University inclusion at the time of COVID-19: a pilot study

In line with the pedagogical movement called Student Voice (Cook-Sather, 2014), a research group in the Pedagogy and Special Didactics field, from the University of Macerata, has carried out a pilot study with University students with disabilities and with Specific Learning Disorders (Giaconi, Capellini, 2015;Del Bianco, 2019). Specifically, the study will deepen how the Voices of all students can be recorded even during an emergency period and how students' feedback can be the first step to start new cooperation in the implementation of educational paths. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.

Discussion-Oriented Teaching in the Digital Classroom: Teachers' Collaborative Adaptation in the Face of Disruption

We examine how a researcher-practitioner research group collaborated to adapt noticing practices in the face of disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a progress monitoring tool and cognitive field notes to support teacher partners' systematic reflection and to gauge teacher learning. Initial findings suggest these tools helped identify tensions around implementing online class discussions. We highlight the process the teacher partners engaged in as they re-conceptualized engagement, participation, and interaction. © ISLS.

Passive Method for Wax Casting in the Production of the Fuel Grain for in-space Hybrid Rocket

The Space Enabled Research Group at MIT is conducting a multiyear research effort to better understand the technical and logistical challenges posed by the implementation of a wax-based hybrid chemical in-space propulsion system. Paraffin and beeswax are being considered as candidate fuels. The overarching effort includes imagery analysis conducted on paraffin and beeswax centrifugal casting tests conducted onboard progressively higher-fidelity experimental platforms within transparent hardware which aids in optical investigations. Such platforms include a laboratory optical table experiment, as well as a vacuum chamber test, a parabolic trajectory microgravity aircraft (three flights to date), the Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle (three experiments onboard and scheduled for mid to late 2022), and potentially the Destiny laboratory module of the International Space Station. Each of these platforms allows for testing in a new environment or increasingly longer-duration microgravity. The main focus of this paper is in regards to a Suborbital flight experiment. This experimental setup had multiple limiting factors such a size, 10 cm x 10 cm x 20 cm and power of approximately 5 W. This lead to trying a new approach to the spin casting approach used previously by the team, as the method of forming the fuel grain annulus. This new approach was passive, meaning it did not require any additional power other than to melt the wax, and relied heavily on the surface tension properties of the containment chamber. The surface tension of the end caps was modified by using an oleophobic substance to repel the wax. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, delays on flight caused results to not be ready before the date of publication of this paper. © 2022, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.

Creating a remote access-ready infrastructure for the future

Due to its inherent characteristics, marine robotics trials require more complex logistics when compared to other robotics fields. Often, high potential research groups are impeded to put into practice their research due to the cost and logistics of deploying marine robots. In recent times, offering access to other research teams has been a focus of several projects. LABUST participates in one of these (EUMarineRobots) and offers its robots and infrastructure to other partners. With the COVID-19 pandemic, trials within the EUMarineRobots project initially planned to take place physically have been transformed to remote access trials. Leveraging from previous work in virtual reality and from recently completed installations, LABUST could easily encompass these trials. Moreover, LABUST has prepared its infrastructure to allow any partner in the world to easily collaborate and test algorithms and devices without the need for physical presence. This is important in the context of marine robotics education as well. A summary of these recent remote trials is included as an example of remote infrastructure access in marine robotics. © 2022 IEEE.

Automatic Test Generation with ASMETA for the Mechanical Ventilator Milano Controller

This paper presents an automatic test cases generation method from State Machine specifications. Starting from the ASMETA specification, the proposed approach applies the following steps: 1. Generation of tests from a ASMETA model;2. Optimization of the tests;3. Concretization of the tests in GoogleTest;4. Execution of the concrete tests on code. We have applied this approach to the Mechanical Ventilator Milano (MVM) project, which our research group has contributed to develop, test, and certify during the Covid-19 pandemic. © 2022, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.

Map of scientific research on Communication in Spain: study fronts and rankings of authors, publications and institutions

This work presents a current map of scientific research on Communication in Spain, identifying both the research fronts of the publications with the greatest impact over the last three years (2019–2021) and the authors who led such work and their universities of reference. The original methodology applied herein focuses on an analysis of the cited authors. After a careful selection process, we work with a corpus of more than 800 articles, using Scopus and the VOSviewer software to generate a co-referencing map and throw light on the structure of the Communication field. On the basis of that analysis, we identify nine thematic clusters, with a particular grouping structure, leading authors, and relationships around fields of study such as communication, democracy and power, audiences and media consumption, the media industry, journalistic practice, fact checking and disinformation, journalistic innovation, and SEO journalism. The ranking of cited authors, where Ramón Salaverría and Rasmus K. Nielsen hold equal first position and the Chilean Claudia Mellado is the only woman at the head of a strong group, is put into context by analyzing their scientific production and the normalized impact in Communication of their institutions. The comparative analysis reveals the elite Spanish authors in Communication (Xosé López-García, Ignacio Aguaded, Andreu Casero-Ripollés, Lluís Codina, and Ramón Salaverría) and shows how universities in Madrid maintain their importance in terms of production but that those in Catalunya have the lead in terms of impact. The research is completed with a map of keyword co-occurrence that confirms the barrage of studies around the Covid crisis and the parallel and growing number of hoaxes (fakes). The research confirms the relevance of and opportunity to apply scientometric techniques to the Communication field.

Intermural Online Research Group Meetings As Professional Development Tools for Undergraduate, Graduate, and Postdoctoral Trainees

In academic research laboratories, well-organized group meetings are common training tools that can benefit individuals and the group as a whole. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual meetings have become an increasingly important format for research group meetings. Virtual meeting formats also offer an important and underappreciated advantage: ease of collaboration with researchers at other (potentially distant) institutions. Herein, we describe the strategies we employed to facilitate engaging and productive online meetings and academic exchanges between environmental chemistry/engineering laboratories at a primarily undergraduate program and a doctoral research intensive institution. Over a period of 12 months, six intermural group meetings were held through videoconference. All meetings consisted of two segments: (1) a literature or research discussion and (2) a professional development session that emphasized topics such as navigating life after completing a bachelor's degree, advice on securing graduate school admission and funding, and characteristics of effective instructors (from the undergraduate perspective). Student-led discussion of scientific literature and research is valuable in enhancing trainees' communication skills, interdisciplinary perspectives, and critical reading of the literature. Professional development sessions facilitate unique opportunities for professional mentorship. Given the substantial pedagogical and other professional benefits of intermural group meetings, we recommend this meeting format as a useful training tool for research trainees even after the current pandemic wanes. © Copyright 2022, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2022.

Developing Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives and Measuring the Effects of a Pandemic in a Civil and Environmental Engineering Department

The Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department at Midsized Northeastern University was awarded The National Science Foundation's Revolutionizing Engineering and computer science Departments (RED) grant in 2016 with the hopes of allowing engineering programs to improve the inclusion of minorities over the course of five years. The CEE Department used this opportunity to create a research group called Revolutionizing Engineering Diversity (RevED) that focuses on all underrepresented and underserved groups. The researchers used the grant to help change admissions as well as incorporate inclusive pedagogical practices. Currently, RevED is in the fifth year of the grant and has since spread out to utilize the Engineering Education Department and the Faculty Development Center to help broaden the impact of the grant to other students outside of the CEE Department. The RevED researchers were successful in helping develop a certification program for faculty and staff members to participate in. While there have been positive developments, the research group had to look at the effects of COVID-19 on the lives of students. RevED has utilized data regarding the impacts of the pandemic and will be looking to further develop insight on student experiences. While the poster will feature information on the changing student demographics and student perception of the climate of diversity, the impact of the pandemic will also be shown to see how students are affected and how to better address the needs of underrepresented and underserved students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021