scholarly journals TEACHING ETHICS TO UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING STUDENTS USING CASE STUDIES. A ROMANIAN PERSPECTIVE

Author(s):  
MARCELA FARCASIU
Author(s):  
Craig Merrett

Final year, undergraduate engineering students should be exposed to authentic practices that resemble industry to prepare the students for the field. Given that engineering involves design and implementation, final courses should expose students to both through authentic assessments. Case studies, design and build projects, and open-ended final exams were implemented in three, fourth-year cornerstone engineering courses in mechanical, and sustainable and renewable energy engineering. The effects of these changes differed between case study based projects and build projects. Case study based projects resulted in higher project performance and better exam performance than build projects. The improved performance is indicative of better knowledge transfer and a result of increased opportunities for discussion and collaboration between students. These results are consistent with the Ashford-Rowe model for authentic assessments; however, students were divided on the benefits of the authentic assessments. Students were more resistant to the build projects, as reported through the teaching evaluations, because of the increased work load and scheduling required for build projects. This study recommends that cornerstone courses implement case study or paper design projects and open-ended, case study-based final exams to achieve authentic assessments. The use of build design projects for cornerstone courses is not recommended.


Author(s):  
Max Ullrich ◽  
David S. Strong

How undergraduate engineering students define their success and plan for their future differs notably amongst students. With a push for greater diversity and inclusion in engineering schools, it is valuable to also better understand the differences in these areas among different students to allow institutions to better serve the needs of these diverse groups.  The purpose of this research study is to explore students’ definition of success both in the present and projecting forward 5 to 10 years, as well as to understand to what level students reflect on, and plan for, the future. The proposed survey instrument for the pilot stage of this research includes 56 closed-ended questions and 3 open-ended questions. Evidence for the validity of the research instrument is established through a mixed-method pilot study. This paper will discuss the survey instrument, the pilot study, and outline plans for the full study.


Author(s):  
Rod D. Roscoe ◽  
Samuel T. Arnold ◽  
Chelsea K. Johnson

The success of engineering and design is facilitated by a working understanding of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In this study, we explored how undergraduate engineering students included such human-centered and psychological concepts in their project documentation. Although, we observed a range of concepts related to design processes, teams, cognition, and motivation, these concepts appeared infrequently and superficially. We discuss how this analysis and approach may help to identify topics that could be leveraged for future human-centered engineering instruction.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Aizpun ◽  
Diego Sandino ◽  
Inaki Merideno

<p>In addition to the engineering knowledge base that has been traditionally taught, today’s undergraduate engineering students need to be given the opportunity to practice a set of skills that will be demanded to them by future employers, namely: creativity, teamwork, problem solving, leadership and the ability to generate innovative ideas. In order to achieve this and educate engineers with both in-depth technical knowledge and professional skills, universities must carry out their own innovating and find suitable approaches that serve their students. This article presents a novel approach that involves university-industry collaboration. It is based on creating a student community for a particular company, allowing students to deal with real industry projects and apply what they are learning in the classroom. A sample project for the German sports brand adidas is presented, along with the project results and evaluation by students and teachers. The university-industry collaborative approach is shown to be beneficial for both students and industry.</p>


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