Engineers for the future; accounting for diversity

tailoring engineering and STEM education to meet the needs of all stakeholders. (External Industry requirement) a. Educational institutions must consider an increasingly diverse group of stakeholders, including students, staff, industry, and the wider community. How can educational activities expand our horizons beyond classroom and industry experience

Reflecting on our own learning: incorporating diverse worldviews into teaching and learning activities.

CONTEXT The teacher’s experience is frequently overlooked as a source of useful data on teaching practice. Nelson (2003, p. 85) points out that “every class is potentially an experiment from which the data are either discarded or never gathered.” This paper presents two academics’ reflections on the impact of their training in te reo Maori and tikanga Maori on their teaching activities. PURPOSE To reflect on academics’ learning of Maori language and culture in order to design teaching and learning activities that incorporate Maori language and the Maori worldview. APPROACH The paper uses three of Brookfield’s (1998) four lenses of reflection on teaching practice. RESULTS The first academic considered it was important to enable students to adequately explore the worldviews of the diverse stakeholders they will design products for in future and to test students on their understanding of these in order to satisfy cultural aspects of the graduate profile outcomes. The second academic found benefits of the use of Maori language in class in creating an atmosphere reflective of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Each academic found something to learn from the other’s work. CONCLUSIONS Adding the Maori language and worldview enables the classroom to better reflect New Zealand’s bi-cultural environment and student projects to better meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups, and also explicitly addresses the cultural aspects of the graduate profile

Residential air quality improvement system

Many New Zealand homes suffer from cold, damp and mould-ridden homes during the winter which can cause respiratory health problems. This can be due to poor insulation and ventilation and is made worse when residents cannot afford heating. The main aim of this paper is to modify an existing dehumidifier which can remove moisture, heat the home and reduce the mould and bacteria. To achieve that we combined the properties of a dehumidifier with ultraviolet germicidal lights (UV), which have been proven to effectively destroy the DNA of mould and bacteria. The result shows that the device reduced the mould growth and did increase the room temperature. This due to the fact that the dehumidifier captured 2 litters of water over 24 hours of testing. This shows that the device did improve the indoor air quality (IAQ) in the room

Reflecting on our own learning: incorporating diverse worldviews into teaching and learning activities.

CONTEXT The teacher’s experience is frequently overlooked as a source of useful data on teaching practice. Nelson (2003, p. 85) points out that “every class is potentially an experiment from which the data are either discarded or never gathered.” This paper presents two academics’ reflections on the impact of their training in te reo Maori and tikanga Maori on their teaching activities. PURPOSE To reflect on academics’ learning of Maori language and culture in order to design teaching and learning activities that incorporate Maori language and the Maori worldview. APPROACH The paper uses three of Brookfield’s (1998) four lenses of reflection on teaching practice. RESULTS The first academic considered it was important to enable students to adequately explore the worldviews of the diverse stakeholders they will design products for in future and to test students on their understanding of these in order to satisfy cultural aspects of the graduate profile outcomes. The second academic found benefits of the use of Maori language in class in creating an atmosphere reflective of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Each academic found something to learn from the other’s work. CONCLUSIONS Adding the Maori language and worldview enables the classroom to better reflect New Zealand’s bi-cultural environment and student projects to better meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups, and also explicitly addresses the cultural aspects of the graduate profile

Assessing abdominal aorta narrowing using computational fluid dynamics

This paper investigates the effect of developing arterial blockage at the abdominal aorta on the blood pressure waves at an externally accessible location suitable for invasive measurements such as the brachial and the femoral arteries. Arterial blockages are created surgically within the abdominal aorta of healthy Wistar rats to create narrowing resemblance conditions. Blood pressure is measured using a catheter inserted into the right femoral artery. Measurements are taken at the baseline healthy condition as well as at four different severities (20, 50, 80 and 100 %) of arterial blockage. In vivo and in vitro measurements of the lumen diameter and wall thickness are taken using magnetic resonance imaging and microscopic techniques, respectively. These data are used to validate a 3D computational fluid dynamics model which is developed to generalize the outcomes of this work and to determine the arterial stress and strain under the blockage conditions. This work indicates that an arterial blockage in excess of 20 % of the lumen diameter significantly influences the pressure wave and reduces the systolic blood pressure at the right femoral artery. High wall shear stresses and low circumferential strains are also generated at the blockage site

Integrating Learning Outcomes of Student Final Year Project with Objectives of a Research Project: Designing an All-In-One System for Climate Control and Air Purification

Student projects are designed to inform tasks on an overarching research project. The goal of the research project is to design a climate control system for particular use in crowded low quality built environments. Individual student projects were tailored to achieve specific phased steps within the project. This paper describes the mapping of learning outcomes in student projects to objectives of the main project, reflects on the achievement of these learning outcomes in the context of a project that fully explores all of them, and describes the service-learning potential for this type of student project

Literature review: Effective teamwork and team diversity in engineering education

CONTEXT Given the prevalent use of heterogeneous teams in education and the workplace, the engineering community has been calling on educators to embed team diversity into the team-based activities as a simulation of the real work environment. However, in engineering classrooms, like many others, students often dislike working in diverse groups, instead choosing to work with those of the same background as themselves. Such a preference limits the students’ capacity to communicate or work cooperatively with those from diverse backgrounds (Wilson-Medhurst, 2016) and arises from a lack of understanding of the skills, practices and social attitudes engineering graduates require and the nature of the work they do (Trevelyan, 2009). Adopting a teamwork culture by students of different cognitive abilities and demographics with high social integration will lead eventually to more innovative solutions to engineering problems, as well as developing the necessary expertise to become professional engineers (Murzi et al., 2020). In engineering fields, research proves that diverse teams can generate more innovative solutions and products to suit a wide range of users. Guillaume et al. (2017) stressed the importance of diversity to facilitate the elaboration of task-relevant information which leads to innovation and better decision‐making. Diverse teams are more likely to constantly re-examine facts, remain objective and avoid restricted thinking (Rock & Grant, 2016). PURPOSE OR GOAL In this review, we aim to explain the impact of team diversity on team performance using two metrics: team qualitative and quantitative outcomes; and team social integration. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS We examine the impact of team diversity on team performance by reviewing the literature on diversity of teams. Addressing diversity in the curriculum can be done through active learning approaches and teamwork activities (Curşeu & Pluut, 2013). These approaches provide an environment that is more aligned to the professional environment than ‘traditional’ teaching methods and provide a context to develop the social skills that empower students in different disciplines but specifically effective teamwork (Hsiung, 2012). Structured, team-based activities can offer multiple learning opportunities and identify challenging cultural diversity and people-based issues that students are likely to come across during their study (Sleeter, 2001). CONCLUSIONS The literature reviewed in this paper found that team diversity was more likely to positively impact on the first performance metric (quality and quantity of outcomes), but the results on the second metric were mixed (social integration)

One-Way fluid structure interaction of a go-kart spoiler using CFD analysis

The spoiler on a go-kart is required to prevent the vehicle becoming airborne at speeds of 80 km/h or more. An optimal spoiler design balances this safety aspect with speed and fuel economy. This paper reports the results of a project to improve the aerodynamic aspects of a go-kart spoiler design using CFD Analysis. We investigated the design of a rear spoiler with three proposed angles (θ1 = 9.5°, θ2 = 19.5°, θ3 = 29.5°). The drag force produced by each of the three designs is compared. Different computational results are discussed such as the air flow velocity, pressure and the applied forces in terms of CFD analysis using one-way fluid structure interaction (one-way FSI) to determine the spoiler stress, strain and drag coefficient. The findings of this paper have implications for the leisure and tourism industries, and may be applicable to other recreational vehicles’ spoilers

Collaborating for a changing future in education

As technology and demand changes day by day, we as educators must be up to date too in the area of education. We must adapt and grow our-self first in this environment. It is each teacher's accountability to invest learners to adapt changes, face challenges, be innovative and grab any opportunities that come their way. So to collaborate in teaching for the future we teachers must be ready and organised to be information accumulators, developers, predictors, curriculum professionals, researchers and problem-solvers

Residential air quality improvement system: For healthy living

Damp and overcrowded housing has significant adverse health effects, Poor quality housing disproportionately impact on low-income individuals and children. A significant number of homes in New Zealand are damp, cold and poorly insulated, and crowded (too many occupants relative to the size of the house). These factors give rise to a particular indoor air quality (IAQ) problem: a combination of low temperature, high relative humidity, and high allergen and pathogen content of the air