The gap between software engineering education and the software engineering industry is a prevalent factor for both the students and the companies recruiting them. The gap is specified as the lack of knowledge software engineering students obtain relative to what the industry requires. This gap increases the difficulty for the students whenmoving from education to industry. This thesis aims to provide insight for what role the capstone project played for the graduate students’ transition to industry by looking at it from a CDIO perspective. The subjects for this research were graduate students who now work in the software engineering industry and who realised their studies up to three years earlier. A total of 38 people took part in this research by answering a questionnaire. They provided their opinions on how they experienced their capstone project and how they now experience their work assignments. This research used metadata to categorically separate the respondents into groups to find outliers. The results show that 94% of the respondents got to perform three or more CDIO criteria in their capstone projects. The respondents also recognize that they are able to perform their industry assignments in terms of the CDIO criteria.

All engineering careers require some level of programming proficiency. However, beginning programming classes are challenging for many students. Difficulties have been well-documented and contribute to high drop-out rates which prevent students from pursuing engineering. While many approaches have been tried to improve the performance of students and reduce the dropout rate, continued work is needed. This research seeks to re-examine what items are critical for programming education and how those might inform what is taught in introductory programming classes (CS1). Following trends coming from accreditation and academic boards on the importance of professional skills, we desire to rank knowledge and professional skill areas in one list. While programming curricula focus almost exclusively on knowledge areas, integrating critical professional skill areas could provide students with a better high-level understanding of what engineering encompasses. Enhancing the current knowledge centric syllabi with critical professional skills should allow students to have better visibility into what an engineering job might be like at the earliest classes in the engineering degree. To define our list of important professional skills, we use a two-group, three-round Delphi survey to build consensus ranked lists of knowledge and professional skill areas from industry and academic experts. Performing a gap analysis between the expert groups shows that industry experts focus more on professional skills then their academic counterparts. We use this resulting list to recommend ways to further integrate professional skills into engineering programming curriculum.

A multitude of data is being produced from the increase in instructional technology, e-learning resources, and online courses. This data could be used by educators to analyze and extract useful information which could be beneficial to both instructors and students. Educational Data Mining (EDM) extracts hidden information from data contained within the educational domain. In data mining, hybrid method is the combination of various machine learning techniques. Through this dissertation, the novel use of machine learning hybrid techniques was explored in EDM using three educational case studies. First, in consideration for the importance of students’ attention, on and off-task data to analyze the attention behavior of the students were collected. Two feature selection techniques, Principal Component Analysis and Linear Discriminant Analysis, were combined to improve the classification accuracies for classifying the students’ attention patterns. The relationship between attention and learning was also studied by calculating Pearson’s correlation coefficient and p-value. Our examination was then shifted towards academic performance as it is important to ensuring a quality education. Two different 2D- Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models were concatenated and produced a single model to predict students’ academic performance in terms of pass and fail. Lastly, the importance of using machine learning in online learning to maintain academic integrity was considered. In this work, primarily a traditional machine learning algorithms were used to predict the cheaters in an online examination. 1D CNN architecture was then used to extract the features from our cheater dataset and the previously used machine learning model was applied on extracted features to detect the cheaters. Such type of hybrid model outperformed the original traditional machine learning model and CNN model when used alone in terms of classification accuracy. The three studies reflect the use of machine learning application in EDM. Classification accuracy is important in EDM because different educational decisions are made based on the results of our model. So, to increase the accuracies, a hybrid method was employed. Thus, through this dissertation it was successfully shown that hybrid models can be used in EDM to improve the classification accuracies.

The objective of this project is to examine the differences between Moroccan and American students with regards to the cultural influences that led them to pursue an engineering degree. Annually since 2015, a partnership between a university in Morocco and MSU allows senior engineering Moroccan students to study at MSU to obtain their graduate degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering. The roughly equal gender representation in most Moroccan cohorts prompted our research question: “How do students from Morocco and the United States describe the cultural reasons that factored into their choice to pursue an engineering degree?” This exploratory qualitative study is guided by the combined frameworks of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension (HCD) and Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT). The influence of expectancy, family/social structure, and value are evaluated using EVT and cultural factors are evaluated through HCD. We conducted two phases of semi-structured interviews with senior and graduate Moroccan and American students. This study resulted in the modification of the EVT model to include the three constructs of Collectivism, Religion, and Power Distance Index. It also revealed how EVT’s task values manifest differently across cultures. Results indicate that cultural differences manifest primarily through the “Collectivist” mentality among Moroccans, explaining the gender participation difference between Moroccan and American engineering students.

The need for engineers in the workforce continues to grow. Filling this need requires recruiting future engineers to colleges and universities and retaining them through to degree completion. However, this is easier said than done. Universities are tasked with attempting to keep up with the demand for new engineers and companies are searching for new engineers to recruit. One avenue that has been established in the attempt to reach students for engineering is offering engineering or STEM classes in K-12 schools. This dissertation looked at engineering classes offered at the high school level. These courses were analyzed for relationships with the steps in producing new engineers – recruitment and persistence. Historical data was used to study the effect of high school engineering courses on engineering recruitment. The availability of engineering courses in Mississippi high schools was analyzed against the percentage of graduates from those high schools entering the largest engineering school in the state. The influence of high school engineering participation on engineering discipline selection was also studied using a nationwide sample of current undergraduate engineering students. This same survey sample was used to study two factors related to engineering persistence – persistence attitudes and engineering self-efficacy. Analysis found significant relationships between high school engineering courses and engineering recruitment. Engineering availability correlated to a higher percentage of students entering engineering. Participation in these engineering courses was also significantly associated with choice in certain engineering disciplines. However, once students have chosen their path in engineering and entered their undergraduate journey, the high school courses do not impact persistence factors. No relationships were found between high school engineering participation and persistence attitudes or overall engineering self-efficacy.

This dissertation walks the balance between the western structures of academia and Indigenous ways of storytelling and knowing. Stories are how knowledge is shared and passed down in many Indigenous cultures. This study utilizes Indigenous Storywork methods, alongside western case study methodology, to explore how colonialism and the structures of public, non-Native higher education institutions and engineering programs impact the lived experiences of Indigenous STEM students. Using Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit), this study also connects individual student experiences through stories to systemic structures of universities and engineering programs in a way that honors and amplifies Indigenous ways of thinking and doing. The study was situated at a university in the eastern U.S. and had three primary forms of data: public documents such as university historical documents and program policies and structures, focus group discussions with a university Council of Elders from the Indigenous community, and individual interviews with Indigenous STEM students from the Lumbee and Coharie nations. The findings demonstrate the ways that the Indigenous STEM students at North Carolina State University hold community as a cultural value from their Tribal backgrounds that is paramount to their success at the university. The students utilize community to access knowledge and build power for themselves as well as for the whole university Indigenous community. NC State's Indigenous engineering students perceived the structures and policies of their engineering programs to be disconnected from community and relationality and thus did not utilize or connect to these structures as designed. This work also provides an example of a framework for engaging with university Indigenous communities to co-create meaningful and impactful research and demonstrates the differences in the experiences of Indigenous students in the eastern U.S. from those in the west, specifically in terms of their invisibility in the larger community, both on and off campus. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation walks the balance between the western structures of academia and Indigenous ways of storytelling and knowing. Stories are how knowledge is shared and passed down in many Indigenous cultures. This study centers Indigenous methodologies and theories to explore how colonialism and the structures of public, non-Native, higher education institutions and engineering programs impact the lived experiences of Indigenous STEM students. This study also connects individual student experiences to the systemic structures of universities and engineering programs. The study focuses on a university in the eastern U.S. and used three forms of data: public documents such university historical documents and current policies, a group discussion with a Council of Elders from the Indigenous community, and individual interviews with Indigenous STEM students. The students were members of the Lumbee and Coharie nations. The findings highlight the way they hold community as a cultural value deeply tied to their Tribal backgrounds. This community is key to their success at the university and used community to access knowledge and build power for themselves as well as for the whole university Indigenous community. In particular, the Indigenous engineering students perceived the structures and policies of their engineering programs to be disconnected from community and relationships, and thus they did not use or connect to those structures in the intended ways. Instead, they went outside the system to gain the knowledge the needed. This work also provides a framework, grounded in Indigenous value of respect, reciprocity, responsibility, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy, for engaging with university Indigenous communities to co-create meaningful and impactful research and demonstrates the differences in the experiences of Indigenous students in the eastern U.S. from those in the west, specifically in terms of their invisibility in the larger community, both on and off campus.

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Today, many introductory computer science courses rely heavily on a specific programming language to convey fundamental programming concepts. For beginning students, the cognitive capacity required to operate with the syntactic forms of this language may overwhelm their ability to formulate a solution to a program. We recognize that the introductory computer science courses can be more effective if they convey fundamental concepts without requiring the students to focus on the syntax of a programming language. To achieve this, we propose a new teaching method based on the Design Recipe and Code Outlining (DRaCO) processes. Our new pedagogy capitalizes on the algorithmic intuitions of novice students and provides a tool for students to externalize their intuitions using techniques they are already familiar with, rather than with the syntax of a specific programming language. We validate the effectiveness of our new pedagogy by integrating it into an existing CS1 course at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. We find that the our newly proposed pedagogy shows strong potential to improve students’ ability to program.

Cyber security education has evolved over the last decade to include new methods of teaching and technology to prepare students. Instructors in this field of study often deal with a subject matter that has rigid principles, but changing ways of applying those principles. This makes maintaining courses difficult. This case study explored the kind of teaching methods, technology, and means used to explain these concepts. This study shows that generally, cyber security courses require more time to keep up to date. It also evaluates one effort, the NxSecLab, on how it attempted to relieve the administrative issues in teaching these concepts. The proposed framework in this model looks at ways on how to ease the administrative burden in cyber security education by using a central engine to coordinate learning management with infrastructure-as-a-service resources.

This thesis involves the creation of a system of embedded touchscreen devices called touchSPICE to aid in the learning of basic circuits. Traditionally, circuit theory is taught to students in two different methods, lectures and laboratory exercises. Lectures focus on auditory and visual learning and are largely passive learning. Lab experiments allow students to physically interact with the circuits, and learn visually through viewing output waveforms from simulators or on measurement devices. The goal of the touchSPICE project is to develop a physical system for virtual, real-time SPICE simulation that mimics the laboratory experience. In touchSPICE, touchscreen devices act as circuit nodes that communicate with immediate neighbors using physical wires. Additionally, the nodes communicate wirelessly with a host computer, running a customized version of SPICE. Data is aggregated on the host computer and plotted in real-time. Changes in configuration of the nodes (component types and values), are then reflected on the host computer’s display. The efficacy of touchSPICE as a learning tool was evaluated by using anonymous surveys from 20 subjects including a pretest, followed by an interactive session with touchSPICE, and a follow-up posttest. Results collected showed that with a few changes to improve the responsiveness of the touchscreen, touchSPICE may be an effective method for teaching circuit theory. Additionally, users enjoyed the quick configuration time that touchSPICE provided, and felt that the real-time feedback of touchSPICE helped support understanding of how circuits operate.