How Accurate Is Students’ Self Assessment Of Computer Skills?

Self-evaluation by students is commonly used as a key element in program and course assessment plans. Such instruments are intended to provide crucial feedback for program improvement and thus play a significant role in closing our assessment loop. For many of the program outcomes, self-assessment by current students and graduates augments other, more objective measures. However, for some outcomes there are no practical means of obtaining objective assessment and we must rely on self-assessment. The heavy reliance on this metric begs the question “How accurate is student self-assessment?” This paper provides data from a second-semester engineering course in which students develop proficiency using computer tools to solve typical engineering problems. Students’ self-assessments in several areas are compared with the instructor’s assessment of these students. Some work reported in the literature addresses the accuracy of student self-assessment in specific academic areas. In the medical field, literature exists which addresses medical students’ selfassessment of specific skills. Other comparisons have been published to compare students’ expected grades with actual results. Little was found that is relevant to engineering student and in particular to their assessment of professional skills. The work reported here relates to the assessment of ABET’s program outcome k: “an ability to use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice. Methods of Engineering Analysis is a course taken by all engineering majors during their second semester at the University of New Haven. In this course, students are introduced to engineering topics and a variety of numerical methods for solving these problems. The current platform used is a spreadsheet with Visual Basic for Applications programming. Students complete a 30- question survey the first day of class in which they rate their expertise in three broad categories: basic spread-sheet usage, advanced spread-sheet usage and programming. The same survey is completed at the end of the class, thus providing a pre and post view from the students perspective. Quizzes given throughout the course and the final exam were structured to enable instructors to assess student performance in these same areas with composite measures. Data is presented to compare the instructor assessment of performance with students’ self-assessment at the individual level

Effect of Freshman Chemistry on Student Performance in Sophomore Engineering Courses

The role of first year chemistry courses in engineering programs varies somewhat across programs and disciplines. Clearly most engineering majors will encounter chemistry topics of a general nature in some of their upper-level course work. The purpose of requiring chemistry in the first year, however, goes well beyond learning chemical concepts. As a quantitative science, chemistry requires the use of math, principally algebra, on a regular basis in solving various problems. Students should gain an appreciation of the importance of units in solving problems should come to understand the difference between implicit and explicit properties and should develop other quantitative skills. Depending on how it is taught, chemistry can provide students with a wide range of opportunities to hone skills that will be required in their engineering courses. In discussions with students and even with many faculty, the role of chemistry is often viewed narrowly in terms of the chemistry topics alone. The purpose of this study is to explore how the number of chemistry courses taken and the performance in freshman chemistry affects performance in early engineering courses. Engineering students at the University of New Haven have different requirements for freshman chemistry depending on their particular discipline. All engineering students are required to take at least one freshman chemistry course. Students in chemical and civil engineering are required to take two, students in mechanical and system engineering have an option of biology or a second course in chemistry and students in electrical and computer engineering take only one freshman chemistry course. All engineering students take a sophomore engineering course, Introduction to Modeling of Engineering Systems, which includes topics drawn from electric circuits, mass and energy balances and force balances. The course is designed to help students develop an organized approach to solving problems and uses a conservation and accounting approach to provide a broad framework for the diverse topics. This course provides an opportunity to explore how their freshman chemistry background prepares studcents for engineering coursework. This study examines the impact of having one or two freshman chemistry courses on student performance in the first sophomore level engineering course. The methods used include standard statistical techniques, such as analysis of variance, correlation (eg., Pearson) and t-tests across groups

The Current Generation of Integrated Engineering Curriculum

In September of 2004 our university adopted the Multidisciplinary Engineering Foundation Spiral Curriculum as the basis for disciplinary engineering programs in Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and General Engineering. The curriculum includes a sequence of first and second year engineering courses, matched closely with the development of students’ mathematical sophistication and analytical capabilities and integrated with course work in the sciences. Students develop a conceptual understanding of engineering basics in this series of courses which stress practical applications of these principles. The new curriculum was designed to provide students with a multidisciplinary perspective while developing basic engineering skills and fostering an understanding of basic engineering concepts. Each of the ten courses in the program were developed and are taught by faculty from several disciplines. Course materials are intended to make students keenly aware of the highly integrated nature of the current practice of engineering. It was also expected that the novel program would prove to be attractive to a broader range of students than those drawn to traditional disciplinary programs. Finally, student retention was expected to be enhanced by the new courses. Students who entered as freshmen in 2004 are currently juniors, taking courses in their disciplinary major. This study attempts to provide early data on the success of the program through the following measures: • Impact of the new curriculum on student recruiting through a survey of newly matriculated students • Impact on student retention from first to second and second to third years • Comparison of student performance in early disciplinary courses with that of students in previous years • Impact of program implementation on faculty attitude

Establishment of Innovative Shared Departments to Advance Interdisciplinary Education

More and more universities are pursuing interdisciplinary academic activities that span across department and college boundaries. Administrative structures to facilitate such programs are difficult to establish within traditional university frameworks consisting of disciplinary departments and colleges. Often interdisciplinary programs are housed in a traditional disciplinary department or college, or in a standalone center reporting to a college dean or the provost. The difficulty of these structures is obtaining broad buy-in from faculty across departments and having disciplinary degree programs include interdisciplinary coursework. To overcome the difficulties described above, an innovative shared department structure that fosters collaborations to advance interdisciplinary education has been deployed at the University of New Haven. Three shared departments have been established over the last two years: (1) a college-wide department to support interdisciplinary coursework in the first two years of engineering programs; (2) a university-wide department to support entrepreneurship and innovation; and (3) a university-wide department to support health sciences. The shared departments typically have faculty whose tenure home is a traditional disciplinary department. Faculty membership is based on interest and activity level in teaching interdisciplinary courses, participating in interdisciplinary co-curricular activities, and performing interdisciplinary research. A few faculty members may be appointed full-time in a shared department. Like traditional departments, the shared departments have chairs to lead and coordinate activities. Faculty membership can vary from year-to-year depending on their level of activity in the shared department. The shared departments are responsible for approving interdisciplinary courses within their jurisdiction. The chairs of the departments are responsible for reviewing the performance of instructors teaching the interdisciplinary courses, and for providing feedback to disciplinary department chairs on the performance of faculty who are members of the shared department. To date the shared departments have facilitated the following: (1) an Entrepreneurial Engineering Living-Learning Community (LLC) for freshmen; (2) an Innovation and Entrepreneurship LLC for sophomores; (3) an integrated technical communications program across all engineering and computer science programs; (4) an integrated approach to developing entrepreneurial thinking in students across all engineering and computer science programs; (5) the development and teaching of courses on entrepreneurship; and (6) startup weekends and a business plan competition with students drawn from across the university. The detailed structure of the two shared departments and the lessons learned in establishing and operating them is described in this paper

Preliminary Assessment of and Lessons Learned in PITCH: an Integrated Approach to Developing Technical Communication Skills in Engineers

The Project to Integrate Technical Communication Habits (PITCH) has been implemented across seven engineering and computer science undergraduate programs starting in fall 2012. The overarching goal of PITCH is to develop written, oral and visual communication skills and professional habits in engineering students. PITCH activities begin in the very first semester and are reinforced and extended through all four years of each program. After three years of progressively more extensive development and deployment, a preliminary assessment of student writing over their first three years in programs was performed. In May 2016 the first cohort of students will have completed the entire sequence of PITCH courses, including senior design. PITCH was designed to include technical memoranda, poster presentations, oral presentations, laboratory reports, proposals, and senior design reports. In addition to text elements, the use of tables and graphics also were addressed. These technical communication products are integrated into specific foundational courses common to several programs, as well as higher-level courses unique to each program. Engineering faculty teaching these courses were progressively trained through workshops conducted over three summers, so in the early years not all instructors teaching these courses had been fully trained. A random sample of students from four programs was selected for the assessment. These students had taken freshman through junior courses with trained instructors, and the assessment was performed based on the PITCH writing assignments they submitted in four courses. Four faculty members and an external consultant involved in the development and deployment of PITCH performed the assessment. Each writing assignment was evaluated through use of a common rubric to see how well students achieved the overall PITCH learning outcomes. The evaluations were done in a series of collective settings with all five evaluators present and each writing assignment was assessed. Student progress through the four courses spanning the first three years of PITCH is quantified and the results are discussed. Also discussed are pedagogical and administrative lessons learned during development and implementation of PITCH to date. PITCH is supported by a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation

Ultraminiature Broadband Light Source and Method of Manufacturing Same

An ultraminiature light source using a double-spiral shaped tungsten filament includes end contact portions which are separated to allow for radial and length-wise unwinding of the spiral. The double-spiral filament is spaced relatively far apart at the end portions thereof so that contact between portions of the filament upon expansion is avoided. The light ource is made by fabricating a double-spiral ultraminiature tungsten filament from tungsten foil and housing the filament in a ceramic package having a reflective bottom and a well wherein the filament is suspended. A vacuum furnace brazing process attaches the filament to contacts of the ceramic package. Finally, a cover with a transparent window is attached onto the top of the ceramic package by solder reflow in a second vacuum furnace process to form a complete hermetically sealed package

Ultraminiature broadband light source with spiral shaped filament

An ultraminiature light source using a double-spiral shaped tungsten filament includes end contact portions which are separated to allow for radial and length-wise unwinding of the spiral. The double-spiral filament is spaced relatively far apart at the end portions thereof so that contact between portions of the filament upon expansion is avoided. The light source is made by fabricating a double-spiral ultraminiature tungsten filament from tungsten foil and housing the filament in a ceramic package having a reflective bottom and a well wherein the filament is suspended. A vacuum furnace brazing process attaches the filament to contacts of the ceramic package. Finally, a cover with a transparent window is attached onto the top of the ceramic package by solder reflow in a second vacuum furnace process to form a complete hermetically sealed package

TNF-Receptor Inhibitor Therapy for the Treatment of Children with Idiopathic Pneumonia Syndrome. A Joint Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium and Children's Oncology Group Study (ASCT0521)

AbstractIdiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS) is an acute, noninfectious lung disorder associated with high morbidity and mortality after hematopoietic cell transplantation. Previous studies have suggested a role for TNFα in the pathogenesis of IPS. We report a multicenter phase II trial investigating a soluble TNF-binding protein, etanercept (Enbrel, Amgen, Thousand Oaks, CA), for the treatment of pediatric patients with IPS. Eligible patients were < 18 years old, within 120 days after transplantation, and with radiographic evidence of a diffuse pneumonitis. All patients underwent a pretherapy broncho-alveolor lavage (BAL) to establish the diagnosis of IPS. Systemic corticosteroids (2.0 mg/kg/day) plus etanercept (.4 mg/kg twice weekly × 8 doses) were administered. Response was defined as survival and discontinuation of supplemental oxygen support by day 28 of study. Thirty-nine patients (median age, 11 years; range, 1 to 17) were enrolled, with 11 of 39 patients nonevaluable because of identification of pathogens from their pretherapy BAL. In the remaining 28 patients, the median fraction of inspired oxygen at study entry was 45%, with 17 of 28 requiring mechanical ventilation. Complete responses were seen in 20 (71%) patients, with a median time to response of 10 days (range, 1 to 24). Response rates were higher for patients not requiring mechanical ventilation at study entry (100% versus 53%, P = .01). Overall survival at 28 days and 1 year after therapy were 89% (95% confidence interval [CI], 70% to 96%) and 63% (95% CI, 42% to 79%), respectively. Plasma levels of proinflammatory cytokines were significantly increased at onset of therapy, subsequently decreasing in responding patients. The addition of etanercept to high-dose corticosteroids was associated with high response rates and survival in children with IPS

An Integrated Physical, Genetic and Cytogenetic Map of Brachypodium distachyon, a Model System for Grass Research

The pooid subfamily of grasses includes some of the most important crop, forage and turf species, such as wheat, barley and Lolium. Developing genomic resources, such as whole-genome physical maps, for analysing the large and complex genomes of these crops and for facilitating biological research in grasses is an important goal in plant biology. We describe a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)-based physical map of the wild pooid grass Brachypodium distachyon and integrate this with whole genome shotgun sequence (WGS) assemblies using BAC end sequences (BES). The resulting physical map contains 26 contigs spanning the 272 Mb genome. BES from the physical map were also used to integrate a genetic map. This provides an independent vaildation and confirmation of the published WGS assembly. Mapped BACs were used in Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH) experiments to align the integrated physical map and sequence assemblies to chromosomes with high resolution. The physical, genetic and cytogenetic maps, integrated with whole genome shotgun sequence assemblies, enhance the accuracy and durability of this important genome sequence and will directly facilitate gene isolation