The Effects of a First Year Engineering Class Using the SCALE-Up Method on Student Retention and Subsequent Student Pass Rates

Due to the increased demand for engineers, the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) created a new, first year engineering class using the Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-Up) method to specifically address engineering student retention by encouraging student persistence and success throughout their academic career. Since UTA enjoys a very diverse student population with varying learning styles, socio-economic backgrounds, and prior knowledge and preparation, the SCALE-Up method was chosen due to its reliance on problem-based, active learning strategies, peer instruction through teamwork, and peer leaders within the classroom. After two and a half years of implementation of this class, known as ENGR 1300 – Engineering Problem Solving, this paper will explore the first year and second year engineering retention rates. This comparison will show that engineering retention rates have increased since ENGR 1300 was implemented. Further, this paper will show this increase occurs across multiple student type groups, provided that the student take ENGR 1300 in their first semester. Finally, to assess the positive effects of the new class, this paper will show that the pass rates of three subsequent mechanical engineering classes, Statics, Dynamics, and Strength of Materials, increased after ENGR 1300 was implemented.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Getting the Right Stuff with the Write Stuff: Instructional Methods to Improve Writing in a First Year Engineering Course

Engineering Problem Solving (ENGR 1300) is a first year engineering course at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) designed to prepare students for the rigors of the engineering majors by introducing them to engineering skills such as problem solving, programming, and professional writing. This embedded writing element, taught by members of the UTA English Department, differentiates this first-year course from many others. Heeding the concern of faculty members regarding the students’ ability to write professionally, the curriculum committee for ENGR 1300 collaborated with the English Department to create an initial curriculum that tasked students with basic writing tasks such as professional emails, resumes, reports, and simple process papers. While these assignments seemed to answer some of the overall concerns of faculty, the wide range of reading and writing abilities we see among our students caused many to be frustrated because they could not complete these tasks, while others expressed resentment at having to replicate tasks they had mastered in high school. Writing instructors, too, noted their limited effectiveness when attempting to give meaningful feedback to large enrollment sections of students. To address these issues, the writing curriculum was revised to include the rhetorical précis assignments that build upon each other. These rhetorical précis assignments require students to assimilate large amounts of technical information and summarize it into a few, complex sentences. Using these assignments for our writing instruction not only allows writing faculty to give specific feedback even in large enrollment sections, but also challenges advanced writers, offers sentence level writing practice to less-prepared writers, requires critical thinking, and encourages complex synthesis of ideas. This paper will explore the effectiveness of this method for all writing levels and will attempt to identify and compare correlations between the students’ writing and overall grades in the course using these two methods.Cockrell School of Engineerin

An Investigation of the Application of Phase Change Materials in Practical Thermal Management Systems

This work investigates the application of alternative cooling techniques to thermal management. In the first section, this work presents models and extensive simulation studies on an alternative cooling strategy based upon phase change materials (PCMs) for the thermal management system of a LED headlight assembly. These studies have shown that properly chosen PCMs, when suspended in metal foam matrices, increased the thermal conductivity of the PCM. The increased thermal conductivity can enhance the cooling characteristics of a practical thermal management system for a LED headlight system. To further enhance the advantages of using PCMs, nanoparticle enhanced fluids (nanofluids) are desirable as an additional source of cooling. The use of nanofluids motivates the development of a new diagnostic tool for multiphase flows and a minimization algorithm for analyzing the data. For this purpose, the second section of this work develops a new technique that is based on wavelength-multiplexed laser extinction (WMLE) to measure particle sizes in multiphase flows. In the final section of this work, the simulated algorithm (SA) is investigated for analyzing the data collected in this work. Specifically, the parallelization of the SA technique is investigated to reduce the high computational cost associated with the SA algorithm

Brief announcement: passive and active attacks on audience response systems using software defined radios

Audience response systems, also known as clickers, are used at many academic institutions to offer active learning environments. Since these systems are used to administer graded assignments, and sometimes even exams, it is crucial to assess their security. Our work seeks to exploit and document potential vulnerabilities of clickers. For this purpose, we use software defined radios to perform jamming, sniffing and spoofing attacks on an audience response system in production, which provide different possible methods of cheating. The results of our study demonstrate that clickers are easily exploitable. We build a prototype and show that it is practically possible to covertly steal or forge answers of a peer or even an entire classroom, with high levels of confidence. Additionally, we find that the receivers software of the system lacks protection against unexpected answers, which allows our spoofer to submit any ASCII character and opens the receiver up to possible fuzzing attacks. As a result of this study, we discourage using clickers for high-stake assessments, unless they provide proper security protection..http://people.bu.edu/staro/SSS2017_Brief_v0.pdfhttp://people.bu.edu/staro/SSS2017_Brief_v0.pdfhttp://people.bu.edu/staro/SSS2017_Brief_v0.pdfAccepted manuscrip

The Viability of Parallel Processing Technology for Use in Rotorcraft Simulation. Internal Report No. 9504

This report documents the viability of parallel processing technology for use in Rotorcraft Simulation. The generic rotorcraft simulation model RASCAL (Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Simulation for Control Analysis) has been 'parallelised' in a number of different ways and the computational performance has been measured and compared to that of the sequential code. The model has been implemented on the Parsytec series of parallel computers running PARIX and also on a cluster of Silicon Graphics Indy Workstations running PVM. The clustered workstation facility forms the HNW project funded by JISC NTI

Water content and morphology of sodium chloride aerosol particles

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/1999JD900286/abstract;jsessionid=41C36E183A6316F5D3C491131615BD7A.f01t04.Sodium chloride droplets with a median diameter of ∼0.4 μm were generated in the laboratory by atomizing an aqueous solution of NaCl under ambient conditions. Infrared extinction spectra of the aerosols under controlled relative humidity (RH) ranging from 15 to 95% were obtained. The extinction spectra contained both scattering and absorption components. In order to obtain an absorption spectrum of the condensed phase H2O associated with the particulates, it was necessary to subtract from the extinction spectra the absorption by H2O vapor and the scattering by the particulates. H2O vapor subtraction was accomplished by a standard technique. A procedure using Mie theory to subtract the scattering component of the extinction spectrum is described. The absorption spectra were used to determine the water content and structure of the particulates. Above ∼50% RH the aerosols contain aqueous droplets that have not reached equilibrium with the water vapor during the timescale of the experiments (∼10 s). There is a sharp transition in water content at around 50% RH which is consistent with other measures of the recrystallization point. Below 50% RH the NaCl particles contain an anomalously large amount of H2O. Several different particle models are considered to explain the H2O content. The model in which the NaCl particles contain pockets of aqueous NaCl solution was found to be most consistent with the spectroscopic observations. The relevance of salt particle morphology and water content to atmospheric aerosol chemistry is discussed

Infrared spectroscopic signatures of (NH4)2SO4 aerosols

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/96JD01543/abstract.Ammonium sulfate particles in air with average diameters ranging from 0.1 to 0.5-μm have been generated by atomizing aqueous solutions of (NH4)2SO4 of various concentrations at ambient temperatures and pressures. The infrared spectra from 4000 to 600 cm−1 of the resulting aerosols have been investigated. This spectral region has allowed us to study the four infrared-active vibrational modes of this salt: ν3(NH4+), ν4(NH4+), ν3(SO42−), and ν4(SO42−). The frequencies of these modes are similar to published results obtained from infrared studies of the single crystal but are displaced to higher wavenumbers. Depending on relative humidity, the aerosol particles are crystalline or supersaturated aqueous droplets. These phase identifications are possible because liquid water absorption features are found in the droplets but not in the crystals. Extensive Mie theory calculations have been performed for spheres of diameters ranging from 0.1-μm to 2.0-μm to explore frequency shifts and the relative contributions to extinction of scattering and absorption with particle size. We show that, for the smaller particles, the molecular cross section in the ν3(SO42−) region can be used to determine the number of (NH4)2SO4 molecules in an aerosol sample. The (small) frequency shifts in this region provide information on the aerosol particle size. A Mie theory calculation of extinction for a model polydisperse aerosol, believed to approximate that of an experimental aerosol, gives reasonable agreement with the observed spectrum. While calculated band centers of the four modes are within 1% of those observed, values of extinction can differ by as much as 50%. We discuss possible reasons for the discrepancies. Spectroscopic changes observed for an aerosol as the particles settle are discussed in terms of kinetic models and Mie theory. We discuss the potential of spectroscopic signatures of tropospheric (NH4)2SO4 aerosols for the characterization of their size, morphology, phase, and composition. Finally, we propose a field experiment to measure sulfate aerosol in the arctic troposphere

To Pay or Not to Pay: An Empirical Examination of the Effect of Injunctive Norms on Charitable Donations

CHARITABLE ENDEAVORS OFTEN FACE RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS AND RELY ON ALTRUISM FOR MONETARY DONATIONS NECESSARY TO PURSUE MISSION-DRIVEN OPERATIONS. IMPLEMENTATION OF AN HONOR-BASED PAYMENT SYSTEM TO ATTRACT DONATIONS ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE SOME PORTION OF THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH FUNDRAISING ACTIVITY. HOWEVER, HONOR-BASED SYSTEMS ARE NOT MONITORED AND, THEREFORE, SUSCEPTIBLE TO UNDERPAYMENT AND THEFT. THIS STUDY EXAMINES HOW POSTING A MESSAGE COMMUNICATING A NEGATIVE INJUNCTIVE NORM AFFECTS CHARITABLE DONATIONS RESULTING FROM PROVISION OF A SNACK BOX USING AN HONOR-BASED PAYMENT SYSTEM. THE STUDY FINDS THAT PRESENTATION OF AN INJUNCTIVE NORM DISSUADES CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DONORS INCLINED TOWARD SLIGHT UNDERPAYMENT BUT DOES NOT DETER GROSS UNDERPAYMENT OR THEFT. THE OVERALL EFFECT IS A DECLINE IN DONATIONS. THE STUDY CONCLUDES BY IDENTIFYING INSIGHTS LIKELY TO IMPROVE THE PROBABILITY OF SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF AN HONOR-BASED SNACK BOX INTENDED FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES