ABSTRACT
Fonaments matemàtics is a required 1st year subject in engineering career at the university EPSEVG (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) with approximately 270 students enrolled each semestre that traditionally it had a medium pass rate. Over the last 6 years we have introduced gradual changes in the teaching planning of it with the idea of achieving: 1) that students work throughout the course, 2) leveling knowledge and 3) reduce the number of students not presented to any exam. The changes have been implemented and corrected based on our feedback from students (engagement, grades, acceptance and survey assessments). The introduction of the calculator, laptops and tablets in everyday life and the use of the tools of the UPC virtual platform have been key. In this contribution, we present the strategies used and the good results obtained. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
International organizations notes that the main weakness for innovation in Latin American countries is that their national research organizations only evaluate and stimulate pure academic personnel by publications and citations, forgetting those who work in industry, losing a vast potential in each country. Higher education institutions must increase the development and innovation if they want to contribute to the third mission, which means the economic development of a country, in addition to the traditional advanced education and research, to adapt to new realities for the knowledge-based economies. Commercial war, SARS COV-2, and energy crisis drive policymakers and university managers to rethink and redesign institutions. This work offers an approach to measure the research, development, and innovation capabilities of three telecommunications engineering careers in three Latin American universities in Mexico and Ecuador looking for to increasing capabilities when doing collaboration. Results confirm that the knowledge contribution in engineering is proportional to the number of supported engineering careers, even mapped to national and international rankings. Also is confirmed that research is related to the academic production, but development and innovation are more related to an effective relation to industry. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Science kits have been a staple of learning for some time, but in the era of COVID-19 at-home science kits took specific prominence in educational initiatives. In this paper, we delineate how kit-based education can be paired with virtual connection technology to enhance postsecondary and career exploration. The “Content, Connection and Careers” kit-based program has been developed to enable youth to explore electrical engineering principles while connecting virtually with university students to discuss engineering courses and careers. When assembled and wired up, the kit components become linear motors that use a magnetic force to pull a bolt into a pipe when youth press a button. This follows the same working principles as a doorbell or solenoid. These kits are supported by virtual learning sessions where youth connect with university students and faculty to fully understand the educational content, connect to peers and caring adults to share their learning, and explore careers that use electrical engineering skills. To investigate the effectiveness of the program, surveys were distributed to participants to understand whether the kits were simple enough for independent learning but robust enough to encourage additional self-exploration of more difficult topics with the aid of expert scientists and other adult role models. Additionally, youth were asked if the connections made with university faculty and students was beneficial in their thinking of postsecondary options and college engagement. Over 60 elementary and middle-school aged youth participated in the project. Over 80 percent of survey respondents self-reported improved knowledge of how an electromagnetic field works and how to build a simple electromagnet. Other results showed an increased understanding of engineering careers and courses required to study electric engineering in college. Before their experience in the project, very few of the young people had ever talked to university faculty or university students about their areas of research or their journey into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This connection was described in the surveys as what the youth liked best about the project. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
ABSTRACT
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.
ABSTRACT
Despite helping to solve problems in society and the environment and enabling financial independence, a disproportionately low number of women enter engineering careers. Contributing factors may include a lack of female role models and activities that would increase the interest and confidence in STEM pathways during the developing years. Our university has initiated activities to provide exposure to role models and STEM activities to young females. This year Ron Burton Training Village (RBTV) started a new STEM program for female students grades 6-11 which would span over 6 years. The students would attend a different experience every weekend and conclude the yearly experience with a capstone project. Our university partnered with RBTV for one weekend workshop experience. The program was intended to be an in-person event but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this program was conducted synchronously through Zoom virtual meetings. Our university is well known for “hands-on” learning, and we decided to keep the experience hands-on even if it had to be virtual. Students participated in STEM-related hands-on projects, connecting them to real life applications and boosting students' interests in different STEM disciplines. The program represents part of our university's ongoing efforts to interest young women in STEM. The core of the half-day workshop was three 45-minute STEM modules: Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The students rotated between the different workshops. The three modules are presented in this paper. Civil Engineering project was Soil Testing, Electrical Engineering project was Food Battery, and Computer Science project was Smart Picker. 38 female students participated in this new STEM program. A survey was conducted at the end of the event to evaluate the content of the program. Students were excited about our program, learning, and experiencing different fields of engineering. We received very positive feedback from the students. The students really enjoyed the hands-on experience. Students reflected that they would like to participate in more STEM related activities in the future. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we present a new methodology for the assessment of Programming and Data Structures courses in conditions of Covid-19. The study is carried out at the Catholic University of Temuco, based on the suggestions received at the beginning of the pandemic, by students of the Computer Engineering career. The proposal consists of redirecting the assessment to freely accessible online programming platforms. As part of the study, a mapping of the contents to be evaluated in both subjects with problems available on platforms such as LeetCode and CodinGame is carried out. We manage to cover all the content to be evaluated using these platforms. An analysis of the results of the course, applying this new methodology, is made. Through a survey, applied at the end of the semester, we collected information about the perception of students, concerning aspects related to the changes in the assessment of the course. The results of the survey are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, perceiving improvements in the promotion indicators and the motivation of the students. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
At our university, the ECE department has striven over the last few years to provide undergraduate students with an educational experience that far exceeds the expectations of hiring managers. We surveyed students and employers to understand where the gap exists between new graduates and highly qualified engineers. New graduates frequently struggled at attaining the best internships. Even before they graduated, many of them started to seek out opportunities but often in vain. Furthermore, most new hires had to go through a season of training before they could become contributing employees. As a result, we wanted to design a course that would help us address the research question: “How can we deliver an engineering education that provides students the skills they need to succeed in the workforce?” By genuinely listening, we discovered a number of key insights which led to a highly successful course where students rapidly design hardware and software to interface with the world. In this paper, we discuss our motivations, the design of the course, what we have learned from teaching the course, and where we see the future of experiential education heading, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for highly effective remote instruction. We believe that the model we have created in this classroom experience successfully prepares students for the rigors of an engineering career. Our ECE department has a rich history of exemplary theoretical teaching, with a strong emphasis on research, but undergraduate students felt a void in how to apply that knowledge into engineering practice, especially in future careers. This is why in recent years we have strongly focused on experiential learning in all four years of the undergraduate experience. We developed courses for entering freshmen and capstones for graduating seniors, but we did not have anything for students in the heart of their university experience, particularly for those uncertain of their future aspirations. This was a driving force behind the formation of this course. The goal of the class was, and still is, to offer undergraduates experience with real-world data, teach them to work with a complete system, and provide them a contextual basis in which to apply their theoretical knowledge. This goal was established after careful consultation with our corporate affiliates and alumni. As a result, the course today has students build a fitness wearable from first principles. During the journey, they attain foundational Python software development skills and are exposed to many facets of ECE curriculum. In their final project, they repurpose their wearable to address a new, unrelated problem so as to be challenged to be critical thinkers working on open-ended problems - a highly sought-after skill by employers we surveyed. Due to the modular, often self-paced nature of the course, it has had a serendipitous outcome during the pandemic - namely, while being a highly hands-on course, it actually works extremely well in settings of remote instruction. Feedback from students has been surprisingly positive as they have had to work on their project kits from their homes rather than in the lab setting. Since much of their instruction in their other classes has shifted to lectures offered via video conferencing software, any opportunity to actually work with their hands has led to marked excitement and eagerness to participate in class, as has been directly observed by us. The focus of this paper will be to breakdown the course curriculum, demonstrate how it offers students a unique learning experience, and illustrate the effectiveness of the material even during remote instruction. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021