Developing employability within a university engineering curriculum

This article provides case studies for incorporating employability in a higher education setting. A professional studies module for a small class (30 students) of third-year aerospace engineers gave insight into industrial challenges while promoting career development. It was delivered mainly by industrial speakers and involved practical tasks and workshops. A more sustainable employability curriculum now supports students in all four years of the School’s three degree programmes, offering a structured development of skills and sector understanding. A notable increase in students obtaining sandwich year placements has been observed.

Educational characteristics of adult students in portuguese technological schools

Despite a massive expansion of education in Portugal, since the 1970’s, educational attainment of the adult population in the country remains low. The numbers of working-age people in some form of continuing education are among the lowest, according to the OECD and EU-27 statistics. Technological Schools(TS), initially created in the 1990’s, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Economy in partnership with industry and industrial associations, aimed to prepare qualified staff for industries and services in the country, particularly in the engineering sector, through the provision of post secondary non-university programmes of studies, the CET (Technological Specialization Courses). Successful CET students are awarded a DET(Diploma of Technological Specialization), which corresponds to Vocational Qualification level IV of the EU, according to the latest alteration (2005) of the Education Systems Act (introduced in 1986). In this, CET’s are also clearly defined as one of the routes for access to Higher Education (HE), in Portugal. The PRILHE (Promoting Reflective and Independent Learning in Higher Education) multinational project, funded by the European Socrates Grundtvig Programme, aimed to identify the learning processes which enable adult students in higher education to become autonomous reflective learners and search best practices to support these learning processes. During this research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to determine how students organise their studies and develop their learning skills. The Portuguese partner in the project’ consortium used a two case studies approach, one with students of Higher Education Institutions and other with students of TS. This paper only applies to students of TS, as these have a predominant bias towards engineering. Results show that student motivation and professional teaching support contribute equally to the development of an autonomous and reflective approach to learning in adult students; this is essential for success in a knowledge economy, where lifelong learning is the key to continuous employment.

Sustainable Development Action Plan at ISEP - From Concept to Engineering Practice

Some of the main challenges in Incorporating Sustainable Development practices into Engineering Education reside in establishing the bridge between concept and application. In particular the relation between value creation and the knowledge economy, innovation and entrepreneurship, as the main vehicles to a relevant application of the sustainable development concept, is not yet part of the majority of the engineering curricula in schools. Porto Polytechnical Engineering School (ISEP), a Global Reporting Initiative training partner in Portugal, as just presented its Sustainable Development Action Plan, with the main objective of creating a new kind of engineers, with Sustainable Development at the core of their degrees. The plan has several issues like publish an annual sustainability report, sustainable buildings, minimization of energy consumption and water policy, waste management, sustainable mobility, green procurement, EMAS certification, research and postgraduate activity and promotion of lectures and seminars in Sustainable Development.

Exploring the role of design quality in the Building Schools for the Future programme

The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme represents the biggest single UK government investment in school buildings for more than 50 years. A key goal for BSF is to ensure that pupils learn in 21st-century facilities that are designed or redesigned to allow for educational transformation. This represents a major challenge to those involved in the design of schools. The paper explores the conceptualizations of design quality within the BSF programme. It draws on content analysis of influential reports on design published between 2000 and 2007 and interviews with key actors in the provision of schools. The means by which design quality has become defined and given importance within the programme through official documents is described and compared with the multiple understandings of design quality among key stakeholders. The findings portray the many challenges that practitioners face when operationalizing design quality in practice. The paper concludes with reflections on the inconsistencies between how design quality has been appropriated in the BSF programme and how it is interpreted and adopted in practice.

The wood for the civil engineering: A proposal of distance education

The majority of the Brazilian schools of Civil Engineering have taught the subject works with wood in the traditional only by disciplines of Metallic Structures and Wood at a topic in the content of the program on disciplines at the Materials of Civil Construction. To extend of the wood studies is being made possible that all the pupils have a wider understanding of this material and its adapted use is the goal of the proposal, that by the means of the education modality e-learning, disclosing the first one: Module I - Introduction to the Study of the Wood. This methodology tries to use the theoretical beddings in projects that are related to the pupil daily tasks and its practical professional. The article presents the theoretical bases of the conception proposal and its structure, and at the conclusions, the problems found during its application are displayed. Basically, the methodology considers that the professor and the pupil must share the learning, and adopt it as main in the interdisciplinary.

Assessment of water and sanitation infrastructure at primary schools in Rakai District, Uganda

“Addressing water problems will help improve sanitation.” This relationship identified by a primary school teacher in Rakai District, Uganda, was a key component in understanding how water and sanitation technologies interact and how identified successes, challenges, and improvements would enhance schools’ water and sanitation condition. In this study, researchers and Ugandan counterparts visited 49 primary schools in Rakai District to assess the existing water and sanitation infrastructure of government and private schools. Researchers were specifically interested in learning which technologies were being used and why they were working or not. Through the development of a unique water and sanitation assessment tool, schools have been placed in to four relationship quadrants to rate existing water and latrine use standards. Recommendations including improved rainwater use and sanitation through composting have been offered to schools sampled.

An Active Learning Module for an Introduction to Software Engineering Course

Many schools do not begin to introduce college students to software engineering until they have had at least one semester of programming. Since software engineering is a large, complex, and abstract subject it is difficult to construct active learning exercises that build on the students’ elementary knowledge of programming and still teach basic software engineering principles. It is also the case that beginning students typically know how to construct small programs, but they have little experience with the techniques necessary to produce reliable and long-term maintainable modules. I have addressed these two concerns by defining a local standard (Montana Tech Method (MTM) Software Development Standard for Small Modules Template) that step-by-step directs students toward the construction of highly reliable small modules using well known, best-practices software engineering techniques. “Small module” is here defined as a coherent development task that can be unit tested, and can be car ried out by a single (or a pair of) software engineer(s) in at most a few weeks. The standard describes the process to be used and also provides a template for the top-level documentation. The instructional module’s sequence of mini-lectures and exercises associated with the use of this (and other) local standards are used throughout the course, which perforce covers more abstract software engineering material using traditional reading and writing assignments. The sequence of mini-lectures and hands-on assignments (many of which are done in small groups) constitutes an instructional module that can be used in any similar software engineering course.

Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Biochemical Engineering Symposium

This symposium is the sixth of an annual series conducted so that results of biochemical engineering research can be exchanged by the researchers who actually carry it out. The first four meetings were held alternately at Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln for attendees from those two schools. The fifth and sixth involved participants from Kansas State University and Iowa State University; this was the first meeting away from a university campus. Contents"Mathematical Model of Oxygen Transfer in Airlift Fermentors," Chester S. Ho, Kansas State University "Effect of Column Height on Oxygen Transfer in Airlift Systems," Mark E. Orazem, Kansas State University "Mixing Studies in an Oil-Water Airlift System with Motionless 15 Mixers", J. R. Gutierrez, Kansas State University "Purification and Properties of (3-Xylosidase," Gbekeloluwa B. Oguntimein, Iowa State University "Immobilization of Invertase to Cellulose with Cyanuric Chloride," William J. Smith, Iowa State University "Purification and Properties of Dextransucrase," Yah Eric Chen and Hossein Kaboli, Iowa State University "Properties of Immobilized (3-Amylase," Clarence C. Ron, Iowa State University

Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Biochemical Engineering Symposium

This is the seventh in a series of symposia devoted to talks by students on their biochemical engineering research. The first four meetings were held alternately at Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, with participants from those two schools. The next two took place at Kansas State and then in conjunction with the 8lst American Institute of Chemical Engineers National Meeting in Kansas City, with attendees from Kansas State and Iowa State Universities. This meeting, at Iowa State, was the first to include participation from the University of Missouri–Columbia. Contents"Properties of Soluble and In:anoblized Dextransucrase," Hossein Kaboli and Yah Eric Chen, Iowa State University "Growth of Lipid-Producing Organisms on Formic and Acetic Acid-Containing Waste Waters," Lin-Chang Chiang, University of Missouri–Columbia "Design of an Automated Alkaline Copper Reducing Sugar Assay," Alfred R. Fratzke and James R. Frederick, Iowa State University "Determination of Oxygen Transfer Coefficients in Hydrocarbon Fermentations Using a Material Balance Method," Sarafin N. Sanchez and J. R. Gutierrez, Kansas State University "Oxygen Transfer Characteristics in One Stage and Two Stage Air-Lift Towers," Mark E. Orazem, Kansas State University "A Comparison of Biological Digestibility Tests for Cellulose," Dou-Houng Hwang, University of Missouri–Columbia "Mechanism of Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Cellulose," L. T. Fan, Yong-Hyun Lee, and Liang-Shih Fan, Kansas State University "Purification of Xylan-Hydrolyzing Enzymes," James R. Frederick, Alfred R. Fratzke, and Mary M. Frederick, Iowa State University "Cellulase Production from Bagasse and Pith," A. Ferrer, Y. Alroy, and I. Brito, Kansas State University

Choosing and Maintaining Programs for Sex Education in Schools: The CHAMPSS Model

Background: Despite effective solutions to reduce teen birth rates, Texas teen birth rates are among the highest in the nation. School districts can impact youth sexual behavior through implementation of evidence-based programs (EBPs); however, teen pregnancy prevention is a complex and controversial issue for school districts. Subsequently, very few districts in Texas implement EBPs for pregnancy prevention. Additionally, school districts receive little guidance on the process for finding, adopting, and implementing EBPs. Purpose: The purpose of this report is to present the CHoosing And Maintaining Programs for Sex education in Schools (CHAMPSS) Model, a practical and realistic framework to help districts find, adopt, and implement EBPs. Methods: Model development occurred in four phases using the core processes of Intervention Mapping: 1) knowledge acquisition, 2) knowledge engineering, 3) model representation, and 4) knowledge development. Results: The CHAMPSS Model provides seven steps, tailored for school-based settings, which encompass phases of assessment, preparation, implementation, and maintenance: Prioritize, Asses, Select, Approve, Prepare, Implement, and Maintain. Advocacy and eliciting support for adolescent sexual health are also core elements of the model. Conclusion: This systematic framework may help schools increase adoption, implementation, and maintenance for EBPs.

News in engineering education in Spain effective from 2010 in presence of external changes and mixed crisis, looking mostly to agro and civil engineers.

The engineering careers models were diverse in Europe, and are adopting now in Spain the Bolonia process for European Universities. Separated from older Universities, that are in part technically active, Civil Engineering (Caminos, Canales y Puertos) started at end of 18th century in Spain adopting the French models of Upper Schools for state civil servants with exam at entry. After 1800 intense wars, to conserve forest regions Ingenieros de Montes appeared as Upper School, and in 1855 also the Ingenieros Agrónomos to push up related techniques and practices. Other Engineers appeared as Upper Schools but more towards private factories. These ES got all adapted Lower Schools of Ingeniero Tecnico. Recently both grew much in number and evolved, linked also to recognized Professions. Spanish society, into European Community, evolved across year 2000, in part highly well, but with severe discordances, that caused severe youth unemployment with 2008-2011 crisis. With Bolonia process high formal changes step in from 2010-11, accepted with intense adaptation. The Lower Schools are changing towards the Upper Schools, and both that have shifted since 2010-11 various 4-years careers (Grado), some included into the precedent Professions, and diverse Masters. Acceptation of them to get students has started relatively well, and will evolve, and acceptation of new grades for employment in Spain, Europe or outside will be essential. Each Grado has now quite rigid curricula and programs, MOODLE was introduced to connect pupils, some specific uses of Personal Computers are taught in each subject. Escuela de Agronomos centre, reorganized with its old name in its precedent buildings at entrance of Campus Moncloa, offers Grados of Agronomic Engineering and Science for various public and private activities for agriculture, Alimentary Engineering for alimentary activities and control, Agro-Environmental Engineering more related to environment activities, and in part Biotechnology also in laboratories in Campus Monte-Gancedo for Biotechnology of Plants and Computational Biotechnology. Curricula include Basics, Engineering, Practices, Visits, English, ?project of end of career?, Stays. Some masters will conduce to specific professional diploma, list includes now Agro-Engineering, Agro-Forestal Biotechnology, Agro and Natural Resources Economy, Complex Physical Systems, Gardening and Landscaping, Rural Genie, Phytogenetic Resources, Plant Genetic Resources, Environmental Technology for Sustainable Agriculture, Technology for Human Development and Cooperation.

Pilot medical engineering accident analysis study. Final report.

Mode of access: Internet.

Report for the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

v. 1. General report.--v. 2. New York State College of Agriculture.--v. 3. College of Arts and Sciences.--v. 4. School of Education.--v. 5. College of Engineering.--v. 6. Graduate School.--v. 7. New York State College of Home Economics.--v. 8. School of Hotel Administration.--v. 9. New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations.--v. 10. College of Architecture, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, Division of Extramural Courses, Law School, Medical College, School of Nursing, Graduate School of Nutrition, Summer Session, New York State Veterinary College.

The Elements of mining engineering [microform] /

Includes indexes.

Mechanics' pocket memoranda; a convenient pocketbook for all persons interested in mechanical engineering, steam engineering, electrical engineering, railroad engineering, hydraulic engineering, bridge engineering, etc.,

Mode of access: Internet.