ABSTRACT
In this paper, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that delivers food to patients in hospitals during COVID-19 pandemic situation was proposed. AMRs are one of the tools that can minimize direct physical contact between healthcare worker and patients to prevent infection. As some of the hospital logistic tasks are handled by the AMRs, more manpower can be distributed to more important tasks. This is a capstone project developed by a group of students from the Faculty of Engineering, at UCSI University. The project was completed with a concept design, a virtual prototype, and computer simulation of the robot. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Project-based capstone modules are challenging in a face-to-face environment and even more so when trying to move them online. In an information systems development (ISD) capstone module at a South African university, students are required to work in teams and engage with their real-life clients whilst consulting with their lecturers and completing several deliverables throughout the year. This paper reports on a case where the teaching of this project-based module was moved online due to the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic. The contribution lies in the lessons learnt and insights derived during this time. Students were still able to continue to deliver high quality work that enabled them to meet the learning outcomes of the module. With the IT industry in the post COVID era moving online, working remotely or in a hybrid fashion, the online PBL experience prepared students for the ‘new’ work life which makes them ‘industry ready’. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Online learning has been studied long before the pandemic. Some educators were concerned about online learning. The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. During the earlier part of the pandemic (Spring 2020), many universities were locked down. Every course had to be switched to online delivery mode. This imposed quite a challenge for some courses. For example, how would you conduct labs which needed to use lab equipment? How would the students work together on their capstone projects? The successes and lessons learned during the pandemic are an important part of the effort to take advantage of online learning. Many of the practices forced upon us during the pandemic are useful even after the pandemic. Online presentation, use of GitHub for software development, use of Google documents/directory, Google form for team evaluation and peer evaluation are a few things that can be adopted after pandemic to improve student learning. In this paper, successes and lessons learned will be shared regarding the use of Zoom in lectures, laboratories, and help sessions, homework and quizzes in Canvas, virtual presentation for Mini-Maker Faire, feedback from students, and capstone projects. © 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
Capstone Projects, CTC 490, is a mandatory course for all Civil Engineering Technology students during their senior year. This specific course is designed to apply cumulative experiences gathered from wide range of courses in the curriculum. The students analyze and design real life civil engineering project, write a written report followed by an oral presentation. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, student learning outcomes were significantly disrupted as the plan of study changed to online mode from March 2020. The purpose of the current study is to document the students' learning experiences of the capstone design course during the pandemic year. As the course is so comprehensive in nature, wide range of student learning assessment is possible from this course. Data were collected from Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semester to assess the student outcomes in the category of communication with the teammates, fulfill roles and responsibilities, and listening to the teammates. The scales of one to four (1-not acceptable, 2- below standards, 3- meets standards, 4- exemplary) were chosen so that the instructor had a clear view to make a decision whether the expectations were met or not. The measure of successful performance in each attribute was achieving a score of 3 or 4. A benchmark of 70% was selected to gage the level of success. The results showed that the student outcomes were impacted most in the communications category. The level of success in the capstone rubric were documented and connected with the related program outcomes of the ETAC/ABET criteria. Outcomes of this study will be helpful in planning to teach such kind of course in situation like pandemic or other situations out of our control. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected undergraduate research activities for college students. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of the pandemic on undergraduate research for engineering students at a teaching-focused university. Data for research grants were obtained before, during, and after the pandemic. The results showed a gradual increase in funding opportunities and awarded grants for faculty members. On the other hand, there was a reduction in the number of undergraduate students involved in these research activities. The study also discussed potential strategies and solutions that enable engineering students at the undergraduate level to conduct research. Most of these strategies focus on gathering and analyzing data without the need for fieldwork, laboratory work, or in-person interactions. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Senior Design or "Capstone" projects are an important aspect of undergraduate activity in engineering disciplines as they consist of a culminating major design experience incorporating appropriate engineering standards and multiple constraints, based upon skills acquired in earlier course work. Capstone activities include gathering requirements, technical design, presentations, and written documentation. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University hosted a “Senior Design Day” at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters, in which projects and student presentations were showcased. At its peak, over 450 individuals attended this event, providing large audiences for student presentations. Attendees were also given the opportunity to evaluate student projects and to provide feedback regarding the event. With the social distancing directives from the university and local government, Senior Design Day became a virtual event. This work in progress compares past events held in person vs. two that were conducted virtually, and of those two virtual events, compares an event conducted with pre-recorded presentations vs. one held with synchronous video presentations. Participant and visitor evaluations and feedback are compared, as significantly more feedback was received for the virtual events than for the in-person events. The differences in how project sponsors, faculty, and students participated in each type of Senior Design Day is compared and discussed. Some elements of a virtual event provided improvements to the experience and their application to post-pandemic Senior Design Days is discussed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
Experiential learning programs like internships and capstone projects are high-impact practices that allow engineering students to build a professional network, apply technical skills in a real-world context, and develop non-academic skills that employers need. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent school closures impacted the entire engineering education ecosystem, particularly internships and other experiential learning opportunities. Virtual internship, an education intervention developed to broaden participation in experiential learning for non-traditional students, was rapidly deployed to address the disruption to internships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Key challenges that emerged during the implementation process include marketing the new program to existing partners, deciding on a remuneration structure, and navigating IP issues. The paper systematically steps through the implementation process and how the challenges mentioned above were addressed in practice. As life, school and internships return to normal in 2021 and beyond, the Virtual internship intervention can still play a valuable role in the experiential learning landscape. However, higher education institutions may need to intentionally de-couple the educational innovations rapidly developed during the COVID-19 pandemic from being 'pandemic solutions' to valuable alternatives that provide equitable and scalable access to educational opportunities and proactively invest in their continued sustainability and growth. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
A powder compaction system can be useful to various manufacturing technologies. In order to create a powder compaction system, a four-student capstone team is formed with two faculty advisors. This team started their capstone as usual. However, in the middle of the first semester of the capstone (Spring 2020), the team has experienced imposed restrictions due to COVID-19. Restrictions due to COVID-19 were still active in the second semester (Fall 2020). The team could complete the capstone project in Fall 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the powder compaction system is introduced. The details of the block diagrams and fabricated prototype device are presented. Testing and verifications are shown, and the capstone evaluation is presented. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
With all the changes in the educational landscape due to COVID-19, capstone design courses have been uniquely affected. With several transitions to virtual course delivery and/or hybrid models of learning, capstone faculty are now challenged with helping students meet project objectives and deliverables, fostering student team cohesion, and managing sponsor expectations in virtual settings, all while fulfilling the course learning outcomes. While there have been countless programs, communities, and support systems implemented to guide the transition to online teaching, initially there was very little available to systematically understand and support the capstone and PBL community. The objectives of this work are twofold. The first aim is to outline the challenges faced by capstone faculty due to transitions to primarily remote capstone offerings, particularly within the areas of managing sponsorship, completing projects, and producing the associated final project deliverables. The second objective is to open a dialogue to chronicle concerns, gather input, and share best practices across the broader capstone community. The overarching goal is to help overcome -and even rise to- these challenges. This research was conducted by capstone faculty at four different universities. The first phase of this initiative involved research to identify the issues and practices in the existing literature, especially relevant to virtual capstone offerings. The second phase of this research involved a survey of capstone faculty on this topic to reinforce and/or supplement the literature findings as the virtual circumstances evolved. To understand the acute challenges, the survey noted above was conducted with the broader capstone community to include a diversity of faculty associated with capstone at a variety of institutions. This included capstone directors, coordinators, instructors, and advisors. The third phase gathered information through a panel organized and conducted by the authors at the most recent ASEE conference while dealing with societal and academic COVID-19 restrictions. The ASEE panel served as a platform to bring together the capstone community for ongoing dialogue, supplying additional solution recommendations. Results from this research coupled with literature findings indicated the commonality of challenges faced by capstone programs regardless of timing, engineering major, program profile, or type of institution. Among the survey results were the following: (1) Due to COVID-19 conditions, 44% of the respondents reported complete cancellation of this event while 56% reported conducting some form of virtual exposition. The work represented in this paper supports an intention to be agile enough to adapt to any situation along this continuum - and likewise be posed to adjust when our capstone programs must react to emerging circumstances in the future. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic George Mason University (Mason), similar to many institutions, had to suddenly switch to online delivery of all courses in March 2020. As the director of senior projects (first author) for the mechanical engineering program, this forced me into an unexpected situation. As many other engineering professors can attest, teaching laboratory intensive classes and design courses adds additional layers of complexity within the online delivery mode. The co-author who taught two other sections of senior design and the first author had to immediately devise a plan on how to continue to deliver a meaningful design experience to students online in the middle of the semester. While most programs in the country adjusted their capstone programs to face the unexpected pandemic, our program had its own set of challenges to overcome. The first concern for the authors was how to continue to provide a meaningful design experience to the students and the second one was how to complete the projects to meet the sponsors' expectations. That is why we decided to share our experience so we can generate more thoughts and discussions during the conference. Our first effort was to use our extensive engineering experience to challenge the senior students. Access to the machine shop was not allowed beginning halfway through the spring 2020 semester. During a normal academic year, student teams perform much of the fabrication and testing of their prototypes during the spring semester. Since access to the machine shop was not allowed, the focus of the program shifted towards a greater emphasis on analysis and technical writing. Another challenge is due to the model used for capstone projects at Mason in which 100% of the projects are externally sponsored by industry and government partners. In order to prepare the projects for the fall 2019 semester, authors worked side-by-side with the sponsors to agree on deliverables and top-level requirements in the preceding summer. Satisfying the needs of the sponsor, for nearly all projects, requires a significant 'hands on' component in terms of fabrication and subsequent testing. In prior iterations of the capstone course sequence, teams were expected to interface with the sponsors frequently, but the pandemic made sponsor-to-student interaction more difficult. We had to think of creative ways in which the student teams can meet the expectations of the sponsors who provided financial support. With the assistance and approval of the department leadership, we adjusted the course learning outcomes to suit the “unforeseen design conditions” of the capstone projects and provided a real-life learning experience in project management to the 59 senior students enrolled in the class. Although the modality of instruction changed and the access to campus was prohibited after the campus closure, the student teams were remarkable in coordinating the teamwork virtually. Because the students have worked together in teams before pandemic and knew their teammates, the aspect of teamwork progressed smoothly during the crucial early days of online learning in March 2020. Via extensive planning and adjustments to the course content and delivery, we successfully completed the two-semester long capstone program which concluded with a virtual capstone day in May 2020. This paper provides details on how the capstone program adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic at Mason while maintaining a rich learning experience. We share our experiences from the 2020 spring semester, discuss how we continued to adjust and manage the capstone program for the current academic year (AY) 2020-21 with uncertainties and create a stimulating dialogue. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
A 2015 survey of 256 institutions from the US revealed that 70% of their capstone programs were funded by industry and government sponsors. This indicates the pervasiveness of capstone programs that partner with external sponsors to provide a “real-world” design experience to students. In this vein, the industry-sponsored Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ENGINE) capstone program was established at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at a large research university in the US. ENGINE is designed to provide a holistic and professional engineering experience to students in an educational setting, where student teams work on a six-month long project under the guidance of an industry and a faculty mentor. The program is overseen by a course instructor and teaching assistants who manage the course structure and expectations. This study compares student experiences in ENGINE during remote learning necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic to those in traditional, in-person learning. ENGINE students were surveyed in Spring 2018 and Spring 2020 to understand which components of the ENGINE program mattered most to student learning and how. Close-ended survey responses were analyzed using statistical methods and short answer questions were analyzed using qualitative methods in a sequential, mixed methods approach. Exploratory factor analysis of the Likert-scale items revealed that measures of instructional support and “real-world” experience contributed to student learning. No statistically significant differences in these measures between remote and traditional learning environments emerged. To address this lack of difference, a qualitative analysis was conducted to understand how the student capstone design experience changed during the pandemic. The qualitative analysis revealed that the lack of significant difference may be due to the fact that students rapidly adapted to the remote learning disruption. The results provide an insight into the various ways in which students acclimated to the crisis circumstances. These adaptations manifested in the form of product and process adaptations, in which students swiftly adjusted their final product or design process to respond to the evolving crisis. Students used various strategies such as changing team roles and ways of communication, using different tools and technology, and creative technical solutions to drive product and process adaptations. However, these adaptations may have come at the cost of students' mental health. By shedding light on student experience of the capstone during the pandemic, this study acknowledges the resilience students have displayed during a crisis, while recognizing that the cost of such resilience must not be neglected. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021