On the Presence of Green and Sustainable Software Engineering in Higher Education Curricula

Nowadays, software is pervasive in our everyday lives. Its sustainability and environmental impact have become major factors to be considered in the development of software systems. Millennials-the newer generation of university students-are particularly keen to learn about and contribute to a more sustainable and green society. The need for training on green and sustainable topics in software engineering has been reflected in a number of recent studies. The goal of this paper is to get a first understanding of what is the current state of teaching sustainability in the software engineering community, what are the motivations behind the current state of teaching, and what can be done to improve it. To this end, we report the findings from a targeted survey of 33 academics on the presence of green and sustainable software engineering in higher education. The major findings from the collected data suggest that sustainability is under-represented in the curricula, while the current focus of teaching is on energy efficiency delivered through a fact-based approach. The reasons vary from lack of awareness, teaching material and suitable technologies, to the high effort required to teach sustainability. Finally, we provide recommendations for educators willing to teach sustainability in software engineering that can help to suit millennial students needs.Comment: The paper will be presented at the 1st International Workshop on Software Engineering Curricula for Millennials (SECM2017

Motivating Technical Writing through Study of the Environment

Today’s engineers must be more than just technically competent. To be successful in our increasingly global economy in which teamwork and interdisciplinary interaction are the norm, engineers must have excellent communication skills. In recognition of industry needs, the San José State University College of Engineering redesigned its technical communication course to ensure that students graduate with writing and speaking skills that will transfer readily to their career needs and the global arena. The course aims to motivate students through exploring topics that are meaningful to them and using communication formats that they will see in the workplace. Combing technical communication with study of the environment broadens the course to meet multiple ABET outcomes. This paper describes the course goals, organization, management, selected assignments, and assessment. Assessment data indicate that at the end of the semester students, on average, have gained between 0.8 and 1.1 points on a 12-point evaluation rubric, and have gained an appreciation of the unique characteristics of and need for technical writing

Proceedings of the GPEA Polytechnic Summit 2022: Session Papers

Welcome to GPEA PS 2022 Each year the Polytechnic Summit assembles leaders, influencers and contributors who shape the future of polytechnic education. The Polytechnic Summit provides a forum to enable opportunities for collaboration and partnerships and for participants to focus on innovation in curriculum and pedagogy, to share best practices in active and applied learning, and discuss practice-based research to enhance student learning. This year a view on the aspects of applied research will be added. How to conduct research in a teaching first environment and make use of this. Which characteristics of applied research are important to be used in teaching and vice versa?The Summit will – once again - also provide an opportunity to examine the challenges and opportunities presented by COVID-19 and will offer us all an opportunity to explore the ways in which we can collaborate more effectively using our new-found virtual engagement skills and prepare for a hybrid future. PS2022 Themes: Design (Programmes, Curriculum, Organisation);Practice-Based Learning;Applied Research; Employability and Graduate Skills; Internationalisation, Global Teaching & Collaboration and Sustainability Theme

Approaches and Methods of Science Teaching and Sustainable Development

This book “Approaches and Methods of Science Teaching and Sustainable Development”, edited by Dr. David González Gómez and Dr. Jin Su Jeong, aims to provide a solid research corpus for addressing the challenges needed to provide adequate science and sustainable development education to scholars with different levels of education. Sustainability is starting to form a part of the curricula for many educational institutions. However, efforts must be taken to ensure proper implementation and development of sustainability-oriented topics seeking the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education as well as fresh perspectives on continuing challenges

Research & Strategic Partnerships: Quarterly Review, Volume 2, Issue 3

This issue of the Research and Strategic Partnerships (RSP) Quarterly Review highlights emerging research leaders. On the sustainability front, environmental engineer Stephen Talke applies a historian’s perspective to extract climate-related information from tide gauge records along the Columbia River dating back over 100 years. Environmental biogeochemist Jennifer Morse is looking at the hidden carbon costs of “green” practices, like installation of urban bioswales and the establishment of an urban growth boundary, which may have higher ecological costs than previously thought. In the health arena, you can read about Gerasimos Fergadiotis’s latest work to help diagnose and cure aphasia, the debilitating loss of language that accompanies stroke and other brain injuries. Electrical engineer Eric Wan uses signal processing to develop tools that can help older people remain in their homes rather than go to assisted living facilities. The one veteran in our line-up, Biology Professor Ken Stedman, is working with a local startup company to commercialize some of his discoveries that can make vaccines more effective in rural parts of developing countries. In the educational research sphere, Jennifer Noll of the Mathematics and Statistics Department is developing innovative ways to get students excited about learning statistics. Curriculum and Instruction faculty member Jean Aguilar- Valdez is exploring how closer dialogue with students from diverse backgrounds can increase their success in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) courses.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/rsp_quarterlyreview/1006/thumbnail.jp

Engineering Education towards sustainability: approaches for institutionalization and teaching implementation : Second International Conference on Engineering Education for the 21st Century – ICEE21C 2019

199 p.The Second International Conference On Engineering Education For The Twenty-First Century (Bilbao-Spain, 4 and 5 July 2019) has been co-organized by the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) and the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló (UJI), and has continued the debate started two years ago in Castelló de la Plana, where the central theme of the conference was "New Competences in the Area of Sustainability and University Social Responsibility". The central theme of this second international conference has been "Engineering Education towards Sustainability: Approaches for Institutionalization and Teaching Implementation". In a world deluged by social realities, change is an absolute necessity. Such change has found its way to European Higher Education Area, affected teaching objectives, pedagogies, and knowledge transmission. With the mission to help learners to create their capability profiles, this change visualizes graduates who can be absorbed easily by ever-evolving industries. To this aim, new active learning methodologies and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been introduced and applied. These changes started to appear in classrooms in the era that also fosters social values such as Sustainable Development Goals and Conscious Social Responsibilities more than ever, striving to build an equitable world

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