Virtual Mathematics Education during COVID-19: An Exploratory Study of Teaching Practices for Teachers in Simultaneous Virtual Classes

The current study has aimed to identify the status of teaching mathematics in simultaneous virtual classes, in the light of the Covid 19 pandemic, by uncovering the teaching practices in the fields of lesson planning, teaching the new mathematical knowledge, classroom management, and raising the level of interaction, and that of evaluation. The descriptive approach was used in this study, and a random sample, which consisted of 385 mathematics teachers in the Qassim Education Department, was chosen during the first semester of the academic year 2020/21. The questionnaire was the tool used to collect the data after confirming the validity and the reliability thereof. The results of the study showed that the status of teaching mathematics in simultaneous virtual classes in the light of the Covid 19 pandemic was at a high level (3.80/5), according to the respondents' point of view. The results were respectively as follows: planning "high" 3.87; teaching new mathematical knowledge high "3.81"; the evaluation at a high degree of 3.80; and class management, as well as raising the level of interaction at a high degree of 3.67. The results of the study have revealed that there is a discrepancy in some practices, a matter which requires the identification of the training needs of mathematics male and female teachers in the field of e-learning in virtual classes, such as diversifying the methods of receiving students' responses to activities (chatting - WhatsApp --... etc.); the use of electronic participatory learning strategies in building and organizing the work of cooperative learning groups, employing electronic communication applications in providing reinforcement and feedback to students, employing electronic sports activities in presenting the lesson, and by using virtual engineering tools, while solving mathematical problems.

Development of a toolkit for assessing digital competencies of engineering students

В настоящей работе представлены результаты теоретико-методологического анализа факторов, влияющих на формирование у студентов инженерных специальностей цифровых компетенций, интерпретируемых как группа компетенций, связанных с умением работать с информацией в цифровой среде, функциональным использованием методов и инструментов для управления процессами, проектами, продуктами цифровой трансформации, решением сложных профессиональных задач. Актуальность данного исследования определяется современной образовательной парадигмой, являющейся основой реформирования образования, моделью в постановке проблем и их решении. Вместе с этим, в условиях современных трендов, цифровые компетенции следует рассматривать и как базовые в подготовке конкурентноспособных специалистов в области инженерии. С учетом этого, вопрос оценки цифровых навыков и компетенций обучающихся является фундаментальным для современной системы инженерного образования и рассматривается в настоящей работе через анализ различных инициатив, выдвигаемых странами Европейского Союза в оценке цифровых компетенций, и практических подходов к их развитию в условиях виртуальной инженерной образовательной среды. На основании проведенных исследований в работе предложен список основных элементов для системы оценивания цифровых компетенций студентов, что имеет важное практическое значение для более широкого использования потенциала цифровых технологий в образовании и обучении. Для адаптации результатов проведенного в работе теоретико-методологического анализа к условиям казахстанского образования в работе проведен опрос экспертов, преподавателей вузов и колледжей, обучающихся по инженерным специальностям в южном, северном и центрально-казахстанском регионах. This paper presents the results of theoretical and methodological analysis of factors influencing the formation of engineering students' digital competencies interpreted as a group of competencies related to the ability to work with information in digital environment, functional use of methods and tools for managing processes, projects, digital transformation products, and solving complex professional tasks. The relevance of this study is determined by the modern educational paradigm, which is the basis for education reform, a model in problem-setting and problem-solving. At the same time, in the context of current trends, digital competencies should also be considered as basic competencies in training competitive engineering professionals. With this in mind, the issue of assessing digital skills and competencies of students is fundamental to the modern system of engineering education and is considered in this paper through the analysis of various initiatives by the European Union countries in assessing digital competencies, and practical approaches to their development in a virtual engineering educational environment. Based on the research, the paper proposes a list of basic elements for the system of evaluating digital competences of students, which has important practical implications for wider use of the potential of digital technologies in education and training. In order to adapt the results of theoretical and methodological analysis to the context of the Kazakhstan education, a survey of experts, teachers of universities and colleges, students of engineering specialties in the southern, northern and central regions of Kazakhstan, was conducted.

Virtual Engineering Using Realistic Virtual Models in Brownfield Factory Layout Planning

As more pressure is put on manufacturing companies to increase productivity and reduce waste as a means to remain competitive due to increased globalization and digitalization, many companies find themselves investing in their production systems, leading to changes in their existing factories and production systems. This process is usually performed with 2D CAD drawings and data of varying quality, leading to several challenges along the way. This longitudinal research follows up on eight years of industrial studies where researchers have applied 3D laser scanning and immersive virtual reality to improve the brownfield factory layout planning processes in real industrial scenarios, a novel approach in the research field. By interviewing key stakeholders at each company and analyzing the findings, challenges in data availability and accuracy of existing data, grasping scale and perspective, and challenges gathering input and communicating around planned changes are identified and shown to be substantially alleviated by the application of the technological tools and allowing more people to be part of the factory layout planning process. By using virtual engineering, industries can improve their brownfield factory layout planning process and take well-informed decisions leading to sustainability benefits via fewer costly mistakes, improved employee engagement, and less need for travel.

An Integrated Virtual Engineering Methodology to Evaluate Manufacturing Residual Stress in Cylinder Blocks through Casting and Quenching

Engine cylinder block cracking is a costly engine component failure that is often discovered late, either in the product verification phase by dynamometer testing or after product launch during vehicle operations. It is well established that the crack issues are related to the residual stress induced in the casting and heat treatment processes. To identify the quality risk in a short turn-around time and a cost-effective fashion, using computer simulations to evaluate the state of stress during casting and heat treat processes is the trend in automotive industry. In recent years, CAE methodologies have advanced significantly in both CFD and FEA to model the casting process, the quenching process, the residual stress, and the high cycle fatigue (HCF). However, calculating the final stress in the cylinder block requires several CAE software tools to work together as an integrated, streamlined engineering method and these CAE tools could be very different in meshing topologies, numerical methods, data structure, and post-processing capabilities. The intent of this research is to develop an integrated virtual engineering methodology combining casting simulation, computational fluid dynamics and finite element method to simulate the manufacturing process from the beginning of casting, through water quenching heat treatment, to engine dynamometer testing. The methodology involves three CAE tools, MAGMASOFT®, AVL FIRETM/FIRETM-M and ABAQUS, and considerable amounts of research and development work are concentrated on the validation of each individual numerical method and tools for data exchange between the software tools.

An Approach for the Transfer of Real Surfaces in Finite Element Simulations

Virtual simulations are a relevant element in product engineering processes and facilitate engineers to test different concepts during early phases of the development. However, in tribological product engineering, simulations are hardly used because input data such as material behavior are often missing. Besides the material behavior, the surface roughness of the contacting elements is relevant for tribological systems. To expand the capabilities of the virtual engineering of tribological components such as bearings or brakes, the hereby presented approach allows for the depiction of real rough surfaces in finite element simulations. Rough surfaces are scanned by a white-light interferometer (WLI) and further processed by removing the outliers and replacing non-measured samples. Next, a spline generation creates a solid body, which is imported to CAD software and afterwards meshed with triangle and quadrilateral elements in different sizes. The results comprise the evaluation of six differently manufactured (turned, coated, and pressed) real surfaces. The surfaces are compared by the deviations of the roughness values after measuring with the WLI and after meshing them. Furthermore, the elements’ aspect ratios and skewness describe the mesh quality. The results show that the transfer is dependent upon deep cliffs and large Sz values in comparison to the lateral expansion.

UNDERSTANDING MENTOR NEEDS IN ONLINE ENGINEERING OUTREACH

Mentoring in engineering outreach is being adopted more and more by university programs that aim toincrease diversity in their school. It is fair to say that mentoring can be a useful tool to do this, but not always.Mentor training can help improve program outcomes (attendance, engagement, retention). In this study, we look at one case of a virtual engineering outreach program, find the challenges, and make recommendations for mentor training modules that could address challenges. In doing so, we believe that this sets a foundation for building training for many mentor-based virtual outreach programs in engineering.

Retrofitting Agricultural Self-Propelled Machines with Roll-Over and Tip-Over Protective Structures

In the agricultural sector, the loss of stability related to the use of self-propelled agricultural machinery (SPAM) has caused and continues to cause accidents, often with fatal outcomes. The probability of occurrence of this risk can be reduced by acting on various aspects, but above all the presence of a protective structure is necessary. Depending on the machine, the protective structure can be a roll-over protective structure (ROPS), or a tip-over protective structure (TOPS). Hence, to reduce this gap, a reverse engineering approach and virtual engineering methods were applied starting from the analysis of harmonized standards actually in force, with the goal of providing both a reference procedure to be used in the risk assessment analysis of SPAM’s protective structures and technical information to manufacture and install protective structure on old agricultural machinery. Two representative case studies were used to validate the procedure by means of finite element method (FEM) analyses and computer aided design (CAD) prototyping. Results show that the proposed approach can represent a useful indication for the safety update of this type of machinery.