651 research outputs found
Validity of the Contextual Competence Scale for Engineering Students
BackgroundEngineering educators and practitioners increasingly value contextual competence. A psychometrically sound, practical, and useful scale for assessing undergraduate engineering students' contextual competence is needed.Purpose/HypothesisThis article provides comprehensive evidence of the content, structural, discriminant, and criterionârelated validity of the contextual competence scale.Design/MethodThis study used student, alumni, and faculty survey data from a nationally representative sample of 120 U.S. engineering programs from 31 fourâyear institutions. Validity evidence was obtained by expert review of questions, a pilot test, factor analyses, and several analyses utilizing tâtests, correlations, and regression.ResultsExperts constructed the questions used in the scale (content validity). Those questions combined to measure a single concept (structural validity), the scale reliably measures (Cronbach's alphaâ=â.91) that concept, and it focuses on contextual competence instead of other student outcomes (discriminant validity). The contextual competence scale varies according to students' characteristics and curricular experiences as well as similarities and differences in student and alumni levels of contextual competence in the same programs and institutions (criterionârelated validity). Finally, the scale may be a more accurate measure of contextual competence than faculty members' perceptions of students' ability.ConclusionsThe contextual competence scale allows engineering programs to meet ABET and other selfâstudy requirements or do largeâscale research with relative ease and little expense. The process described in this article can be used by other researchers in engineering education for their scale development efforts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110541/1/jee20062.pd
Supporting the Development of Engineersâ Interdisciplinary Competence
BackgroundAlthough interdisciplinarity has been a subject of interest and debate for decades, few investigations of interdisciplinary education exist. Existing studies examine the effects of interdisciplinary experiences on studentsâ development of generic cognitive skills but not the development of interdisciplinary competencies.Purpose/HypothesisThis study sought to explore how engineering studentsâ characteristics, college experiences, and engineering faculty beliefs relate to studentsâ reports of interdisciplinary competence.Design/MethodThe study used a nationally representative survey sample of 5,018 undergraduate students and 1,119 faculty members in 120 U.S. engineering programs at 31 institutions. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we investigated the relationships among studentsâ curricular and coâcurricular experiences and faculty beliefs regarding interdisciplinarity in engineering education on studentsâ reports of interdisciplinary competence.ResultsThis study found that a curricular emphasis on interdisciplinary topics and skills, as well as coâcurricular activities, specifically, participating in nonengineering clubs and organizations, study abroad, and humanitarian engineering projects, significantly and positively relate to engineering studentsâ reports of interdisciplinary skills. Faculty membersâ beliefs regarding interdisciplinarity in engineering education moderated the relationships between particular coâcurricular experiences and studentsâ interdisciplinary skills, as well as between curricular emphasis and studentsâ interdisciplinary skills.ConclusionsThis study identified a small set of experiences that are related to studentsâ reported development of interdisciplinary competence. The study points to the critical role of the curriculum in promoting interdisciplinary thinking and habits of mind, as well as the potential of coâcurricular opportunities that bring engineering students together with nonmajors to build interdisciplinary competence.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135983/1/jee20155_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135983/2/jee20155.pd
Who Goes to Graduate School? Engineersâ Math Proficiency, College Experience, and Self-Assessment of Skills
Increasing human resources in engineering is a key concern for the United States. While some research has considered pathways to doctoral study, there is not yet clear empirical evidence on the role of undergraduate experiences in motivating engineering undergraduates to continue to graduate school, both in engineering programs and more broadly.
We investigate three influences on engineering undergraduatesâ decision to enter graduate school: (1) mathematics ability, (2) self-assessments of engineering skills, and (3) co-curricular experiences.
Using data from 1,119 engineering postgraduates, we developed a hierarchical multinomial logistic model (HMLM) to analyze the relationship between prior characteristics and their observed graduate-school enrollment behavior.
Mathematic ability, participation in undergraduate research, and self-assessed teamwork skills are all significant positive predictors of enrollment in an engineering graduate program, although self-assessed leadership skills are a negative predictor. For enrollment in a graduate school program outside of engineering, non-engineering community service or volunteer work was a significant predictor, but none of the self-assessed skills were predictors.
Our findings support past research emphasizing academic preparedness in STEMfield progression, further corroborating the claim that Kâ12 math education is a key policy lever. Our findings also indicate distinctive patterns between engineering and non-engineering graduate study in relation to self-assessed skills and co-curricular experiences. This should promote research on which types of preparation during college are needed for different career paths, to develop both teamwork and leadership within the industry
Biomedical Engineering Studentsâ Perceived Learning Through Co-Curriculars
Background: Co-curricular student outcomes research has focused on connecting outcomes to activities based on the co-curricular type. Less work has explored what aspects of those co-curricular activities could lead to student outcomes. Purpose: Our research aimed to identify common elements of co-curricular activities that connected to studentsâ development of professional, career, or personal outcomes and can inform how we study and design co-curricular activities in engineering. Design: We recruited participants from one biomedical engineering (BME) program. We used a one-year series of four semi-structured interviews with fourteen upper-level BME students to explore studentsâ perceptions of their co-curricular learning. Using a qualitative, causal analysis approach, we identified elements of studentsâ co-curricular experiences in research or a multi-disciplinary design team, as well as other co-curricular experiences (e.g., internships, professional societies), that linked to professional, career, or personal learning outcomes that have been previously identified as important in engineering education. Findings: We identified patterns of connections between unique âexperience elementsâ and a variety of âoutcome categoriesâ through participant activities we called âparticipant actions.â The most prevalent connectionsâthose experience elements and participant actions that connected to multiple outcome categoriesâincluded the experience elements Independent Project Work, Project Work That Engages Multiple Disciplines, STEM Education Opportunities, and Mentorship from a Skilled Other as well as a participant action Reflecting on Experience. We found connections to the outcome categories of Leadership, Design, Business, Interdisciplinary Competence, Disciplinary Competence, Communication, and Career Direction Outcomes. Conclusions: Based on our findings, educators and mentors should consider the value of supporting studentsâ decision-making autonomy and multidisciplinary interactions in projects to support learning. They could also incorporate opportunities for students to teach each other technical content, receive structured mentorship, and reflect on their experiences as they are happening. Further, this work demonstrates a need to explore co-curricular learning processes in new ways that can lead to better understandings of studentsâ learning processes
Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at = 5.02 TeV
Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and
associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a
nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum
range 0.7 5.0 GeV/ is examined,
to include correlations induced by jets originating from low
momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as
associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range
. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in
high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side
short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like
components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with
event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This
invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent
fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related
to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of
uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with
multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton
interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the
number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary
nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161
Multi-particle azimuthal correlations in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
Measurements of multi-particle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged
particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented. They help address the
question of whether there is evidence for global, flow-like, azimuthal
correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons are made to measurements from the
larger Pb-Pb system, where such evidence is established. In particular, the
second harmonic two-particle cumulants are found to decrease with multiplicity,
characteristic of a dominance of few-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions.
However, when a gap is placed to suppress such correlations,
the two-particle cumulants begin to rise at high-multiplicity, indicating the
presence of global azimuthal correlations. The Pb-Pb values are higher than the
p-Pb values at similar multiplicities. In both systems, the second harmonic
four-particle cumulants exhibit a transition from positive to negative values
when the multiplicity increases. The negative values allow for a measurement of
to be made, which is found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions at
similar multiplicities. The second harmonic six-particle cumulants are also
found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, we generally find
which is indicative of a Bessel-Gaussian
function for the distribution. For very high-multiplicity Pb-Pb
collisions, we observe that the four- and six-particle cumulants become
consistent with 0. Finally, third harmonic two-particle cumulants in p-Pb and
Pb-Pb are measured. These are found to be similar for overlapping
multiplicities, when a gap is placed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 20,
published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/87
K0S and Î production in Pb-Pb collisions at sNNâââââ=2.76ââTeV
The ALICE measurement of K0S and Î production at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at sNNââââ=2.76ââTeV is presented. The transverse momentum (pT) spectra are shown for several collision centrality intervals and in the pT range from 0.4ââGeV/c (0.6ââGeV/c for Î) to 12ââGeV/c. The pT dependence of the Î/K0S ratios exhibits maxima in the vicinity of 3ââGeV/c, and the positions of the maxima shift towards higher pT with increasing collision centrality. The magnitude of these maxima increases by almost a factor of three between most peripheral and most central Pb-Pb collisions. This baryon excess at intermediate pT is not observed in pp interactions at sâ=0.9ââTeV and at sâ=7ââTeV. Qualitatively, the baryon enhancement in heavy-ion collisions is expected from radial flow. However, the measured pT spectra above 2ââGeV/c progressively decouple from hydrodynamical-model calculations. For higher values of pT, models that incorporate the influence of the medium on the fragmentation and hadronization processes describe qualitatively the pT dependence of the Î/K0S ratio
Enhanced production of multi-strange hadrons in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions
At sufficiently high temperature and energy density, nuclear matter undergoes a transition to a phase in which quarks and gluons are not confined: the quark-gluon plasma (QGP)(1). Such an exotic state of strongly interacting quantum chromodynamics matter is produced in the laboratory in heavy nuclei high-energy collisions, where an enhanced production of strange hadrons is observed(2-6). Strangeness enhancement, originally proposed as a signature of QGP formation in nuclear collisions(7), is more pronounced for multi-strange baryons. Several effects typical of heavy-ion phenomenology have been observed in high-multiplicity proton-proton (pp) collisions(8,9), but the enhanced production of multi-strange particles has not been reported so far. Here we present the first observation of strangeness enhancement in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions. We find that the integrated yields of strange and multi-strange particles, relative to pions, increases significantly with the event charged-particle multiplicity. The measurements are in remarkable agreement with the p-Pb collision results(10,11), indicating that the phenomenon is related to the final system created in the collision. In high-multiplicity events strangeness production reaches values similar to those observed in Pb-Pb collisions, where a QGP is formed.Peer reviewe
Insight into particle production mechanisms via angular correlations of identified particles in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV
Sem informaçãoTwo-particle angular correlations were measured in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV for pions, kaons, protons, and lambdas, for all particle/anti-particle combinations in the pair. Data for mesons exhibit an expected peak dominated by effects associated with mini-jets and are well reproduced by general purpose Monte Carlo generators. However, for baryon-baryon and anti-baryon-anti-baryon pairs, where both particles have the same baryon number, a near-side anti-correlation structure is observed instead of a peak. This effect is interpreted in the context of baryon production mechanisms in the fragmentation process. It currently presents a challenge to Monte Carlo models and its origin remains an open question.778117Sem informaçãoSem informaçãoSem informaçãoFunded by SCOAP3
Energy dependence and fluctuations of anisotropic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at âsNN=5.02 and 2.76 TeV
Measurements of anisotropic flow coefficients with two- and multi-particle cumulants
for inclusive charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 5.02 and 2.76TeV
are reported in the pseudorapidity range |eta|< 0.8 and transverse momentum 0.2 < pT <
50 GeV/c. The full data sample collected by the ALICE detector in 2015 (2010), corresponding
to an integrated luminosity of 12.7 (2.0) ub^-1 in the centrality range 0-80%,
is analysed. Flow coefficients up to the sixth flow harmonic (v6) are reported and a detailed
comparison among results at the two energies is carried out. The pT dependence
of anisotropic flow coefficients and its evolution with respect to centrality and harmonic
number n are investigated. An approximate power-law scaling of the form vn(pT) ~ pT^(n/3)
is observed for all flow harmonics at low pT (0.2 < pT < 3 GeV/c). At the same time, the
ratios vn/vm^(n/m) are observed to be essentially independent of pT for most centralities up to
about pT = 10 GeV/c. Analysing the differences among higher-order cumulants of elliptic flow (v2),
which have different sensitivities to flow fluctuations, a measurement of the standardised
skewness of the event-by-event v2 distribution P(v2) is reported and constraints
on its higher moments are provided. The Elliptic Power distribution is used to parametrise
P(v2), extracting its parameters from fits to cumulants. The measurements are compared
to different model predictions in order to discriminate among initial-state models and to
constrain the temperature dependence of the shear viscosity to entropy-density ratio
- âŠ