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From concept to commercialisation: Student learning in a sustainable engineering innovation project
Abstract
An interdisciplinary sustainable design project that combines membrane technology with renewable energy to provide water for remote communities and developing countries was offered to students for voluntary participation. Through continuous design stages and improvements on several prototypes, laboratory testing and several field trials in Australia, and interactions with industry partners and funding agencies, the project has offered very important experience to students and contributes significantly to graduate attributes that are difficult to gain during traditional coursework education. Such initiatives offer an exciting addition to the environmental engineering curriculum and can be adapted to various teaching frameworks and topic areas. In addition to acquiring technical skills, the students gained skills in the areas of teamwork and interpersonal skills, project management, interdisciplinary skills, and confidence in interacting with non-engineers.
A number of the students involved who have now graduated as well as peers were subsequently surveyed to evaluate student learning using critical incident questionnaires. One student felt that involvement in the project was more important than the entire engineering degree. Students also reported a boost in confidence, motivation, inspiration, pride of involvement, high degree of engagement, especially during field trips. One drawback was negative team experiences, caused by students who thought they should have been selected as project managers. However, this was described by a student (now in the workforce) as a representation of later office politics and as a good opportunity to develop character strength. Poor communication, team-building tools and lack of institutional support were additional issues needing addressing, as well as concerns from other academics that such activities could be to the detriment of other, more traditional, coursework-based learning activities. Significantly enhanced employment opportunities and extremely positive industry feedback were also noted. Industry emphasised the need for more project and time management skills.
... More critical skills identified by Ref. [96] and which include solar thermal technology, energy storage, and grid integration are also accommodated in the curriculum. Further general competences designed into the module and which align with the work of [97] include skills in analytical and problem-solving, communication, and teamworking. A critical means of achieving these objectives is to increase the number of STEM undergraduate intake. ...
Energy produced by photovoltaic module (PVM) is poised to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG-7) by 2030 and Net-Zero by 2050 but not until ample graduates with adequate Solar Energy Technology (SET) skills are produced by Higher education institutions (HEIs). Although PVM has witnessed significant penetration globally, the sustainability of the growth of the sector is challenged by attendant monotonic skilled labour shortages. The evolving growth imbalance is critical in the European Union (EU), limits her global competitiveness and necessitates the need to create wider awareness on the green technology to stimulate more production of solar energy sector (SES) specific skills graduates. Discussing the mismatch between the skills Europe needs and has in the SES, the study outlines key critical skills Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) cum Arts (STEAM) graduates ought to possess to secure sector employment and the challenges limiting them from acquiring the competencies. The review is conducted via extensive study of relevant literature, analysis of interviews and observations. Academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial skills are identified as critical SES needs. Designing and running educational modules/curricula that embed the identified solar technology specialist skills on students and learners are proposed as vehicle to increase their employability and entrepreneurship. This study profiles trends and developments in the SES for stakeholders' increased awareness while presenting the specialist skills in-demand for employment in the sector. The adoption of SET Training (SETechTra) curricula/modules by the EIs will substantially increase the production of industry-ready graduates whilst decreasing the SES skills gap.
... Sánchez Carracedo et al. (2018) present a model to develop holistic professional competences in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics courses (STEM), whose evaluation is obtained from 4 sources: the courses' students, new graduates, alumni, and IES ranking answered by employers. Schäfer and Richards (2007) coordinate an interdisciplinary design project that involve sustainable membrane technology with renewable energy to provide water for communities in developing countries, by voluntary participation of the students. The acquiring of technical skills, teamwork and interpersonal skills, project management and confidence in interacting with non-engineers are some of the results. ...
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has already taken around the world. Decision taking at industries is more and more dependent on new technologies and processes, which demand updating and adjustment of the engineering education. Through a systematized literature revision, this article aims to search, select and prioritize bibliographic sources which reflect relevant initiatives that may work as a reference for engineering bachelor´s degree courses. 50 most relevant articles were selected and analyzed from 4,333 articles published in the Scopus database. The results show the 10 main authors, the 9 main journals and the 10 main institutions among the 50 most relevant articles, as references in the analyzed sample. Regarding aspects for the improvement of engineers education, one can highlight PBL (Project-Based Learning), Competency-Based Education and focus on holistic education. This research may encourage reflection, awareness and improvement by the ones interested in the study of engineers' education, by integrating market demand, learners' expectations and academic excellence, in order to contribute to the growth of scientific and practical knowledge and of society technological development.
... Teaching frameworks in engineering education have addressed teamwork by using team-based learning combined with other approaches. Some of these approaches often include the use of PBL (Membrillo-Hernández et al. 2019), ICT to enhance education (Chilton 2012), real-world problem solving (López-Querol et al. 2015), or multidisciplinary teams (Villalobos et al. 2015;SchäFer and Richards 2007). ...
Teamwork is an important aspect of software engineering education. This paper presents ASEST (Agile Software Engineers Stick Together), a teaching framework whose aim is to improve teamwork in terms of team performance and team learning by developing team cohesion at the graduate level of software engineering student teams. The basis of ASEST was established by identifying the most current trends in teamwork in software engineering education. The framework itself combines these approaches in a procedure consisting of eight steps through which students are expected to go through. A study of one group of students that applied the ASEST framework indicated that their perceptions of team cohesion, team performance and team learning increased significantly compared with the perceptions of the students in a group that did not use the framework. Also, a survey showed students’ acceptance of our proposal.
... However, a number of engineering programs have sought to introduce socially responsible innovation to their curricula to widen the capabilities of engineering and enhance their ability to advance social, environmental and economical issues [e.g. [53][54][55]. ...
Engineering education traditionally emphasizes technological solutions that focus heavily on students’ technical skills. However, for innovations that create an impact, it is essential to link this technical knowledge to societal considerations. This paper describes a problem- centered approach towards introducing mechanical engineering students to sustainable, ethical and collaborative innovation, through an analysis of student work and feedback gathered from a ten-week long pilot conducted as part of a compulsory, Master’s level, academic year-long Mechanical Engineering course.
During the pilot, student groups worked on broadly phrased challenges derived from an ongoing EU project on developing societal applications for technology, choosing one of seven challenges ranging from changing rain patterns in cities to IoT technologies and data security. Teaching was divided into three interconnected sections on sustainable development, technology and ethics, and collaboration. Each of these sections combined theory with practice through panels with experts from academia and industry and hands-on workshops, encouraging the students to consider multidimensional aspects of their chosen challenge and its consequences for the entire system it links to. A variety of design thinking methods were introduced for exploring the challenges holistically to define and reframe the problem at hand, identify ethical dilemmas and understand the needs of stakeholders for successful collaboration.
At the end of each section, students were asked to reflect on their incorporation of societal considerations to the challenge they were working on in the form of group reports. At the end of the pilot, the students presented a project proposal of a direction for solving their challenge. This paper looks at how engineering students operationalize multilayered aspects of societal issues through these reports and project proposals for 19 teams that completed both the first and last group assignment.
The results of this study suggest that introducing creative, holistic, problem-solving skills into engineering education in a hands-on manner creates numerous advantages for supporting the understanding of systemic, innovative solutions that have a societal impact and go beyond solving the technological problem. Nine sub-themes to sustainability, ethics and collaboration were identified from the deliverables; environment, economy and culture, fairness, privacy and responsibility, stakeholders, diversity and co-creation. The students’ ability to identify and apply these nine measured sub-themes of sustainability, ethics, and collaboration improved statistically significantly in seven out of nine themes.
The results of this study encourage linking engineering courses to societal issues through minor interventions, in order to encourage engineering students to apply a broader range of considerations in scoping innovation projects. Additionally, the coding scheme developed here can be used to gauge the level of consideration for societal issues given by students in their assignments, enabling more targeted interventions in a resource-light manner. Taken together, the results encourage iteratively developing evidence-based instruction for responsible engineering.
... An interdisciplinary sustainable design project consisting of academics and engineering and non-engineering students (voluntary participation) from different institutions with no prior knowledge on system design, renewable energy and water treatment started a project with the aim to provide water for developing countries and remote communities using only solar energy. The project was successful as it got commercialized after five-years (Schäfer and Richards, 2007). ...
Purpose
The UN proclamation of 2005–2014 as the decade of education for sustainable development has been instrumental in creating awareness and driving higher education institutions (HEIs) in integrating sustainability into their system. The purpose of this paper is to explore and encapsulate practices adopted by universities and colleges across the globe in integrating sustainability in education (here refers to curriculum and pedagogy), research, campus operations and outreach programs.
Design/methodology/approach
The review analyzed 229 peer-reviewed research studies in the time period 2005–2018 selected from 44 journals. The literature review was done in phases. The first phase was the selection of the database, the second phase was refining the database by eliminating irrelevant studies and the last phase was distributing selected studies on the basis of the journal, year and country of publication, research paradigm, sustainability integration in higher education, teaching techniques adopted by HEIs and research focus in publications.
Findings
This study contributes to the literature review of sustainability in higher education. From the literature review, it is evident that sustainability has made inroads into HEIs, but only a few universities have been successful in implementing it holistically, integrating all the triple bottom line dimensions in balance.
Practical implications
The study has practical implications for HEIs planning to integrate sustainability into teaching and learning and other aspects of educational practices. The findings and the examples of successful implementation of sustainable education by institutions around the world would help universities and colleges in formulating policies, strategies and practices that would promote sustainability on campuses.
Originality/value
The literature reviews on sustainability in higher education so far have focused either on curricula, pedagogical approaches, assessment and reporting or barriers and solutions. This study attempts to offer a comprehensive view of the initiatives adopted by the institutions in incorporating sustainability in education, research, campus operations and outreach programs.
... University curricula for engineering has contributed to the development as well, framed under the Engineering Education for Sustainable Development initiative following the Barcelona Declaration and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005Development ( -2014 [6] for implementation of educational programs in link with SD .In terms of engineering education, incorporation of sustainability within the curriculum has led to exploration of relevant module to discuss sustainability as well as unsustainability as that which needs to be addressed particularly for professional development [2], [6]- [8]. Within engineering education, design education has received specific attention in its potential to be a constructive activity for the application of highly cognitive skills for learning of producing of solutions in the form of physical products [9]- [11] . A trend of changes to design education is noted within the literature which emphasizes on embracing of multidisciplinary towards transdisciplinary approaches which involves a more comprehensive approach towards understanding of problems solving particularly the problems raised as affecting human well-being and environment [6], [10], [12]. ...
This paper is written to link liberatory pedagogy with engineering education and sustainable development Its application to specifically, design education for community is explored through deconstructing of engineering student narratives to place understanding of power and privilege in a specific learning setting. The use of liberatory pedagogy for design education and SD is attempted where there is need of changes in understanding of learning outcomes for SD aimed at producing of sustainable physical products to address SD problems in community-based projects. We argue against the simple-minded approach of producing physical products and undermine the intersections of other knowledge forms within the community context. Without pedagogic intervention, we undermine other knowledge forms and cultures in its importance amidst technical knowledge seen as which is valid for SD. Extending liberatory pedagogy to constructivists’ perspective we discuss the importance of intervention in the broader image of the engineer as the technical expert who share knowledge in partnership for SD.
Background
The evolving transformations of our society at large, academic institutions, and engineering discipline in the 21st century have profound implications for the nature of experiential learning being offered in engineering education. However, what is experiential learning in the context of engineering education?
Purpose
The introduction and evaluation of experiential learning in undergraduate engineering education between 1995 and 2020, as well as the essential elements for consideration in its future implementation, have been analyzed and synthesized.
Design/Method
A population–intervention–comparison–outcome framework and PRISMA flow diagram were used to outline a systematic literature review on how experiential learning was introduced into undergraduate engineering curricula, how it was evaluated, and the essential elements for consideration in its future implementation.
Findings
A total of 220 studies were synthesized. These studies offered a new lens of seeing experiential learning, which were interpreted as “paradigm shifts.” More than one‐half of the total studies were conducted between 1995 and 2005. These studies were strongly directed at measuring student performance and occurred in a decade when many North American engineering curricula were being restructured. The review indicated that experiential learning has been successfully carried out via diverse methodologies. However, there is a strong need to enrich it with a theoretical basis.
Conclusions
Experiential learning introduced into engineering education appeared to be an interdependent self – school – community entity. In the changing work environment of the 21st century, heightened by the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic, invoking the inseparability of self, school, and community would provide unique perspectives to our evolving understanding of experiential learning and its relevance in engineering discipline.
Solar technology for water treatment and generation of electricity remains a viable bridge to sustainability in all spheres of human life. In this viewpoint, this chapter exemplifies research advances in generation I solar-driven water treatment technologies, and the techno economic and design optimization studies. This chapter focuses on matured renewable energy-driven water applications, including water desalination and water-pumping systems. Maturity here is defined by both market share and the reliability of technology.
Renewable energy-powered nanofiltration allows to (i) overcome the operational energy costs of nanofiltration and (ii) design decentralized treatment where advanced water treatment removal of dissolved contaminants is required and no reliable energy supply is available.
Such decentralized treatment is a relatively a new paradigm that is required in remote areas where supply of water to a relatively sparse population requires small plants, as well as in places where no safe water distribution system is available. The technology is fit for application in treating contaminated water, ranging from brackish water through to wastewater reclamation. As such, nanofiltration is suitable to produce drinking water from sources that are not traditional water supplies and hence augmenting the available water for drinking.
Technically, nanofiltration is working very well in such applications, although the economic case has long been made. However, both direct renewable energy coupling and the operation of decentralized systems still pose challenges. These concern the behavior of nanofiltration membranes in discontinuous operation. Degradation of permeate quality and osmotic backwash caused by the natural energy fluctuation are vastly unexplored, and long-term operational experience is to date missing. Further, maintaining the safe operation of such systems far from infrastructure and without qualified staff on-site over long periods is yet to be realized. Membrane cleaning, concentrate disposal (if required), and regular maintenance of water quality are topics that require a creative approach that may not prove economical until large-scale implementation of such “leapfrog” technologies.
This chapter provides a summary of the state of the art and outlines the future research directions in a field where nanofiltration can make a significant contribution to address societal grand challenges: safe water for all in remote areas where the installation of conventional treatment is insufficient and a distribution system unaffordable.
Promoting excellence in sustainable manufacturing has emerged as a strategic mission in academia and industry. In particular, universities must prepare the next generation of engineers to contribute to the task of sustaining and improving manufacturing by providing appropriate types of sustainability education and training. However, engineering curricula are challenged in delivering educational training for assessing technical solutions from the three domains that define sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. In the research presented here, an educational framework is developed with an aim to improve student understanding of sustainable product design (PD) and manufacturing. The framework is founded on the analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate (ADDIE) model for instructional design. The developed framework is demonstrated using an example of a sustainable PD activity. This instructional design case study illustrates how engineering students would be able to investigate the impacts of raw materials, unit manufacturing processes, manufacturing locations, and design changes on product sustainability performance by integrating PD information and manufacturing analysis methods during the PD phase.
Purpose
– While a number of universities in Australia have embraced concepts such as project/problem‐based learning and design of innovative learning environments for engineering education, there has been a lack of national guidance on including sustainability as a “critical literacy” into all engineering streams. This paper was presented at the 2004 International Conference on Engineering Education in Sustainable Development (EESD) in Barcelona, Spain, outlining a current initiative that is seeking to address the “critical literacy” dilemma.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper presents the positive steps taken by Australia's peak engineering body, the Institution of Engineers Australia (EA), in considering accreditation requirements for university engineering courses and its responsibility to ensure the inclusion of sustainability education material. It then describes a current initiative called the “Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program – Critical Literacies for Engineers Portfolio” (ESSP‐CL), which is being developed by The Natural Edge Project (TNEP) in partnership with EA and Unesco.
Findings
– Content for the module was gathered from around the world, drawing on research from the publication The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation, and Governance in the Twenty‐first Century. Parts of the first draft of the ESSP‐CL have been trialled at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia with first year environmental engineering students, in May 2004. Further trials are now proceeding with a number of other universities and organisations nationally and internationally.
Practical implications
– It is intended that ESSP‐CL will be a valuable resource to universities, professional development activities or other education facilities nationally and internationally.
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As college students experience the challenges of their classes and extracurricular activities, they undergo a developmental progression in which they gradually relinquish their belief in the certainty of knowledge and the omniscience of authorities and take increasing responsibility for their own learning. At the highest developmental level normally seen in college students (which few attain before graduation), they display attitudes and thinking patterns resembling those of expert scientists and engineers, including habitually and skillfully gathering and analyzing evidence to support their judgments. This paper proposes an instructional model designed to provide a suitable balance of challenge and support to advance students to that level. The model components are (1) variety and choice of learning tasks; (2) explicit communication and explanation of expectations; (3) modeling, practice, and constructive feedback on high-level tasks; (4) a student-centered instructional environment; and (5) respect for students at all levels of development.
This paper is based on the premises that the purpose of
engineering education is to graduate engineers who can design,
and that design thinking is complex. The paper begins by briefly
reviewing the history and role of design in the engineering
curriculum. Several dimensions of design thinking are then
detailed, explaining why design is hard to learn and harder still to
teach, and outlining the research available on how well design
thinking skills are learned. The currently most-favored
pedagogical model for teaching design, project-based learning
(PBL), is explored next, along with available assessment data on
its success. Two contexts for PBL are emphasized: first-year
cornerstone courses and globally dispersed PBL courses. Finally,
the paper lists some of the open research questions that must be
answered to identify the best pedagogical practices of improving
design learning, after which it closes by making recommendations
for research aimed at enhancing design learning.
This study examined the extent to which undergraduate engi-neering courses taught using active and collaborative learning methods differ from traditional lecture and discussion courses in their ability to promote the development of students' engineering design, problem-solving, communication, and group participa-tion skills. Evidence for the study comes from 480 students en-rolled in 17 active or collaborative learning courses/sections and six traditional courses/sections at six engineering schools. Re-sults indicate that active or collaborative methods produce both statistically significant and substantially greater gains in student learning than those associated with more traditional instruction-al methods. These learning advantages remained even when dif-ferences in a variety of student pre-course characteristics were controlled.
This paper details the development of problem-based learning in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL, including opportunities and challenges in implementation experienced as the ‘pitfalls of the pilot’ with regard to issues in student support and the complexity of the tutor's role.
A minor in Engineering Communication and Performance is being created at the University of Tennessee in conjunction with the engage Freshman Engineering Program. This minor provides engineering undergraduate students with formal training and a credential in complementary performance skills necessary for success in today's workplace. This interdisciplinary program is designed to improve the ability of engineering graduates to work on teams, to be effective communicators, to be socially adept, and to be prepared for leadership roles .
Five courses compose the minor. Three of these courses are new and custom‐prepared for engineering students, while the other two may be selected from a limited list of courses that provide in‐depth training on supervision, cultural diversity, and interpersonal interaction. This multi‐disciplinary program takes a novel approach in the subject matter presentation and in the method of coaching students to use these skills. In the custom courses, students receive instruction and are placed in mini‐practicums. To complete the minor, students participate in a full practicum in a social service setting.
This paper discusses assessment; course development; program basis and development; strategies for implementation of this new program; integration between engineering, counseling psychology, and human services; and student, faculty, and industry response to the program. The collaboration makes this program transportable to other institutions as it is dependent on having institution expertise in the disciplines of counseling and human services rather than having engineering educators with expertise in these fields. Our experience with establishing this collaboration will also be discussed.
Most environmental education in engineering has pertained to the development of technical environmental engineering skills. However, at the post-secondary level, the spectrum of environmental education approaches is broad, and no consensus exists on the necessary curricular mix for forming effective environmental professionals. This paper examines the tension between the environmental education goals of knowing and caring: learning to scientifically describe how environmental processes work, and learning to value and feel concern for the environment. Literature on the development of environmental sensitivity is explored for insights into how the environmental sensitivity of engineering students could be assessed and nurtured.
Part 1: Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1.Introduction 2.Ways if Understanding Teaching 3.What Students Learn 4.Approaches to Learning 5.Learning form the Student's Perspective 6.The Nature of Good Teaching in Higher Education 7.Theories of Teaching in Higher Education Part 2: Design for Learning 8.The Goals and Structure of a Course 9.Tecahing Strategies for Effective Learning 10.Assessing for Understanding Part 3: Evaluating and Improving the Quality of Teaching and Learning 11.Evaluating the Quality of Higher Education 12.What Does it Take to Improve Teaching?
Increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary research and education requires researchers and learners to build links between distinct disciplines. In engineering education, work on integrated curricula to help learners build connections between topics began with three programs in 1988. Integrated curricula have connections to a larger movement in higher education—learning communities, which help learners to build interdisciplinary links and social links within a community. Integrated engineering curricula have provided concrete assessment data on retention and student performance to augment research on learning communities. While innovators in both movements have offered many prototypes and gathered many data, goals and results from programs implemented to date are not sufficiently well defined to guide the design and implementation of programs at other institutions. This paper discusses the importance of integration, reviews accomplishments to date, draws conclusions by analyzing those accomplishments, and suggests future initiatives.