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The emerging of information technology (IT)and operational technology (OT) convergence has driven the smart grid technology adoption in the European (EU) energy system for better visibility and automated controllability. On the other hand, the energy system infrastructures can be threaten by the cyber attacks due to the increasing of information and communication technology integration. The cyber vulnerabilities are caused by the increasing of internet connection and the application complexities. It is crucial to identify essential skills in the field of cyber security protection and defense for the students. This paper presents the outcome of a literature review and a workshop with stakeholders from industry and academia about the state of the art and trends in the education of cyber security in smart grids.

Block-based programming has proven extraordinarily successful as a pedagogical tool for learning the fundamentals of computing via an exploratory, unconstrained, and hands-on approach. One would think that the issue of software quality is inapplicable in this programming domain. Nevertheless, as recent research shows, block-based programs, written by novice programmers, exhibit recurring quality problems. Although block-based software is not intended for production environments, poor quality can be detrimental to achieving the educational objectives the very use of blocks aims for. Specifically, as we and other researchers have been discovering, introductory programmers, as they gain proficiency, tend to retain poor programming habits, thus continuing to introduce recurring quality problems into their programs. Evidence also indicates that poorly written code is less likely to be reused, thus hindering the potential benefits of this peer-learning mechanism. These findings call for a synergistic effort from educators and tool developers to address the issue of software quality in the context of block-based programming. This effort will require innovating both in the realm of introductory computing curricula and software infrastructure to improve software quality.

Pass researches on STEM education emphasized the rational problem solving among applied engineering and technology, while the nurture of the imagination and creativity in the students’ art field was overlooked. Hence, this research aims to develop a STEAM curriculum module, with basic electronic technology and skill as the foundation, combining scientific RGB colour theory and the artistic concept of drawing and modelling design, with application of the Adobe Illustrator and SketchUp softwares, developing into a hands-on module "LED light-adjusting and paper-curved pop up card" STEAM curriculum. This research combined expert teachers from electrical engineering, physics and art fields to collaboratively develop the curriculum module, through reflective dialogues of three instructing teachers and two team teachers, experiencing three years of curriculum module revision. The first year developed the integrated curriculum of the mini DIY LED light-adjusting board that combined technology, engineering and mathematics, the second year combined with science concept and developed the STEM curriculum for LED light-adjusting board experiments, the third year combined with the artistic paper-curved pop up card and developed the STEAM curriculum module. This module can be applied in the living technology curriculum of the grade 8, which based on student-centred learning, with application of 6E Learning by DeSIGN™ Model for teaching, and this STEAM curriculum module can provide and be applied in 24 lessons of the secondary school’s living technology curriculum.

The introduction of the FCT Curricular Profile at Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a pioneering pedagogical model in Portugal, allowed to accommodate transversal skills, such as research and entrepreneurialism, soft skills and contact with industry in all its BSc, MSc and integrated MSc curricula. Since these skills are increasingly being recognized by employes, the chances for the Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia of Universidade Nova de Lisboa s students to be successful in the job market tend to increase. However, the calendar changes resulting from this pedagogical model imposed serious management problems concerning assessment using on-paper tests, specially to courses with a high number of enrolled students (ranging from 200 to 800).Here we present a methodology that is being used since 2012 that proved to successfully overcome those difficulties. The methodology embraces the whole process of assessment using on-paper tests from its beginning (test authoring) to grades publication. The methodology implementation enabled a significant decrease of faculty s exam/test proctoring time, reduced the grading time for less than an hour, and permitted a much more efficient use of university s rooms dedicated to tests. Moreover, allowed many professors to convey many hours previously spent in related test activities to their research and teaching innovation activities.

Gamification is the incorporation of gaming elements into non-game situations, such as education or training. We have developed a game that can be used to teach signals concepts, and have implemented it in both a pen-and-paper version and in an electronic version. This paper discusses the game and how it applies pedagogical concepts such as active learning and game-centric curriculum design. We discuss the merits and drawbacks of each type of implementation, student reactions, and how a similar game could be incorporated into other signals-based classes.

In any educational course curriculum, the courses are defined with learning objectives. Teachers conduct assessments to know if students have achieved certain learning objectives or not. T eachers generate variety of question papers as per the universities’ assessment requirements. It is very challenging for the teachers to make question papers with varied questions and which meet learning objectives of the course. There are no standardized methods to ensure quality of question paper. Hence there arises a need to have a system which will automatically generate the question paper from teacher entered specification within few seconds. Researchers recommend different sets of tags such as cognitive level, difficulty level, type of question, content /topic for defining a question etc. The existing tools are rigid and support very basic or limited tags. The proposed system will automatically generate a question paper from semantically tagged question repository. This system offers flexibility by supporting all four tags and allows entry of every property in the form of ranges i.e. lower bound and upper bound. The question paper is generated in xml format and as Microsoft Word document.

This paper will provide an overview of an alternative model for assessment of student learning in introductory physics. A synopsis of how assessment methods can be designed to better capture what students are actually learning will be shared. This synopsis will include a general discussion of assessment, assessment methods, and the “language of assessment.” Following this synopsis one model of non-traditional assessment will be highlighted. The assessment model described makes use of student writing as a mechanism for assessment of learning. A second-level physics course entitled Physics for a New Millennium (PNM) at American University provides the setting for this work. Following a description of the course curriculum, the specific structure for the writing activity will be outlined as it relates to the learning outcomes for the course. Following the presentation of the course-specific learning outcomes, a description of the strategies used to uncover student learning will be shared. These strategies provide an opportunity for multiple assessment “snapshots” to be made throughout various phases of the learning process. These strategies can be used as an alternative, or as a supplement to more traditional pencil and paper examinations, quizzes, and homework assignments. Whether used as a stand-alone assessment tool or coupled with more traditional measures, alternative assessment strategies can provide an enhanced and more realistic way to capture what students are actually learning.

Modules in professional issues sometimes sit a little awkwardly in the computer science curriculum. They can be seen as an island of discursive teaching coming from what Biglan might have termed the 'soft applied' field of study. In computer science the more usual context is of knowledge and skills based learning and activities of a 'hard pure/hard applied' fields of study. This gap may be particularly difficult in those countries where students arrive who have specialized early in subjects related to science, technology and mathematics. The authors of this practice sharing paper have had many years of experience teaching such modules to computer science cohorts, but have recently been faced with the challenge of consolidating two distinct courses previously taught in years one and two of the undergraduate curriculum. The resultant course was required to be one quarter smaller in terms of its notional hours, and there was a need to save on face-to-face contact time. There is a considerable challenge generated by the squeezing of content an contact while at the same time trying to motivate students with a strong technical motivation to spend time on a topic which is not, at first glance, directly relevant to their chosen specialisms. The paper will present a description of the motivations for designing the module and the approaches taken primarily from the perspective of the teachers and the small curriculum design support team. We will provide a detailed explanation of the rationale alongside a consideration of the impact and implications of this type of change. We will situate our rationale in the context of striving to motivate the learners' to gain a deeper insight into their own learning and technological preferences in such a way that they can take ownership of the new approaches to which they have been introduced in a way which they will sustain during their future individual professional development.

The skills needed to build the next-generation of power semiconductor devices and to integrate them into power electronic systems require proper education and training of engineering students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To assess the current state of power electronics education, a study of curricular offering in power electronics in the U.S. universities is conducted. The study shows that there is a lack of course offering in semiconductor power devices with a lack of critical topics such as thermal management, temperature effects, reliability, power packaging, modeling, systems integration, and failure analysis. To remedy these deficiencies, new power electronics tracks/concentrations for undergraduate and graduate programs are proposed. The proposed curricular modifications are designed to be rigorous to meet the future needs of the power electronic industry, but flexible enough to be easily adopted by different institutions.

Louisiana Tech University in partnership with three local high schools has recently developed NASA-Threads, a high school curriculum that integrates engineering, mathematics, and physics. The curriculum uses hands-on projects that develop student ability to solve realistic multiple-step problems and bring excitement into the classroom. One of the projects implemented in the “Work and Mechanics” portion of the curriculum involves the design, fabrication and testing of a two dimensional (2D) paper truss. Tensile truss members are made of dogbone-shaped manila folder strips, compressive specimens are made from paper mat board, and joints are held together with aluminum screw posts. The truss geometry and testing configuration ensure that the truss will fail when the most heavily loaded tensile member reaches its breaking strength. Tensile testing of individual members prior to the design process provides the data needed for students to design a truss whose load carrying capacity can be accurately estimated. The 2D paper trusses are easy to fabricate when compared to other paper or wooden trusses and provide an excellent way to introduce high school students to structural mechanics.

Despite the significance of software testing, and the huge body of knowledge associated with it, programming course curriculum often does not include it at all. This short paper discusses one instructor’s simple techniques for incorporating software testing into a course curriculum that otherwise does not include it.

Modern learning approaches consider attaining self-regulation (Self-Regulated Learning). Clever curriculum design can foster maximum learning effect for the students. An example is Peer Instruction, especially the ConcepTest and Peer Discussion phases therein. IT can support such approaches with modern Web-based solutions such as Audience Response Systems. In this position paper we discuss utilisation of Audience Response Systems during the different phases of Peer Instruction to foster Self-Regulated Learning.

This full paper of innovative practice addresses how Computer Science programs in the United States continue to struggle with diversity, not only in their faculty and student body, but also with their curriculum. The lack of diversity in these programs affects the programs themselves, their students, but also society. This paper looks at alternative approaches to solving this problem by proposing a theoretical model that has Computer Science programs recruiting an Applied Sociologist that specializes in inequalities and engages local communities. The paper provides relevant discussion and examples of how an Applied Sociologist would affect diversity by being a liaison to the community and contributing to the curriculum. This unconventional concept is expressed through a case study that uses Seattle and the University of Washington to discuss the multifaceted layers of equalities brought on by history and current social practices.

In recent years, the issue of quality in introductory and end-user programming has become increasingly prominent. In particular, the poor quality of block-based programs has been shown to harm the educational effectiveness in this programming domain. As a result, there has been a growing interest in code quality and its improvement practices among researchers and educators. Refactoring—transforming code to remove quality problems while preserving semantics—is taught as a common and practical technique for improving code quality. To maximize pedagogical effectiveness, some educators advocate teaching students to refactor by hand to elucidate the mechanics behind refactoring instead of relying on tools that transform code automatically. In this position paper, we argue that this pedagogical approach is counterproductive. We advocate teaching refactoring similarly to compilation, a technique that students start applying automatically right away, but learn its inner workings only much later in the curriculum. Even professional developers are advised to avoid carrying out complex refactoring transformations by hand, as this activity leads to hard-to-trace bugs as well as wastes time and effort. To put appropriate tools for improving software quality into the hands of Scratch programmers, we created an automated refactoring infrastructure for Scratch, and we argue that such facility should become a mainstay of programming environments for blocks.

This Research-to-Practice Full Paper presents the correlation analysis of subjects in the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, which is a nationally standardized test developed by NCEES (National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying). It is generally the first step in the process of becoming a professional licensed engineer (P.E.) and hence serves as a valuable assessment tool for evaluating students’ learning objectives and outcomes. Based on CPP (Cal Poly Pomona) and National FE exam data from 2005-2011, this study intended to explore the relationship between different subjects from morning and afternoon sessions. Additionally, the comparison was also performed between the observations from CPP and National results to highlight the discrepancies which can shed more insight to teachers for their design of curriculum and pedagogy strategies aiming to enhance students’ outcomes. The results illustrated the presence of statistically significant correlation among many subject pairs across morning and afternoon sessions. Moreover, some of the pairs demonstrated comparable relationship between CPP and National exam results, but the correlation analyses successfully highlighted the discrepancies which would allow the faculty to develop focused strategies for improvement of weaker subjects.

In this research full paper, we present a study of a cohort of non-traditional students learning to program as part of an intercalated computer science year named Year in Computing at University of Kent, Canterbury in the UK. The study uses focus group interviews with students to explore their articulations and perceptions of learning to program. During the interviews, we used Bebras puzzles as a tool for students to reflect on their own experiences in learning to program. By observing the students working with the puzzle, some of the tacit information of problem-solving strategies became apparent. We see Bebras puzzles as a way to gain valuable insights that are not as easily available when relying on conventional self-reflection in a qualitative study. Another contribution grounded in this study is the proposal of a framework describing the students' developing mental models in the beginning of their studies. The results presented here are a first iteration in an ongoing endeavour of exploring students' development of mental models. We hope that these contributions will provide teachers and researchers with a new perspective for developing introductory programming curricula and to engage in further development of our framework.

This short paper presents a curriculum the author developed for introducing electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and computer science (CS) concepts to high school students. For enhancing the learning experience of the participants the program is built around a number of practical and fun activities which are meant to keep the students actively engaged. This material was offered for two cohorts of students and the author continues to improve it based on experiences and student feedback.

Comprehensive curriculum is essential for overalldevelopment of professionals. Like other countries, in Indiatoo the engineering educators have a task of insistingattainment of graduate attributes to suit the global needs. Teaching engineering courses help us to attain the programoutcomes [1]. However, real challenge lies in efficientattainment of ethical principles and effective functioning ofprofessionals as a member in diverse team by effectivecommunication. Thus proper guiding and assessing practical engineering skills is the need of the hour. We focus on educative growth of ethical and communicative skills attained in the present study wherecapstone project is taken as an example. The project issubdivided into two level first the pre-project and the finalproject. Capstone project is an amalgamation of all the basiclearning and the application component of the curriculum. In order to evaluate the attainment of ethical skill andcommunicative skill, the assessment rubrics need to bedesigned well. This work discusses the manner which canmeasure the attribute attainment quite precisely. After acquiring fundamental knowledge on engineering subjects, the students are made to work on acapstone project. Attainment of the program outcome (PO)is quantified with a class with seventy students. The finalyear under-graduate students are divided into group of fourto the maximum. A topic and a faculty adviser ofcorresponding specialization is assigned to each of thegroups. Rubrics of formative assessment are attentivelychosen to incorporate the attributes of ethics and soft skills. Bimonthly evaluations were graded by the guide anddepartmental faculty other than the guide. The summativeassessment is done along with an external examiner from the neighboring institution. Mode of attainment of courseoutcome (CO) to PO has been discussed in the full paperalong with the state diagram of the evaluation process. Asthe students go ahead with execution of the project throughregular meetings with guide, the communication is assessedby rubrics which emphasize the report writing skilldevelopment. The written communication skill is thensubsequently corroborated by oral presentation. Thepresentation is evaluated again to judge the oralcommunication skill as a part of a team of maximum fourmembers with varied aptitudes. Another important point isin the rubrics we have introduced plagiarism check to ensure the ethical attribute of the graduate. By keeping a threshold value for acceptance limit of plagiarism one can evaluate the skill of written communication and originality of thoughts. The attainment of CO to PO is graded from theformative assessment score in pre-project work and finalproject work. In order to take in-depth evaluation, we havetaken 75% of the total marks as the criteria for assessing aparticular skill of a student. Capstone project is consideredas culmination of all the teaching-learning in the curriculumfor the discipline. After framing the rubics and mapping ofthe particular Course Outcome to Program Outcome, logichas been exercised selectively to map with either strong ormoderate attainment of the latter. The process and it's prosand cons will be discussed in detials in full paper.

There has been a well-documented and persistent drop in the number of women in computer science and engineering courses [1]. Young peoples' decisions about participation often start early and have been linked to particular experiences [2]. For some young people, these experiences are less than encouraging. In the US, high school computer science courses are overwhelmingly male dominated [3]. Schools serving minority students and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often struggle to even offer such classes [4]. Even when opportunities exist, many girls and underrepresented populations face barriers such as negative stereotypes and dearth of role models and community [5]. The Digital Youth Divas program was created to address these issues through intentional design. The program is developed to trigger situational interest [6] in girls through a combination of community, project-based instruction, on- and offline learning spaces, and narrative stories. Triggered situational interest is critical as an opening to move on to subsequent phases that are more independent of environmental factors. Understanding potential effective triggers for girls, minorities, and youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds is critical to engaging such populations in STEM learning. (1) Community: Middle school girls interested in fashion and design are recruited, especially from areas that have traditionally been underserved. Adult mentors who are not engineers, but share cultural connections with the girls and have gone through curriculum and pedagogical training, attend to specific practices of encouraging, helping to troubleshoot, and developing community. (2) Project-based instruction: The program combines principles of fashion, design, and dance with the power and possibilities of electronic circuits and programming to develop interactive e-fashion projects and virtual programmed choreographies. Scaffolded challenges work through stages of design and computational thinking, including paper prototyping, implementation, feedback, and revision. (3) Integrated on and offline learning spaces: Girls work through projects in a shared physical space using supplied materials. An online system, iRemix, is the mechanism for independent work and leveling up. (4) Interactive narrative stories: Narratives can provide context that helps relate abstract concepts to real-world issues [7], increase motivation and positively contribute to girls' science identity [8], and provide focus for design by communicating tasks, specifically when readers can identify with the stories [9]. Compelling stories conveyed in text and multimedia (video, audio, images) is employed to engage middle school girls in activities involving computational thinking. The stories center on a group of middle school girls involved in the Digital Youth Divas program, and combines aspects of contemporary young adult fiction (mystery, social and emotional issues) with content, topics, and project work from the e-textiles and programming curricula. The interactive narratives unfold through the iRemix platform: girls launch narratives and at intervals are prompted to engage in project-based work. The girls solve challenges by submitting work online, and receive and respond to messages from characters. Our early exploratory research suggested that narratives prompted discussions of identity, and contributed to participant interest in the program content and motivation to engage in project work.

The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) environment, which includes topics taught, teaching resources and evaluation procedure, is changing rapidly. As the body of knowledge about HCI is periodically redefined, course content should be adapted in response to these changes. This position paper presents trends in topics taught, course content and assessment procedures using examples of HCI courses. Methods which encourage students to develop their learning activities and the assessment procedures are discussed in regards to course content and the current situation in the HCI learning environment.

A shortage of skilled people and engineers is one of the most critical issues facing South African government today. One of the problems facing South Africa is the old curriculum, which is outdated and could not address some of the developments in engineering and related fields. The country is embarking on a joint effort by the Department of Education (DoE) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and the different non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Zenex in addressing the situation. Due to non-coordination of all the efforts, the Department of Education developed a national strategy on mathematics, science, and technology (NSMST) to create schools of excellence or focused schools, 'Dinaledi' schools with targets to produce more mathematics and science learners. The first white paper of 1995 after the democratically elected government, proposed the development of alternative curricula, the national curriculum statement (NCS) based on principles of access, redress and equity. In this paper, the creation of focus schools known as 'Dinaledi' schools, the role played by engineers in the development of a country, and the support given by industry is addressed.

A university faces many challenges in equipping graduates with the right skills and attitudes that will make them employable. The shift from the predominantly manufacturing based industries to the service based one is a source of one such challenge. Focusing on the Faculty of Information Science and Technology, it is contended that there is a need to examine its current curriculum and methods of instruction so as to ensure that future graduates will be suitable for this new economy. In this position paper, based on the model of the T-shaped professional and drawing insights from the newly developed field of Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), it is proposed that a combination of approaches is undertaken in restructuring the curriculum so that future graduates from the faculty in particular, and the university in general, will be ready to face the challenges posed by the new era of services.

SOA is now in widespread use by the industry and is a current area of interest for research. However a currently open area of investigation is how to properly introduce SOA in an IT/CS/SwE type of curriculum. Software engineering students must develop a series of abilities and skills related to SOA for effective professional practice. Providing environments where students go beyond learning some concepts and specific technologies to truly apprehend the complexity involved in SOA is a major challenge. This environment must be articulated in the context of business needs and other software architecture methodologies. Instructors need a new set of skills and abilities to tackle this challenge. This position paper discusses what such an environment should provide for students and instructors to effectively develop skills that will enable SOA practice in the business world.

With the globalization of markets and the creation of software to address these markets, educators face new curriculum challenges. They must expose students not only to core science skills, but also to a number of other skills that will enable them to innovate effectively on a global stage. This position paper discusses the evolution of business models and software requirements over the last decade, and the associated changes to CS curricula that will enable today?s CS students to become tomorrow?s innovators.