Teaching Engineering Ethics in the Classroom through a Town Hall Meeting Activity

Engineers often contribute to projects that impact many people and have ethical implications. Some may even move to a career of political advocacy and policy-making. However, most engineering curricula have a strongly technical focus and do not require students to think critically about ethical issues related to engineering. To bridge this gap, we developed a classroom-based town hall meeting activity that demonstrates the ethical issues that may arise when engineers are advocating for or helping craft public policies. Our town hall meeting scenario, which was set in a fictional tourist town called Rainbow Town, divided a class of twenty engineering students into groups of engineers, politicians, and voters. There were two opposing political groups and two engineering groups with competing interests. The voters had individual characters with varying careers and objectives. The town hall meeting was a debate on whether Rainbow Town should undertake a construction project that would bring jobs to the city, but could potentially adversely impact fish population at the town’s natural heritage site, the main source of income for the town. The objective of the activity varied based on what role each student was playing. The politicians’ job was to further the objectives of their own party while simultaneously keeping their voter base happy. The engineers’ job was to help voters make an informed decision about which policy (or party) to vote for, while helping politicians craft the right policy. The voters’ job was to protect their own livelihoods. Despite the simplicity of the town hall meeting scenario, the students wholeheartedly donned the mantle of their assigned role, taking the objectives of their role seriously. At the post-activity debrief, students commented that the activity was harder on the engineers since they had to prove everything with facts, but the politician groups did not.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Synthesis of palladium-gold alloy nanoparticle catalysts for the reduction of nitrite in water

Hydrogenation using palladium-based (Pd-based) catalysts has emerged as a promising treatment method for nitrate in drinking water. However, low catalytic activity and longevity can be a barrier to widespread adoption over conventional treatment methods. Controlling catalyst structure at the molecular scale is one approach to improving catalytic activity and longevity. Intermetallic palladium-gold nanoparticle (PdAu NP) alloy catalysts of varying composition were synthesized for nitrite reduction using a polyol reduction method and microwave-assisted heating. The average size of PdAu NPs was 4.1 ± 2.2 nm. Enhanced nitrite reduction has been previously observed for Pd combined with Au in a core-shell NP structure, but has not been studied for intermetallic PdAu alloy NPs. Moreover, the mechanism by which Au enhances Pd-catalyzed nitrite reduction is not well understood. The PdAu NPs were loaded into an amorphous silica support and evaluated for nitrite reduction in a batch reactor. Reaction followed pseudo first-order kinetics for greater than 80% of conversion. Catalyst activity showed volcano-like behavior with varying composition .... All PdAu alloys were significantly more active for nitrite reduction compared to pure Pd NPs, despite Au being catalytically inactive for hydrogenation. Sulfide fouling and catalyst longevity studies were conducted. The presence of Au in the catalyst structure did not appear to enhance resistance to sulfide fouling. Moreover, catalyst activity was reduced upon repeated cycles of nitrite reduction. Further investigation is required to understand the mechanism for catalyst deactivation.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Exploring how natural language reflects individual and group social dynamics

Language can be a window into people’s thoughts, feelings, and life experiences. With the increasing use of online communication platforms, researchers now have more avenues to study people’s life events using real-time and real-world data. My dissertation attempts to identify the most important language markers for understanding people’s cognitive, social, and emotional lives. What are signs in language that predict a distressing life event and how do people cope with it in the months afterward? After identifying a large group of users on Reddit (N = 6,813) who had gone through emotional upheavals such as breakups, divorce, or other distressing life events, we tracked their language in the months before, during and after their upheaval (Chapter 2). In 2020, the world faced a global crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic. In the US, the pandemic was followed by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of summer 2020, a time of national reckoning on police brutality. These two events naturally led to the question of how people dealt with collective upheavals compared to a personal crisis like a breakup and how the context of the pandemic (social isolation, people living in lockdowns) affected people’s response to the BLM movement. Would the two upheavals interact with each other in any way? A large-scale Reddit dataset (33.7 million posts, 1.37 million users) was used to study the two upheavals (Chapter 3). After identifying important language markers that help us understand people’s psychological state during personal and collective upheavals, we wanted to see if the same markers were important for understanding social dynamics outside of the context of upheavals. A group of individuals who were all part of the same work team were recruited to hold a series of one-on-one chats with everyone else on the team (N = 27; 198 conversations). The language markers that predict successful conversations were identified from the study (Chapter 4). The final chapter puts together the insights from the three different studies and highlights the contribution of each of them.Psycholog

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

The Psychological Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Business Leadership

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on business leadership, specifically on chief executive officers (CEOs). To document the psychological impacts of the pandemic on corporate leadership, this study analyzed the language of CEOs during company quarterly earnings calls (N = 19,536) one year before and after the onset of the pandemic. Following the start of lockdowns, CEOs exhibited significant language shifts. Analytic thinking declined, and their language became less technical and more personal and intuitive. CEOs also showed signs of increased cognitive load as they grappled with the pandemic's impact on their business practices. The study observed a substantial decrease in collective-focused language (we-usage) among CEOs, indicative of disconnection from their companies. Concurrently, there was an increase in self-focused (I-usage) language, suggesting heightened preoccupation among business leaders. The observed language changes reflect the unique effect of the pandemic on CEOs, which had some notable differences compared to the general population. This study sheds light on how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced business leaders' psychological states and decision-making strategies—processes that have a substantial impact on a company’s performance. The findings underscore the importance of language data in understanding large-scale societal event

CEOs’ language change over the decade.

Change in language patterns of Reddit users and CEOs before and after the pandemic. The red line represents Reddit post history in the displayed time range (N = 33.7 million posts). The blue line refers to all CEO transcripts in the displayed time range (N = 79,725 transcripts). The vertical Line Represents the onset of the pandemic. Each point is the average score across CEOs (N = 4,707 CEO) and Redditors (N = 1.37 million) at that time block (1 quarter intervals; 3 months). The horizontal shaded areas are 95% CIs for each datapoint, vertical shading represent virus surges. The self-focused language is measured using I-words and collective-focused using we-words. Effect sizes presented are the average effect size at 5 and 10 years for the CEO dataset.</p

LIWC dimensions of interest example.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on business leadership, specifically on chief executive officers (CEOs). To document the psychological impacts of the pandemic on corporate leadership, this study analyzed the language of CEOs during company quarterly earnings calls (N = 19,536) one year before and after the onset of the pandemic. Following the start of lockdowns, CEOs exhibited significant language shifts. Analytic thinking declined, and their language became less technical and more personal and intuitive. CEOs also showed signs of increased cognitive load as they grappled with the pandemic’s impact on their business practices. The study observed a substantial decrease in collective-focused language (we-usage) among CEOs, indicative of disconnection from their companies. Concurrently, there was an increase in self-focused (I-usage) language, suggesting heightened preoccupation among business leaders. The observed language changes reflect the unique effect of the pandemic on CEOs, which had some notable differences compared to the general population. This study sheds light on how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced business leaders’ psychological states and decision-making strategies—processes that have a substantial impact on a company’s performance. The findings underscore the importance of language data in understanding large-scale societal events.</div

Supporting information.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on business leadership, specifically on chief executive officers (CEOs). To document the psychological impacts of the pandemic on corporate leadership, this study analyzed the language of CEOs during company quarterly earnings calls (N = 19,536) one year before and after the onset of the pandemic. Following the start of lockdowns, CEOs exhibited significant language shifts. Analytic thinking declined, and their language became less technical and more personal and intuitive. CEOs also showed signs of increased cognitive load as they grappled with the pandemic’s impact on their business practices. The study observed a substantial decrease in collective-focused language (we-usage) among CEOs, indicative of disconnection from their companies. Concurrently, there was an increase in self-focused (I-usage) language, suggesting heightened preoccupation among business leaders. The observed language changes reflect the unique effect of the pandemic on CEOs, which had some notable differences compared to the general population. This study sheds light on how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced business leaders’ psychological states and decision-making strategies—processes that have a substantial impact on a company’s performance. The findings underscore the importance of language data in understanding large-scale societal events.</div

CEOs’ language change.

Change in language patterns of Reddit users and CEOs before and after the pandemic. The red line represents Reddit post history in the displayed time range (N = 10,738,506 posts). The blue line refers to all CEO transcripts in the displayed time range (N = 19,536 calls). Vertical Line Represents the onset of the pandemic. Each point is the average score across CEOS (N = 3,044) Reddit users (N = 834,172) at that time block (1 month intervals). The horizontal shaded areas are +/- 1 standard error for each datapoint, vertical shading represent virus surges. The self-focused language is measured using I-words and collective-focused using we-words.</p