Curriculum agility at faculty, department, program, and course level

This short paper describes the first prototyping of a self-evaluation process of Curriculum Agility at a Faculty of Technology in Sweden. The process comprises guided, semi-structured, individual interviews at different organisational levels within the faculty, a joint narrative based on those interviews, prioritizing development strategies per level, and jointly mapping them on importance and implementation time. The self-evaluation is part of and based on the research on the principles of Curriculum Agility. The results show the interplay in timely curriculum change for futureproof engineering education between the teaching staff, the systems and the people who control the systems. The self-evaluation brings together the different perspectives and perceptions within the faculty and gives insight in how those affect the willingness towards and occurrence of curriculum development. This work in progress indicates how doing such a qualitative self-evaluation paves the road for transparent strategic dialogues on a holistic level about what to give attention and organize differently

Helicobacter pylori Adapts to Chronic Infection and Gastric Disease via pH-Responsive BabA-Mediated Adherence

International audienceThe BabA adhesin mediates high-affinity binding of Helicobacter pylori to the ABO blood group antigen-glycosylated gastric mucosa. Here we show that BabA is acid responsive-binding is reduced at low pH and restored by acid neutralization. Acid responsiveness differs among strains; often correlates with different intragastric regions and evolves during chronic infection and disease progression; and depends on pH sensor sequences in BabA and on pH reversible formation of high-affinity binding BabA multimers. We propose that BabA's extraordinary reversible acid responsiveness enables tight mucosal bacterial adherence while also allowing an effective escape from epithelial cells and mucus that are shed into the acidic bactericidal lumen and that bio-selection and changes in BabA binding properties through mutation and recombination with babA-related genes are selected by differences among individuals and by changes in gastric acidity over time. These processes generate diverse H. pylori subpopulations, in which BabA's adaptive evolution contributes to H. pylori persistence and overt gastric disease

Black-box metoden för utvärdering av måluppfyllelse och utveckling av programstruktur för ingenjörsutbildning

Vi beskriver hur ”Black-box metoden” används i utvecklingsarbetet med ingenjörsprogram vid Tekniska högskolan, Umeå universitet. Exempel ges på praktiskt genomförande och hur resultaten kan användas i programutvecklingsarbetet

Modell för arbetsintegrerat lärande på högskoleingenjörsutbildning

Vi beskriver en nyligen införd modell för arbetsintegrerat lärande (AIL) eller co-op (co-operative education) på högskoleingenjörsprogrammen i maskinteknik respektive elektro- och datorteknik. Modellen innebär att genom samverkan med företag i närregionen erbjuda och garantera ett antal programstudenter feriearbeten under två perioder, samt examensarbeten. I modellen ingår också företagsanknutna projektarbeten och en studieresa. Upplägget förväntas bidra till positiva effekter för samtliga parter, för utbildningsprogrammen, för samarbetsföretagen samt för studenterna. Vi förklarar även hur arbetsintegrerat lärande stöds av vedertagna lärandeteorier

An Integrated Learning Model In Collaboration With Industrial Partners

We present a recently developed learning model of work integrated learning in the Bachelor programs in Mechanical Engineering as well as Electronic and Computer Engineering at Umeå University, Sweden. The model is based on an organized collaboration with our industrial partners in the surrounding geographic region. As a part of the collaboration, each participating student is guaranteed internships at a chosen company over the summer period. In the model, company based projects are integrated with some of the study program courses. Moreover, the participating students are given a possibility to perform their final thesis at the chosen company. We consider this collaboration as a "win-win situation" for the three parties involved in the learning model: the students, the University/faculty and the industrial partners. A number of positive effects have been observed and documented as follows: i) The integrated learning improves the learning process for the students, where learning, knowledge and practice are integrated into the engineering curricula. ii) The general quality of the study programs in the faculty has been developed and improved based on the professional skills as required by modern industrial companies. iii) The obtained advantage for the industrial partners has been to establish professional contacts with the students as well as the possibility to be acquainted with potential future employees. We discuss the experiences of this learning model in relation to CDIO standard 7 (Integrated Learning Experiences) and 8 (Active Learning). It has been found that the company based projects promote interdisciplinary learning as well as fostering system building skills and personal communication skills. Moreover, the developed learning model supports the expected learning outcomes, especially with regard to interpersonal skills,  teamwork and communication. Finally, we investigate the learning theories that support the developed learning model from a pedagogical point of view

Comparative Study of Various Endoscopes for Pulsed Digital Holographic Interferometry

A comparison of several endoscopes as object image carriers in pulsed digital holography is presented. Three multicore flexible fiber endoscopes of different spatial resolution and one rigid endoscope are investigated. The four endoscopes are integrated in a setup for the recording of digital holograms on a CCD camera. A double-pulsed ruby laser is used as the light source. A spatial carrier is introduced by an off-axis reference beam, which permits quantitative evaluation of the phase difference between two holograms recorded with a short time separation (5–600 μs). From reported studies it may be inferred that the quality of the phase maps so derived from digital holographic interferometry has a strong correlation to the spatial resolution of the multicore fiber used in these endoscopes. With the endoscopic technique combined with pulsed digital holography a number of useful applications (in areas such as medical endoscopy, micromechanics, and microelectronics) are envisaged for which access to the objects of interest is otherwise difficult

Highly Sensitive Pulsed Digital Holography for Built-in-defect analysis with a laser excitation.

A highly sensitive method is presented for noninvasive defect analysis on thin structures with a Q-switched double-pulsed ruby laser with frequency doubling (347 nm). In our research we feature an all-optical arrangement, where a focused laser pulse derived from the same ruby laser (694 nm) acts as a built-in synchronous excitation source for digital holographic interferometry. The recordings are made with a CCD camera for capturing two holograms (two states of the specimen) corresponding to the two UV laser pulses with a short time separation (10–50 μs). Subtraction of the phase distribution in two digital holograms gives a fringe phase map that shows the change in deformation of the specimen between the recordings. The advantage of the proposed method is two fold. First, the use of a shorter wavelength results in a higher sensitivity. Second, owing to the induced synchronous built-in optical excitation, the specimen is not subjected to any external physical excitation devices. Experimental results are presented on identification and evaluation of defects in thin metal sheets