The Decline of the Car Enthusiasts: Implications for Undergraduate Engineering Education

Hands-on, project-based engineering education is alive and well. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that we are seeing fewer undergraduate engineering students who arrive on campus already knowing how to ‘use their hands’—having familiarity with tools and mechanical devices, knowing how to connect things, savvy about avoiding leaks in fluid systems, wary of stripping a screw thread or shearing a bolt head—the kinds of things that an archetypal car enthusiast would have learned in high school. For design-build-test project-based engineering educational experiences, having at least one car enthusiast has proven invaluable: more time can be spent on testing and re-designing, rather than getting bogged down in the initial selection of means to satisfy an engineering design function. Also, it seems that the design space can be expanded; students are aware of more ways to satisfy design functions, and less likely to eliminate potential designs due to ignorance of building techniques. Car-enthusiast skills also come in handy during the building process, rather than relying on inexperienced students who may be picking up tools for the first time. Why the decline in these do-it-yourself-ers? Evidence shows that fewer Millennials own and drive cars. This may be affecting their experiences with car maintenance. Millennial culture also includes a type of perfectionism that may be affecting their desire to use their hands, either in fixing things, or in traditional ways of building. The existence of on-board diagnostic computer interfaces is perceived to have an effect, though it is arguable. Many gadgets, especially electronic devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, and gaming systems, are designed and manufactured in ways that make them difficult to open up and repair, but new sites such as iFixit do provide teardowns and repair manuals. I will explore these issues, especially their implications on current undergraduate engineering pedagogy, present ‘practical work’ experiences from Canterbury and Imperial College, and suggest potential ways of improving beginning engineering students’ hands-on skills

WebQuests as an Integrative Experience in Introductory Environmental Engineering

An Integrative Experience was developed as part of an introductory environmental engineering course at Harvey Mudd College. The Integrative Experience was developed to help the college students consider the relationship of science and technology with contemporary society. Junior and senior students enrolled in the course designed WebQuests for middle school students. The WebQuests involved the integration of an environmental issue, problem, or technology and societal effects. WebQuests were designed for a middle school audience in order to expand the amount of engineering outreach that is done at the K-12 level. The HMC students chose WebQuests topics including nuclear and alternative energy; the Los Angeles aqueduct; farming practices and conservation; a cyanide spill in Romania; deforestation; air pollution; and energy conservation and planning. The WebQuests were tested by middle school students in Fontana, California to determine their usefulness in introducing engineering to middle-school students, and feedback was received

A Community-Engagement-Based Design Project in Introductory Environmental Engineering

A collaborative, community-based design project was implemented in the upper-division undergraduate technical elective Introduction to Environmental Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. Students worked with multiple stakeholders in order to design a debris flow barrier for a wilderness land parcel acquired by a local conservancy group. The Rosemont Preserve is a wilderness area preserved in 2012 by the Arroyos and Foothills Conservancy. The Conservancy is working to steward the land and to produce programs for the local community. The ecological resource is co-managed by LA County Public Works. After the 2009 brushfires, the County installed concrete K-Rail barriers to protect residential areas from potential debris flows from fire-denuded hillsides. As part of the wilderness land preservation, the Conservancy is interested in the design of a more-aesthetically pleasing debris flow barrier for the Rosemont Preserve. The conservancy board of directors served as liaisons for the design project, provided background material and the project statement to the student team, as well as answered questions and provided guidance during the design process. Local residents (serving as volunteers for the Conservancy) also served as resources for student questions. LA County Public Works oversees the placement, maintenance, and removal of K-Rails. The student team characterized the wilderness site; acquired relevant GIS data; studied the physics of debris flow and examined previous debris flow barrier designs. The team produced alternative designs for the barrier and chose the best design by applying design metrics. The alternative designs and rationale for the chosen design were presented to the board of directors of the Conservancy. The design project included a significant tie to a community involved with stewarding and managing an ecological resource, and engagement of the students with that local community. Most importantly, the resource was co-managed: it involved multiple stakeholders, sharing power and collaboratively engaging in the decision-making process for the ecological resource. Co-managed projects can provide opportunities for a richer, more complex educational experience for undergraduate students, and one that is representative of how natural resources are currently being managed. This paper summarizes previous community-engagement learning, particularly in the context of undergraduate engineering education; argues that co-managed ecological resources provide good opportunities for increased student engagement with communities; describes an undergraduate engineering design project involving a co-managed resource; and presents assessment data on the educational effectiveness of the design process while working with a co-managed resource. In conclusion, the co-managed project provided richer and increased communication between the multiple stakeholders. However, some students expressed frustration with the difficulties of getting a good communication flow with particular stakeholders, and pointed out how this changed their approach to certain aspects of the design process. For future co-managed projects, it is recommended that more work be done beforehand to get all stakeholders on board in order to improve the student experience

Use of Studio Methods in the Introductory Engineering Design Curriculum

A number of themes, including interest in first year design courses, commitment to active learning approaches, and desires for changes in course structures and costs have come together in a variety of teaching approaches. Some of these approaches have been referred to as using “studio” methods, although the particular pedagogy appears to vary greatly. In this paper, some of these experiments are briefly reviewed and placed in a larger context of studio education in other disciplines. The paper seeks to differentiate studio education from other active learning approaches. An introductory engineering design course was taught using an architecture studio model for two semesters. The experiment demonstrated that the studio method can be very effective in teaching design concepts, but because students are likely to be unfamiliar with this approach, care must be taken to reassure students regarding grades and expectations

Introduction to Sample Calculations

A primary goal of this book--to familiarize the reader with detailed techniques used by industry in liquid-propellant rocket engine systems and component design--has engendered a set of realistic sample calculations. To promote an understanding of the interrelationship among major subsystems, principal calculations have been made for the engines of a hypothetical multistage space vehicle. These calculations and their associated designs were especially prepared for this book and are not related to existing or planned engines. Because the various subsystems of liquid-propellant rocket engines will be discussed in subsequent chapters, most of the supporting sample calculations throughout the book, will be for the engines of the assumed vehicle. For simplicity of reference, the space vehicle will be called Alpha. It will be composed of four stages: A-1, A-2, A-3, and A-4. Table 3-1 lists the major parameters of the Alpha

Design of Turbopump Propellant Feed Systems

For high-thrust, long-duration liquid-propellant rocket engines, the use of turbopump-fed systems usually lowers system weight and raises performance as compared to pressurized-gas fed systems. Turbopump-fed systems require only relatively low pump-inlet pressures, and thus propellant-tank pressures, while the major portion of the pressure required at the thrust-chamber inlets is supplied by the pumps. This saves considerable tank weight, particularly in large vehicles

GIS and Introductory Environmental Engineering: A Way to Fold GIS into an Already-Existing Course

The use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was implemented in the upper-division undergraduate technical elective Introduction to Environmental Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. Students integrated technical engineering skills, newly-learned geographical information system (GIS) skills, and the engineering design process, all in the context of the design of a debris flow barrier for a wilderness land parcel acquired by a local conservancy group. Junior and senior general engineering students, the majority of whom had no experience with GIS, were taught ArcGIS (a GIS mapping program) in the context of an Introductory Environmental Engineering course. Students learned how to map locations, find and download geo-encoded data, and join data layers, in order to graphically present toxic release hazards near their home towns. ArcGIS skills and knowledge were assessed through completion of homework problems, and through the students’ use of GIS data, software, and mapping during the design of a debris flow barrier for a local wilderness land parcel. Assignment #1 consisted of students learning how to map and characterize toxic releases near their hometowns; these data were downloaded into a spreadsheet for later use in the ArcGIS software package. In Assignment #2, the students used ArcGIS to analyze these data for the potential of water, soil, and atmospheric transport. In addition to the homework assignments, the student team completed a team-based design project involving the characterization of the wilderness site; acquiring relevant GIS data; and studying the physics of debris flow. The team produced alternative designs for the barrier and chose the best design by applying design metrics. The alternative designs and rationale for the chosen design were presented to the board of directors of the local conservancy group. Pre- and post-assessment data were gathered to analyze the success of the learning objectives. The design project in particular was useful in evaluating the students’ skill, knowledge and ease in using the GIS tools for analysis of the wilderness land parcel

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Shaft Seal Salt Consolidation Modelling

The numerical code TOUGH28W was modified to calculate porosity and permeability changes due to salt consolidation. The porosity change was modeled as a function of pore pressure and depth in the salt. The permeability was coupled to the porosity using log-linear models. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) lower shaft seals and surrounding formation were modeled. Crushed salt is one of the key components of the sealing system, and to gain understanding of the consolidation of the crushed salt after seal emplacement, TOUGH28W simulations were performed. The results showed the salt consolidation is greatly affected by the pore pressure. After 100 years of simulation, the porosity of the crushed salt for a log-linear model has decreased from 0.1 to a value of 0.035 at the bottom of the crushed salt column and the minimum permeability in the crushed salt column after 100 years of consolidation is 4x(10^-22) m²

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030