Research in the Time of COVID: Virtual Fellowships at the Linda Hall Library.

When COVID-19 prevented scholars from traveling to libraries, archives, and museums, staff at those institutions devised creative strategies for providing remote access to their holdings. This article examines one such initiative launched by the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology in Kansas City, Missouri. The Library's prioritization of print over archival materials, experience fulfilling document delivery requests, and investments in digitization infrastructure facilitated the transition to a completely virtual fellowship program during the 2021-22 academic year. Although virtual fellowships could not replicate every aspect of in-person residencies, they nonetheless supplied scholars with much-needed funding, research materials, and membership in a scholarly community. Based on the program's initial success, the Library plans to continue offering virtual fellowships to scholars otherwise unable to conduct research on site.

Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology.

Increasing the diversity of students choosing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is an area of intense focus across the USA, especially in kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12)-focused pipeline programs in medical schools. A diverse STEM workforce contributes to better problem-solving and equity in health care. Two of the many major barriers for rural students are the lack of sufficient STEM role models and limited access to technology in the classroom. Medical schools often serve as an important resource for students in the local community who can easily gain access to STEM professionals and modern technology through on-campus, sponsored events and STEM outreach to the local classrooms. However, underrepresented minority (URM) students often live in socioeconomically distressed parts of rural states such as Arkansas, where access to STEM role models and technology is limited. Virtual learning in the COVID-19 era has proven that the imaging technology resources of a medical school can be harnessed to reach a wider audience, especially students living in rural areas far from the medical school campus.

Flipped teaching transition to online teaching by STEM educators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 necessitated online teaching (OT) during the second half of the spring 2020 semester. The perceptions of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) faculty of OT at a two-year (2-YI) and a four-year (4-YI) institution were examined during this sudden switchover. One group of educators had received flipped teaching (FT) training (FTEs, n = 23), whereas the other group was practicing traditional teaching (TTEs, n = 18). There were two cohorts of FTEs: cohort 1 were implementing FT for the third time in their classrooms, and cohort 2 had started for the first time. The survey results suggested that FTEs were more confident with OT than TTEs (P < 0.05). It was interesting to note that 62.5% of the FTEs, whether they were from cohort 1 or cohort 2, chose an asynchronous approach, whereas 37.5% delivered synchronous OT during the sudden transition. It was found that FT experience helped cohort 1 adjust to OT compared with cohort 2. Overall, these results suggest that FTEs were confident and their resources for FT eased the transition to OT.NEW & NOTEWORTHY COVID-19 necessitated online teaching (OT). The perceptions of STEM faculty of OT at two-year and four-year institutions were examined. One group had received flipped teaching (FT) training (FTEs), whereas the others practiced traditional teaching (TTEs). Among two cohorts of FTEs, cohort 1 had been practicing FT but not cohort 2. FTEs were more confident with OT than TTEs. FT experience helped cohort 1 adjust to OT more than cohort 2. Overall, FT eased the transition to OT.

A Decade of GigaScience: Women in Science: Past, Present, and Future.

Over the last decade, women have made decisive advances in increasing equality in science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM), but they still do not rival that of men. Many mechanisms to reduce gender discrimination have been addressed; however, little to nothing has been done to tackle the differences in the amount of time women spend on responsibilities at home. This has never been more apparent than during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a decade of advances promoting women, the last two years have seen these advances halted, and the long-term implications for women in STEM will be substantial. Moving forward, career advancement and funding mechanisms need to be adjusted to not just help women catch up, but to become a permanent support mechanism for women in the workplace. The higher amount of responsibilities at home and lack of support for women is not reserved for times of international upheaval: it has just become more apparent.

Information and communication technologies in student learning in times of COVID-19 / Las tecnologías de información y comunicación en el aprendizaje del estudiante en tiempos de COVID-19

Las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (TIC) han sido herramientas vitales en la interacción humana de cara a la pandemia COVID-19, permitiendo la virtualidad de muchas actividades cotidianas que de otro modo configurarían un riesgo biológico inherente del contacto físico. Por ello, fue necesaria la adopción de TIC como elementos formadores no presenciales en la educación superior, permitiendo el desarrollo pedagógico y la interacción docente-estudiante desde los hogares. En esta investigación se buscó determinar la influencia de las TIC en el aprendizaje de 450 estudiantes universitarios del Perú, en el contexto de la pandemia COVID-19, En general, las TIC transmisivas obtuvieron mayores proporciones de accesibilidad (87%), usabilidad (81%) e influencia en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes (73%) en comparación a las interactivas (Figura 1), siendo las TIC activas las de menor percepción en las tres dimensiones. De acuerdo a los resultados obtenidos, se propone una relación positiva entre el aprendizaje del estudiante universitario y la adopción de herramientas TIC durante el período de pandemia COVID-19 (p=0,076). Los buscadores, las videconferencias, las páginas web, las plataformas académicas, los repositorios y los tutoriales multimedia, ejercen la mayor influencia positiva en el proceso educativo. No obstante, los estudiantes de las ciencias de la salud mostraron más aversión a establecer TIC en su aprendizaje, mientras que los alumnos de ingeniería mostraron mayor receptividad a su aplicación(AU)

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been vital tools in human interaction in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the virtuality of many daily activities that would otherwise configure an inherent biological risk of physical contact. For this reason, it was necessary to adopt ICT as non-face-to-face training elements in higher education, allowing pedagogical development and teacher-student interaction from home. This research sought to determine the influence of ICT on the learning of 450 Peruvian university students, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.In general, transmissive ICT obtained higher proportions of accessibility (87%), usability (81 %) and influence on student learning (73%) compared to interactive ones (Figure 1), with active ICT being the least perceived in all three dimensions. According to the results obtained, a positive relationship is proposed between university student learning and the adoption of ICT tools during the COVID-19 pandemic period (p = 0.076). Search engines, video conferences, web pages, academic platforms, repositories, and multimedia tutorials exert the greatest positive influence on the educational process. However, health science students showed more aversion to establishing ICT in their learning, while engineering students showed greater receptivity to its application(AU)

COVID-19 and gender inequity in science: Consistent harm over time.

Stay-at-home-orders, online learning, and work from home policies are some of the responses governments, universities, and other institutions adopted to slow the spread of COVID-19. However, research shows these measures have increased pre-existing gender disparities in the workplace. The working conditions for women during the pandemic worsened due to increased family care responsibilities and unequal distribution of domestic labor. In the academy, working from home has resulted in reduced research time and increased teaching and family care responsibilities, with a larger proportion of that burden falling to women. We investigate the persistence of gender inequity among academic scientists resulting from university COVID-19 responses over time. We draw on two surveys administered in May 2020 and May 2021 to university-based biologists, biochemists, and civil and environmental engineers, to analyze how the pandemic response has disproportionately impacted women in academia and the endurance of those inequities. Results show significantly greater negative impacts from the pandemic on women's research activities and work-life balance, compared to men. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results, and the need for the academy to better predict and adjust to the gender disparities its policies create.

Trends of research productivity across author gender and research fields: A multidisciplinary and multi-country observational study.

Bibliographic properties of more than 75 million scholarly articles, are examined and trends in overall research productivity are analysed as a function of research field (over the period of 1970-2020) and author gender (over the period of 2006-2020). Potential disruptive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are also investigated. Over the last decade (2010-2020), the annual number of publications have invariably increased every year with the largest relative increase in a single year happening in 2019 (more than 6% relative growth). But this momentum was interrupted in 2020. Trends show that Environmental Sciences and Engineering Environmental have been the fastest growing research fields. The disruption in patterns of scholarly publication due to the Covid-19 pandemic was unevenly distributed across fields, with Computer Science, Engineering and Social Science enduring the most notable declines. The overall trends of male and female productivity indicate that, in terms of absolute number of publications, the gender gap does not seem to be closing in any country. The trends in absolute gap between male and female authors is either parallel (e.g., Canada, Australia, England, USA) or widening (e.g., majority of countries, particularly Middle Eastern countries). In terms of the ratio of female to male productivity, however, the gap is narrowing almost invariably, though at markedly different rates across countries. While some countries are nearing a ratio of .7 and are well on track for a 0.9 female to male productivity ratio, our estimates show that certain countries (particularly across the Middle East) will not reach such targets within the next 100 years. Without interventional policies, a significant gap will continue to exist in such countries. The decrease or increase in research productivity during the first year of the pandemic, in contrast to trends established before 2020, was generally parallel for male and female authors. There has been no substantial gender difference in the disruption due to the pandemic. However, opposite trends were found in a few cases. It was observed that, in some countries (e.g., The Netherlands, The United States and Germany), male productivity has been more negatively affected by the pandemic. Overall, female research productivity seems to have been more resilient to the disruptive effect of Covid-19 pandemic, although the momentum of female researchers has been negatively affected in a comparable manner to that of males.

Preventing soft skill decay among early-career women in STEM during COVID-19: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention.

As the workforce shifts to being predominantly hybrid and remote, how can companies help employees-particularly early-career women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields-develop greater confidence in their soft skills, shown to improve organizational retention? We evaluate the effects of an online longitudinal intervention to develop soft skills among early-career women employees at a North American biotechnology company during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Controlling for baseline levels collected immediately prior to nationwide lockdowns, we find that a 6-month online intervention increased early-career women's assessments of their soft skills at work by an average of 9% (P < 0.001), compared with a decrease of about 3.5% for a matched control group (P < 0.05), resulting in an average treatment effect of nearly 13% on the treated group. Furthermore, we find evidence that the intervention led to an increase in manager-assessed performance for early-career women relative to employees not in the intervention, and that overall, increased self-assessments of soft skill competencies were associated with greater odds of retention. Results show how employee soft skill development was affected by the pandemic and provide insights for a feasible and cost-effective method to train and engage a hybrid or fully remote workforce.

Cloud of Things in Crowd Engineering: A Tile-Map-Based Method for Intelligent Monitoring of Outdoor Crowd Density.

Managing citizen and community safety is one of the most essential services that future cities will require. Crowd analysis and monitoring are also a high priority in the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario, especially because large-scale gatherings can significantly increase the risk of infection transmission. However, crowd tracking presents several complex technical challenges, including accurate people counting and privacy preservation. In this study, using a tile-map-based method, a new intelligent method is proposed which is integrated with the cloud of things and data analytics to provide intelligent monitoring of outdoor crowd density. The proposed system can detect and intelligently analyze the pattern of crowd activity to implement contingency plans, reducing accidents, ensuring public safety, and establishing a smart city. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed model in detecting crowd density status in real-time. It can effectively assist with crowd management tasks such as monitoring, guiding, and managing crowds to ensure safety. In addition, the proposed algorithm provides acceptable performance.

Intelligence Sensors and Sensing Spaces for Smart Home and Environment.

Practitioners in the domains of architecture, engineering, and construction have conducted considerable research on smart homes and smart environments [...].

Virtual Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy highlighted the opportunity to impact early STEMM students career knowledge through narrative.

Due to COVID-19 precautions, the Vanderbilt University summer biomedical undergraduate research program, the Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy (VSSA), rapidly transitioned from offering an in-person training program to a virtual seminar format. Our program typically supports undergraduate development through research and/or clinical experience, meeting with individuals pursuing postgraduate training, and providing career development advice. Evidence supports the idea that summer programs transform undergraduates by clarifying their interest in research and encouraging those who haven't previously considered graduate studies. We were interested in exploring whether a virtual, synchronous program would increase participants' scientific identity and clarify postgraduate career planning. Rather than create a virtual research exposure, our 5-week "Virtual VSSA" program aimed to simulate the casual connections that would naturally be made with post-undergraduate trainees during a traditional summer program. In seminars, presenters discussed 1) their academic journey, explaining their motivations, goals, and reasons for pursuing a career in science as well as 2) a professional story that illustrated their training. Seminars included Vanderbilt University and Medical School faculty, M.D., MD/Ph.D., as well as Ph.D. students from diverse scientific and personal backgrounds. In addition, weekly informational sessions provided an overview of the nature of each degree program along with admissions advice. Through pre-and post-program surveys, we found that students who registered for this experience already strongly identified with the STEMM community (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine). However, participation in the Virtual VSSA increased their sense of belonging. We also uncovered a gap in participants' understanding of postgraduate pathways prior to participation and found that our program significantly increased their self-reported understanding of postgraduate programs. It also increased their understanding of why someone would pursue a Ph.D. or Ph.D./MD versus M.D. These changes did not uniformly impact participants' planned career paths. Overall, by providing personal, tangible stories of M.D., MD/Ph.D., and Ph.D. training, the Virtual VSSA program offered seminars that positively impacted students' sense of belonging with and connection to the STEMM disciplines.

Factors predicting companies' crisis in the engineering industry from the point of view of financial analysis.

A key factor for business management is the assessment of the financial situation of companies. Nowadays, it is essential to monitor the liquidity crisis, which is closely linked to corporate crises. The aim of the paper is to analyse a selected sector of the economy from the perspective of the corporate crisis and to identify the factors of crisis. More than 2000 engineering companies in Slovakia were analysed during the period from 2015 to 2019 with the aim of analysing financial results, especially in the area of financial forecast for the future. In the analysis, statistical testing of the significance of relationships using the Spearman correlation coefficient, the significance of differences by the power of t-test, regression and clustering were used. A significant part of the paper is the analysis of selected indicators of the company's crisis-Altman's Z score and the IN05 index. The results indicate that engineering companies in Slovakia are achieving good results and their financial situation is improving within the years between 2015-2019. The results can also be used as a starting point for research concerning the impact of COVID-19 in this area. In the context of corporate crisis management, engineering companies behave in the same way but it is necessary to monitor individual factors that can detect a corporate crisis. Possible measures would thus lead to the stabilization of financial results and long-term sustainable positive prospects for companies in the future.

Impact of Education 4.0 among engineering students for learning English language.

Education 4.0 is considered a significant technology for teaching and learning. The present study aims to explore the impact and the importance of Education 4.0 for improving English language learning in the perception of students in India, especially Hyderabad City. Moreover, Education 4.0 has bloomed as an important need to move along with the fast-growing education system of the world. But, it is a fact that many Indian students have complications and difficulties in learning English due to many reasons. The traditional methods of teaching are one of those reasons. Students learn only through the conventional methods, and they may find it boring and not effective. The education and mode of teaching have changed a lot, and it has attained a newer form of using the technology. Moreover, in the current era, where work from home and online teaching has become a new normal throughout the world, the technology used for teaching is inseparable. Hence, the authors are motivated to study the impact of Education 4.0 on improving English learning from Hyderabad, India. The methodology of the study has applied quantitative research. The study has employed pre-tested, close-ended questionnaires and post-assessment to gather data from the respondents to understand students' performance in English language learning after implying Education 4.0. The five-point Likert scale has been used to analyse the collected data and to get mean values of responses. The total number of respondents is 145 students who pursue their engineering degrees in the select region. Among the collected data, most of them were from urban. The data obtained from the respondents proved that there is a direct correlation between the students' perception and implementation of Education 4.0 in learning the English language. This study indicated that the respondents upheld Education 4.0 to improve English language learning in Hyderabad, India.

Estimating the effect of timetabling decisions on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in medium-to-large engineering schools in Canada: an agent-based modelling study.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities transitioned to primarily online delivery, and it is important to understand what implications the transition back to in-person activities may have on spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the student population. The specific aim of our study was to provide insights into the effect of timetabling decisions on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in a population of undergraduate engineering students. METHODS: We developed an agent-based modelling simulation that used a Canadian first-year undergraduate engineering program with an enrolment of 180 students in 5 courses of 12.7 weeks in length. Each course involved 150 minutes of lectures and 110 minutes of tutorials or laboratories per week. We considered several online and in-person timetabling scenarios with different scheduling frequencies and section sizes, in combination with surveillance and testing interventions. The study was conducted from May 1 to Aug. 31, 2021. RESULTS: When timetabling interventions were applied, we found a reduction in the mean number of students who were infected and that a containment of widespread outbreaks could be achieved. Timetables with online lectures and small (1/6 class capacity) tutorial or laboratory sections reduced the mean number of students who were infected by 83% and reduced the risk of large outbreaks that occurred with in-person lectures. We also found that spread of SARS-CoV-2 was less sensitive to class size than to contact frequency when a biweekly timetable was implemented (i.e., alternating online and in-person sections on a biweekly basis). Including a contact-tracing policy and randomized testing to the timetabling interventions helped to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 further. Vaccination coverage had the largest effect on reducing the number of students who were infected. INTERPRETATION: Our modelling showed that by taking advantage of timetabling opportunities and applying appropriate interventions (contact tracing, randomized testing and vaccination), SARS-CoV-2 infections may be averted and disruptions (case isolations) reduced. However, given the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, transitions from online to in-person classes should proceed cautiously from small biweekly classes, for example, to manage risk.