The Future of Women Aerospace Engineers in Academia: a numbers game

The gender divide for women in the engineering domain in academia is still very large today, even though most institutions are committed to changing this. Although there are slow improvements in the number of women working in academic positions in Engineering, the Netherlands, in particular, is still lagging badly behind the rest of Europe with women making up only 17.6% of all full professors in the engineering domain and for 25.7% in the entire academic domain. This is despite many efforts across the board to improve this situation. The situation is even worse in the field of Aerospace Engineering and within this field, the lack of progress is not unique to the Netherlands with similar issues being reported in the United States of America and wider afield. This paper reports on research on the capacity building among women required within the aerospace engineering domain to reach the commonly defined critical mass percentage of 30% of women full professors using metrics on career progress and on as well as labour market data on the career development of Aerospace graduates to show where potential new interventions can be made

The Increasing Necessity of Skills Diversity in Team Teaching

The advantages of including technological tools, for example dynamic graphing software, into the teaching and learning of technical subjects have long been recognised. Using such tools effectively in the classroom is at least partially constrained by the teacher’s knowledge and skills. Any teaching team benefits from skills diversity and always has, however, in recent years the skills needed for effective use of the tools available are becoming more numerous and more varied. Using a range of tools for assessment, rather than for in-class teaching and learning, demands an extra burden of care. Using an example from our own recent experience we illustrate the need for skills diversity in teams teaching and raise questions related to traditional assessment in mathematics

An investigation on integration of computational thinking into engineering curriculum at delft university of technology

Our life is surrounded by digital devices. Engineering education is one of the cornerstones in higher education for future generations and computational thinking (CT) is deemed as a core component in various engineering curricula. The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), is the largest technical university in the Netherlands and computing; computational concepts and activities have been integrated into curriculum for years at TU Delft. However, there is not a comprehensive investigation on integration of CT into Engineering Curriculum, this paper presents a case study of Master’s level engineering curricula investigating: 1) to what extend CT components are integrated; 2) in what way CT is interpreted and integrated in the curriculum; 3) what educational and assessment methods have been used. The results show that CT has been largely integrated into the investigated curriculum mostly with lectures being the educational method and programming assignments as a method for the assessment. Our analysis shows that understanding the context and patterns in problems and solutions was important in different courses and engineering disciplines, indicating possible directions for integration of CT into curriculum

Augmented reality for learning mathematics: A pilot study with webxr as an accessible tool

One of the concerns in service mathematics courses, such as calculus for engineering, is students’ interest in these studies. Research suggests that engineering undergraduates’ lack of awareness about the importance of mathematics for their study success and for their careers contributes to their low motivation for mathematics. An approach to increasing student motivation is to take advantage of technological tools to provide students with more engaging learning experiences. Recent studies showed that augmented reality (AR) enhances student engagement, motivation, and knowledge retention. However, implementing AR can be challenging since it can be quite costly and technically complex. The current paper describes a case study in which an AR application was designed and developed using WebXR, in the context of a service mathematics course for teaching calculus. The AR content involves drawing of level curves and the visualization of a volcano and the flow of lava to support students’ learning of directional derivatives. A pilot study was conducted to examine engineering undergraduates’ perceptions of using AR for learning mathematics. Results show that students perceived using AR for learning math as enjoyable and motivating. Students reported that AR content adds value to their classes by making the mathematical concepts clearer and helping them apply what they have learned to real life. However, the AR content did not work well on all mobile phones and all versions of web browsers. Lessons learned from the design and development of AR using WebXR as well as recommendations for future studies are discussed in this paper

Cross curricular Comparison of Professional Capabilities in Engineering Education

In this paper we studied the student’s perception of the acquisition of professional capabilities in Challenge based learning environments with a strong reflective component.The results show students feel the relevance of personnel development from the very moment the enter their master studies. However, they only truly acquire all the relevant professional capabilities when working in interdisciplinary teams on real life problems in interaction with stakeholders

Shaping the embedding of reflection in engineering education

In tertiary mathematics education for engineers (hereafter called service mathematics education, SME), there is a long-lasting controversy on what and how to teach. The goal of SME is to provide a base for engineering-specific courses and to develop mathematical competencies needed for academic success and professional practice. A leading question in engineering education is how to take mathematical competencies into account when designing content. Mathematical competencies are employed to understand, judge, do, and use mathematics in a variety of mathematical contexts and situations in which mathematics could play a role [1]. Although mathematical competencies have been introduced for about two decades, Alpers [2] noted that research in engineering higher education had focused chiefly on the modelling competency and less on other competencies. By means of a scoping review, the current study aims to examine how mathematical competencies are investigated in higher education research. The main research question is “To what extent and in what ways have mathematical competencies been examined in higher engineering education research?” Papers were retrieved and qualitatively reviewed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic search yielded 166 records, of which, 65 unique records were relevant to engineering education and screened for eligibility. A synthesis of 23 studies reviewed showed that problem-solving and modelling were the most investigated mathematical competencies and were often investigated together or with other mathematical competencies. The inconsistencies in the terminologies used suggest a need for clearer conceptualizations to advance research and inform practice on mathematical competencies

Student perceptions on a collaborative engineering design course

To adequately prepare engineering students for their professional career, educational institutions offer projects in which students collaboratively solve engineering design problems. It is known from research these projects can lead to a variety of learning outcomes and student experiences. However, studies that provide insights in the influence of different features of an educational design are rare. In the current study we use Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as analytical framework to understand how different elements of an educational design affect students’ experience. Additionally, we use the notion of contradictions to identify opportunities for structural course improvement. Focus groups were conducted with 12 Master students in Aerospace Engineering, that participated in a collaborative engineering design course. During the course, students applied Systems Engineering (SE) and Concurrent Engineering (CE) and worked in the Collaborative Design Laboratory (CDL), which is a state-of-the-art facility that holds a variety of industry relevant tools. It was found that students valued the guidance of their coach and experts, co-located collaboration and the freedom to structure their own process. However, they perceived challenges with regard to adoption of tools in the CDL, sharing their progress with their supervisor, coordination of collaborative efforts and scheduling issues. An analysis using CHAT revealed what contradictions caused these challenges. Finally, recommendations are given on how course structure can be structurally improved

Analyzing student-teacher interactions in Challenge-based Learning

Challenge-based learning (CBL) exposes students to the complexities of open-ended and real-life challenges and encourages them to be in the lead of their learning. The role of teachers remains important but shifts from being the expert to the role of a coach who gradually scaffolds students into becoming independent learners. Accordingly, the interplay between teachers' and students' regulation of teaching and learning can result in friction and influence students' learning experience. This study explores incidents of constructive or destructive friction between student and teacher regulation during a 9-week CBL course for first-year engineering students. Thematic analysis is employed to identify critical incidents of friction during students' learning via analyzing students' weekly learning portfolios. Results suggest that students' experience in CBL is not linear, and there is a constant interplay between students' ability to regulate their learning and teachers' scaffolding. Initial exposure to CBL was characterized by friction in student and teacher interactions. Several students increased their self-regulated learning skills by resolving the initial friction by adopting a more proactive approach to their learning by actively asking questions and feedback from their teachers. The findings of this study are particularly relevant for CBL, where much attention is paid to students' autonomy, self-directedness, and collaboration. Building on the insights of this research, we make recommendations for further research and educational practice

Using peer assessment in inclusive digital education

This workshop is part of the ERASMUS+ project: RAPIDE: on Relevant Assessment and pedagogies for Inclusive Digital Education (https://rapide-project.eu) and is open to anyone who is interested in implementing or improving peer assessment in their courses. At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to make an informed decision on a suitable form of Peer Assessment for their courses. Over the past few years, many of us have faced operating in a frequently changing teaching environment which has made evaluating and assessing students’ learning outcomes and more importantly giving students feedback on their learning much more complicated. One pedagogical tool that has been increasingly used is that of peer assessments where students give each other feedback and assess each other’s work. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to many different types of peer assessment that can be used in engineering education, such as peer reviewing (each other’s work), peer grading(continuous feedback on mastery), and peer evaluation (group work) whether face-to-face, hybrid or in a fully online environment and how to do so in an inclusive way thus maintaining the important safe place that education should be. Participants will then in small groups discuss what types of peer evaluations they use or want to use in their courses and brainstorm on ideas for implementation in their own specific case or for one of the general cases that the facilitators will have available. At the end of the workshop participants will present their main findings back to the whole group so that they may also learn from each other. We aim for participants to leave feeling inspired at the end of the workshop to implement or improve peer assessment in their own courses. The aggregated main findings and ideas contrived in the workshop on how to implement peer assessment will also be shared with a wider audience through the conference proceedings and the RAPIDE project website