Can decolonising the curriculum provide an enhanced engineering education?

Decolonisation is defined and discussed. University College London has several initiatives to decolonise the curriculum and enhance diversity and inclusion. In 2022, a series of online flipped lectures were developed for the postgraduate software engineering module. The aim was to provide a range of perspectives on artificial intelligence (AI) ethics. Teaching was through the decolonisation lens, highlighting historical viewpoints and imbalances in power. Students could reflect on the ethics of AI systems and how these systems perpetuate colonial biases. Students had previously indicated their interests in AI, environmental and social issues, including climate change. Before lectures, students completed questionnaires, providing an understanding of their prior knowledge of topics. A qualitative analysis of the reading material using coding within ATLAS.ti provided insight to select schemas to scaffold students’ knowledge. The suggested reading was then adapted to ensure a greater diversity of viewpoints. The analysis also indicates that adding these additional perspectives may not increase cognitive load. Lectures include real-world perspectives from guest speakers from diverse backgrounds, reinforcing the importance of different opinions. Students greatly valued the different perspectives and opportunities to discuss ethical dilemmas. Students’ answers, following ethics discussions, indicated an improved understanding of engineering concepts. This study suggests that incorporating a range of views can enhance the topics students want to learn. Providing different perspectives can also deliver a more balanced engineering pedagogy. Adopting a decolonisation approach that recognises the past but provides alternative narratives may strengthen opportunities for engagement with other universities: creating new scenarios in engineering education

Climate Change Impacts on Thermal Performance of Residential Buildings

Climate change has altered regular temperature patterns and various climate variables on a global scale, causing growing concerns about future food, water and energy security. Immediate action should be taken to understand the extent of climate change while also proposing adaptation strategies to cope with the projected future climate conditions. From the energy security perspective, particularly in consideration of the ever-increasing human population, an important aspect to understand is the impact of climate change on the energy consumption of residential buildings. Understanding the impact of climate change on building energy consumption is not only beneficial for advising efficient energy-saving measures, but also for understanding future energy requirements. Various studies have already shown that climate change effects heating and cooling loads of buildings in various climates around the world. However, there is a lack of comprehension of the effects of climate change on energy consumption in Quebec. In addition, some of the methodologies employed to address the impact of climate change in buildings may be not be accurate or accessible to practitioners. The present study tries to fill this gap by advising a simple procedure that can be implemented in day-to-day engineering practice for a detailed understanding of the effects of climate change on building energy consumption. The methodology is applied to a residential building in Montreal, Quebec (Canada), using the state-of-the-art climate model projections for the periods of 2011-2040 (short-term future), 2041-2070 (midterm future), and 2071-2100 (long-term future) and under low and high greenhouse gas concentration scenarios. In brief, the available projections of five global climate models was studied for two particular weather parameters, namely dry-bulb temperature and shortwave radiation. The projections were downscaled at the point location and at an hourly resolution using a cascade model based on a quantile mapping bias correction method and a modified quantile-based k-nearest neighbor method. The downscaled projections were used as inputs to TRNSYS, an energy simulation software, in order to quantify the heating and cooling loads as well as judge the overall performance of the residential building in Montreal. This methodology can provide a basis for detailed understanding of the impacts of climate change on building energy consumption. Considering the applied case study, it is understood that climate change will not only change the intensity of the heating and cooling loads but can also change the empirical distribution of hourly energy consumption, particularly during peak loads

Advancement of A Lab-Scale Anaerobic Biodigester to Implement Monitoring and Sensing Technologies: A Promising Educational Instrument for Reducing Carbon Emissions and Combating Climate Change

This study showcases a laboratory-scale anaerobic biodigester designed to introduce monitoring and sensing methods for tracking microorganism growth based on various parameters, including redox potential, pH, pressure, and temperature, measured in a near-continuous manner. A microcontroller system (Atmega328—Arduino) was employed for this purpose. The design's foundation lies in flexible and open-source software, hardware, and firmware (Scilab, Arduino, Processing), making it easily adaptable for other relevant research. The biodigester was developed as an educational tool for engineering students to gain a deeper understanding of its operation and to track the system's properties and progression over time. This enables the creation of property curves, which can be correlated for a more comprehensive understanding of biodigester functionality. The study specifically explored the connection between the oxidation-reduction reaction and microbial activity, demonstrating that redox potential can effectively measure microorganism growth in an anaerobic environment. Ultimately, this laboratory-scale biodigester serves as an introduction to the technology typically utilised for controlling carbon footprints, particularly in the wastewater sector, and consequently contributes to climate change mitigation efforts. Keywords: wastewater; low-carbon; biodigester; laboratory scale; open-source tools DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/14-8-04 Publication date:May 31st 202

City of London: Vulnerability of Infrastructure to Climate Change. Background Report #2: Hydraulic Modeling and Floodplain Mapping

The main objective of the research project currently under way is to provide an engineering assessment of the vulnerability of London’s public infrastructure under projected rates of climate change with special emphasis on flooding. An original systematic procedure is used to gather and examine available data in order to develop an understanding of the relevant climatic effects and their interaction with municipal infrastructure. Assessment of climate change impacts on municipal infrastructure requires floodplain maps and inundation that will correspond to examined climate change scenarios. This report presents the results of hydraulic analyses used in floodplain mapping under changing climate. Combined, climate and hydrologic modeling, were used to generate input flow data for hydraulic modelling. Standard computer software HEC-RAS is used for hydraulic computation of water elevation. The existing HEC-RAS models of the Upper Thames River basin are not georeferenced and therefore they cannot be used for hydraulic modeling under climate change. Consequently, it was necessary to develop new HEC-RAS models for the rivers and creeks of London that were considered in this project. Geometric input data for new HEC-RAS models were created using HEC-GeoRAS software, which is an extension of ArcGIS computer package for spatial analysis. In the preprocessing phase the HEC-GeoRAS is used to create a digital terrain model from the contour lines shape file provided by the city of London. In the next step the following geometric data layers were generated: river center line, bank lines, flowpaths, cross sections, and bridges. Required attributes were assigned to each of the layers. In the last step of the pre-processing stage the input file for the HEC-RAS hydraulic analysis was prepared. The hydraulic analysis starts with the geometric data import, followed with the preparation of the hydraulic structures data and flow data. A very detailed quality control was performed on the cross sections data generated during the pre-processing phase. The roughness coefficient values were determined using the existing HEC-RAS models and aerial photography of the basin. Data on bridges, taken from the existing models and drawings were integrated with the rest of the data. Two climate scenarios (historic and wet) developed by climate and hydrologic modeling (Eum and Simonovic, 2009) were used and water surface elevation profiles were calculated for 100- and 250- year return periods. The computation results were used to assemble the HEC-RAS GIS export file for floodplain mapping. The Arc Map software package was used to create water surface GIS layer. Overlaying this layer with the terrain provided for calculation of floodplain boundaries and inundation depths. The floodplain maps generated using this process are used in vulnerability assessments of London’s public infrastructure to climate change currently in progress. The results of water surface profile computations are presented in tabular form for the 250- year flood under historic and wet climate scenarios. The final floodplain maps along Main Thames for both scenarios show minor deviation of the floodplain boundaries when compared with the existing floodplain lines. However, the water depth difference is up to 50 cm. The area upstream from the culvert on Pottersburg Creek (close to the intersection of Trafalgar St. and Clarke St.) is identified as critical due to the high extent of flooding. The flooding at this location is caused by insufficient culvert opening that creates a backwater effect. Areas of special concern are identified where the floodplain mapping results are not sufficiently accurate due to inaccuracies in the contour lines. The main recommendation based on the work presented in this report is that new georeferenced cross sections should be surveyed in order to increase the accuracy of the floodplain mapping process. The hydraulic analyses should be repeated with more accurate input data and the resulting floodplain maps should be revised accordingly.https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/wrrr/1031/thumbnail.jp

Misaligned Values in Software Engineering Organizations

The values of software organizations are crucial for achieving high performance; in particular, agile development approaches emphasize their importance. Researchers have thus far often assumed that a specific set of values, compatible with the development methodologies, must be adopted homogeneously throughout the company. It is not clear, however, to what extent such assumptions are accurate. Preliminary findings have highlighted the misalignment of values between groups as a source of problems when engineers discuss their challenges. Therefore, in this study, we examine how discrepancies in values between groups affect software companies' performance. To meet our objectives, we chose a mixed method research design. First, we collected qualitative data by interviewing fourteen (\textit{N} = 14) employees working in four different organizations and processed it using thematic analysis. We then surveyed seven organizations (\textit{N} = 184). Our analysis indicated that value misalignment between groups is related to organizational performance. The aligned companies were more effective, more satisfied, had higher trust, and fewer conflicts. Our efforts provide encouraging findings in a critical software engineering research area. They can help to explain why some companies are more efficient than others and, thus, point the way to interventions to address organizational challenges.Comment: accepted for publication in Journal of Software: Evolution and Proces

Requirements: The Key to Sustainability

Software's critical role in society demands a paradigm shift in the software engineering mind-set. This shift's focus begins in requirements engineering. This article is part of a special issue on the Future of Software Engineering

Zero and low carbon buildings: A driver for change in working practices and the use of computer modelling and visualization

Buildings account for significant carbon dioxide emissions, both in construction and operation. Governments around the world are setting targets and legislating to reduce the carbon emissions related to the built environment. Challenges presented by increasingly rigorous standards for construction projects will mean a paradigm shift in how new buildings are designed and managed. This will lead to the need for computational modelling and visualization of buildings and their energy performance throughout the life-cycle of the building. This paper briefly outline how the UK government is planning to reduce carbon emissions for new buildings. It discusses the challenges faced by the architectural, construction and building management professions in adjusting to the proposed requirements for low or zero carbon buildings. It then outlines how software tools, including the use of visualization tools, could develop to support the designer, contractor and user