Internship and Experiential Learning Model for Liberal Arts Graduates to Prepare Them for Advanced Manufacturing Careers

Liberal Arts (BA) graduates are, more often than not, either underemployed or unemployed in the field(s) for which they received their degree. This is more so true in hard economic and recessionary times. It is also well known that BA graduates are well rounded by virtue of their education and are more adept at changing careers. Advanced manufacturing is one such career where BA graduates may excel, especially in entry-level positions such as CAD operators, CNC programmers, production supervisors, and in support staff roles. The challenge is how to prepare these non-technical majors (BA graduates) for technical careers (advanced manufacturing). This paper presents an internship model that is part of a 12-month fast track certificate in advanced manufacturing to enable BA graduates to gain both the technical skills and experiential knowledge they need to secure jobs in advanced manufacturing. This paper describes the certificate academic program, corresponding courses, and the recruitment process of BA graduates to provide context. It then focuses on the details of the internship model: recruiting industry partners to provide internships, preparing students for the internships, the management and support system of these internships, and lessons learned so far. These research findings are part of an NSF, 3-year grant that investigates a transformation model of BA graduates for careers in advanced manufacturing.

Analysis and Evaluation of Readiness, Retention and Completion by Intensive Engineering Readiness Summer Program

The U.S. Hispanic population is predicted to triple and steadily grow up to 30% of the total population in 2050 [1]. Statistics indicates that only 7.2% of engineering bachelor’s degrees were earned by Hispanic graduates in 2008, and only 1.7% was earned by Hispanic women engineering graduates (NSF, 2008). Indeed, the lack of underrepresented Hispanic women engineers has been a concern of policy makers, academics, and industry leaders in recent decades [2]. On the other hand, the market for qualified engineering graduates remains atop in last twenty years. Increase the number of engineering enrollment and the number of engineering graduates, however, is still a challenge because of too many persisting and correlated factors. These identified factors all affect the retention and graduation of undergraduate engineering students, and relation among them are complicated and still not well understood [3].

Self-Efficacy Analysis of Student Learning in Systems Engineering

Systems engineering (SE) competencies are defined based on the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) necessary for a systems engineer to perform tasks related to the discipline. Proficient systems engineers are expected to be able to integrate, apply, and be assessed on these KSAs as they develop competencies through their education and training, professional development, and on-the-job experience. The research conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School assessed where SE graduate students stood as far as developing the necessary competency levels they need to be successful systems engineers. A survey methodology was used to achieve this objective. Systems engineering students enrolled in SE courses at the Naval Postgraduate School represented the population surveyed. Survey items were written with the intent to capture self-efficacy for knowledge and skill sets as a subset of the overall set of competencies required for systems engineering, namely within the SE competencies of Critical Thinking, Systems Engineering, Teamwork and Project Management. A total of four surveys were administered to two SE cohorts. Results show that self-efficacy in systems engineering can be reasonably assumed to be positively affected by a graduate level educational program. The implications of the research can be used to develop structured curriculum content, assessment, and continuous process improvement techniques related to the development of SE learning, and to develop more valid and reliable instruments for assessing what systems engineers need to learn, need to know, and need to do.

Proposal of Future-Applied Conventional Technology

Japan is geopolitically blessed with natural grace such as beautiful four seasons, abundant forest, fruitful earth and fresh water. And it seems that it has induced the deep trust between nature and human and has cultivated the Japanese unique culture which harmonizes nature with human sensibility. The origin of handmade technology in Japan dates back to the Jomon period more than 10,000 years ago. The Jomon potteries excavated were made by utilizing the technologies of kneading clay with water and sintering by fire, and some of them were discovered to have the lacquer coatings on their surfaces extracted from plants. The conventional technology would be created by our predecessors who had the sophisticated sensitivity and the excellent imagination cultivated with the careful observation of nature behavior. The technology was handed down to today through various historical changes in response to the diverse values of the individual era. It can be considered that the Japanese conventional technology is the nature friendly cultural asset co-created by nature and human through the long-term environmental changes more than 10000 years. Future-applied conventional technology is the most reliable technology study to develop the future and to hand over the advanced value to the next generation.In this study, we scrutinized the related theme studied by Future-Applied Conventional Technology Center in Kyoto Institute of Technology, in order to extract the engineering element inherent in the conventional technologies and classify into common elements and specific elements for each technology. From the view point of nature and human relation, engineering elements were extracted comprehensively about the main materials, the auxiliary materials, the human sensibility, the hand tools and the human skills. The main materials and the auxiliary materials were classified into “wood, fire, earth, metal, water” according to the old Eastern thought “the five elements theory” which constitute nature, and animal-derived materials in addition. The human sensibility elements were extracted about the material evaluation, the dynamic process observation and the finished degree evaluation and classified into five senses “visual, auditory, tactile, taste, smell”, and the other sense such as fitness feeling with clothes or accessories. The hand tools were listed such as brush, trowel, spatula, scissors and hammer with the features of usage. The human skills were extracted about each material manipulating process comprehensively and classified into common elements and specific elements, by considering the features respectively. With applying this study as a guideline for the innovation of the future technology harmonized with nature and human, it would be expected to promote variety of researches of the conventional technology and to develop the future technology for the modern cutting-edge field, by feeling the importance of the engineering elements and their relationship study inherent in the conventional technology.

Understanding the Impact of Engineering Through Appropriate Technology Development

This research describes a pilot project which aimed to introduce CDIO-type (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate), project-based learning through a community-based project in a third year Material Science module. The project formed part of an agriculture research initiative, and relied on interdisciplinary research collaboration between engineering, social sciences, management, entrepreneurship, and industrial arts. The initiative seeks to develop an agribusiness solution that will create an open-market, growth-oriented food economy. As part of the initiative, engineering students, participating in teams, worked alongside a community of urban farmers, most of whom are working poor, so as to develop appropriate, intermediate technology/ies that could support the farmers. This was informed by the need to have students demonstrate high level understanding of disciplinary content, but also to engage in human-centered design thinking and practice.

Foundations of Statics: An Assessment Study and Feedback Implementation

This paper highlights some important obstacles in student test performance resulting from different forms of testing procedures in Statics and Dynamics. A group approach dictates the core pedagogy in these classes, which are components of Engineering Sciences Core Curriculum (ESCC) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Our observations indicate that the difficulties start before engineering sciences due to incomplete understanding of mathematics and physics. While the human aspects of this assessment may not be revealed on tests, results of long hours of counseling sessions of students with faculty and academic advisors have now been imbedded in designing of our program. But in spite of our streamlined processes of improved delivery and testing, many good students demonstrate superior test scores on essay type questions but poor understanding of concepts as revealed from the analysis of Multiple Choice (MC) responses. This lack of performance has been tracked to a narrow focus and a lack of retention of prior concepts in their active memory. The paper discusses these topics using a select set of multiple choice questions administered on Statics and Dynamics examinations and offers remedial actions including proposal of a new course.

Nanofacture: Senior Design Experience in Nanotechnology

This paper describes the outcomes of an NSF-funded undergraduate engineering training project launched at the University of Arizona - College of Engineering. The program aims to engage senior-year students in a capstone design project focused on biomedical applications of nanotechnology. The senior design team has previously attended a micro- and nanofabrication and a mechatronics technical elective courses. Both courses have been adjusted to better suit the goals of the program. Modifications include a self-guided research component, requirement to utilize a nanotechnology based sensors or actuators in a biomedical application. Formative evaluation data has been gathered through personal interviews to assess changes of students attitudes towards nanotechnology. Data includes reports from junior-year members of the technical elective classes, along with graduate assistants serving as mentors of the undergraduate participants. Results indicate that students who enrolled in Fabrication Techniques for Micro- and Nano-devices gained formal knowledge about nanotechnology through lectures and hands-on activities, while those who joined a senior design team learned about nanotechnology by interfacing regularly with the faculty advisor who imparted his knowledge and enthusiasm about nanotechnology applications during design team meetings. Students who took the first course in the sequence, Guided Self-Studies in Mechatronics prior to the capstone design experience benefited most.

Barriers and Opportunities to the Acquisition of Systems Thinking Skills for K-12 Teachers

Conceptual and pedagogical barriers in post-secondary education inhibit student preparedness in system thinking skills (STS) critical for success in the workplace. To improve instruction in systems and sustainable engineering skills at the undergraduate level it is instructive to look at STS barriers and opportunities K-12 teacher’s face when they take part in a systems engineering (SE) project. This case study presents our approach to instructing K-12 educators about systems engineering through the design of a wind farm. Demographics of the 35 participants in this NSF-sponsored program who are all grades 3–8 classroom teachers include that they are 66% elementary level teachers, mostly female (80%), with an average of 10 years’ experience. Assessment of the project included a pre- and post-assessment of engineering and SE concepts, student reflections, customer feedback and an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) driven rubric. Results include that K-12 teachers exhibit strong interpersonal skills but were challenged by technical skills more common to the university level. Vertical collaborations between K-12 and post-secondary is a suggested approach to address barriers at both levels.

Using Practical Examples to Motivate the Study of Product Development and Systems Engineering Topics

Most undergraduate mechanical engineering curricula contain one or more courses that provide an introduction to the product design and development process. These courses include some topics that, without the proper motivation, may be perceived by students as being of low relevance. In addition, they also cover topics that may seem to be somewhat abstract and difficult to apply unless they are preceded by examples that clearly illustrate their practical value. The tasks of identifying customer needs and setting target specifications are typical examples of the first scenario described above. In general, engineering students have the notion that the activities of the detailed design phase are the ones that really matter and that those activities are the ones that determine the ultimate success of a product. They are so concerned with designing the physical components of the product correctly that they spend little time and effort in other steps that are necessary to make sure that they are designing the right product. The tasks of concept generation and defining the architecture of a product are good examples of the second scenario mentioned in the first paragraph. Most students quickly proceed to pick a concept that they think is viable without carefully exploring the entire solution space. In addition, when considering relatively complex products, many students don’t spend enough time considering aspects such as defining the interfaces between different components. As a result, student teams end up with a collection of components that are individually well-designed but integrate poorly, and the end product suffers accordingly. Short, introductory examples demonstrating the importance of tasks like the ones mentioned above were created in order to get the attention of students and spark their interest in learning about such topics. These presentations were also created with the intent that they would motivate students to apply what they had learned when designing their own product or system. Through the examples, which corresponded to real-world product development efforts, students were exposed to not just well-designed and well-made products or systems that turned out to be successful, but also to products or systems that failed in the marketplace or experienced significant problems because the designers failed to adequately perform a task such as identifying customer requirements. The latter clearly showcased the importance of such tasks and conveyed the fact that good technical design work can be rendered moot by failing to put the required effort into the early stages of the development of a product or system. This paper presents the general criteria used and the approach followed to select and develop short introductory examples for the topics of identifying customer needs, setting target specifications, concept generation, and systems architecture. It briefly describes the examples selected and presents the results of a pilot assessment that was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of one of those examples.

Development of an Industrially Sponsored Senior Design Capstone Program: A University and Sponsor Perspective

The University of Connecticut Department of Mechanical Engineering Senior Design (Capstone) Course utilizes projects that are sponsored by local companies. While this approach offers many immediate benefits to near-graduating seniors, it introduces many unique problems to the academic community. Developing and sustaining an industrially-sponsored capstone design program requires an understanding of the synergies and differences between academia and industry.[1] Key issues that are addressed in this paper are project identification, oversight, mentorship and critical feedback. This paper is a collaboration between the Program Manager and 2 of the industry Sponsors from the 2015 2016 academic year. Following a brief discussion of several projects, sponsor comments on the value and areas of continued improvement are provided.