The attitude of civil engineering students towards health and safety risk management: a case study

The highest rate of accidents and injuries in British industries has been reported by the construction industry during the past decade. Since then stakeholders have recognised that a possible solution would be to inculcate a good attitude towards health and safety risk management in undergraduate civil engineering students and construction professionals. Consequently, the four accreditation bodies that accredit construction degrees have improved coverage of health and safety risk management. The key issue has now shifted to ensure that Higher Education Centres deliver these requirements. This paper demonstrates innovative assessment methods that have been used to inculcate a safety conscious attitude into undergraduate civil engineering students, and to improve their knowledge of health and safety risk management. Surveys were administered to the students before and after they were subjected to innovative assessment techniques over two semesters in the construction management units. The analyses of the results of the surveys are provided to demonstrate the degree of improvement in the attitude of the students towards, and their knowledge of, health and safety risk management.     

Evaluating engineering thinking in undergraduate engineering and liberal arts students

ABSTRACT

This study explored if it is possible for liberal arts students to develop engineering professional competencies without detailed engagement with the engineering sciences. Students on a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences programme were compared with their undergraduate peers in Civil Engineering. A new method for evaluating such competencies was developed. Two one-hour individual problem-solving exercises were devised to assess capabilities against 14 criteria, based on the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Competency framework for professional development (2011 The BASc cohort’s scores for each criterion improved notably from the start of term to the end. This cohort rated their capabilities more highly at the end of term and was more satisfied with the answers they gave. Engineering students showed a slight decline in performance against the criteria. Self-evaluation in this group revealed a smaller increase in perceived capability but increased dissatisfaction. Both cohorts felt more anxious about the assignment at the end of the term. PBL environments can improve student competence in attributes associated with professional engineering. The scope of the study is constrained by the small cohort but the findings and evaluation method provide the basis for further development, including detailed statistical evaluation and validation of the evaluation instrument.     

提高机械类本科毕业设计质量的对策研究和实践

本科毕业设计质量是衡量一所本科院校教学水平的重要标志。为提高本校毕业设计质量,立足于学校实际,指出了目前毕业设计过程中存在的问题,并进行了深入分析。在此基础上从选题、开题、过程监控、答辩等环节提出了具有一定操作可行性的对策,为后续毕业设计指导提供了一定的理论基础。     

An Australian study of possible selves perceived by undergraduate engineering students

In this study, we worked with second-year engineering students at an Australian university to examine previously identified threshold concepts within the theoretical framework of Possible Selves. Using workshops as the context for intensive work with students, students were encouraged to consider their future lives and work, including their engineering fears, expectations, and aspirations. The findings revealed many students to have a poor understanding of the realities of engineering work. Moreover, perceived gaps between self-efficacy and the requirements of engineering work appeared to be motivating if students deemed it possible to reduce the gap, but demotivating if they identified a characteristic over which there was perceived to be no control. The study suggests that these engineering students needed more opportunities to explore both the roles of engineers and their own possible selves. Overall, the findings indicate that higher education students may need encouragement and support to explore potential future roles, and they strengthen calls for further research in this area.     

信息技术、机械工业与机械工程教育

2 1世纪信息科学技术及其产业发展具有重大的意义 ,我国的信息产业已经驶上高速发展的道路。机械工业在信息化过程中大有作为 ,应采取将信息化产品作为机械工业的主导产品 ,用信息技术改造、提升传统的机械产品等各种发展对策。我国机械工程教育的改革应遵循普遍主义的教育观 ,以培养现代高素质的有创新精神的工程师为培养目标。要改革机械工程专业的结构、教学内容和教学方法 ,加强基础教育、能力培养、实践锻炼和创新活动 ,并大力加强科学研究 ,以应对 2 1世纪科学技术的严峻挑战     

Deconstructing Engineering Education Programmes: The DEEP Project to reform the mechanical engineering curriculum

The goal of the Deconstructing Engineering Education Programmes project is to revise the mechanical engineering undergraduate curriculum to make the discipline more able to attract and retain a diverse community of students. The project seeks to reduce and reorder the prerequisite structure linking courses to offer greater flexibility for students. This paper describes the methods used to study the prerequisites and the resulting proposed curriculum revision. The process involved dissecting each course into topics at roughly the level of a line in a syllabus, editing the list of topics, associating prerequisites and successors to each topic and then using a genetic algorithm to produce clusters of topics. The new curriculum, which consists of 12 clusters, each of which could be a full year course, is quite different from the traditional curriculum.     

新形势下机电类本科专业毕业设计教学环节的研究与探索

近年来随着机电类本科毕业设计质量不断下降,如何有效地提高本科毕业设计的质量是高校面临的重要课题。在分析了传统毕业设计模式存在的问题后,就当前新形势下如何有效提高本科毕业设计质量进行了一些摸索和探讨,以便更好地完成毕业设计教学工作。     

Teaching design in the first years of a traditional mechanical engineering degree: methods,issues and future perspectives

Engineering design is known as an answer to an ill-defined problem. As any answer to an ill-defined problem, it can never be completely right or absolutely wrong. The methods that universities use to teach engineering design, as a consequence of this, suffer from the same fate. However, the accumulated experience with the ‘chalk and talk’ teaching tradition has led to a reality in which the employers of fresh graduates are not happy with the engineers they are getting. Part of their complaints are related with the inability of recently graduate engineers to work in problems where the boundaries are not well defined, are interdisciplinary, require the use of effective communication and integrate non-technical issues. These skills are mostly absent from traditional engineering curricula. This paper demonstrates the implementation of engineering design perspectives enhancing some of the aforementioned skills in a traditional mechanical engineering curriculum. It emphasises in particular a design project that is tackled in a sequence of conventional courses with a focus that depends on the course objectives and disciplinary domain. This transdisciplinary design project conveys the idea (and effectively implements it concurrently) that design is multidisciplinary.     

高校安全工程本科专业实验教学研究

安全工程是一门实践性很强的学科,实验教学是课程教学中的重要环节。所以,必须及时地探索出一条在专业课程实验教学中全面提高学生的综合素质和培养学生的动手能力的有效途径。本文简单地探讨安全工程的专业实验教学。     

机械制造工程发展与高职机械类专业实践教学

近年来,切削加工装备与工艺技术发展极为迅速,推动着机械制造工程从理念到手段都发生了质的变化。高职机械类专业实践教学定位应该着眼于职业技能素质训练、专业创新素质训练、职场应变素质训练。高职机械类专业应该重组教学资源、精选实践教学内容,研发与现代科技发展相适应的、具有明显学科交叉、课程间知识融合的新实验项目,形成包括基础性、综合设计性、研究创新性实验以及基于职业生涯规划的实践等四个层次的实践教学模式。     

精英教育理念下的土建类本科实验教学方法改革

大连理工大学土木水利实验教学中心以国家级实验教学示范中心建设为契机,基于精英教育的理念,结合土木水利工程学科专业的特点,积极深化和推进实验教学方法与手段的改革,收效显著,于2009年被评为省级和国家级实验教学示范中心建设单位。     

The effect of curricular activities on learner autonomy: the perspective of undergraduate mechanical engineering students

This study researches how first-year engineering students perceived the influence of curricular activities on their own learning autonomy, measured with an adaptation of the Personal Responsibility Orientation to Self-direction in Learning Scale (PRO-SDLS). Participants were questioned to assess the influence of the teacher's role. The results indicate that learners’ characteristics (motivation and self-efficacy) contribute more to learner autonomy (LA) than the teaching–learning transaction (control and initiative), as in the original PRO-SDLS validation. The most autonomous learners presented higher values in all LA components and dimensions, but the differences were greater in motivation and initiative. The participants with higher LA were not as dependent on the teacher, regarding assessment, the completion of classroom tasks and deadlines. Regardless of the degree of autonomy in learning, all participants viewed teachers as the main source of information. Therefore, LA plays an important role in teaching activities planning. Suggestions for adjustments and more flexible learning scenarios are formulated.     

Learning by teaching: undergraduate engineering students improving a community's response capability to an early warning system

This paper reports on a project in which students designed, constructed and tested a model of an existing early warning system with simulation of debris flow in a context of a landslide. Students also assessed rural community members’ knowledge of this system and subsequently taught them to estimate the time needed for evacuation of the community in the event of a landslide. Participants were four undergraduate students in a civil engineering programme at a university in Thailand, as well as nine community members and three external evaluators. Results illustrate project and problem-based, experiential learning and highlight the real-world applications and development of knowledge and of hard and soft skills. The discussion raises issues of scalability and feasibility for implementation of these types of projects in large undergraduate engineering classes.     

Do our engineering students spend enough time studying?

In higher education one of the most important learning goals is deep understanding. Achieving this goal needs time and effort. The authors discuss their observations of student time use on the basis of several case studies which they have conducted in the field of engineering education in Finland. The time that the students spend studying is clearly less than has been stipulated in curricula. Also other time-use studies reveal controversy between the curriculum and actual studying. The authors raise questions dealing with reasons for this problem such as is the workload too high or are the courses too easy. The observations and discussion will hopefully motivate courses to be dimensioned more realistically when taking the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) in use.     

Building an understanding of heat transfer concepts in undergraduate chemical engineering courses

Understanding the distinctions among heat, energy and temperature can be difficult for students at all levels of instruction, including those in engineering. Misconceptions about heat transfer have been found to persist, even after students successfully complete relevant coursework. New instructional methods are needed to address these misconceptions. This pilot study examined whether researcher-developed and inquiry-based activities could increase conceptual understanding of heat transfer and alter common misconceptions. Twenty-two undergraduate chemical engineering students were assessed before and after instruction with inquiry-based activities using a ten-item concept inventory. Concept inventory questions were developed to assess students＇ performance on questions closely related to the inquiry-based activities and questions applying concepts in new contexts. Participants significantly improved their overall scores from pre-test to post-test. An examination of performance on individual items revealed significant improvement on half of those questions closely related to the instructional activities and half of those applying concepts in new but related contexts. Results are examined in light of the assessment and inquiry activities that were used, as well as the difficulty of the concepts. Educational implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Development of a competency mapping tool for undergraduate professional degree programmes,using mechanical engineering as a case study

Mapping the curriculum of a professional degree to the associated competency standard ensures graduates have the competence to perform as professionals. Existing approaches to competence mapping vary greatly in depth, complexity, and effectiveness, and a standardised approach remains elusive. This paper describes a new mapping software tool that streamlines and standardises the competency mapping process. The available analytics facilitate ongoing programme review, management, and accreditation. The complete mapping and analysis of an Australian mechanical engineering degree programme is described as a case study. Each subject is mapped by evaluating the amount and depth of competence development present. Combining subject results then enables highly detailed programme level analysis. The mapping process is designed to be administratively light, with aspects of professional development embedded in the software. The effective competence mapping described in this paper enables quantification of learning within a professional degree programme, and provides a mechanism for holistic programme improvement.     

新工科背景下机械安全虚拟仿真实验教学探索

基于新工科理念,构建了基于IdeaVR软件的虚拟仿真实验平台.该平台运用脚本设计、三维建模、三维场景搭建、交互功能创建等技术,开发设计了机械安全虚拟仿真实验教学系统,提出了基于该教学系统的虚实结合的实验教学模式,提升了机械安全课堂教学素材的广度、深度及教学手段的前沿性,为国内高校的机械安全实验课程提供了一种新的实践教学...     

Creating a bridge to simulate simultaneous engineering experiences for senior undergraduate students

Launching new or improved products to the market typically involves extensive collaboration within and beyond the enterprise. Succeeding in a customer-driven market economy demands the practice of simultaneous engineering. The standard engineering or engineering technology curricula continue to make efforts in providing students with opportunities to engage in real-life projects that simulate simultaneous engineering. However, the educational community as a whole has much to implement in this area. This paper presents an approach used to nurture simultaneous engineering through a unique collaboration between instructors in different disciplines. Student teams, formed from three different classes, conceived problems and worked through a problem-solving model to design and develop solutions. An assessment of these interdisciplinary projects revealed significant learning outcomes and their relationships to the diversity of team members. The experiences of both students and instructors are described and some recommendations made for instructor teams that envisage interdisciplinary student projects.     

地方高校机械工程专业产学研合作课程体系建设

根据地方高校机械工程专业本科人才培养目标,结合高校自身学科特点和毕业生就业情况,提出了产学研合作教育模式下"四层十四模块"的课程体系,论述了"四层十四模块"课程体系下课程群的建设内容,为提升学生的工程实践能力和创新能力提供了有益的建议。     

Graduation and attrition of engineering students in Greece

Greek engineering Schools have a high status and attract good students. However, we show that in the leading institution, the National Technical University of Athens, only 27% of the students admitted in 1992–2003 graduated after the nominal five years study: the median graduation time was 73 months (reaching 93 months in one School) and 12% are predicted never to graduate at all, most without withdrawing officially. Results differ between Schools, between routes of admission and by gender (females being better than males). Systematic study of reasons for not completing or delay in completing studies is urgently needed. Overall, 4% of the students withdraw officially during their first year. The percentage of withdrawals by School is negatively correlated with the percentage that gave that School as first choice in the entrance procedure, indicating problems in the admission system.