Light Therapy Treatment Using Quiet Motors and Remote Control

A final year Electrical Engineering student worked with Camphill Community to develop a quiet motor system to adjust the blinds in a light therapy treatment room for people with cerebral palsy.https://arrow.tudublin.ie/civpostbk/1013/thumbnail.jp

Observation

Observation – get engagement with group learning process, group discussions and self- directed phase. Their actions dictate learning. The tutor must try to gauge learning through monitoring interaction

Spatial Thinking in the Engineering Curriculum: an Investigation of the Relationship Between Problem Solving and Spatial Skills Among Engineering Students.

Long considered a primary factor of intelligence, spatial ability has been shown to correlate strongly with success in engineering education, yet is rarely included as a learning outcome in engineering programmes. A clearer understanding of how and why spatial ability impacts on performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects would allow educators to determine if spatial skills development merits greater priority in STEM curricula. The aim of this study is to help inform that debate by shedding new light on the role of spatial thinking in STEM learning and allow teaching practice and curriculum design to be informed by evidence based research. A cross cutting theme in STEM education – problem solving – is examined with respect to its relationship with spatial ability. Several research questions were addressed that related to the role and relevance of spatial ability to first year engineering education and, more specifically, the manner in which spatial ability is manifest in the representation and solution of word story problems in mathematics. Working with samples of engineering students in Ireland and the United States, data were collected in the form of responses to spatial ability tests and problem solving exercises in the areas of mathematics and electric circuits. Following a pilot study to select and refine a set of mathematical story problems a mixed methods design was followed in which data were first analysed using quantitative methods to highlight phenomena that were then explored using an interpretive approach. With regard to engineering education in general, it was found that spatial ability cannot be assumed to improve as students progress through an engineering programme and that spatial ability is highly relevant to assessments that require reasoning about concepts, novel scenarios and problems but can remain hidden in overall course grades possibly due to an emphasis on assessing rote learning. With regard to problem solving, spatial ability was found to have a significant relationship with the problem representation step but not with the solution step. Those with high levels of spatial ability were more able to apply linguistic and schematic knowledge to the problem representation phase which led to higher success rates in translating word statements to mathematical form

Improving the Quality of PBL Modules in an Engineering Programme

Engineering programmes have a strong reputation in the delivery of technical knowledge and skills. Graduates need equally high levels of competence in personal and professional skills to not only improve themselves and meet the existing requirements of employers and professional bodies but to also help them manage the inevitable changes that society is facing in an increasingly populated world. The need to move from traditional to student-centred learning in the context of engineering education was the motivation for this project. This can be facilitated through the use of group-based,problem –driven learning as this offers high integration of technical and non-technical knowledge and skills and requires more engagement with the programme from today’s students. The School of Electrical Engineering Systems in the DIT now delivers a number of engineering modules in this format but experience has shown that it takes a significant amount of time for students to develop personal skills to a high degree. The aim of this project was to develop additional group learning modules and enhance existing ones to pay more attention to personal development. Each of the first three years of the Bachelor of Electrical Engineering programme now contains a group-based module in which learning is project or problem driven and the tutor pays significant attention to personal skills. The concept of progressive development of personal skills was also investigated and a framework to develop these in a structured way through the delivery of group based modules was proposed. The development of further group learning modules and an examination of the effectiveness of this framework will form the basis for continuing this project into the future

Lego Sumo Wrestling: Electrical Engineering Students Teach Programming to Children in Ballymun

Engineering students from DIT teach in the Aisling Projects in Ballymun where they work with children in programming Lego Mindstorms robots.https://arrow.tudublin.ie/civpostbk/1012/thumbnail.jp

Evaporation of a thin droplet on a thin substrate with a high thermal resistance

A mathematical model for the quasi-steady evaporation of a thin liquid droplet on a thin substrate that incorporates the dependence of the saturation concentration of vapour at the free surface of the droplet on temperature is used to examine an atypical situation in which the substrate has a high thermal resistance relative to the droplet (i.e. it is highly insulating and/or is thick relative to the droplet). In this situation diffusion of heat through the substrate is the rate-limiting evaporative process and at leading order the local mass flux is spatially uniform, the total evaporation rate is proportional to the surface area of the droplet, and the droplet is uniformly cooled. In particular, the qualitative differences between the predictions of the present model in this situation and those of the widely used 'basic' model in which the saturation concentration is independent of temperature are highlighted

A Model for Spurring Organizational Change Based on Faculty Experiences Working Together to Implement Problem-Based Learning

This research paper provides a case study of experiences of engineering faculty members at a large public university in Ireland working together to transform their teaching methods. We investigate eight teachers’ experiences of a faculty-led learning community designed to help individuals transform their courses. This small collection of faculty met regularly to discuss ways to facilitate and assess students working in groups. Outside the group’s meetings, participants brought important issues to the forefront of formal and informal discussion with colleagues. Participation in the learning group encouraged, supported, and helped sustain change. This case study seeks to provide insight and a conceptual model for implementing changes. In analyzing the mechanisms that fostered change in one particular program and then interpreting the findings, we draw conclusions that can help faculty members, program administrators, strategists, and policy makers facilitate change in their other educational settings. To understand how key players experienced and achieved change, we conducted in-depth semistructured interviews with individual faculty members. We used a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1994) along with template analysis (King, 2004) to study interview transcripts. All members described having an active champion, an experienced and informed advisor, various forms of institutional support, and a group of colleagues interested in discussing pedagogy and implementing new approaches. From this, we distilled a model for encouraging transformation that holds promise for use elsewhere

A Framework to Develop Lifelong Learning and Transferable Skills in an Engineering Programme

Engineering programmes have a strong reputation in the delivery of technical knowledge and skills. Graduates need equally high levels of competence in personal and professional skills to not only meet the existing requirements of employers and professional bodies but to also help them manage the inevitable changes that society is facing in an increasingly populated world. The need to move from traditional to student-centred learning is discussed in the context of engineering education. The use of group-based, problem driven learning facilitates high integration of technical and non-technical knowledge and skills and requires more engagement with the programme from today’s student. Personal skills should be developed from a low base in a progressive, structured manner over the entire programme. A framework is presented to help those in curriculum design to develop learning, teaching and assessment methods that are in alignment with the delivery of all the intended learning outcomes in an accredited engineering programme. Through the use of group-based pedagogies, the student is required to develop a basic understanding of group collaboration skills and self-directed learning in the first year. As these are enhanced in the subsequent years, increasing attention is paid to other personal knowledge and skills such as critical thinking, creativity and awareness of ethics. High levels of direction from the tutor fade over time as the students become more competent at managing learning