Using fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm for common lecturer timetabling among departments

University course timetabling problem is one of the hard problems and it must be done for each term frequently which is an exhausting and time consuming task. The main technique in the presented approach is focused on developing and making the process of timetabling common lecturers among different departments of a university scalable. The aim of this paper is to improve the satisfaction of common lecturers among departments and then minimize the loss of resources within departments. The applied method is to use a collaborative search approach. In this method, at first all departments perform their scheduling process locally; then two clustering and traversing agents are used where the former is to cluster common lecturers among departments and the latter is to find unused resources among departments. After performing the clustering and traversing processes, the mapping operation in done based on principles of common lecturers constraint in redundant resources in order to gain the objectives of the problem. The problem’s evaluation metric is evaluated via using fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm on common lecturer constraints within a multi agent system. An applied dataset is based on meeting the requirements of scheduling in real world among various departments of Islamic Azad University, Ahar Branch and the success of results would be in respect of satisfying uniform distribution and allocation of common lecturers on redundant resources among different departments

5th Annual Symposium of the United Kingdom & Ireland Engineering Education Research Network: Time for change

The proceedings of the 5th symposium of the UK & IE Engineering Education Network set about challenging the status quo in all areas of engineering education. Over two days colleagues discussed and debated a number of issues ranging from engineering in schools and attracting young people into engineering, to innovative engineering pedagogies. The highly contentious question of whether ‘maths’ is, or is not, a vital prerequisite to studying engineering at university was debated whilst an expert panel asked the question “Are engineering educators fit for purpose?”.Needless to say the Symposium proved to be a lively event. In an attempt to provide the engineering education community with a taste of the debates the short Symposium Papers presented here represent ‘the tip of the iceberg’ with regards to the wide range of problems and solutions discussed and proposed. Divided into three main sections this publication shows that the Symposium did indeed achieve its objective of ‘challenging the status quo’. The papers presented in the first section argue the case for change in engineering education. Whilst the second section turns to look at engineering education practice and pedagogy, with an additional section included to assure non-expert researchers are given a voice. The final section brings the document to a close with a number of papers that look at how colleagues across the UK are beginning to innovate change in the engineering classroom and beyond

Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect! Developing Logbook Keeping as a Professional Skill through CDIO

Deliberate practice, including focused practice time by students, feedback from experts, mentors, educators or peers, and student reflection[1] is needed in order to develop and excel in any skill. This study looks at whether deliberate and directed practice can be used to develop professional engineering skills in a CDIO teaching setting, using logbook keeping as a key example

A New Curriculum to Train Chemical Engineers to Solve 21st Century Grand Challenges

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield is embarked on a curriculum change project with roll out starting with level 1 in September 2017. The drivers behind the change included the need to modernise the curriculum both in terms of content, structure and delivery. The main objective was to develop a modern Sheffield Chemical Engineer. The study is primarily about investigating the efficacy of the change efforts that have been introduced, to track progress and to determine whether we are meeting our stated objectives. The objectives are in relation to student success, student experience, curriculum coherence and student and staff well-being. Specifically, the new curriculum will be coherent, embedded in design and practice with an emphasis on critical thinking, problem solving, professionalism, ethics and sustainability. It will offer flexible learning environments and pathways to facilitate deep engagement. It will promote and facilitate industry involvement by focusing on both process and product engineering to develop industry ready practical graduates with hands on experience. It will produce graduates who are integrators, change agents and self-directed learners to lead multidisciplinary teams, and be at the forefront of innovation. It will provide exposure to niche research areas built on a strong core in engineering fundamentals. Lastly, it will produce graduates capable of Engineering from molecules by applying systems level thinking at many length scales. We have identified a third year module process design as a significant check point to determine whether some of our curriculum objectives are being met (Patwardhan et al, 2017)

Supporting Trailing and Failing Students: Timing and Awareness

A continuation of the ‘Changing Futures Project’ this work aims to directly tackle student failure in engineering education at Higher Education. This stage of the project focuses on the experiences of 88 Engineering and Applied Science students who were classified as ‘failing’ in one or more modules during the Summer Term. A comparison of findings is made between the first stage (conducted during the Autumn Term) and the current findings of this research. Whilst the mental health findings of the initial stage of the project were present in the second stage, they were not as pronounced and the emphasis for the students appeared to have shifted to practical concerns and a need for information about the ‘next steps’. All students were offered individual support, including signposting to the support facilities available to them. The initial findings surrounding the students’ experiences indicate that many students do not initiate contact with the university and lack awareness of the channels of support and communication available to them. To counter this finding, a series of informative workshops are being devised for students to take place during the 2017-18 academic year

Challenges for engineering students working with authentic complex problems

Engineers are important participants in solving societal, environmental and technical problems. However, due to an increasing complexity in relation to these problems new interdisciplinary competences are needed in engineering. Instead of students working with monodisciplinary problems, a situation where students work with authentic complex problems in interdisciplinary teams together with a company may scaffold development of new competences. The question is: What are the challenges for students structuring the work on authentic interdisciplinary problems? This study explores a three-day event where 7 students from Aalborg University (AAU) from four different faculties and one student from University College North Denmark (UCN), (6th-10th semester), worked in two groups at a large Danish company, solving authentic complex problems. The event was structured as a Hackathon where the students for three days worked with problem identification, problem analysis and finalizing with a pitch competition presenting their findings. During the event the students had workshops to support the work and they had the opportunity to use employees from the company as facilitators. It was an extracurricular activity during the summer holiday season. The methodology used for data collection was qualitative both in terms of observations and participants’ reflection reports. The students were observed during the whole event. Findings from this part of a larger study indicated, that students experience inability to transfer and transform project competences from their previous disciplinary experiences to an interdisciplinary setting

Exploring the practical use of a collaborative robot for academic purposes

This article presents a set of experiences related to the setup and exploration of potential educational uses of a collaborative robot (cobot). The basic principles that have guided the work carried out have been three. First and foremost, study of all the functionalities offered by the robot and exploration of its potential academic uses both in subjects focused on industrial robotics and in subjects of related disciplines (automation, communications, computer vision). Second, achieve the total integration of the cobot at the laboratory, seeking not only independent uses of it but also seeking for applications (laboratory practices) in which the cobot interacts with some of the other devices already existing at the laboratory (other industrial robots and a flexible manufacturing system). Third, reuse of some available components and minimization of the number and associated cost of required new components. The experiences, carried out following a project-based learning methodology under the framework of bachelor and master subjects and thesis, have focused on the integration of mechanical, electronic and programming aspects in new design solutions (end effector, cooperative workspace, artificial vision system integration) and case studies (advanced task programming, cybersecure communication, remote access). These experiences have consolidated the students' acquisition of skills in the transition to professional life by having the close collaboration of the university faculty with the experts of the robotics company.Postprint (published version