Feedback through student essay competitions: what makes a good engineering lecturer?

The Engineering Subject Centre of the HE Academy has run student essay competitions for some years. In 2008 the title was ‘What makes a good engineering lecturer?’. This paper presents an analysis of the 43 submissions, carried out to identify the most commonly cited attributes and to present quotes that convey the spirit of the essays. The same title had been used for the first competition in 2004, and the outcomes of the 2008 competition are compared with those previously published for the 2004 award. The attributes most commonly identified across both sets of essays are use of real-world examples, approachability, enthusiasm, diversity of media, and good communication

The Transportation Problems of the Mentally Retarded

See this work in the Center for Transportation Research Library catalog: https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/Presto/catalogid=5776Present Mental Health-Mental Retardation Programs de-emphasize institutional containment and attempt to place moderately and mildly retarded individuals in the normal environment on a self-supportive basis. To accomplish this they need to acquire a knowledge of the various transportation modes available to them in the community. This study identifies the travel problems experienced by the educable retarded and the instruction necessary for improving their mobility and environmental awareness. Inadequate travel training and institutional isolation affects the retarded individuals awareness of job, shopping and recreational opportunities. Institutional priorities should be re-evaluated and more emphasis placed on travel training programs.Center for Transportation ResearchSee this work in the Center for Transportation Research Library catalog

Source parameters of earthquakes, and discrimination between earthquakes and nuclear explosions

The first part of this study describes a technique by which the source parameters of an earthquake can be obtained from the spectrum of compressional waves. The source parameters defined are fault length, fracture velocity, and fault plane attitude. Two large, deep earthquakes are examined using this technique. The source parameters determined compare favorably with those obtained previously using different techniques. In the second section a method is proposed for discrimination between underground explosions and earthquakes. The technique utilizes the ratio of the spectrums of the two classes of events where the path of propagation is common to both. On the basis of the analysis of the SHOAL event and a nearby shallow earthquake it appears that the duration as determined from the spectral ratio is almost 10 times smaller for an explosion than it is for a comparable earthquake