Published Article / There have been numerous national- and international-level calls for the reform of engineering education. This includes the need for a shift to a knowledge economy - one that utilises knowledge as the key engine of competitive growth. However, despite several initiatives to address reform, relatively little has changed in the content and conduct of engineering education. It has been argued that engineering education has entered a period where changes are required, but that the management structures that are in place do not provide the needed support to encourage and facilitate these changes in order to promote innovation. The current study employed a multiple case study method to explore challenges faced by the deans of four engineering faculties in four non-adjacent countries and to explain the organisational structures and management processes employed to deal with these challenges in their unique contexts. The analysis identified four areas of challenges and innovative structures and management practices that can be transferred and implemented in other contexts.

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It has been said that engineers create that which never was. The university experience is a key component in preparing engineers who support the creation of products and systems that improve the world we live in. The way in which engineers have been trained in universities has changed throughout history in America, moving from an apprentice-like approach to the still-used engineer scientist. Some in industry and academia feel that this model of engineer preparation needs to change in order to better address the complexities of engineering in the 21st century, and help fill a perceived gap between academic preparation and 21st century industrial necessity. A new model for student preparation centering on engineering design called the Live Simulation Based Learning (LSBL) approach is proposed based upon the theories of situated learning, game-based learning, epistemic frames, and accidental competencies. This dissertation discusses the results of a study of the application of LSBL in a two term capstone design class in aerospace engineering aircraft design at Virginia Tech. It includes LSBL's impact on student professional and technical skills in relation to aerospace engineering design practice. Results indicate that the participants found the LSBL experience to be more engaging than the traditional lecture approach and does help students respond and think more like aerospace engineering practicing professionals and thus begin to address the "gap" between academia and industry. / Ph. D.

This report is an exploration of using aquaponics as a means to create a senior capstone design project in a K-12 setting. The relevant world issues related to food production and resource scarcity, as well as the need to integrate STEM subjects in a more interconnected way, justify this project as robust in a high school setting. The report gives details on the design and construction of a backyard aquaponic system, along with a discussion of the performance of this actual system. This experience informs the design of a curriculum for a high school engineering classroom which is presented in outline form. / text

Faculty of Humanities School of Education 8802108f / Phenomenography is an area of research which focuses on identifying and describing the qualitatively different ways in which people understand phenomena in the world around them. In this research, a group of first-year chemical engineering students at the University of the Witwatersrand were interviewed in order to explore their perceptions of certain aspects of the learning context of their compulsory engineering course, Introduction to Process and Materials Engineering. The findings comprise descriptions of their different perceptions concerning the organization, content, teaching and assessment practices in the course as well as their perceptions of certain aspects of constructivism on which the course is based. Students’ perceptions which influence their approach to learning are categorized according to whether or not they encourage a deep approach to learning. Finally, the implications of these findings for future course development are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to compare student motivation between two junior high level computational thinking based STEM curricular activities. These two activities were a newly developed quadcopter based curriculum and a VEX based curricular activity developed for Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology – Automation and Robotics course. Student motivation was assessed using an assessment called My Class Activities which broke motivation into four constructs: interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment. This study assessed students in three schools in a northern Utah school district. Students were assessed after receiving each curriculum. Assessment responses were then coded and analyzed. The results of this study suggested that though the junior high VEX curriculum was more challenging and offered students more choice than the quadcopter curriculum, the teacher delivering the curriculum had more to do with student motivation.

This study deals with the factors which were responsible for the origin of personnel functions in a selected group of industrial organizations in the State of Utah. Although material is available concerning the factors which affected the establishment of personnel functions in the United States in general, there is little information regarding these factors in any one region. For this reason, an area study should be of value. The purpose of this survey was to study the personnel departments in some of the more highly developed industrial organizations of the state of Utah and determine: (1) the factors responsible for the establishment of personnel functions; (2) when these functions were introduced; and (3) what general conclusions could be drawn regarding the factors affecting the origin of personnel functions in the State of Utah on the basis of this survey and background material. The factors affecting the establishment of personnel functions in a particular region need to be carefully considered because industries tend to cluster within a certain region. If data are available as to what factors affect personnel practices within that particular area, then efforts can be made to encourage and direct the initiation and expansion of the activities which are more important to industries needing these services.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the differences of using problem decomposition and problem recomposition among dyads of engineering experts, dyads of engineering seniors, and dyads of engineering freshmen. Fifty participants took part in this study. Ten were engineering design experts, 20 were engineering seniors, and 20 were engineering freshmen. Participants worked in dyads to complete an engineering design challenge within an hour. The entire design process was video and audio recorded. After the design session, members participated in a group interview. This study used protocol analysis as the methodology. Video and audio data were transcribed, segmented, and coded. Two coding systems including the FBS ontology and “levels of the problem” were used in this study. A series of statistical techniques were used to analyze data. Interview data and participants’ design sketches also worked as supplemental data to help answer the research questions. By analyzing the quantitative and qualitative data, it was found that students used less problem decomposition and problem recomposoition than engineer experts in engineering design. This result implies that engineering education should place more importance on teaching problem decomposition and problem recomposition. Students were found to spend less cognitive effort when considering the problem as a whole and interactions between subsystems than engineer experts. In addition, students were also found to spend more cognitive effort when considering details of subsystems. These results showed that students tended to use dept-first decomposition and experts tended to use breadth-first decomposition in engineering design. The use of Function (F), Behavior (B), and Structure (S) among engineering experts, engineering seniors, and engineering freshmen was compared on three levels. Level 1 represents designers consider the problem as an integral whole, Level 2 represents designers consider interactions between subsystems, and Level 3 represents designers consider details of subsystems. The results showed that students used more S on Level 1 and 3 but they used less F on Level 1 than engineering experts. The results imply that engineering curriculum should improve the teaching of problem definition in engineering design because students need to understand the problem before solving it.