Multi-Disciplinary Capstone Project on Self-Replicating 3-D Printer

This paper explores the dynamics of a multi-semester multi-disciplinary team approach applied within a traditional senior capstone project that involves strong design and manufacturing components. In addition, the logistics of running a successful senior project will be discussed along with the associated problems of organization within a multi-program environment. The key drivers and motivators behind this paper are, most importantly, that multi-disciplinary teams are very common in industry and that our industrial advisory boards for Electrical Engineering Technology (EET) and Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) suggested that we do more multi-disciplinary projects. Furthermore, this multi-disciplinary team approach will satisfy the proposed ABET/ETAC outcomes for 2016. The Proposed Revisions to the Program Criteria for Mechanical Engineering Technology and Similarly Named Programs ABET/ETAC outcomes say “The capstone experience, ideally multidisciplinary in nature, must be project based and include formal design, implementation and test processes.” (emphasis added) Faculty searched for a technology that would allow both EET and MET students to contribute equally to the success of the project, and decided upon additive manufacturing. Students have been exposed extensively through formal course material covering 3D printing technology and would be familiar with the operation of 3D printers in general. Therefore, it was reasoned a familiarity with the project goal of designing and constructing a self-replicating 3D printer would give students more confidence in tackling the difficult task of managing an extended project over both the design and manufacture phases, and mastering effective communicate across disciplines. The student team organization mirrors current industry standard operating procedures. First, the team is multidisciplinary, including EET students with programing and circuits skills and MET students with CAD, design, mechanical analysis skills. All students must demonstrate project process skills, utilizing current design for six-sigma procedures. The students learn a standard set of tools to manage the project, as well as synthesize those tools with their discipline specific knowledge. Because of the program curriculum plans, the EET students are involved in the project for two semesters. The MET students have a one semester project course; this enables one group of MET students to design the mechanical system, document their work, and pass it on to a second team for implementation. This was considered a positive based on what is typical in industry, where engineering groups are constantly interfacing. Results include observations of group member dynamics, quality of work, timeliness, budget management, and communication across disciplines. Rubrics to document student achievement of outcomes are used

Diversity in Engineering Technology Students

In the US, there are two academic pathways to a career in engineering: Engineering and Engineering Technology (ET). Engineering Technology attracts more African American and Latin American students than traditional engineering programs. Nationally, African American students are more than twice as likely to enroll in an ET program versus Engineering. We suspect it may be due to traditional Engineering programs’ requirement of higher levels of math and science classes, often lacking in under-privileged or underserved urban or rural high schools. Recently published research by the New York Equity Coalition supports this supposition. Understanding the reasons for the higher representation of these students in ET can provide insights on the background of these students for developing effective practices and programming to improve retention of this cohort. It would also provide useful information for increasing the diversity of traditional engineering programs. This paper presents initial findings from a work in progress that is part of a multi-institution study to understand the factors that influence initial matriculation into and retention in engineering technology programs

Engineering Technology Undergraduate Students: A Survey of Demographics and Mentoring

A report published by a group of engineering technology practitioners and others interested in engineering technology called “Engineering Technology Education in the United States” was released in early 2017. The report provided recommendations of areas for further study related to engineering technology students to increase our understanding of the population. These specifically suggested focusing on the students in comparison to other students in similar and different fields of study. Following these recommendations, a team of engineering technology education researchers has been collaborating to gather information in these areas. The team obtained institutional approval and distributed two surveys throughout the United States. The first survey was directed towards undergraduate students and the other towards those who have already completed their undergraduate degrees. This paper is focused on a high-level review of the results of the undergraduate survey, with future, in-depth publications focused on the issues identified by the report. The survey was designed to address the issues described in the report focused on matriculation, retention, and graduation from engineering technology. In this case, we are examining the demographics of undergraduate engineering technology students, mentoring, and other issues that participants self-reported, as related to their peers in other STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) majors. Later work will focus more on program (2-year vs 4-year) comparisons, socioeconomic issues, and level of preparation for the various majors categorized as STEAM. This paper is not intended to provide responses to the recommendations of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) report, but rather provide an overview of the responses to the inquiry focused on addressing this topic. The undergraduate engineering technology student subset of the STEAM survey respondents is about 68% male and 30% female. This is as expected, recognizing that engineering technology and related disciplines tend to be male dominated. The reporting students most frequently identified as white, followed by Asian and Hispanic. Most students attended a suburban, public high school and about 47% of students reported receiving no support as they prepared to attend college

Engineering Technology Graduates: A Survey of Demographics and Mentoring

Early in 2017, a team of engineering technology practitioners along with others interested in the state of engineering technology published a report entitled “Engineering Technology Education in the United States.” This report garnered a list of recommendations and things that needed to be investigated to further our understanding of this student population; specifically focusing on the students and how they relate to other students studying both similar and different material. A team of like-minded engineering technology education researchers have been working together to ascertain the answers to the findings. They prepared two surveys, obtained institutional approval, and distributed it throughout the United States. One survey was designed to query undergraduate students and the other student graduates or those who have already graduated. This paper is intended to provide a high-level review of what was found in the graduate survey, while future journal publications will take a deeper look into some of the prevailing issues identified by the report. The survey was designed to address issues described in the report as “loose coupling” of completed degrees and employment. In this case, we are examining the demographics of graduates and potential influences of their career and academic choices. Later work will focus more on salaries and other factors that influence engineering technology graduates and their lives post-graduation. Responding graduates are closely aligned to the graduate demographic with nearly 57% male and nearly 42% female. Since STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) graduates were polled, the number is expected to be closer to par, representing the general graduate population. Most students were white, followed by Hispanic and Asian; other races are far fewer in number. Nearly 17% of the graduates began their studies in a two-year institution, and the balance at a 4-year institution. Thirty-three percent of the respondents stated they had a graduate degree. This paper will focus on the engineering technology graduate subset of the STEAM graduate survey respondents

Construction and evaluation of group tests in reading for grades one, two, and three.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Using ePortfolios to Facilitate Transfer Student Success

Using ePortfolios to Facilitate Transfer Student Success Abstract This paper describes the use of an ePortolio to facilitate success as students transfer from a community college system to baccalaureate engineering technology programs as juniors. The ePortfolio is created as part of a transfer seminar course that meets just before and during their first semester at university. The course has three purposes: 1. Orient to the university 2. Synthesize learning from Associate of Science (AS) 3. Identify and complete any prerequisite knowledge for junior level courses. Some material may be included in the university freshman and sophomore course, but not included in associate of science courses at community college. The creation of an ePortfolio during the transfer seminar assists with the synthesis of previous learning and filling in any gaps in knowledge needed for rest of the BS plan of study. To guide the artifact selection for the ePortfolio, university faculty reviewed the state-wide core competencies and compared them to the pre-requisite knowledge required for junior level courses. The most important competencies were targeted for use in the ePortfolio. During the seminar class, students identify artifacts from their AS classes that demonstrate the competency, upload an electronic representation of the work, and write a reflection about how the artifact demonstrates their competence. The reflections are assessed by the faculty using rubrics published in the course management system. The ePortfolio tool is part of the CourseNetworking (CN) platform. CN has many advantages as an ePortfolio for this application, but the most important is that CN lets individual users own their ePortfolio for their lifetime; the site is not owned by the college or the university. Even after graduation or transferring to a new school, users may continue to access and maintain their CN ePortfolio, free of charge. This enables community college students to begin their artifact collection while taking their associate degree classes, and then complete their reflections after they transfer to the university. The use of ePortfolios and reflection on learning is an effective way to give students confidence as they begin a new program and to bridge any gaps in prerequisite knowledge

Global Patterns of Prostate Cancer Incidence, Aggressiveness, and Mortality in Men of African Descent

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the leading cancer among men of African descent in the USA, Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The estimated number of CaP deaths in SSA during 2008 was more than five times that among African Americans and is expected to double in Africa by 2030. We summarize publicly available CaP data and collected data from the men of African descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) Consortium and the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) to evaluate CaP incidence and mortality in men of African descent worldwide. CaP incidence and mortality are highest in men of African descent in the USA and the Caribbean. Tumor stage and grade were highest in SSA. We report a higher proportion of T1 stage prostate tumors in countries with greater percent gross domestic product spent on health care and physicians per 100,000 persons. We also observed that regions with a higher proportion of advanced tumors reported lower mortality rates. This finding suggests that CaP is underdiagnosed and/or underreported in SSA men. Nonetheless, CaP incidence and mortality represent a significant public health problem in men of African descent around the world

Post hoc Analysis for Detecting Individual Rare Variant Risk Associations Using Probit Regression Bayesian Variable Selection Methods in Case-Control Sequencing Studies

Rare variants (RVs) have been shown to be significant contributors to complex disease risk. By definition, these variants have very low minor allele frequencies and traditional single-marker methods for statistical analysis are underpowered for typical sequencing study sample sizes. Multimarker burden-type approaches attempt to identify aggregation of RVs across case-control status by analyzing relatively small partitions of the genome, such as genes. However, it is generally the case that the aggregative measure would be a mixture of causal and neutral variants, and these omnibus tests do not directly provide any indication of which RVs may be driving a given association. Recently, Bayesian variable selection approaches have been proposed to identify RV associations from a large set of RVs under consideration. Although these approaches have been shown to be powerful at detecting associations at the RV level, there are often computational limitations on the total quantity of RVs under consideration and compromises are necessary for large-scale application. Here, we propose a computationally efficient alternative formulation of this method using a probit regression approach specifically capable of simultaneously analyzing hundreds to thousands of RVs. We evaluate our approach to detect causal variation on simulated data and examine sensitivity and specificity in instances of high RV dimensionality as well as apply it to pathway-level RV analysis results from a prostate cancer (PC) risk case-control sequencing study. Finally, we discuss potential extensions and future directions of this work

Genome-wide association of familial prostate cancer cases identifies evidence for a rare segregating haplotype at 8q24.21

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of prostate cancer risk focused on cases unselected for family history and have reported over 100 significant associations. The International Consortium for Prostate Cancer Genetics (ICPCG) has now performed a GWAS of 2511 (unrelated) familial prostate cancer cases and 1382 unaffected controls from 12 member sites. All samples were genotyped on the Illumina 5M+exome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) platform. The GWAS identified a significant evidence for association for SNPs in six regions previously associated with prostate cancer in population-based cohorts, including 3q26.2, 6q25.3, 8q24.21, 10q11.23, 11q13.3, and 17q12. Of note, SNP rs138042437 (p = 1.7e−8) at 8q24.21 achieved a large estimated effect size in this cohort (odds ratio = 13.3). 116 previously sampled affected relatives of 62 risk-allele carriers from the GWAS cohort were genotyped for this SNP, identifying 78 additional affected carriers in 62 pedigrees. A test for an excess number of affected carriers among relatives exhibited strong evidence for co-segregation of the variant with disease (p = 8.5e−11). The majority (92 %) of risk-allele carriers at rs138042437 had a consistent estimated haplotype spanning approximately 100 kb of 8q24.21 that contained the minor alleles of three rare SNPs (dosage minor allele frequencies <1.7 %), rs183373024 (PRNCR1), previously associated SNP rs188140481, and rs138042437 (CASC19). Strong evidence for co-segregation of a SNP on the haplotype further characterizes the haplotype as a prostate cancer pre-disposition locus