The Role of Mathmatics Courses in the Assessment Process of Engineering ABET-Outcomes

This paper deals with the mathematics courses offered to the engineering students at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). The paper focuses essentially on the level of achievement by the students of the outcomes of the mathematics and how this reflects on the satisfaction of the engineering ABET-outcomes. Mapping between the course outcomes of the different math courses offered at UAEU to engineering students and the engineering ABET criteria ((a)–(k)) was made. It is found that most of the ABET-outcomes are to a great extent in-line with the outcomes of our mathematics courses. This encourages us to use the achievement of the courses outcomes as an assessment tool for the engineering ABET-outcomes. We considered both direct and indirect assessment tools to assess the level of satisfaction of the math courses outcomes. The performances of the students according to both methods are then used to assess the achievements of the ABET-outcomes. The results generally show very good level of achievement of the outcomes, although few ABET-outcomes were not achieved well according to our performance criteria. Accordingly, we provide some comments and recommendations aiming at the improvement of the program

Redox-active pigeon excreta mediated metal oxides nanosheets for enhancing co-catalyst for photovoltaic performance in dye-sensitized solar cells

Pigeon excreta (PE) contains a significant amount of organic components, which are harmful to the environment and humans. Hence, the proper disposal of PE deals with practical problems. Furthermore, using PE for other energy sources is an efficient innovation. In this study, an innovative technique was implemented for producing agglomeration free and distinct metal oxides using PE as a surfactant and capping agent. The different characterizations and their analysis explain the mechanism involved in forming distinct metal oxide nanosheets utilizing PE. The obtained samples were confirmed by the characteristic peaks of PE mediated metal oxides such as (NiO, Co3O4 and CuO) observed in X-ray diffraction (43.47°, 36.61° and 35.71°), and the UV-DRS band-gap narrowing (2.4, 2.13 and 2.02 eV). In the FTIR spectrum, it is clearly evident that there is a high amine group in the PE which plays a key role in reducing the agglomeration in the metal oxides. The morphology of PE mediated NiO, Co3O4 and CuO revealed nanoflakes and nanosheets like structures identified from FE-SEM analysis. The photovoltaic performance of the PE mediated metal oxides showed improved photocurrent conversion efficiencies of 1.2–1.6 times more than pure metal oxides. Among all, the CuO-PE had the most significant photovoltaic performance, with a photoconversion efficiency of 3.22 %. The reduction of I3− to 3I− along the counter electrode/electrolyte interaction is facilitated by the PE mediated transition metal oxides, as shown by the photocurrent response, Tafel plot and electrical impedance spectroscopy results, which were discussed in detail