55,891 research outputs found
Closing the gap between software engineering education and industrial needs
According to different reports, many recent software engineering graduates
often face difficulties when beginning their professional careers, due to
misalignment of the skills learnt in their university education with what is
needed in industry. To address that need, many studies have been conducted to
align software engineering education with industry needs. To synthesize that
body of knowledge, we present in this paper a systematic literature review
(SLR) which summarizes the findings of 33 studies in this area. By doing a
meta-analysis of all those studies and using data from 12 countries and over
4,000 data points, this study will enable educators and hiring managers to
adapt their education / hiring efforts to best prepare the software engineering
workforce
What do job adverts tell Higher Education about the âshapeâ of Biomedical Engineering graduates?
Higher Education Institutions are required, at least in some Countries, to design their curricula taking into account the needs of relevant industry. Use of Industrial Advisory Committees is a common way of demonstrating this input. This paper explores an additional window to industry needs through the textual analysis of job advertisements. 36 internet published adverts using the âBiomedical Engineeringâ search phrase were downloaded and textually analysed to identify the mentioned technical skills, generic skills and the adjectives used to describe the required level of proficiency in them. Results of the analysis of these adverts, using qualitative re-search analysis software starts to reveal a relevant technical skills hierarchy that Higher Education can use to help inform curricular designed for this employment pathway. The analy-sis of the generic skills reveals those rated important by em-ployers for different levels of jobs, again of potential use to curriculum designers. Finally the results reveal the adjectives used to show the level of ability employers seek of their gradu-ates. Herein lies a significant difference across the supply and demand side of the first employment transition. The difference can be rationally explained but does not help in closing the gap between what Higher Education provides in terms of gradu-ates and what Industry seeks. The paper concludes that dia-logue between Industry and Higher Education could usefully focus on the way skills are defined and claims of ability war-ranted as a means of closing the âHigher Education is not gives us what employers wantâ claims
Operations Management Curricula: Literature Review and Analysis
A review and analysis of studies on the interface between Operations Management (OM) academicians and industry practitioners indicate the existence of a persistent gap between what is being taught and what is relevant to practitioners in their daily jobs. The majority of practitioner studies have been directed at upper management levels, yet academia typically educates students for entry level or management trainee (undergraduate) and mid-management (MBA) positions. A recurring finding was that academicians prefer to teach quantitative techniques while practitioners favor qualitative concepts. The OM curricula literature shows some disagreements between academicians concerning subject matter, and a wide variety of teaching opinions. This paper provides an extensive analytical review of OM curricula literature along with their respective authorsâ conclusions. From this analysis we suggest a customer-focused business plan to close the gap between industry and academia. This plan can be modified to account for faculty teaching and research interests, local industry requirements and institution specific factors such as class sizes and resources
Collaborative multidisciplinary learning : quantity surveying studentsâ perspectives
The construction industry is highly fragmented and is known for its adversarial culture, culminating
in poor quality projects not completed on time or within budget. The aim of this study is thus to
guide the design of QS programme curricula in order to help students develop the requisite
knowledge and skills to work more collaboratively in their multi-disciplinary future workplaces.
A qualitative approach was considered appropriate as the authors were concerned with gathering an
initial understanding of what students think of multi-disciplinary learning. The data collection
method used was a questionnaire which was developed by the Behaviours4Collaboration (B4C)
team.
Knowledge gaps were still found across all the key areas where a future QS practitioner needs to be
collaborative (either as a project contributor or as a project leader) despite the need for change
instigated by the multi-disciplinary (BIM) education revolution.
The study concludes that universities will need to be selective in teaching, and innovative in
reorienting, QS education so that a collaborative BIM education can be effected in stages, increasing
in complexity as the studentsâ technical knowledge grows. This will help students to build the
competencies needed to make them future leaders. It will also support programme currency and
delivery
Proceedings of the Third Computing Women Congress (CWC 2008): Student papers
The Third Computing Women Congress was held at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand from February 11th to 13th, 2008. The Computing Women Congress (CWC) is a Summer University for women in Computer Science. It is a meeting-place for female students, academics and professionals who study or work in Information Technology. CWC provides a forum to learn about and share the latest ideas of computing related topics in a supportive environment. CWC provides an open, explorative learning and teaching environment. Experimentation with new styles of learning is encouraged, with an emphasis on hands-on experience and engaging participatory techniques
Winning the Workforce Challenge: A Report on New Jersey's Knowledge Economy
An economic and policy analysis of the New Jersey workforce. The report describes challenges facing workers and policymakers in closing the skills gap, addressing long-term unemployment, ensuring broad-scale economic opportunity, and strengthening government programs
Evaluation of Cognitive Architectures for Cyber-Physical Production Systems
Cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) integrate physical and computational
resources due to increasingly available sensors and processing power. This
enables the usage of data, to create additional benefit, such as condition
monitoring or optimization. These capabilities can lead to cognition, such that
the system is able to adapt independently to changing circumstances by learning
from additional sensors information. Developing a reference architecture for
the design of CPPS and standardization of machines and software interfaces is
crucial to enable compatibility of data usage between different machine models
and vendors. This paper analysis existing reference architecture regarding
their cognitive abilities, based on requirements that are derived from three
different use cases. The results from the evaluation of the reference
architectures, which include two instances that stem from the field of
cognitive science, reveal a gap in the applicability of the architectures
regarding the generalizability and the level of abstraction. While reference
architectures from the field of automation are suitable to address use case
specific requirements, and do not address the general requirements, especially
w.r.t. adaptability, the examples from the field of cognitive science are well
usable to reach a high level of adaption and cognition. It is desirable to
merge advantages of both classes of architectures to address challenges in the
field of CPPS in Industrie 4.0
Engaging the disengaged indefinitely, and with no budget: creating a sustainable model for student library ambassadors
University Libraries offer a wide range of services and facilities to help
enhance the student learning experience and to aid the transition into learning at
University. Often, too few Science and Engineering students fully engage with the
services and facilities on offer and therefore do not benefit from the opportunities
available to them. Drawing on research highlighting the value of peer support, and the
fact that students are far more likely to use their peers as an information source than
âexpertsâ, Loughborough University Library obtained small project funding in 2010 to
employ four Student Ambassadors in a pilot project to improve student engagement with
the Library. The successful project demonstrated the potency of the idea in engaging with
students, particularly non-users, a large proportion of which are based in the Science and
Engineering Faculties.
In the absence of continued funding, the challenge, addressed here, is how to make such
posts sustainable. Past experience at both Nottingham and Loughborough Universities
has proven how difficult it is to recruit students on a voluntary basis to engage with
University Libraries.
In this paper, an innovative and creative method of recruiting and supporting âLearning
Resource Leadersâ (LRLs) at Nottingham and Loughborough Universities is discussed.
The strategies employed have resulted in the recruitment of four LRLs â two at each
institution â supported by an industrial sponsor who provides a package of non-monetary
incentives. The paper also describes the techniques used by the LRLs to disseminate
information about the resources offered by the University Libraries and to engage with
the student cohort
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