<p>There is a large variation in the quantity and quality of ethics that U.S. engineering students learn. Why is there so much room for improving the state of engineering ethics education in the United States? Recognizing the interplay between individual agency, structural factors, and historical contingency, this dissertation is a three-part approach to answering that question – I present three distinct, mutually informative threads for studying engineering ethics education from different angles. The first thread is an historical approach. The second thread is an empirical study of the mental models that faculty members have regarding engineering ethics education. The third thread applies theoretical constructs from political science and economics to analyze structural factors impinging on engineering ethics education.</p><p><br></p> <p>From the studies, first we see that trailblazers of engineering ethics developed the new knowledge required of this emerging field through interpersonal relationships; they leveraged existing organizations and built new institutional mechanisms for sharing knowledge and creating a community of scholars and an engineering ethics curriculum; they utilized resources from supportive colleagues and administrators to corporate, governmental, and nongovernmental funding that legitimated their work. Their efforts ultimately created pedagogical materials, prevalent ideas, publication outlets, meetings, and foundations that not only contributed to the current state of U.S. engineering ethics education but also the launching point for future generations to build upon and continue developing that state. Second, mapping the mental models of engineering ethics education among engineering faculty members provided a typology for analyzing the state of engineering ethics education and places where one can expect to find variation, deepening our understanding of the state of engineering ethics education. Third, outlining a theory of the political economy of engineering education highlighted factors that could be influencing curricular and pedagogical decisions in engineering departments. Furthermore, I supplemented the outlined theoretical phenomena with data from the mental models interviews in order to provide a proof of concept and relevant grounding for the phenomena.</p><p><br></p> <p>In sum, faculty members make decisions based on their mental models. Structural factors shape the broader environment and institutions in which those faculty members operate. Those structures and institutions change over time, leading to the current state of engineering ethics education. Having all three pieces has provided a more complete understanding of the state of U.S. engineering ethics education.</p><p><br></p> <p>Ultimately, my dissertation accomplishes multiple goals. First, I have provided additional evidence for understanding and explaining the qualitative and quantitative discrepancies of engineering ethics coverage in U.S. undergraduate engineering education at multiple levels of analysis. Second, I have amassed evidence that can inform future research efforts. Third, I have demonstrated the use of certain theories and methods infrequently employed in engineering education research. Finally, I have outlined potential new avenues for interdisciplinary research, especially at the nexus of political economy, education, engineering, and society. </p>

This dissertation explores how students’ beliefs and attitudes interact with their identities as physics people, motivated by calls to increase participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. This work combines several theoretical frameworks, including Identity theory, Future Time Perspective theory, and other personality traits to investigate associations between these factors. An enriched understanding of how these attitudinal factors are associated with each other extends prior models of identity and link theoretical frameworks used in psychological and educational research. The research uses a series of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including linear and logistic regression analysis, thematic interview analysis, and an innovative analytic technique adapted for use with student educational data for the first time: topological data analysis via the Mapper algorithm. Engineering students were surveyed in their introductory engineering courses. Several factors are found to be associated with physics identity, including student interest in particular engineering majors. The distributions of student scores on these affective constructs are simultaneously represented in a map of beliefs, from which the existence of a large “normative group” of students (according to their beliefs) is identified, defined by the data as a large concentration of similarly minded students. Significant differences exist in the demographic representation of this normative group compared to other students, which has implications for recruitment efforts that seek to increase diversity in STEM fields. Select students from both the normative group and outside the normative group were selected for subsequent interviews investigating their associations between physics and engineering, and how their physics identities evolve during their engineering careers. Further analyses suggest a more complex model of physics and engineering identity which is not necessarily uniform for all engineering students, including discipline-specific differences that should be further investigated. Further, the use of physics identity as a model to describe engineering student choices may be limited in applicability to early college. Interview analysis shows that physics recognition beliefs become contextualized in engineering as students begin to view physics as an increasingly distinct domain from engineering.

abstract: Engineering education can provide students with the tools to address complex, multidisciplinary grand challenge problems in sustainable and global contexts. However, engineering education faces several challenges, including low diversity percentages, high attrition rates, and the need to better engage and prepare students for the role of a modern engineer. These challenges can be addressed by integrating sustainability grand challenges into engineering curriculum. Two main strategies have emerged for integrating sustainability grand challenges. In the stand-alone course method, engineering programs establish one or two distinct courses that address sustainability grand challenges in depth. In the module method, engineering programs integrate sustainability grand challenges throughout existing courses. Neither method has been assessed in the literature. This thesis aimed to develop sustainability modules, to create methods for evaluating the modules’ effectiveness on student cognitive and affective outcomes, to create methods for evaluating students’ cumulative sustainability knowledge, and to evaluate the stand-alone course method to integrate sustainability grand challenges into engineering curricula via active and experiential learning. The Sustainable Metrics Module for teaching sustainability concepts and engaging and motivating diverse sets of students revealed that the activity portion of the module had the greatest impact on learning outcome retention. The Game Design Module addressed methods for assessing student mastery of course content with student-developed games indicated that using board game design improved student performance and increased student satisfaction. Evaluation of senior design capstone projects via novel comprehensive rubric to assess sustainability learned over students’ curriculum revealed that students’ performance is primarily driven by their instructor’s expectations. The rubric provided a universal tool for assessing students’ sustainability knowledge and could also be applied to sustainability-focused projects. With this in mind, engineering educators should pursue modules that connect sustainability grand challenges to engineering concepts, because student performance improves and students report higher satisfaction. Instructors should utilize pedagogies that engage diverse students and impact concept retention, such as active and experiential learning. When evaluating the impact of sustainability in the curriculum, innovative assessment methods should be employed to understand student mastery and application of course concepts and the impacts that topics and experiences have on student satisfaction. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Engineering 2015

<div>This research addresses the need to advance systems engineering education, by assessing current undergraduate systems engineering programs in the US relative to the needs of the industry. </div><div><br></div><div>We extracted over 300 expressions relevant to the systems engineer’s duties from six sources. We chose sources that address the variety in how people define “systems engineering”, the evolving nature of the field, its practical aspect and the lessons learned through experience. We used these expressions to write 35 needed learning outcomes that should be taught to systems engineering students. The outcomes fall under six broad categories relating to requirements management, solution selection and implementation, system architecture and modeling, system performance evaluation, V&V activities and project management. We then looked at what existing undergraduate systems engineering programs are teaching and extracted each program’s current learning outcomes. We compared each program’s current outcomes to the industry-based needed outcomes to determine whether students are being taught what they need to know. </div><div><br></div><div>We learned that the duties of systems engineers are not uniquely defined and prioritized by the six sources, and that academic programs do not all teach the same outcomes. We found that all</div><div>current undergraduate systems engineering programs in the US are preparing students to meet at least some of the needs of the industry, such as to “Identify stakeholder needs”, “Develop highlevel system architecture” and “Estimate cost”, but that most programs do not teach students how to “Select optimal concept” or how to “Analyze system resilience”. </div><div><br></div><div>This work motivates the need to investigate potential gaps in systems engineering education and to determine how well we are preparing students to meet the needs of the industry.</div>

Spatial ability represents our ability to mentally arrange, rotate, and explore objects in multiple dimensions. This ability has been found to be important for engineers and engineering students. Past research has shown that many interventions can be created to boost an individual’s spatial ability. In fact, past research has indicated that engineering students significantly increase in spatial ability without an intervention while they are enrolled in certain engineering courses. Some researchers have claimed that the spatial ability boosts are permanent after an intervention. However, most researchers do not check the validity of that claim with continued assessment after more than a week past the end of an intervention. Additionally, if engineering education researchers are trying to measure the impact of their separate spatial ability intervention while the participating engineering students are actively enrolled in engineering courses, a confounding variable is introduced as the courses can impact students’ spatial ability. To resolve this, the work presented in this paper reflects research on engineering students’ spatial ability maintenance during the winter break between semesters. It was found that newer students exhibit spatial ability improvement during the break, while older students maintain their spatial ability at the same level. A deeper statistical analysis revealed that there are other factors that play a role in spatial ability changes over the break that are more significant than how far students had progressed in their studies. Those factors include with academic performance, the sex of the students, playing music during the break, and prior life experiences.

This research shows that the expansion of cooperative education programs and university-industry partnerships can help to address some of the problems that engineering education in Armenia is facing today. These problems include lack of connections between universities and industry, outdated curricula, shortages of funding for university staff and facilities, and limited success in helping students qualify for job-related demands of the global economy. In order to identify requirements for developing effective cooperative education programs in Armenia, this study analyzes the characteristics and features of highly successful cooperative education programs in the United States that might be applicable to the requirements of Armenian engineering education programs. The lessons learned from international best practices of cooperative education in this research, provide guidelines that can be used to expand cooperative education programs in Armenian engineering education.

In order for the United States to regain its global standing in science and engineering, educational and governmental organizations have started to re-emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math content in k-12 classrooms.While some preliminary research has been conducted on student and teacher perceptions related to engineering, there has been little research conducted related to teachers beliefs about the importance of engineering content in their classrooms and relatively few studies have investigated elementary teachers teaching engineering self-efficacy. Current studies have investigated the impact of professional development on teachers teaching engineering self-efficacy but these studies were conducted with limited sample sizes, for relatively short professional development timeframes, with a restricted sample and these studies did not include the implementation component of professional development. Research is needed to not only determine elementary teachers beliefs about the importance of engineering content in their classrooms, but to also investigate if these teachers levels of confidence (teaching engineering self-efficacy) can be increased by exposure to STEM-related professional development and the implementation of engineering activities in their classrooms. The research question in this study was to determine if scored responses from a pre-survey taken by teachers participating in an engineering-related professional development would differ from scored responses on two subsequent post-surveys following the professional development and following implementation on the teachers beliefs about the importance of teaching engineering content at the elementary level and the teachers confidence in the ability to teach engineering concepts at the elementary school level.While the teachers in this study generally had positive beliefs about the importance of teaching engineering at the elementary level, an investigation of the individual nine beliefs items from the survey indicated that they are less likely to consider engineering part of the basics and that it should be taught more frequently. One of the major conclusions from this study was that teachers teaching engineering self-efficacy can be significantly strengthened through participation in a week-long professional development series. Furthermore, while not statistically significant, the implementation of these activities into their classroom can also help improve teachers confidence in their ability to teach engineering-related activities.

In-person engineering instruction relies on the availability of equipment and space. Cost, safety, and scheduling may pose barriers to conducting in-person labs. Virtual experiments may be used to enhance the student experience by, for example, incorporating pre-labs for in-person experiments and providing access to equipment that cannot be safely used in-person. Virtual learning is used in many fields, but there remain questions as to how it should be employed in engineering, an area largely reliant on in-person lab and classroom setups. Earlier studies reviewed the advantages of virtual labs such as demonstrating hard-to-observe phenomena and allowing unlimited trials. This project attempts to leverage these strengths by developing experiments on three virtual platforms: LabVIEW, MATLAB, and Unity. The first version of the Jet Engine Virtual Laboratory is developed in LabVIEW and implemented in UCF's Measurements 1 course during Summer 2020. Student feedback is sought using a survey that suggests positive reception and informs the creation of a MATLAB version of the Jet Engine Virtual Laboratory which is being implemented in Fall 2020. A Unity version of this experiment is in production. This project is expected to fuel the development of more virtual experiments that enhance engineering education at UCF and beyond.

<p>The act of engineering is synonymous with design. It is a skill that is inherently understood by experienced engineers, but also one of the most difficult topics to teach. For many years, Engineering Design and Graphics has been a required first year course for all engineering students at McMaster University. The course has taught hand-sketching, 3D solid modeling, system simulation, 3D rapid prototyping, and culminated in a design project in gear train design that requires a combination of the core course topics. Students chose their own three-member teams, and lab sections were randomly assigned one of three modalities for completion of the design project: Simulation (SIM) where they produced and verified a design using a simulation tool, Prototyping (PRT) where they used a 3D printer to create a working plastic model of a design, or Simulation and Prototyping (S+P) where they used both tools to complete a design.</p> <p>The design process used in the project represents Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (through Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, and Active Experimentation) as well as Bloom's Taxonomy providing opportunities for Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor skill development.</p> <p>This study examines student self-efficacy and performance outcomes between design project modalities that include simulation and 3D printing. It is hypothesized that students who complete a design project using the Simulation and Prototyping (S+P) modality will show the highest scores in both categories.</p> <p>To measure self-efficacy, a new scale for Engineering Design Self-Efficacy was developed and validated. The project groups were surveyed before and after the completion of the design project. Data collected as part of the study included project individual, project group, and project total grades as well as final course grades. Statistical analysis for survey and performance data was completed using ANOVA to test for differences between the modalities.</p> <p>Results indicated an overall increase in self-efficacy from the start of term to the end of term for all design project modalities. Performance scores for project group and project total grade were highest for students in the Simulation (SIM) modality. There were no significant differences between the modalities for self-efficacy, project individual grade, final exam or final course grade.</p> <p>Based on the findings, engineering course designers with the goal of increasing self-efficacy, professional engagement, and performance should consider supplementing courses with experiential learning exercises such as simulation and prototyping. This study will be relevant for engineering course designers and instructors looking to add simulation or rapid prototyping to first-year engineering design courses.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Many researchers in engineering education have studied the engineering curriculum, employability, industrial training, generic skills and gender issues. From a wide spectrum of study, there is a gap around issues of interpersonal skills and enterprise skills in engineering education that has not been studied. Previous study has shown that there is unemployment amongst graduate engineers in Malaysia. This study aimed to assess whether the suggested lack of interpersonal and enterprise skills competencies cause unemployment amongst engineering graduates in Malaysia. This study also intended to appraise whether engineering undergraduates have received a quality work placement appropriate to their learning, knowledge and employability skills and also to create awareness about interpersonal and enterprise skills competencies amongst engineering undergraduates, higher education educators and employers in Malaysia. This study intended to create awareness about the importance of interpersonal and enterprise skills amongst engineers. A mixed method of questionnaire survey and interview was used to access data from final year engineering students and employers in Malaysia. Results from the study have provided evidence that interpersonal and enterprise skills are not a major contributor to unemployment of engineering graduates in Malaysia. This study has created new awareness of the subject that will allow the enhancement of the engineering education curriculum. This study has demonstrated that when interviewing companies for the purposes of research into curriculum it is necessary to have full awareness of their culture and ways of working.