Thesis. 1978. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 302-315. / Ph.D.

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Faculty of Engineering. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-141)

A theoretical argument is presented to suggest that engineering curriculum be designed to develop social capital. Additionally, the value of social capital in the retention of students in the College of Engineering, and the development, role, and value of social capital in an electrical engineering laboratory is evaluated. Data collected includes participant observations, informal and formal student interviews, and a researcher-designed survey. Social capital consists of interaction among individuals (networks), social rules that encourage interactions such as trust and reciprocity (norms), and the value of these networks and norms to the individual and the group. A large body of evidence suggests that social capital is valuable in terms of retention and multiple measures of academic achievement. The importance of social capital in retention was verified by students that have left engineering and those that remain, in terms of interactions with peers, teaching assistants, and engineering faculty; and a lack of sense of community in freshman engineering courses. Students that have left engineering differed in their perceptions of social capital from those that remain in their frustrations with teaching methods that encourage little discussion or opportunities to ask questions about assumptions or approaches. The open-ended nature of laboratory assignments, extensive required troubleshooting, and lack of specific directions from the teaching assistants were found to encourage the development of social capital in the laboratory setting. Degree centrality, a network measure of social capital as the number of ties an individual has within a social network, was found to be positively correlated with laboratory grade. Student perceptions of the importance of interactions with other students on success in the laboratory setting has a negative model effect on academic achievement in the laboratory. In contrast, student perceptions of the quality of interactions with teaching assistants has a positive effect on measures of academic achievement. The results suggest that social capital is more important to some students than others in terms of retention and academic achievement. Recommendations are made to identify students requiring social capital to be successful, and to provide opportunities for these students to develop social capital. / Graduation date: 2005

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Engineering educators the world over are being faced with the dilemma of combining traditional mathematically intensive courses, like Control Systems and Robotics with advances in computational hardware and software. This is because it is impractical to include both software engineering issues as well as conventional course content. A solution to the problem lies in Rapid Prototyping technology to develop and design software, for application on PC's and embedded systems. Rapid Prototyping, based on automatic code generation, allows users to develop advanced software on high level graphical platforms like Simulink® and LabView®, while " hiding" the underlying layers of complex code. This approach allows the advanced hardware, traditionally reserved for software engineers, to be accessed by a much wider audience and is an ideal educational tool. This thesis presents the complete development of the Rapid Application Development Environment (RADE). The RADE system customises the Mathworks Real Time Workshop (RTW) revision 11 for application on both standalone and networked DS? cards. The functionality of the RTW is incorporated into the RADE system. This affords the user seamless code generation, downloading, on-line parameter tuning and on-line data visualisation with storage capability. An added advantage of the RADE system is its easy portability to multiple target platforms, which is demonstrated by its implementation on two different DSP cards. Finally the functionality of the RADE system is demonstrated as an educational tool, with the demonstration of a DC motor speed and position controller. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

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Thesis (MTech (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005 / The purpose of this research was to investigate service-learning opportunities and possible collaboration between higher education students and lecturers located in the department of the Built Environment and the school community in a project that involved the building of a school hall. The school halls are generally needed as they accommodate a wide range of school and community activities and serve as bridges that link the school and the wider public. The study also attempted to develop a framework to guide the implementation of service-learning projects in third-year courses of the National Diploma: Building which include quantity surveying, construction technology and construction management. The study made use of literature that describes the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education in general and the expected role of higher education in socio-economic development of the South African communities in particular. Literature on the need for increased participation, collaboration, partnership formation and development of service-learning programmes in order to address the socio-economic and educational developmental needs of both communities and students was also consulted. Reference was also made to literature on building projects and the building process. The researcher used qualitative approaches and data production methods to get information from the school teachers, learners, students and lecturers through interviews in order to establish if the participants were willing to work together in the school building project and how they thought the school and the higher education institution could benefit from such collaboration. An observation schedule and photographs were also used to gather information relating to the process of building a school hall.