit Operations Laboratory through Community Engagement in a Blended Teaching Environment

Online and blended learning opportunities in Chemical Engineering curriculum emerged due to COVID-19. After eight weeks of in-person Unit Operations Laboratory sessions, a remote-learning open-ended final project was assigned to student teams. The assignment involved aspects related to entrepreneurially-minded learning (EML) and community-based learning (CBL). Results show correlations between self-directed learning and the EML framework. Continuous support and involvement of a community partner correlate to students' motivation, critical for successful remote-learning implementations in engineering education.

Teaching Process and Plant Design in the Year of COVID-19

This reflective practice contribution presents the lessons learned from teaching plant design using an online flipped format to a small cohort of students in the first COVID-19 semester. These lessons were applied to the online teaching of the capstone design course to a full-sized cohort. The impact of the implemented recommendations on the students' academic outcomes is assessed, focusing on the importance of tracking student engagement in formative learning and encouraging the low-engagers to keep up.

Evolution analysis of content, teaching and examination modes with impact analysis on student satisfaction and learning effect

This paper presents the evolution of a master course taught simultaneously at multiple master specialisations. The analysis of the course structure, content, teaching and evaluation modes has been presented over several years, including both pre-pandemic and during Covid19 pandemic time. The challenges of dealing with a highly heterogeneous student group are explained and solutions that have been implemented over the years are analysed by means of their effect in student satisfaction scores and learning effect percentage. Copyright (C) 2022 The Authors.

A Review of the Fabrication Methods, Testing, and Performance of Face Masks

Improvement in the performance and compatibility of face masks has remained the focus of researchers in recent years, especially after the emergence of the COVID pandemic. Although a lot of progress in the design, tolerability, and comfort of the mask has been reported, there are certain limitations, requiring further improvement. The present review aims to highlight the filtration efficacy, comfort, and associated characteristic of various types of face masks and respirators as a function of their design and structure. In addition, the air pollutants, their adverse effects on health, certified respirators, and face masks are also discussed. The present review also provides an insight into different types of commercially available face masks in terms of their materials, filtration efficiency, and limitations. The role of emerging trends (such as nanotechnology and high-performance polymers) in the improvement and development of face masks and respirators is also discussed.

Preface to EREE 2022

The 2022 International Conference on Environment, Resources and Energy Engineering (EREE2022) was scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, however, due to unexpected global surge in COVID-19 variant in the last three months, for safety and also travel restriction reasons, the conference was held virtually via “Zoom”.Delegates from around the world including Thailand, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Indonesia, Cambodia, Chile, Philippines and Sri Lanka took the opportunity to share their research results and discuss potential scientific and engineering development from their work that contributed to the success of the conference.All papers in these proceedings have passed the vigorous review process involving reviewers of the International Technical Committee. Authors benefited from valuable comments and improved their submissions to the satisfaction of reviewers. The virtual presentation serves as another opportunity for the conference delegates to address critiques in the real time online meetings with the expert audience.There were four keynote speakers and two invited speakers who gave talks covering different areas of the conference. The keynote speakers are (i) Prof Kaimin Shih (The University of Hong Kong, China) who gave a talk on on “Metal Stabilization and Resource Recovery Examples in Urban Environment”, (ii) Prof. Nur Islami (University of Riau, Indonesia) who gave a talk on “A Valuable Approach to Study Groundwater Contamination in a Shallow Aquifer System”, (iii) Prof Danny Sutanto (University of Wollongong, Australia) who gave a talk on “Solid State Transformer for Smart Power Grid Applications”, and (iv) Prof Phebe Ding (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia) who gave a talk on ”Role of Postharvest Technology in Producing Quality Fresh Horticultural Products.”. The invited speakers are (i) Assoc. Prof Chunrong Jia (University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA) who gave a talk on “Apportioning variability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) in the ambient air in the Memphis Tri-State Area, USA”, and (ii) Assoc. Prof Farhad Shania (Murdoch University, Australia) who gave a talk on “Recent and Future Research in Microgrid Cluster”.The proceedings record papers presented during the conference, all of them have been divided into 3 sessions in the proceedings: Session 1-Resource & Environment Management and Sustainable Development, Session 2-Energy Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Session 3 Renewable Energy Technology and Energy Consumption Analysis.The variety of research topics presented in the conference and novelty exhibited in the papers published in the proceedings once again demonstrated the value of EREE2022.On behalf of the conference committee, I would like to thank the Technical Program Committee members, the Conference Program Coordinator, the keynote speakers and all participants, whose papers are presented in the conference proceedings, all contributing to the success of the conference.List of Conference Committees are available in this Pdf.

Work-in-progress: Identifying unit operations laboratory curriculum needs

A knowledge gap exists between what is taught in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum and what is needed in terms of knowledge, skills, and attributes for industry. ABET has worked towards characterizing curriculum needs by specifying seven student outcomes that were developed by their more than 2,200 experts from academia, government and industry. While useful in curriculum assessment, these outcomes are broad and do not provide details about what should be incorporated into specific courses. The National Science Foundation and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers surveyed 507 individuals from industry and academia to identify more specific skills needed for graduates going into industry. In addition to process safety and process dynamic knowledge, results suggested the need for skills in communication, critical thinking, teamwork, leadership, open-ended task analysis, problem solving, and time management. These skills are often taught through the unit operations laboratory. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty were forced to evaluate the learning outcomes of unit operations laboratory courses, allowing them to think more explicitly about how to address those gaps identified through the previous study. Moving forward, faculty have the opportunity to redesign the course to meet the needs of industry. Surveying unit operations laboratory stakeholders will offer a more targeted approach to making the necessary changes in course content. This includes surveying 1. Faculty on their perceptions of the key learning outcomes of the unit operations laboratory, 2. Industry on the knowledge, skills and attributes that should be taught in the laboratory, and 3. Students on what gaps exist in the chemical engineering curriculum that could be filled by the laboratory. The results of these surveys will provide information that will help balance the breadth and depth of content necessary while incorporating updates to address stakeholder needs. This work-in-progress paper will detail the development of these three surveys. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Global Projects: An Initiative to Train Chemical Engineering Students in Global Awareness

The United Nations General Assembly established a set of 17 goals in 2015 known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They inspire concerted efforts around the world to be accomplished by the year 2030. Goal 17, “Partnerships for the Goals”, embraces the fundamental strategy to achieve all the goals by the effective collaboration of all nations, institutions, organizations, and individuals. It relies on extensive global awareness as the fundamental ground to build the recognition of diversity and inclusion;striving to consider every perspective in our shared world. Academic institutions, particularly colleges and universities, should take leadership roles in educating the upcoming generation of professionals and leaders to accomplish this mission. Engineering schools and departments are required to demonstrate these as educational outcomes for their students. Specifically, Student Outcomes 2, 3, and 4 of ABET Criterion 3, all involve awareness, communication, and consideration of global contexts. This is critical to address the Sustainable Development goals as the students make up the future workforce in charge of advancing technical solutions for a better and sustainable world. This paper discusses a three-year experience in the Chemical Engineering Department, with the participation of 162 college students, in 33 projects, as a curricular requirement for a capstone course. The project provided a unique opportunity for students to become acquainted with problems around the world and to challenge them to consider multiple solutions. Student teams collaborated with foreign organizations (in the country they chose to address a problem) to analyze and propose solutions for challenges in that country. Activities are organized during the entire semester following project management techniques. They include an early presentation of the proposal, a scheduled progress report presentation, a poster, and a final presentation. Foreign partners are asked to provide their reflections on the experience. All classmates review and peer grade every deliverable from other teams. Students evaluate their teammates' performance and provide a self-assessment of their individual experience at the end of the course. A ChE Global Day was held at the end of the semester to display the posters and presentations to a broad audience with the support of university offices and centers focused on global experiences and international relations. Students earn up to 10% of the definitive grade of the course for these global engagement projects. This approach has proved to be fully sustainable, and with an overwhelming satisfaction of all the participants. It is important to note that the incorporation of a virtual platform during COVID-19 and the continuous monitoring and coaching by the instructor are producing best practices to foster communication between students and stakeholders. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022

Outreach Projects: Towards a Structured Curricular Activity for Chemical Engineering Students

Promotion of STEM careers in K-12 schools is essential for the sustainable progress of the world. College students from engineering careers can provide a unique contribution to this effort. Their experience is like the K-12 school environment. However, they have advanced knowledge and skills of their critical role in society. They can offer a realistic model for K-12 students to guide their career choice and to become motivated for STEM college education. In addition, college students benefit from these experiences by reinforcing their commitment to a successful career, and to service the communities that have supported their education. Moreover, the teamwork required for an efficient and engaging set of activities provides possibilities for the inclusion and diversity of different perspectives based on their personal experiences at school. In addition, this team effort provides for the development of multiple skills for their professional job. However, though the benefit of this strategy is well known, most colleges promote outreach as extracurricular activities. This paper discusses a three-year experience in the Chemical Engineering Department, with the participation of 360 college students, in 70 projects, reaching over 2,000 school students, as a curricular requirement for capstone courses. Continuous improvements have been in progress to provide a systematic approach while remaining flexible for innovation. This has proved valuable in sustaining the continuity of the experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities are organized each semester using project management techniques (plan, logbook, reports, and meetings). The instructor monitors and coaches these activities using a virtual platform MS TEAMS. Activities include an early presentation of the project proposal (week 2), a scheduled progress report presentation (week 4), a meeting with the instructor before delivering the activity to the selected community (weeks 4-8), a poster and a final presentation (weeks 12-14). Students also deliver a package with all the information, including in-person or virtual presentation or hands-on activity, pre- and post- surveys to the audience, interactions with K-12teachers, flyers and other materials (i.e., materials for demonstrations, activities). Schoolteachers frequently report on their impression or evaluation of the activities. Students gather and analyze surveys on the impact of their activities. All classmates review and peer grade deliverables from other teams. Students evaluate their teammates' performance in this project. Students provide a self-assessment of their individual experience. They earn up to 10% of the definitive grade of the course for this outreach project. This approach has proved to be fully sustainable, and with an overwhelming satisfaction of all the participants. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.