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Teaching ergonomic design to undergraduate students can be challenging. One effective strategy for teaching ergonomic design is to incorporate the conceptual, technical, and procedural foundations of ergonomics into the design of products. In this paper, we discuss the integration of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Digital Human Modeling (DHM) to improve the understanding of ergonomic principles among undergraduate students. The curriculum of two undergraduate courses, Product Design and Work Design, were revised to include a course project that combines concepts from both courses to assess students' knowledge of ergonomic design. The Product Design course focuses on the principles required for designing a product and developing the specifications for its components. The Work Design course focuses on ergonomic analysis and design of workplace and job. Students were asked to create different CAD designs for a single-channel pipette while considering ergonomics and then evaluate the designs using DHM. The design process involves gathering of customer requirements, identifying product specifications, generating design concepts, evaluating the designs, and selecting the best design. Results show that students' design skills can be greatly enhanced by integrating the two courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering for non-engineers is being taught successfully at the college level. While this has been done at individual institutions and there is a large community of interest, the practice has not become widespread. Based on the experiences of people who have taught these courses, issues keeping engineering from becoming part of every college student's education include finding a place for engineering in the general core curriculum, finding faculty to teach the course, rewards for faculty, resources, and course materials. Of these, the critical issue is finding a place in the curriculum. Pressure from outside the academic community is needed to drive changes in university core requirements. In the 1990s, a push came from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to make it a national priority to increase the technological literacy of the general public in the United States. Without much fanfare or attention, people at colleges and universities across the United States and beyond have been engaged in teaching non-engineers about engineering for many years. Under different names, people have developed programs ranging from individual courses to minors and even graduate level programs in the belief that all people should know more about engineering and the technology that engineers create and manage. To be prepared for the future, people need to know something about engineering. While good models have been developed for teaching people about these subjects, it has not become part of the general core curriculum at the college level. This paper will discuss barriers that must be overcome for the practice of teaching every student about engineering widespread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the increasing demand and a need for globally competent engineers in the workforce diversity. To meet workforce demands of competent engineers, higher education colleges expand curricular programs to provide graduate engineering students with significant international education experience in abroad and at home institutions.

This study explored how workplace competency assessment data collected by College of Engineering programs from internship students and their supervisors between fall 2001 through fall 2011, are applied toward continuous improvement practices. The continuous improvement process is integral to the accreditation and evaluation of the engineering curriculum. This mixed methods study examined three separate practices using internship workplace competency assessment ratings in the continuous improvement process. The study examined how assessment rankings of the internship students' workplace competency strengths and weakness have changed from the 2001-05 assessment terms in the past accreditation cycle, to the 2006-11 assessment terms of the most recent accreditation cycle. It examined competency achievement percentages related to the ABET Criterion 3 (a-k) outcomes across the same timeline, and investigated how workplace competency assessment data are used to support continuous improvement for program curricula in the College of Engineering. The intent of the study was to gain better understanding of how the workplace competency assessment data has benefited the continuous improvement process that enhances student learning. The results can also provide suggestions to programs in the early stages of developing new program evaluation techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on ethics for beginners in engineering. Reviewing the information on micro- and macroethics can help an instructor to arrange the ethical components of the technical course. Microethics involves actions of individual engineers whereas macroethics deals with social matters. A final recommendation is for instructors to peruse the ethics across the curriculum.

In response to the vision presented in the Engineer of 2020 Project, many engineering educators are redesigning courses and curriculum to provide students with opportunities to conceive, design, and implement engineering solutions to complex global issues. This paper describes the development and assessment of a redesigned first year cornerstone course called Engineering Opportunities. The motivation for the course redesign was to both be a pathway into the engineering community and to equip students for success in both the classroom and the engineering profession. The course is built on a learner-centered platform that is intended to create an inclusive environment for first year students to successfully transition from high school to college. The course content covers human-centered design, systems thinking, professionalism and ethics. The intention of this approach is to provide a high-impact educational experience within the first year for engineering students so that they can engage in opportunities to become acclimated with the process of self-guided deep learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporating user feedback is imperative for the adoption and continued usage of educational innovations in the classroom. We report on the development of an Android-based student mobile application, a user-suggested improvement for the AIChE Concept Warehouse. An Apple-based mobile application is also in development. Our intent is to share the applications' development and improvement process in the hopes that other innovators can benefit from the lessons learned through our experience. The AIChE Concept Warehouse was developed with the intent of fostering a community of learning within chemical engineering. The Concept Warehouse is a web-enabled database infrastructure that is designed to promote concept-based instruction through the use of concept questions. These concept questions are used in core curriculum courses like Material/Energy Balances, Thermodynamics, Transport Phenomena, Kinetics and Reactor Design, and Materials Science. Availability of high quality concept questions can lower the barrier for faculty to use concept-based instruction and assessment. This software allows the instructor to engage students and evaluate student learning in real-time. The instructor is then able to adjust the pace of lecture in response to student understanding. The Concept Warehouse also allows for reflective assessments such as "the muddiest point." The student mobile application was developed to make it easier for students to submit answers and written explanations to these assessments using mobile devices. Originally, students could submit their answers to conceptual questions using clickers, mobile browsers on smartphones, and laptops. Input via smartphones, however, proved cumbersome because it depended on the quality of the student's mobile browser and utilized the full-size webpage interface. The improved mobile student interface facilitates participation by making responses via smartphone more user-friendly. After the development of the application, we conducted initial usability tests with students who had previously used the web-based options for answer submission. In order to gauge usability, we collected usage statistics from student responses to a usability survey. Survey responses were used to identify student likes and dislikes as well as to compare different available options for answer submission. These results will be used to improve the design of the current application as well as guide our design decisions for the development of the iOS version of the student app. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to framing routines which are a widely used literacy strategy to support students in the organization of topics, main ideas and details of information. It is noted that it can be used to support teachers in the design of engineering curriculum into the K12 classroom by using content from Common Core, and Next Generation Science Standards to design an engineering activity.

The construction industry is experiencing challenges in developing specific and necessary competencies; leadership is one known deficiency. Other reasons, including rising complexity and the rapidly changing nature of construction projects, have called for improved leadership development in the construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to first identify and synthesize the curricular components (i.e., course experiences) and noncurricular factors (e.g., mentoring networks) that impact the development of leadership competencies for civil engineering and construction undergraduate students. A critical review and qualitative synthesis of the literature was employed to gather known components and factors relating to students' leadership development resulting from undergraduate coursework. Findings indicate that the curricular components and noncurricular factors impacting development of leadership competencies include course assignments and activities, course content (e.g., emphasis on the development of technical competencies versus development of emotional intelligence skills), access to resources (e.g., new technologies, guest speakers), and the ability to enroll in courses outside of required curriculum [e.g., courses that prepare student groups to participate in Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) and National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) annual competitions]. By using information provided in this study, future steps may be taken by faculty members to bridge and, in particular, improve their students' development of leadership competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on an indoor skydiving approach for teaching STEM education and outcomes of this curriculum exchange. Topics discussed include speech delivery through technical support, K-12 education system, real time flight experience for practice, and safety procedures for experimentation.