Undergraduate Engineers and Teachers: Can Students Be Both?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zarske, Malinda S.; Vadeen, Maia L.; Tsai, Janet Y.; Sullivan, Jacquelyn F.; Carlson, Denise W.

2017-01-01

Today's college-aged students are graduating into a world that relies on multidisciplinary talents to succeed. Engineering college majors are more likely to find jobs after college that are outside of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, including jobs in healthcare, management, and social services. A survey of…

Future Directions for Engineering Education: System Response to a Changing World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge. Center for Policy Alternatives.

This report consolidates information on the engineering population - numbers, employment patterns, educational levels, personality, technical obsolescence - and probes the implications of current social and employment trends. Included are: data and analyses of the engineering education system seen in the context of the changing world; the…

Evolving social responsibility understandings, motivations, and career goals of undergraduate students initially pursuing engineering degrees

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rulifson, Gregory A.

Engineers impact the lives of every person every day, and need to have a strong sense of social responsibility. Understanding what students think about social responsibility in engineering and their futures is very important. Further, by identifying influences that change these ideas and shape their conceptualizations, we can intervene to help prepare students for their responsibilities as part of the profession in the future. This thesis presents the experiences, in their own words, of 34 students who started in engineering. The study is composed of three parts: (i) engineering students' ideas about socially responsible engineering and what influenced these ideas, (ii) how students see themselves as future socially responsible engineers and how this idea changes over their first three years of college, and (iii) what social responsibility-related reasons students who leave engineering have for choosing a new major. Results show that students are complicated and have varied paths through and out of engineering studies. Students came up with their own ideas about socially responsible engineering that converged over the years on legal and safety related aspects of the profession. Relatedly, students identified with the engineering profession through internships and engineering courses, and rarely described socially responsible aspirations that could be accomplished with engineering. More often, those students who desired to help the disadvantaged through their engineering work left engineering. Their choice to leave was a combination of an unsupportive climate, disinterest in their classes, and a desire to combine their personal and professional social responsibility ambitions. If we want engineering students to push the engineering profession forward to be more socially responsible, we can identify the effective influences and develop a curriculum that encourages critical thinking about the social context and impacts of engineering. Additionally, a social responsibility-related curriculum could provide more opportunities for engagement that keeps those socially-motivated students in engineering. The engineering profession must also reflect these values to keep the new engineers working towards social responsibility and pushing the profession forward.

Practical Application of Sociology in Systems Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Michael D.; Andrews, James G.; Eckley, Jeri Cassel; Culver, Michael L.

2017-01-01

Systems engineering involves both the integration of the system and the integration of the disciplines which develop and operate the system. Integrating the disciplines is a sociological effort to bring together different groups, who often have different terminology, to achieve a common goal, the system. The focus for the systems engineer is information flow through the organization, between the disciplines, to ensure the system is developed and operated will all relevant information informing system decisions. The practical application of the sociology in systems engineering brings in various organizational development concepts including the principles of planned renegotiation and the application of principles to address information barriers created by organizational culture. Concepts such as specification of ignorance, consistent terminology, opportunity structures, role-sets, and the reclama (reconsideration) process are all important sociological approaches that help address the organizational social structure (culture). In bringing the disciplines together, the systems engineer must also be wary of social ambivalence, social anomie, social dysfunction, and insider-outsider behavior. Unintended consequences can result when these social issues are present. These issues can occur when localized subcultures shift from the overarching organizational culture, or when the organizational culture prevents achievement of system goals. These sociological principles provide the systems engineer with key approaches to manage the information flow through the organization as the disciplines are integrated and share their information and provides key sociological barriers to information flow through the organization. This paper will discuss the practical application of sociological principles to systems engineering.

Social Work Internship in Public Housing: An Interdisciplinary Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurren, Oscar; Lister, Paul

1976-01-01

Principles shaping the focus of the social work internship program at the University of Hawaii included: an interdisciplinary framework providing for faculty and student development from the Schools of Public Health, Engineering, Architecture, Business Administration, and Social Work; and total responsibility for task assignment, affording…

Promoting Girls' Awareness and Interest in Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawrence, Deborah A.; Mancuso, Tina A.

2012-01-01

Multiple initiatives have been launched to try to widen the pipeline for women to enter engineering careers, including reviews of gender differences in enrollment in technology and pre-engineering courses from middle school through doctoral degrees. National agencies have also studied some of the social and cultural forces at play with regard to…

Engineering: Defining and differentiating its unique culture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilotte, Mary K.

The world of work for engineering professionals is changing. At a rapid pace, experienced engineers are exiting the workforce due to retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, while at the same time the problems facing engineers are increasingly complex and frequently global in nature. For firms to protect their knowledge assets, they must ensure that acquired understandings are shared among their engineering work groups. Engineering teaching and learning in the workplace (i.e., knowledge sharing), is a social activity that resides in a social context governed by the professional engineering culture. This quantitative study uses Hofstede's Organizational Cultural Values Model (Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohayv, & Sanders, 1990) to examine dimensions of engineering culture in the workplace, producing a central tendency profile of engineering's cultural practices. Further, it explores through hypotheses if demographic differentiators, including birth generation, gender, race, industry sector of employment, and engineering discipline, play roles in forming engineering cultural practices. Results both corroborate aspects of Hofstede's model and assert new understandings relative to factors influencing dimensions of engineering practice. Outcomes are discussed in terms of their potential impact on industrial knowledge sharing and formation of beneficial engineering cultures.

Personality and culture, the Social Science Research Council, and liberal social engineering: the Advisory Committee on Personality and Culture, 1930-1934.

PubMed

Bryson, Dennis

2009-01-01

The field of personality and culture was given a significant impetus during the 1930s with the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Personality and Culture (1930-1934) by the Social Science Research Council. This committee provided an early formulation of personality and culture that emphasized the interdisciplinary focus on the processes of personality formation within small-scale social settings. The committee's formulation also coupled personality and culture with a liberal social engineering approach geared toward cultural reconstruction. Major social scientists and clinicians were involved in the activities of the committee, including Edward Sapir, W. I. Thomas, E. W. Burgess, E. A. Bott, Robert S. Woodworth, Harry Stack Sullivan, C. M. Hincks, and Adolf Meyer.

How to Be an Ethical Engineer in an Often Unethical World: Integrated Interdisciplinary Education in the Sciences and Humanities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maurice, Patricia Ann; Peterson, Brian

2015-01-01

Catholic colleges and universities traditionally are grounded in liberal arts education, yet many Catholic institutions also educate future scientists and engineers. We propose that a distinctively Catholic science and engineering education should include an emphasis on Catholic concepts of the common good and social justice, liberal arts…

7 CFR 1767.17 - Operating expense instructions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Accounts § 1767.17 Operating expense instructions. (a) Supervision and engineering. The supervision and engineering includible in the operating expense accounts shall consist of the salary, employee pensions and benefits, social security and other payroll taxes, injuries and damages, and other expenses of...

Ethics of Reproductive Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buuck, R. John

1977-01-01

Artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, artificial placentas, and cloning are examined from a ethical viewpoint. The moral, social, and legal implications of reproductive engineering are considered important to biology as well as medicine. The author suggests that these ethical issues should be included in the biology curriculum and lists…

Search and rescue in collapsed structures: engineering and social science aspects.

PubMed

El-Tawil, Sherif; Aguirre, Benigno

2010-10-01

This paper discusses the social science and engineering dimensions of search and rescue (SAR) in collapsed buildings. First, existing information is presented on factors that influence the behaviour of trapped victims, particularly human, physical, socioeconomic and circumstantial factors. Trapped victims are most often discussed in the context of structural collapse and injuries sustained. Most studies in this area focus on earthquakes as the type of disaster that produces the most extensive structural damage. Second, information is set out on the engineering aspects of urban search and rescue (USAR) in the United States, including the role of structural engineers in USAR operations, training and certification of structural specialists, and safety and general procedures. The use of computational simulation to link the engineering and social science aspects of USAR is discussed. This could supplement training of local SAR groups and USAR teams, allowing them to understand better the collapse process and how voids form in a rubble pile. A preliminary simulation tool developed for this purpose is described. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2010.

Internal Social Media at Marshall Space Flight Center - An Engineer's Snapshot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scott, David W.

2013-01-01

In the brief span of about six years (2004-2010), social media radically enhanced people's ways of maintaining recreational friendships. Social media's impact on public affairs (PAO) and community engagement is equally striking: NASA has involved millions of non-NASA viewers in its activities via outward-facing social media, often in a very two-way street fashion. Use of social media as an internal working tool by NASA's tens of thousands of civil servants, onsite contractor employees, and external stakeholders is evolving more slowly. This paper examines, from an engineer's perspective, Marshall Space Flight Center s (MSFC) efforts to bring the power of social media to the daily working environment. Primary emphasis is on an internal Social Networking Service called Explornet that could be scaled Agency-wide. Other topics include MSFC use of other social media day-to-day for non-PAO purposes, some specialized uses of social techniques in space flight control operations, and how to help a community open up so it can discover and adopt what works well.

Science & education: Genetic analysis of winter social structure and social traits in a migratory sparrow & teaching argumentation in STEM education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arnberg, Nina N.

Stable social organization in a wide variety of organisms has been linked to kinship, which can minimize conflict due to the indirect fitness benefits from cooperating with relatives. In birds, kin selection has been mostly studied in the context of reproduction or in species that are social year round. Many birds however are migratory and the role of kinship in the winter societies of these species is virtually unexplored. A previous study detected striking social complexity and stability in wintering populations of migratory golden-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia atricapilla)---individuals repeatedly form close associations with the same social partners, including across multiple winters. In chapter one I test the possibility that kinship might be involved in these close and stable social affiliations. I examine the relationship between kinship and social structure for two of the consecutive wintering seasons from the previous study. I found no evidence that social structure was influenced by kinship---relatedness between most pairs of individuals was at most that of first cousins (and mostly far lower) and Mantel tests revealed no relationship between kinship and pairwise interaction frequency. Kinship also failed to predict social structure in more fine-grained analyses, including analyses of each sex separately (in the event that sex-biased migration might limit kin selection to one sex) and separate analyses for each social community. The complex winter societies of golden-crowned sparrows appear to be based on cooperative benefits unrelated to kin selection. Although the complex social structure detected in wintering golden-crowned sparrows is not predicted by kinship, genetic variation may play a role in variation of winter social traits. In chapter two, I investigate the genetic causes of variation in fitness-related traits in a winter population of golden-crowned sparrows. Individuals show great variation in morphological and behavioral traits that may play a role in winter dominance and ultimately survival. I found that individuals that were more heterozygous---based on internal relatedness measures reflecting individual genetic variation---were more socially dominant, had larger gold crown patches (which predict social dominance in some contexts) and had stronger social connections within their social networks. Although the underlying mechanism driving the HFCs detected in this study is unknown, the detection of moderate correlations between an individual's heterozygosity level and social dominance, winter plumage, and sociality is interesting. Theses traits connect in important ways to winter social behavior, suggesting that these HFC analyses detected true relationships. It is therefore feasible that more heterozygous individuals are more socially dominant because they may be, for example, better foragers and have energy to expend on aggressive behaviors. Another reasonable explanation for the relationship between heterozygosity and social dominance could be that more socially dominant birds could be older; heterozygosity might be linked to longevity. Although a physiological mechanism is unknown in sparrows, it is possible that plumage may reflect the general quality (e.g., better immune function) of the individual. As with social dominance, "core" individuals of a community (i.e., individuals that are more likely to be found flocking with other birds of their community) may also be older or higher quality individuals. "Core" individuals interact and have contact with others in the community and may therefore be at higher risk of encountering disease, parasite, and pathogens. If this measure of heterozygosity reflects immune function heterozygosity, then more heterozygous individuals may be more likely to be "core" individuals. The recent focus on preparing students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have resulted in educational researchers investigating how best to support this goal. Government and private funding has been directed to STEM internship programs (particularly at the undergraduate level). These internship programs are designed to provide workplace opportunities as well as provide support from the program to acquire skills needed by students to transition from school to the workforce. Most of this support has been developed (by internship programs and researchers) in the sciences. Engineers are in high demand and universities and internship programs are tasked with preparing more engineering students to be professional engineers. Our development of the Solution Articulation Framework (SAF), supports learners' (interns) acquisition of argumentation skills in engineering; engaging in argumentative practices promotes content knowledge and communication skills in many disciplines but has not been explored deeply in the engineering education literature. We focused our attention on improving learners' engineering argumentation practices with a particular emphasis on articulation of engineering solutions. In chapter three, I identify a critical component (functional requirements) to effectively articulating a proposed engineering solution and offer an operational definition along with suggestions for implementing these ideas in engineering education. My findings were immediately used to revise our SAF and warrants further research on other components of the SAF. The research in this chapter advances the emerging research field in engineering education by highlighting the importance and difficulties associated with teaching argumentation skills in engineering.

Anticipatory ethics for a future Internet: analyzing values during the design of an Internet infrastructure.

PubMed

Shilton, Katie

2015-02-01

The technical details of Internet architecture affect social debates about privacy and autonomy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and the basic performance and reliability of Internet services. This paper explores one method for practicing anticipatory ethics in order to understand how a new infrastructure for the Internet might impact these social debates. This paper systematically examines values expressed by an Internet architecture engineering team-the Named Data Networking project-based on data gathered from publications and internal documents. Networking engineers making technical choices also weigh non-technical values when working on Internet infrastructure. Analysis of the team's documents reveals both values invoked in response to technical constraints and possibilities, such as efficiency and dynamism, as well as values, including privacy, security and anonymity, which stem from a concern for personal liberties. More peripheral communitarian values espoused by the engineers include democratization and trust. The paper considers the contextual and social origins of these values, and then uses them as a method of practicing anticipatory ethics: considering the impact such priorities may have on a future Internet.

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 267)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

This bibliography lists 661 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in June, 1991. Subject coverage includes design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment and systems; ground support systems; theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics; electrical engineering; aircraft control; remote sensing; computer sciences; nuclear physics; and social sciences.

Service Modeling for Service Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimomura, Yoshiki; Tomiyama, Tetsuo

Intensification of service and knowledge contents within product life cycles is considered crucial for dematerialization, in particular, to design optimal product-service systems from the viewpoint of environmentally conscious design and manufacturing in advanced post industrial societies. In addition to the environmental limitations, we are facing social limitations which include limitations of markets to accept increasing numbers of mass-produced artifacts and such environmental and social limitations are restraining economic growth. To attack and remove these problems, we need to reconsider the current mass production paradigm and to make products have more added values largely from knowledge and service contents to compensate volume reduction under the concept of dematerialization. Namely, dematerialization of products needs to enrich service contents. However, service was mainly discussed within marketing and has been mostly neglected within traditional engineering. Therefore, we need new engineering methods to look at services, rather than just functions, called "Service Engineering." To establish service engineering, this paper proposes a modeling technique of service.

From Petroleum to Penicillin. The First Hundred Years of Modern Chemical Engineering 1859-1959.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burnett, J. Nicholas

1986-01-01

Describes a chemical engineering course for liberal arts students that is taught from a scientific, social, and symbolic perspective. A summary of the early days of oil refining is included as representative of one of the major content segments of the course. (ML)

The international emergency management and engineering conference 1995: Proceedings. Globalization of emergency management and engineering: National and international issues concerning research and applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sullivan, J.D.; Wybo, J.L.; Buisson, L.

1995-12-31

This conference was held May 9--12, 1995 in Nice, France. The purpose of this conference was to provide a forum for exchange of state-of-the-art information to cope more effectively with emergencies. Attention is focused on advance technology from both a managerial and a scientific viewpoint. Interests include computers and communication systems as well as the social science and management aspects involved in emergency management and engineering. The major sections are: Management and Social Sciences; Training; Natural Disasters; Nuclear Hazards; Chemical Hazards; Research; and Applications. Individual papers have been processed separately for inclusion in the appropriate data bases.

Socio-Technical Perspective on Interdisciplinary Interactions During the Development of Complex Engineered Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGowan, Anna-Maria R.; Daly, Shanna; Baker, Wayne; Papalambros, panos; Seifert, Colleen

2013-01-01

This study investigates interdisciplinary interactions that take place during the research, development, and early conceptual design phases in the design of large-scale complex engineered systems (LaCES) such as aerospace vehicles. These interactions, that take place throughout a large engineering development organization, become the initial conditions of the systems engineering process that ultimately leads to the development of a viable system. This paper summarizes some of the challenges and opportunities regarding social and organizational issues that emerged from a qualitative study using ethnographic and survey data. The analysis reveals several socio-technical couplings between the engineered system and the organization that creates it. Survey respondents noted the importance of interdisciplinary interactions and their benefits to the engineered system as well as substantial challenges in interdisciplinary interactions. Noted benefits included enhanced knowledge and problem mitigation and noted obstacles centered on organizational and human dynamics. Findings suggest that addressing the social challenges may be a critical need in enabling interdisciplinary interactions

Wings In Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hale, N. Wayne (Editor); Lulla, Kamlesh (Editor); Lane, Helen W. (Editor); Chapline, Gail (Editor)

2010-01-01

This Space Shuttle book project reviews Wings In Orbit-scientific and engineering legacies of the Space Shuttle. The contents include: 1) Magnificent Flying Machine-A Cathedral to Technology; 2) The Historical Legacy; 3) The Shuttle and its Operations; 4) Engineering Innovations; 5) Major Scientific Discoveries; 6) Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies; 7) Commercial Aerospace Industries and Spin-offs; and 8) The Shuttle continuum, Role of Human Spaceflight.

Humanitarian engineering in the engineering curriculum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vandersteen, Jonathan Daniel James

There are many opportunities to use engineering skills to improve the conditions for marginalized communities, but our current engineering education praxis does not instruct on how engineering can be a force for human development. In a time of great inequality and exploitation, the desire to work with the impoverished is prevalent, and it has been proposed to adjust the engineering curriculum to include a larger focus on human needs. This proposed curriculum philosophy is called humanitarian engineering. Professional engineers have played an important role in the modern history of power, wealth, economic development, war, and industrialization; they have also contributed to infrastructure, sanitation, and energy sources necessary to meet human need. Engineers are currently at an important point in time when they must look back on their history in order to be more clear about how to move forward. The changing role of the engineer in history puts into context the call for a more balanced, community-centred engineering curriculum. Qualitative, phenomenographic research was conducted in order to understand the need, opportunity, benefits, and limitations of a proposed humanitarian engineering curriculum. The potential role of the engineer in marginalized communities and details regarding what a humanitarian engineering program could look like were also investigated. Thirty-two semi-structured research interviews were conducted in Canada and Ghana in order to collect a pool of understanding before a phenomenographic analysis resulted in five distinct outcome spaces. The data suggests that an effective curriculum design will include teaching technical skills in conjunction with instructing about issues of social justice, social location, cultural awareness, root causes of marginalization, a broader understanding of technology, and unlearning many elements about the role of the engineer and the dominant economic/political ideology. Cross-cultural engineering development placements are a valuable pedagogical experience but risk benefiting the student disproportionately more than the receiving community. Local development placements offer different rewards and liabilities. To conclude, a major adjustment in engineering curriculum to address human development is appropriate and this new curriculum should include both local and international placements. However, the great force of altruism must be directed towards creating meaningful and lasting change.

Characterizing Twitter Communication--A Case Study of International Engineering Academic Units

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Stuart

2014-01-01

Engineering academic units might engage with social media for a range of purposes including for general communication with students, staff, alumni, other important stakeholders and the wider community at large; for student recruitment and for marketing and promotion more generally. This paper presents an investigation into the use of Twitter by…

Development cooperation as methodology for teaching social responsibility to engineers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lappalainen, Pia

2011-12-01

The role of engineering in promoting global well-being has become accentuated, turning the engineering curriculum into a means of dividing well-being equally. The gradual fortifying calls for humanitarian engineering have resulted in the incorporation of social responsibility themes in the university curriculum. Cooperation, communication, teamwork, intercultural cooperation, sustainability, social and global responsibility represent the socio-cultural dimensions that are becoming increasingly important as globalisation intensifies the demands for socially and globally adept engineering communities. This article describes an experiment, the Development Cooperation Project, which was conducted at Aalto University in Finland to integrate social responsibility themes into higher engineering education.

Security Studies Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-01-01

Department. The SSP faculty, however, includes natural scientists and engineers as well as social scientists. Distinguishing the program is its ability to...Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT and seeks to encourage the analysis of issues of continuing public concern. Key components of the Center in...by a Europe worried about meeting promised social welfare benefits for a rapidly aging population. Americans cannot avoid the war with mili- tant

Swamp Works- Multiple Projects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carelli, Jonathan M.; Schuler, Jason M.; Chandler, Meredith L.

2013-01-01

My Surface Systems internship over the summer 2013 session covered a broad range of projects that utilized multiple fields of engineering and technology. This internship included a project to create a command center for a 120 ton regolith bin, for the design and assembly of a blast shield to add further protection for the Surface Systems engineers, for the design and assembly of a portable four monitor hyper wall strip that could extend as large as needed, research and programming a nano drill that could be utilized on a next generation robot or rover, and social media tasks including the making of videos, posting to social networking websites and creation of a new outreach program to help spread the word about the Swamp Works laboratory.

Explicit training in human values and social attitudes of future engineers in Spain : commentary on "preparing to understand and use science in the real world: interdisciplinary study concentrations at the technical University of Darmstadt".

PubMed

Fabregat, Jaime

2013-12-01

In Spain before the 1990s there was no clear and explicit comprehensive training for future engineers with regard to social responsibility and social commitment. Following the Spanish university curricular reform, which began in the early 1990s, a number of optional subjects became available to students, concerning science, technology and society (STS), international cooperation, the environment and sustainability. The latest redefinition of the Spanish curriculum in line with the Bologna agreements has reduced the number of non-obligatory subjects, but could lead to improving preparation for social responsibility due to the requirement that the design of curricula and the assessment of students should be based on competencies, some of which include human values and attitudes.

Re-Engineering Values Education in Nigerian Schools as Catalyst for National Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enu, Donald Bette; Esu, A. E. O.

2011-01-01

The decay in the Nigerian society has affected the standard of values and moral character formation. This has manifested in so many anti-social vices. Anti-social behaviour exhibited include corruption, dishonesty, greed, violent crimes, lack of accountability, indiscipline, disrespect to constituted authorities, laziness, low moral courage among…

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 280)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

This bibliography lists 647 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in June, 1991. Subject coverage includes: aerodynamics, air transportation safety, aircraft communication and navigation, aircraft design and performance, aircraft instrumentation, aircraft propulsion, aircraft stability and control, research facilities, astronautics, chemistry and materials, engineering, geosciences, computer sciences, physics, and social sciences.

Proceedings. National Seminar on Educating the Engineer of the Future (Bangalore, India, January 7-10, 1979).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Institution of Engineers (India).

This volume of proceedings contains the keynote addresses, theme papers, and reports of the various technical sessions of the National Seminar on Educating the Engineers of the Future. A total of 10 technical sessions were held. Areas addressed included: (1) social and technological scenarios and technological forecasting; (2) technologies…

Estimating the dilemma strength for game systems. Comment on "Universal scaling for the dilemma strength in evolutionary games", by Z. Wang et al.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Xiaojie

2015-09-01

The puzzle of cooperation exists widely in the realistic world, including biological, social, and engineering systems. How to solve the cooperation puzzle has received considerable attention in recent years [1]. Evolutionary game theory provides a common mathematical framework to study the problem of cooperation. In principle, these practical biological, social, or engineering systems can be described by complex game models composed of multiple autonomous individuals with mutual interactions. And generally there exists a dilemma for the evolution of cooperation in the game systems.

Does engineering education need to engage more with the economic and social aspects of sustainability?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fitzpatrick, John J.

2017-11-01

This paper questions if engineering educators are producing engineers that are accelerating humanity along an unsustainable path. Even though technology and engineering are important drivers in trying to move humanity towards an environmentally sustainable paradigm, the paper suggests that maybe the most important levers and challenges lie in the economic and social domains. Short case studies of energy efficiency, the experience of the industrialist Ray Anderson and the authors own reflection of teaching chemical engineering students are used to highlight this. Engineering/technological innovation may not be enough and is often counteracted by the rebound effect and the current dominant neoclassical economic paradigm. The paper discusses what engineering educators can do to produce sustainability informed engineers who are better able to engage with the economic and social dimensions of sustainability. Some suggestions for engaging engineering students with the economic and social dimensions of environmental sustainability are provided. Engineers must somehow find ways, not just to influence technological levers (which are very important) but also to influence economic and social levers so that changes in economic and social behaviours can complement and facilitate technological change in moving humanity to an environmentally sustainable paradigm.

Undergraduate engineering student experiences: Comparing sex, gender and switcher status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fergen, Brenda Sue

This dissertation explores undergraduate engineering experiences, comparing men with women and switchers with non-switchers. Factors related to a chilly academic climate and gender-role socialization are hypothesized to contribute to variations in men's and women's academic experiences and persistence rates. Both quantitative and qualitative data are utilized in an effort to triangulate the findings. Secondary survey data, acquired as result of a 1992 Academic Environment Survey, were utilized to test the hypothesis that sex is the most important predictor (i.e., demographic variable) of perceptions of academic climate. Regression analyses show that sex by itself is not always a significant determinant. However, when sex and college (engineering vs. other) are combined into dummy variables, they are statistically significant in models where sex was not significant alone. This finding indicates that looking at sex differences alone may be too simplistic. Thirty personal interviews were conducted with a random stratified sample of undergraduate students from the 1993 engineering cohort. The interview data indicate that differences in childhood socialization are important. With regard to persistence, differences in socialization are greater for switchers vs. non-switchers than men vs. women. Thus, gender-role socialization does not appear to play as prominent a role in women's persistence as past literature would indicate. This may be due to the self-selection process that occurs among women who choose to pursue engineering. Other aspects of childhood socialization such as parents' level of educational and occupation, students' high school academic preparation and knowledge of what to expect of college classes appear to be more important. In addition, there is evidence that, for women, male siblings play an important role in socialization. There is also evidence that women engineering students at Midwestern University face a chilly academic climate. The factors which appear to contribute the most to an inhospitable atmosphere include subtle behaviors on the part of faculty and administrators and blatant sexist, derogatory and hostile comments and jokes on the part of male undergraduate students. Personal interview data indicate continued resistance among some male administrators, faculty and students to women pursuing majors in engineering.

The Revolt of the Engineers. Social Responsibility and the American Engineering Profession.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Layton, Edwin T., Jr.

In examining the history of American engineering, this book emphasizes professionalism, social responsibility, and ethics. It explains how some engineers have attempted to express a concern for the social effects of technology and to forge codes of ethics which could articulate the profession's fundamental obligation to the public. The document's…

The Real-World Connection.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Estes, Charles R.

1994-01-01

Discusses theoretical versus applied science and the use of the scientific method for analysis of social issues. Topics addressed include the use of simulation and modeling; the growth in computer power, including nanotechnology; distributed computing; self-evolving programs; spiritual matters; human engineering, i.e., molding individuals;…

Social responsibility in French engineering education: a historical and sociological analysis.

PubMed

Didier, Christelle; Derouet, Antoine

2013-12-01

In France, some institutions seem to call for the engineer's sense of social responsibility. However, this call is scarcely heard. Still, engineering students have been given the opportunity to gain a general education through courses in literature, law, economics, since the nineteenth century. But, such courses have long been offered only in the top ranked engineering schools. In this paper, we intend to show that the wish to increase engineering students' social responsibility is an old concern. We also aim at highlighting some macro social factors which shaped the answer to the call for social responsibility in the French engineering "Grandes Ecoles". In the first part, we provide an overview of the scarce attention given to the engineering curriculum in the scholarly literature in France. In the second part, we analyse one century of discourses about the definition of the "complete engineer" and the consequent role of non technical education. In the third part, we focus on the characteristics of the corpus which has been institutionalized. Our main finding is that despite the many changes which occurred in engineering education during one century, the "other formation" remains grounded on a non academic "way of knowing", and aims at increasing the reputation of the schools, more than enhancing engineering students' social awareness.

Social Work and Engineering Collaboration: Forging Innovative Global Community Development Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbert, Dorie J.

2014-01-01

Interdisciplinary programs in schools of social work are growing in scope and number. This article reports on collaboration between a school of social work and a school of engineering, which is forging a new area of interdisciplinary education. The program engages social work students working alongside engineering students in a team approach to…

Exploring the Academic and Social Experiences of Latino Engineering Community College Transfer Students at a 4-Year Institution: A Qualitative Research Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hagler, LaTesha R.

As the number of historically underrepresented populations transfer from community college to university to pursue baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), little research exists about the challenges and successes Latino students experience as they transition from 2-year colleges to 4-year universities. Thus, institutions of higher education have limited insight to inform their policies, practices, and strategic planning in developing effective sources of support, services, and programs for underrepresented students in STEM disciplines. This qualitative research study explored the academic and social experiences of 14 Latino engineering community college transfer students at one university. Specifically, this study examined the lived experiences of minority community college transfer students' transition into and persistence at a 4-year institution. The conceptual framework applied to this study was Schlossberg's Transition Theory, which analyzed the participant's social and academic experiences that led to their successful transition from community college to university. Three themes emerged from the narrative data analysis: (a) Academic Experiences, (b) Social Experiences, and (c) Sources of Support. The findings indicate that engineering community college transfer students experience many challenges in their transition into and persistence at 4-year institutions. Some of the challenges include lack of academic preparedness, environmental challenges, lack of time management skills and faculty serving the role as institutional agents.

Examining the relationship of ethnicity, gender and social cognitive factors with the academic achievement of first-year engineering students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carr, Bruce Henry

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationships of social cognitive factors and their influence on the academic performance of first-year engineering students. The nine social cognitive variables identified were under the groupings of personal support, occupational self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, vocational interests, coping, encouragement, discouragement, outcome expectations, and perceived stress. The primary student participants in this study were first-year engineering students from underrepresented groups which include African American, Hispanic American students and women. With this in mind, the researcher sought to examine the interactive influence of race/ethnicity and gender based on the aforementioned social cognitive factors. Differences in academic performance (university GPA of first-year undergraduate engineering students) were analyzed by ethnicity and gender. There was a main effect for ethnicity only. Gender was found not to be significant. Hispanics were not found to be significantly different in their GPAs than Whites but Blacks were found to have lower GPAs than Whites. Also, Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationship between and among the nine identified social cognitive variables. The data from the analysis uncovered ten significant correlations which were as follows: occupational self-efficacy and academic self-efficacy, occupational self-efficacy and vocational interest, occupational self-efficacy and perceived stress, academic self-efficacy and encouragement, academic self-efficacy and outcome expectations, academic self-efficacy and perceived stress, vocational interest and outcome expectations, discouragement and encouragement, coping and perceived stress, outcome expectations and perceived stress. Next, a Pearson correlation coefficient was utilized to examine the relationship between academic performance (college GPA) of first-year undergraduate engineering students and the nine identified social cognitive variables. The data analysis revealed three significant correlations which were as follows academic performance and occupational self-efficacy, academic performance and academic self-efficacy, and academic performance and encouragement. Finally, a Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between high school GPA and the nine identified social cognitive variables. The Pearson correlational coefficient indicated that there was one statistically significant correlation which was high school GPA and academic self-efficacy. Recommendations for further study included (a) future research involving investigations that compare a variety of institutions in different regions of the country; (b) further investigations utilizing open-ended responses from engineering students based on interviews; (c) a replicated study in 5 to 10 years to evaluate whether differences emerged relating to ethnicity and gender due to possible societal or cultural changes; and (d) a study involving a pretest and posttest of students' self-efficacy beliefs. Finally, the researcher recommends a qualitative study specifically involving interview questions aimed at students with moderate level grades and SAT scores who exhibited above average academic performance. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Seeing through the lens of social justice: A threshold for engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kabo, Jens David

In recent times the need for educational research dedicated to engineering education has been recognised. This PhD project is a contribution to the development of engineering education scholarship and the growing body of engineering education research. In this project it was recognised that problem solving is a central activity to engineering. However, it was also recognised that the conditions for doing engineering are changing, especially in light of pressing issues of poverty and environmental sustainability that humanity currently faces, and as a consequence, engineering education needs to emphasise problem definition to a greater extent. One mechanism for achieving this, which has been adopted by some engineering educators in recent years, is through courses that explicitly relate engineering to social justice. However, creating this relationship requires critical interdisciplinary thinking that is alien to most engineering students. In this dissertation it is suggested that for engineering students, and more generally, engineers, looking at their practice and profession through a social justice lens might be seen as a threshold that needs to be crossed. By studying the variation present among students in three different courses at three different North American universities, the intention was to understand how students approach and internalise social justice as a perspective on engineering and/or develop their abilities to think critically. A conceptual model to frame the study was developed by combining elements of threshold concept theory and the educational research methodology, phenomenographic variation theory. All three of the courses studied operated on a similar basic pedagogical model, however, the courses were framed differently, with social justice in the foreground or in the background with the focus on, in one case, ethics and in the other, sustainability. All courses studied appeared to be successful in encouraging engineering students to engage in critical thinking and a similar general trend in the development of students' conceptions of social justice was observed in each of the three courses. However, it does appear that if one is interested in developing an articulated understanding of social justice, with respect to engineering, that an explicit focus on social justice is preferable.

Social engineering: mitigating a stealthy risk.

PubMed

Maas, Jos

2014-01-01

Can a Healthcare Facility (HCF) be victimized by Social Engineering (SE)? Yes, says the author If so, what can you do about it? This article explains what Social Engineering is; how it is used; and how to use proactive security to prevent such an attack.

Design feasibility of an advanced technology supersonic cruise aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rowe, W. T.

1976-01-01

Research and development programs provide confidence that technology is in-hand to design an economically attractive, environmentally sound supersonic cruise aircraft for commercial operations. The principal results of studies and tests are described including those which define the selection of significant design features. These typically include the results of: (1) wind-tunnel tests, both subsonic and supersonic, (2) propulsion performance and acoustic tests on noise suppressors, including forward-flight effects, (3) studies of engine/airframe integration, which lead to the selection of engine cycles/sizes to meet future market, economic, and social requirements; and (4) structural testing.

How social networks influence female students' choices to major in engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weinland, Kathryn Ann

Scope and Method of Study: This study examined how social influence plays a part in female students' choices of college major, specifically engineering instead of science, technology, and math. Social influence may show itself through peers, family members, and teachers and may encompass resources under the umbrella of social capital. The purpose of this study was to examine how female students' social networks, through the lens of social capital, influence her major choice of whether or not to study engineering. The variables of peer influence, parental influence, teacher/counselor influence, perception of engineering, and academic background were addressed in a 52 question, Likert scale survey. This survey has been modified from an instrument previously used by Reyer (2007) at Bradley University. Data collection was completed using the Dillman (2009) tailored design model. Responses were grouped into four main scales of the dependent variables of social influence, encouragement, perceptions of engineering and career motivation. A factor analysis was completed on the four factors as a whole, and individual questions were not be analyzed. Findings and Conclusions: This study addressed the differences in social network support for female freshmen majoring in engineering versus female freshmen majoring in science, technology, or math. Social network support, when working together from all angles of peers, teachers, parents, and teachers/counselors, transforms itself into a new force that is more powerful than the summation of the individual parts. Math and science preparation also contributed to female freshmen choosing to major in engineering instead of choosing to major in science, technology, or math. The STEM pipeline is still weak and ways in which to reinforce it should be examined. Social network support is crucial for female freshmen who are majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math.

New ethical challenges in science and technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

The published research features some of the nation's leading scientists and engineers, as well as science policy experts, and discusses a wide range of issues and topics. These include the economic and social pressure impacting biomedical research, the impossibility of predicting all the behaviors of increasingly complex, engineered systems, a look at the new federal guidelines for misconduct and new wrinkles on faculty conflicts of interest.

A Social Responsibility Guide for Engineering Students and Professionals of all Faith Traditions: An Overview.

PubMed

Punzi, Vito L

2017-07-18

The development of the various themes of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is based on numerous papal documents and ecclesiastical statements. While this paper provides a summary of a number of these documents, this paper focuses on two themes: the common good and care of the environment, and on three documents authored by Pope John Paul II in 1990, by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, and by Pope Francis in 2015. By analyzing these documents from an engineer's perspective, the author proposes a model for Socially Responsible Engineering. The proposed model is intended to serve as a guide for engineering students and practicing engineers of all faith traditions and to those with no faith tradition at all who wish to incorporate CST in the daily conduct of their personal and professional lives; to provide guidance for the professional the author terms the aspiring Socially Responsible Engineer; and to offer engineers a preferred alternative to the undesirable aspects of the technocratic paradigm. While intended primarily for engineers, this document also serves as a guide for those with expertise in social justice and who, by gaining a better understanding of the thought processes of engineers, can become better mentors for engineering students and practicing engineers seeking to incorporate CST into their daily lives.

Defining and Exposing Privacy Issues with Social Media

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-11

Twitter, and Linked In[ I 0). VI. SEARCH ENGINES In addition to social networking sites, search engines pose new issues to privacy. As...networking, search engines , and storing personal information online in general have been accepted worldwide due to the benefits they provide. Social...networking provides even more communication in an information-demanding age, allowing users to interact across great distances. Search engines allow

Engineering Philosophy: Theories of Technology, German Idealism, and Social Order in High-Industrial Germany.

PubMed

Voskuhl, Adelheid

During the so-called "Second Industrial Revolution," engineers were constituting themselves as a new social and professional group, and found themselves in often fierce competition with existing elites-the military, the nobility, and educated bourgeois mandarins-whose roots went back to medieval and early modern pre-industrial social orders. During that same time, engineers also discovered the discipline of philosophy: as a means to express their intellectual and social agendas, and to theorize technology and its relationship to art, history, culture, philosophy, and the state. This article analyzes engineers' own philosophical writings about technology as well as the institutions in which they composed them in 1910s and 1920s Germany. It emphasizes engineers' contributions to well-known discourses founded by canonical philosophers, the role of preindustrial economies and their imagination in such philosophies, and the role of both the history and the philosophy of technology in engineers' desire for upward social mobility.

Design and Development of a Course in Professionalism and Ethics for CDIO Curriculum in China.

PubMed

Fan, Yinghui; Zhang, Xingwei; Xie, Xinlu

2015-10-01

At Shantou University (STU) in 2008, a stand-alone engineering ethics course was first included within a Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) curriculum to address the scarcity of engineering ethics education in China. The philosophy of the course design is to help students to develop an in-depth understanding of social sustainability and to fulfill the obligations of engineers in the twenty-first century within the context of CDIO engineering practices. To guarantee the necessary cooperation of the relevant parties, we have taken advantage of the top-down support from the STU administration. Three themes corresponding to contemporary issues in China were chosen as the course content: engineers' social obligations, intellectual property and engineering safety criteria. Some popular pedagogies are used for ethics instruction such as case studies and group discussions through role-playing. To impart the diverse expertise of the practical professional practice, team teaching is adopted by interdisciplinary instructors with strong qualifications and industrial backgrounds. Although the assessment of the effectiveness of the course in enhancing students' sense of ethics is limited to assignment reports and class discussions, our endeavor is seen as positive and will continue to sustain the CDIO reform initiatives of STU.

An Account of Women's Progress in Engineering: a Social Cognitive Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vogt, Christina

Traditionally, women were not welcome in higher education, especially in male-dominated fields. Undoubtedly, women have dramatically increased their enrollments in many once male-only fields, such as law, medicine, and several of the sciences; nevertheless, engineering remains a field where women continue to be underrepresented. This has often been attributed to social barriers in engineering classrooms. However, a new turn of events has been reported: Young women entering engineering may receive higher grades and have a greater tendency to remain than men. To examine what has recently changed, the author applied Bandura's triadic model of reciprocity between environment, self, and behavior. The measured variables included academic integration or discrimination, self-measures of academic self-confidence, engineering self-efficacy, and behaviors taken to self-regulate learning: critical thinking, effort, peer learning, and help seeking. The data revealed that women apply slightly more effort and have slightly less self-efficacy than men. Their academic confidence is nearly equal in almost all areas. Most significantly, many previous gender biases appear diminished, and those that do exist are slight. However, it is recommended that continued efforts be undertaken to attract and retain women in engineering programs.

Sustainable water management under future uncertainty with eco-engineering decision scaling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poff, N. Leroy; Brown, Casey M.; Grantham, Theodore E.; Matthews, John H.; Palmer, Margaret A.; Spence, Caitlin M.; Wilby, Robert L.; Haasnoot, Marjolijn; Mendoza, Guillermo F.; Dominique, Kathleen C.; Baeza, Andres

2016-01-01

Managing freshwater resources sustainably under future climatic and hydrological uncertainty poses novel challenges. Rehabilitation of ageing infrastructure and construction of new dams are widely viewed as solutions to diminish climate risk, but attaining the broad goal of freshwater sustainability will require expansion of the prevailing water resources management paradigm beyond narrow economic criteria to include socially valued ecosystem functions and services. We introduce a new decision framework, eco-engineering decision scaling (EEDS), that explicitly and quantitatively explores trade-offs in stakeholder-defined engineering and ecological performance metrics across a range of possible management actions under unknown future hydrological and climate states. We illustrate its potential application through a hypothetical case study of the Iowa River, USA. EEDS holds promise as a powerful framework for operationalizing freshwater sustainability under future hydrological uncertainty by fostering collaboration across historically conflicting perspectives of water resource engineering and river conservation ecology to design and operate water infrastructure for social and environmental benefits.

Sustainable water management under future uncertainty with eco-engineering decision scaling

USGS Publications Warehouse

Poff, N LeRoy; Brown, Casey M; Grantham, Theodore E.; Matthews, John H; Palmer, Margaret A.; Spence, Caitlin M; Wilby, Robert L.; Haasnoot, Marjolijn; Mendoza, Guillermo F; Dominique, Kathleen C; Baeza, Andres

2015-01-01

Managing freshwater resources sustainably under future climatic and hydrological uncertainty poses novel challenges. Rehabilitation of ageing infrastructure and construction of new dams are widely viewed as solutions to diminish climate risk, but attaining the broad goal of freshwater sustainability will require expansion of the prevailing water resources management paradigm beyond narrow economic criteria to include socially valued ecosystem functions and services. We introduce a new decision framework, eco-engineering decision scaling (EEDS), that explicitly and quantitatively explores trade-offs in stakeholder-defined engineering and ecological performance metrics across a range of possible management actions under unknown future hydrological and climate states. We illustrate its potential application through a hypothetical case study of the Iowa River, USA. EEDS holds promise as a powerful framework for operationalizing freshwater sustainability under future hydrological uncertainty by fostering collaboration across historically conflicting perspectives of water resource engineering and river conservation ecology to design and operate water infrastructure for social and environmental benefits.

Ethics and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Case for Comprehensive Engineering : Commentary on "Using Student Engagement to Relocate Ethics to the Core of the Engineering Curriculum".

PubMed

van den Hoven, Jeroen

2016-12-27

In the twenty-first century, the urgent problems the world is facing (the UN Sustainable Development Goals) are increasingly related to vast and intricate 'systems of systems', which comprise both socio-technical and eco-systems. In order for engineers to adequately and responsibly respond to these problems, they cannot focus on only one technical or any other aspect in isolation, but must adopt a wider and multidisciplinary perspective of these systems, including an ethical and social perspective. Engineering curricula should therefore focus on what we call 'comprehensive engineering'. Comprehensive engineering implies ethical coherence, consilience of scientific disciplines, and cooperation between parties.

Engineering Students' Views of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study from Petroleum Engineering.

PubMed

Smith, Jessica M; McClelland, Carrie J; Smith, Nicole M

2017-12-01

The mining and energy industries present unique challenges to engineers, who must navigate sometimes competing responsibilities and codes of conduct, such as personal senses of right and wrong, professional ethics codes, and their employers' corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the current dominant framework used by industry to conceptualize firms' responsibilities to their stakeholders, yet has it plays a relatively minor role in engineering ethics education. In this article, we report on an interdisciplinary pedagogical intervention in a petroleum engineering seminar that sought to better prepare engineering undergraduate students to critically appraise the strengths and limitations of CSR as an approach to reconciling the interests of industry and communities. We find that as a result of the curricular interventions, engineering students were able to expand their knowledge of the social, rather than simply environmental and economic dimensions of CSR. They remained hesitant, however, in identifying the links between those social aspects of CSR and their actual engineering work. The study suggests that CSR may be a fruitful arena from which to illustrate the profoundly sociotechnical dimensions of the engineering challenges relevant to students' future careers.

Status of Social Engineering Awareness in Business Organizations and Colleges/Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauser, Deanna Mae

2017-01-01

Social engineers manipulate individuals into divulging confidential information or compromising personal or organizational security. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the potential lack of social engineering awareness that affects employees at companies in southeastern Michigan. The research method consisted of interviews…

Models with Men and Women: Representing Gender in Dynamic Modeling of Social Systems.

PubMed

Palmer, Erika; Wilson, Benedicte

2018-04-01

Dynamic engineering models have yet to be evaluated in the context of feminist engineering ethics. Decision-making concerning gender in dynamic modeling design is a gender and ethical issue that is important to address regardless of the system in which the dynamic modeling is applied. There are many dynamic modeling tools that operationally include the female population, however, there is an important distinction between females and women; it is the difference between biological sex and the social construct of gender, which is fluid and changes over time and geography. The ethical oversight in failing to represent or misrepresenting gender in model design when it is relevant to the model purpose can have implications for model validity and policy model development. This paper highlights this gender issue in the context of feminist engineering ethics using a dynamic population model. Women are often represented in this type of model only in their biological capacity, while lacking their gender identity. This illustrative example also highlights how language, including the naming of variables and communication with decision-makers, plays a role in this gender issue.

Social Competencies Identification for Realization of Successful Engineering Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ivanova, Malinka

2012-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to identify the main social competencies that future engineers need to become recognized professionals. In the paper the key competencies for contemporary engineers are examined and the focus is given on the importance of social competencies for professional development. A competency research model is developed…

Confronting Cyberterrorism with Cyber Deception

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-12-01

break into computer systems. A further development in social engineering is the use of online translators and 41 relay telephony services that...allow social engineers to exploit and overcome language barriers [Ollmann, 2003]. Relay telephony services are online services provided by...open source media or actively seeking the information through unscrupulous means. - Desk checking - Social engineering - Dumpster diving

A social-cognitive framework of multidisciplinary team innovation.

PubMed

Paletz, Susannah B F; Schunn, Christian D

2010-01-01

The psychology of science typically lacks integration between cognitive and social variables. We present a new framework of team innovation in multidisciplinary science and engineering groups that ties factors from both literatures together. We focus on the effects of a particularly challenging social factor, knowledge diversity, which has a history of mixed effects on creativity, most likely because those effects are mediated and moderated by cognitive and additional social variables. In addition, we highlight the distinction between team innovative processes that are primarily divergent versus convergent; we propose that the social and cognitive implications are different for each, providing a possible explanation for knowledge diversity's mixed results on team outcomes. Social variables mapped out include formal roles, communication norms, sufficient participation and information sharing, and task conflict; cognitive variables include analogy, information search, and evaluation. This framework provides a roadmap for research that aims to harness the power of multidisciplinary teams. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Group dynamics for the acquisition of competences in Project Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taguas, E. V.; Aguilar, M. C.; Castillo, C.; Polo, M. J.; Pérez, R.

2012-04-01

The Bologna Process promotes European citizens' employability from teaching fields in the University which implies the design of activities addressed to the development of skills for the labor market and engagement of employers. This work has been conceived for improving the formation of Engineering Project Management through group dynamics focused on: 1) the use of the creativity for solving problems; 2) promoting leadership capacities and social skills in multidisciplinary/multicultural work groups; 3) the ethical, social and environmental compromise; 4) the continuous learning. Different types of activities were designed: short activities of 15-30 minutes where fragments of books or songs are presented and discussed and long activities (2 h) where groups of students take different roles for solving common problems and situations within the Engineering Projects context. An electronic book with the content of the dynamics and the material for the students has been carried out. A sample of 20 students of Electronic Engineering degree which had participated at least in two dynamics, evaluated the utility for improving their formation in Engineering Project Management with a mark of 8.2 (scale 0-10, standard deviation equal to 0.9). On the other hand, the teachers observed how this type of work, promotes the interdisciplinary training and the acquisition of social skills, usually not-included in the objectives of the subjects.

Swamp Works- Multiple Projects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carelli, Jonathan M.

2013-01-01

My Surface Systems internship over the summer 2013 session covered a broad range of projects that ranged multiple aspects and fields of engineering and technology. This internship included a project to create a command center for a 120 ton regolith bin, a design and build for a blast shield to add further protection for the Surface Systems engineers, a design for a portable four monitor hyper wall that can extend as large as needed, research and programming a nano drill for a next generation robot, and social media tasks including the making of videos, posting to social networking websites and implementation of a new weekly outreach program to help spread the word about the Swamp Works laboratory. The objectives for the command center were to create a central computer controlled area for the still in production lunar regolith bin. It needed to be easy to use and the operating systems had to be Linux. The objectives for the hyper wall were to build a mobile transport of monitors that could potentially attach to one another. It needed to be light but sturdy, and have the ability to last. The objectives for the blast shield included a robust design that could withstand a small equipment malfunction, while also being convenient for use. The objectives for the nano-drill included the research and implementation of programming for vertical and horizontal movement. The hyper wall and blasts shield project were designed by me in the Pro/Engineer/Creo2 software. Each project required a meeting with the Swamp Works engineers and was declared successful.

Curricular Reform: Systems Modeling and Sustainability in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Vermont

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rizzo, D. M.; Hayden, N. J.; Dewoolkar, M.; Neumann, M.; Lathem, S.

2009-12-01

Researchers at the University of Vermont were awarded a NSF-sponsored Department Level Reform (DLR) grant to incorporate a systems approach to engineering problem solving within the civil and environmental engineering programs. A systems approach challenges students to consider the environmental, social, and economic aspects within engineering solutions. Likewise, sustainability requires a holistic approach to problem solving that includes economic, social and environmental factors. Our reform has taken a multi-pronged approach in two main areas that include implementing: a) a sequence of three systems courses related to environmental and transportation systems that introduce systems thinking, sustainability, and systems analysis and modeling; and b) service-learning (SL) projects as a means of practicing the systems approach. Our SL projects are good examples of inquiry-based learning that allow students to emphasize research and learning in areas of most interest to them. The SL projects address real-world open-ended problems. Activities that enhance IT and soft skills for students are incorporated throughout the curricula. Likewise, sustainability has been a central piece of the reform. We present examples of sustainability in the SL and modeling projects within the systems courses (e.g., students have used STELLA™ systems modeling software to address the impact of different carbon sequestration strategies on global climate change). Sustainability in SL projects include mentoring home schooled children in biomimicry projects, developing ECHO exhibits and the design of green roofs, bioretention ponds and porous pavement solutions. Assessment includes formative and summative methods involving student surveys and focus groups, faculty interviews and observations, and evaluation of student work.

Socialization Experiences Resulting from Doctoral Engineering Teaching Assistantships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mena, Irene B.; Diefes-Dux, Heidi A.; Capobianco, Brenda M.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore and characterize the types of socialization experiences that result from engineering teaching assistantships. Using situated learning and communities of practice as the theoretical framework, this study highlights the experiences of 28 engineering doctoral students who worked as engineering teaching…

Seeing through the Lens of Social Justice: A Threshold for Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kabo, J.; Baillie, C.

2009-01-01

In this paper, we have explored how students in a cross-disciplinary course on engineering and social justice approached the idea of using social justice as a "lens" for looking at engineering. We have used an adapted phenomenographic approach [Marton, F., and Booth, S., 1997. "Learning and awareness". Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum], together with…

Social Cognitive Predictors of Academic Interests and Goals in South Korean Engineering Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Min Sun; Seo, Young Seok

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the applicability of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) in a cross-cultural setting by examining the relationships between the social cognitive variables of South Korean engineering students and their engineering interests and major choice goals across university type and gender. Participants (N =…

Information Geography: A Bridge between Engineering and the Social Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paradiso, Maria

2006-01-01

This paper presents the metaphor of engineering and the social sciences located on either side of a chasm and connected by the bridge of information geography. Information geography is not an integral part of engineering and is a new field within geography, a social science discipline. The specialty of information geography is one of the newest in…

Second Language Socialization through Team Interaction among Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vickers, Caroline H.

2007-01-01

This article, based on a longitudinal, ethnographic study among engineering students, examines the interactional processes surrounding second language (L2) socialization. L2 socialization perspectives argue that the cognitive and the social are interconnected, and that learning an L2 is a process of coming to understand socially constructed…

Development Cooperation as Methodology for Teaching Social Responsibility to Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lappalainen, Pia

2011-01-01

The role of engineering in promoting global well-being has become accentuated, turning the engineering curriculum into a means of dividing well-being equally. The gradual fortifying calls for humanitarian engineering have resulted in the incorporation of social responsibility themes in the university curriculum. Cooperation, communication,…

Engineering for All: Classroom Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hacker, Michael; Cavanaugh, Sandra; DeHaan, Chris; Longware, Alta Jo; McGuire, Matt; Plummer, Matthew

2018-01-01

This is the second of two articles about the National Science Foundation-funded Engineering for All (EfA) program which focuses on engineering as a potential social good, revisits major Technology and Engineering (T&E) themes (design, modeling, systems, resources, and human values) in two authentic social contexts (Food and Water), and uses…

An Engineering Student's Guide to the Humanities & Social Sciences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of American Colleges, Washington, DC.

Undergraduate engineering students and their advisors are provided with a handbook to help improve the quality and coherence of the humanities and social sciences (H&SS) component of undergraduate engineering education (fostering more purposeful H&SS course selection). The first of this handbook's three sections has an engineering major…

Engineering for All: A Middle School Program to Introduce Students to Engineering as a Potential Social Good

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hacker, Michael; Crismond, David; Hecht, Deborah; Lomask, Michal

2017-01-01

This article is the first of a two-part series about Engineering for All (EfA), a $1.7M National Science Foundation-funded project, which introduces middle school students to engineering, not only as a career path, but as an endeavor with potential for doing social good. Engineering for All opens students' eyes to the role engineers play in…

B. F. Skinner and technology's nation: Technocracy, social engineering, and the good life in 20th-century America.

PubMed

Rutherford, Alexandra

2017-08-01

Psychologist B. F. Skinner developed and promoted a technology of behavior as the basis for widespread social reform over much of his career. In 1948, he published his behaviorally engineered vision of the good life in his utopian novel Walden Two (Skinner, 1948). Skinner's efforts were part of a much larger social engineering tradition that received one of its fullest expressions in the Technocracy Movement of the 1930s. Fifteen years before Skinner's Walden Two , at the height of the Technocracy Movement's public visibility in the United States, technocrat Harold Loeb (1933/1996) published his utopia, Life in a Technocracy: What It Might Be Like . In this article, I place the socially engineered visions of the good life promoted by the Technocracy Movement and by Skinner on an intellectual and ideological continuum to amplify and explore American attitudes toward psychology, technology, and social engineering during the middle decades of the 20th century. I argue that responses to both reveal the possibilities and limits of the social engineering enterprise, and suggest that historians of technology might consider how the history of psychology and other psy-disciplines can deepen conceptualizations of the relationships among the psychological, the social, and the technological in this period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Effect of World War II on Women in Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barker, Anne M.

The field of engineering has been one of the most difficult for women to enter. Even with an increase in the proportion of women in the engineering workforce from 0.3% before the 1970s to 9.5% in 1999, women are still seriously underrepresented. This article examines the history of women in engineering in the United States during World War II. Women were actively recruited as engineering aides by the federal government, which saw them as a temporary substitute for men who were in the military. Yet this crisis did not break down the barriers to and prejudices against women in engineering, nor did it give them a real opportunity to become professional engineers equal to men. After the war, calls for a return to normalcy were used to reestablish social norms, which kept women at home and reserved desirable places in the workforce, including in engineering, for men.

Investigating the Extent That an Integrative Learning Module Broadens the Perception of First-Year Students about the Engineering Profession

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singer, Kerri Patrick; Foutz, Tim; Navarro, Maria; Thompson, Sidney

2015-01-01

Engineers today need both engineering knowledge and social science knowledge to solve complex problems. However, most people have a traditional view of engineering as a field dominated by math and science foci, with little social consequence. This study examined and compared perceptions about engineering from Freshmen taking three different First…

A Social Cognitive Approach to Understanding Engineering Career Interest and Expectations among Underrepresented Students in School-Based Clubs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dika, Sandra L.; Alvarez, Jaquelina; Santos, Jeannette; Suárez, Oscar Marcelo

2016-01-01

Interest in engineering at early stages of the educational career is one important precursor to choosing to study engineering in college, and engineering-related clubs are designed to foster such interest and diversify the engineering pipeline. In this study, the researchers employed a social cognitive career theory framework to examine level of…

The science in social science

PubMed Central

Bernard, H. Russell

2012-01-01

A recent poll showed that most people think of science as technology and engineering—life-saving drugs, computers, space exploration, and so on. This was, in fact, the promise of the founders of modern science in the 17th century. It is less commonly understood that social and behavioral sciences have also produced technologies and engineering that dominate our everyday lives. These include polling, marketing, management, insurance, and public health programs. PMID:23213222

Integrated Defense Occupational Stratification System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-03-29

Engineering Professionals" or "Other Profes- sionals" category. This includes the social science, public affairs and library science areas. E. Managers and...car- penters, cabinetmakers, boat repairmen, patczrnmakers, and other wood craftsmen. PM. Multiple Crafts Constructioner All personnel qualified in

Understanding First Generation College Student Experiences and Interaction with Belongingness, Identity, and Social Capital: An Explanatory Mixed Method Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boone, Hank Joseph Reyes

This master's thesis is a mixed method explanatory study focusing on First Generation College student's (FGS) engineering degree experiences. Constructs used to understand their experiences were future time perspective, belongingness, engineering identity, social capital, and social identity complexity. An upper level engineering students' communications class was surveyed at a western land grant institution. Analysis showed FGS had more engineering belongingness than peers having at least one parent graduate college. The qualitative population was then upper level engineering FGS who reported high belongingness. Data showed the five interview participants communicated belongingness in terms of engineering identity. They became an engineer when they had experiences using engineering knowledge. Participants often accessed parents and family to make academic and career decisions, but some accessed more individuals (i.e. professors, engineers, peers). Lastly, participants appeared to compartmentalize their FGS identity to outside the engineering classroom while they formed their engineering identity through the degree program.

Teaching problem solving: Don't forget the problem solver(s)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ranade, Saidas M.; Corrales, Angela

2013-05-01

The importance of intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences has long been known but educators have debated whether to and how to incorporate those topics in an already crowded engineering curriculum. In 2010, the authors used the classroom as a laboratory to observe the usefulness of including selected case studies and exercises from the fields of neurology, artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and social psychology in a new problem-solving course. To further validate their initial findings, in 2012, the authors conducted an online survey of engineering students and engineers. The main conclusion is that engineering students will benefit from learning more about the impact of emotions, culture, diversity and cognitive biases when solving problems. Specifically, the work shows that an augmented problem-solving curriculum needs to include lessons on labelling emotions and cognitive biases, 'evidence-based' data on the importance of culture and diversity and additional practice on estimating conditional probability.

Determination and Applications of Environmental Costs at Different Sized Airports: Aircraft Noise and Engine Emissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lu, Cherie; Lierens, Abigail

2003-01-01

With the increasing trend of charging for externalities and the aim of encouraging the sustainable development of the air transport industry, there is a need to evaluate the social costs of these undesirable side effects, mainly aircraft noise and engine emissions, for different airports. The aircraft noise and engine emissions social costs are calculated in monetary terms for five different airports, ranging from hub airports to small regional airports. The number of residences within different levels of airport noise contours and the aircraft noise classifications are the main determinants for accessing aircraft noise social costs. Whist, based on the damages of different engine pollutants on the human health, vegetation, materials, aquatic ecosystem and climate, the aircraft engine emissions social costs vary from engine types to aircraft categories. The results indicate that the relationship appears to be curvilinear between environmental costs and the traffic volume of an airport. The results and methodology of environmental cost calculation could input for to the proposed European wide harmonized noise charges as well as the social cost benefit analysis of airports.

Innovative Programs in Education for the Professions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leslie, Larry L.

This document describes innovative programs in education for various professions including law, health services, social work, teaching, agriculture-related professions, architecture, business, and engineering. Programs of health services are further divided into those for physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and dentists. Information is…

Women in engineering: A case study in preparation, persistence, and response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winkelman, Colin Kim

This qualitative case study examined women students' perceptions of major influences on their successful completion of a Bachelor of Science degree in nine different disciplines of engineering. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 female engineering students at an Institute of Technology over the period of a school year. The conceptual framework of analysis linked theoretical principles to categories of analysis that were correlated to three outcomes: preparation, persistence, and response. Emergent properties generated from in-depth interviews were then linked to the categories of preparation, interest-congruence, gender identity, social acceptance, campus culture, learning styles, classroom and faculty relations, sense of accomplishment, tokenism, career expectations, and family planning. Data collection was triangulated through individual interviews and a focus group with the 13 respondents and comparisons to quantitative research outcomes concerning self-confidence, persistence, satisfaction, and career expectations. The findings generally support the theories and propositions outlined in the conceptual framework constructed for this study. The most important of these findings include the impact of social conditioning on gender and academic preparation, the correlation of peer group relations to persistence, and the future expectations female students derive from their experiences over their 4 years of study. The data strongly suggest that traditional gender roles are a social conditioning process that can be overcome, permitting women to succeed in nontraditional academic career fields. Further research could build on these findings to explore social changes in attitudes about women engineers in the workplace, comparisons between men and women's persistence styles, and the importance of science and mathematics intervention programs for girls.

The Tsunami Project: Integrating engineering, natural and social sciences into post-tsunami surveys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McAdoo, B. G.; Goff, J. R.; Fritz, H. M.; Cochard, R.; Kong, L. S.

2009-12-01

Complexities resulting from recent tsunamis in the Solomon Islands (2007), Java (2006) and Sumatra (2004, 2005) have demonstrated the need for an integrated, interdisciplinary team of engineers, natural and social scientists to better understand the nature of the disaster. Documenting the complex interactions in the coupled human-environment system necessitate a coordinated, interdisciplinary approach that combines the strengths of engineering, geoscience, ecology and social science. Engineers, modelers and geoscientists untangle the forces required to leave an imprint of a tsunami in the geologic record. These same forces affect ecosystems that provide services from buffers to food security; therefore coastal ecologists play a vital role. It is also crucial to understand the social structures that contribute to disasters, so local or regional policy experts, planners, economists, etc. should be included. When these experts arrive in a disaster area as part of an Interdisciplinary Tsunami Survey Team, the interactions between the systems can be discussed in the field, and site-specific data can be collected. A diverse team in the field following a tsunami shares critical resources and discoveries in real-time, making the survey more efficient. Following the 2006 Central Java earthquake and tsunami, civil engineers covered broad areas quickly, collecting ephemeral water level data and communicating areas of interest to the geologists, who would follow to do the slower sediment data collection. The 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake and tsunami caused extensive damage to the coral reef, which highlighting the need to have an ecologist on the team who was able to identify species and their energy tolerance. Rather than diluting the quality of post-tsunami data collection, this approach in fact strengthens it- engineers and geoscientists no longer have to indentify coral or mangrove species, nor do ecologists evaluate the velocity of a wave as it impacted a forested coastline. Interviews, a core element of post-tsunami surveys and which most US academic institutions require human-subject training to complete, can be undertaken by social scientists trained to ask pertinent questions to both the natural scientists and engineers, and those that will illuminate the underlying weaknesses of the social institutions that contributed to the magnitude of the disaster. Data collected by interdisciplinary teams provides baseline data that can set the redevelopment process off on the right track. Geoscientists constrain the location, frequency and magnitude of hazards, and how they affect the landscape. Ecologists document the interaction of hazards with ecosystems and evaluate their risk reduction role. Engineers and modelers constrain the effects of a hazard on the built environment. A coupled human-environment approach at the intersection of the physical, ecological and the built environments provides the right kind of data decision makers need to build back better in the most ecologically and economically sustainable manner.

NASA Systems Engineering Research Consortium: Defining the Path to Elegance in Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Michael D.; Farrington, Phillip A.

2016-01-01

The NASA Systems Engineering Research Consortium was formed at the end of 2010 to study the approaches to producing elegant systems on a consistent basis. This has been a transformative study looking at the engineering and organizational basis of systems engineering. The consortium has engaged in a variety of research topics to determine the path to elegant systems. In the second year of the consortium, a systems engineering framework emerged which structured the approach to systems engineering and guided our research. This led in the third year to set of systems engineering postulates that the consortium is continuing to refine. The consortium has conducted several research projects that have contributed significantly to the understanding of systems engineering. The consortium has surveyed the application of the NASA 17 systems engineering processes, explored the physics and statistics of systems integration, and considered organizational aspects of systems engineering discipline integration. The systems integration methods have included system exergy analysis, Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), State Variable Analysis, Multidisciplinary Coupling Analysis (MCA), Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO), System Cost Modelling, System Robustness, and Value Modelling. Organizational studies have included the variability of processes in change evaluations, margin management within the organization, information theory of board structures, social categorization of unintended consequences, and initial looks at applying cognitive science to systems engineering. Consortium members have also studied the bidirectional influence of policy and law with systems engineering.

NASA Systems Engineering Research Consortium: Defining the Path to Elegance in Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Michael D.; Farrington, Phillip A.

2016-01-01

The NASA Systems Engineering Research Consortium was formed at the end of 2010 to study the approaches to producing elegant systems on a consistent basis. This has been a transformative study looking at the engineering and organizational basis of systems engineering. The consortium has engaged in a variety of research topics to determine the path to elegant systems. In the second year of the consortium, a systems engineering framework emerged which structured the approach to systems engineering and guided our research. This led in the third year to set of systems engineering postulates that the consortium is continuing to refine. The consortium has conducted several research projects that have contributed significantly to the understanding of systems engineering. The consortium has surveyed the application of the NASA 17 systems engineering processes, explored the physics and statistics of systems integration, and considered organizational aspects of systems engineering discipline integration. The systems integration methods have included system energy analysis, Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), State Variable Analysis, Multidisciplinary Coupling Analysis (MCA), Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO), System Cost Modeling, System Robustness, and Value Modeling. Organizational studies have included the variability of processes in change evaluations, margin management within the organization, information theory of board structures, social categorization of unintended consequences, and initial looks at applying cognitive science to systems engineering. Consortium members have also studied the bidirectional influence of policy and law with systems engineering.

The Investigation of STEM Self-Efficacy and Professional Commitment to Engineering among Female High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Yi-hui; Lou, Shi-jer; Shih, Ru-chu

2014-01-01

This study employed social cognitive theory and social cognitive career theory (SCCT) as foundations to explore the influence of high school students' beliefs about female gender roles and female engineer role models on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) self-efficacy and professional commitment to engineering. A total of 88…

Setting an Egalitarian Social Norm in the Classroom: Improving Attitudes towards Diversity among Male Engineering Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Jill E.; Sekaquaptewa, Denise

2014-01-01

This study tested the effect of a message describing a social norm of egalitarian attitudes and behaviors in an engineering college on male students' attitudes and behavioral intentions surrounding diversity in engineering. Participants were first-semester university students enrolled in four sections of an introductory engineering course in…

The role of Social Media and internet search engines in information provision and dissemination to patients with Kidney Stone Disease (KSD): A systematic review from EAU Young Academic Urologists (YAU).

PubMed

Jamnadass, Enakshee; Aboumarzouk, Omar; Kallidonis, Panagiotis; Emiliani, Esteban; Tailly, Thomas; Hruby, Stephan; Sanguedolce, Francesco; Atis, Gokhan; Özsoy, Mehmet; Greco, Francesco; Somani, Bhaskar K

2018-06-21

Kidney stone disease (KSD) affects millions of people worldwide and has an increasing incidence. Social media (SoMe) and search engines are both gaining in usage, whilst also being used by patients to research their conditions and aid in managing them. With this in mind, many authors have expressed the belief that SoMe and search engines can be used by patients and healthcare professionals to improve treatment compliance, and to help counselling and management of conditions such as KSD. We wanted to determine whether SoMe and search engines play a role in the management and/or prevention of KSD. The databases MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus and Cochrane Library were used to search for relevant English language literature from inception to December 2017. Results were screened by title, abstract, and then full text, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data was then analysed independently by the authors not involved in the original study. After initial identification of 2137 records and screening of 42 articles, 10 studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The papers included focused on a variety of SoMe forms including two papers each on twitter, YouTube, smartphone apps and google search engine and one paper on google insights and google analytics. Regarding patient centered advice, while 2 papers covered advice on dietary, fluid intake and management options, two additional papers each covered advice on fluid advice and management options only, while no such advice was given by 3 of the SoMe published papers. SoMe and search engines provide valuable information to patients with kidney stone disease. However, whilst the information provided regarding dietary aspects and fluid management was good, it was not comprehensive enough to include advice on other aspects of KSD prevention.

From Internet User to Cyberspace Citizen.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wakabayashi, Ippei

1997-01-01

Discusses social and cultural challenges that Internet technology raises. Highlights include preserving the freedom in cyberspace, the information distribution scheme of the Internet, two-way interactivity, search engines as marketing tools, the insecurity of cyberspace, online safety rules for children, educating children to "walk…

Studies of Scientific Disciplines. An Annotated Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weisz, Diane; Kruytbosch, Carlos

Provided in this bibliography are annotated lists of social studies of science literature, arranged alphabetically by author in 13 disciplinary areas. These areas include astronomy; general biology; biochemistry and molecular biology; biomedicine; chemistry; earth and space sciences; economics; engineering; mathematics; physics; political science;…

Analysing the Correlation between Social Network Analysis Measures and Performance of Students in Social Network-Based Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Putnik, Goran; Costa, Eric; Alves, Cátia; Castro, Hélio; Varela, Leonilde; Shah, Vaibhav

2016-01-01

Social network-based engineering education (SNEE) is designed and implemented as a model of Education 3.0 paradigm. SNEE represents a new learning methodology, which is based on the concept of social networks and represents an extended model of project-led education. The concept of social networks was applied in the real-life experiment,…

Social Science at the Center for Adaptive Optics: Synergistic Systems of Program Evaluation, Applied Research, Educational Assessment, and Pedagogy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goza, B. K.; Hunter, L.; Shaw, J. M.; Metevier, A. J.; Raschke, L.; Espinoza, E.; Geaney, E. R.; Reyes, G.; Rothman, D. L.

2010-12-01

This paper describes the interaction of four elements of social science as they have evolved in concert with the Center for Adaptive Optics Professional Development Program (CfAO PDP). We hope these examples persuade early-career scientists and engineers to include social science activities as they develop grant proposals and carry out their research. To frame our discussion we use a metaphor from astronomy. At the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), the CfAO PDP and the Educational Partnership Center (EPC) are two young stars in the process of forming a solar system. Together, they are surrounded by a disk of gas and dust made up of program evaluation, applied research, educational assessment, and pedagogy. An idea from the 2001 PDP intensive workshops program evaluation developed into the Assessing Scientific Inquiry and Leadership Skills (AScILS) applied research project. In iterative cycles, AScILS researchers participated in subsequent PDP intensive workshops, teaching social science while piloting AScILS measurement strategies. Subsequent "orbits" of the PDP program evaluation gathered ideas from the applied research and pedagogy. The denser regions of this disk of social science are in the process of forming new protoplanets as tools for research and teaching are developed. These tools include problem-solving exercises or simulations of adaptive optics explanations and scientific reasoning; rubrics to evaluate the scientific reasoning simulation responses, knowledge regarding inclusive science education, and student explanations of science/engineering inquiry investigations; and a scientific reasoning curriculum. Another applied research project is forming with the design of a study regarding how to assess engineering explanations. To illustrate the mutual shaping of the cross-disciplinary, intergenerational group of educational researchers and their projects, the paper ends with a description of the professional trajectories of some of the researchers involved in this complex solar system.

Changes in the Social Responsibility Attitudes of Engineering Students Over Time.

PubMed

Bielefeldt, Angela R; Canney, Nathan E

2016-10-01

This research explored how engineering student views of their responsibility toward helping individuals and society through their profession, so-called social responsibility, change over time. A survey instrument was administered to students initially primarily in their first year, senior year, or graduate studies majoring in mechanical, civil, or environmental engineering at five institutions in September 2012, April 2013, and March 2014. The majority of the students (57 %) did not change significantly in their social responsibility attitudes, but 23 % decreased and 20 % increased. The students who increased, decreased, or remained the same in their social responsibility attitudes over time did not differ significantly in terms of gender, academic rank, or major. Some differences were found between institutions. Students who decreased in social responsibility initially possessed more positive social responsibility attitudes, were less likely to indicate that college courses impacted their views of social responsibility, and were more likely to have decreased in the frequency that they participated in volunteer activities, compared to students who did not change or increased their social responsibility. Although the large percentage of engineering students who decreased their social responsibility during college was disappointing, it is encouraging that courses and participation in volunteer activities may combat this trend.

Towards breaking the silence between the two cultures: Engineering and the other humanities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Prausnitz, John M.

2003-01-01

Over the years, I have attended numerous meetings like this one at the Center for the Study of Higher Education. I have noticed that most of the attendees, and certainly the speakers, tend to come from the social sciences or humanities. Only rarely do I see anyone here from Berkeley's College of Chemistry or College of Engineering. I come from the College of Chemistry that includes Berkeley's Department of Chemical Engineering. I mention this background to indicate that my remarks here are necessarily less abstract, less theoretical and less philosophical than those of most previous seminar speakers. My remarks aremore » probably somewhat simplistic because, as a result of my engineering background, I tend to focus less on generalities and principles, giving more attention to possible solutions of limited practical problems. About seven weeks ago, I was invited to attend a conference sponsored by the Berlin Academy of Sciences where ''Sciences'' is not confined to natural sciences but includes also humanities and social sciences. The topic of the Conference was ''Sprachlosigkeit'', a German word that roughly translated means inability to speak. The subtitle was ''Silence Between the Disciplines''. The German universities are worried about the increasing gulf between what is often called ''the two cultures''. This gulf is a problem everywhere, including Berkeley, but it is my impression that it is much worse in Europe than in America. The International Conference in Berlin was attended by some big names including the presidents of the Humboldt University in Berlin, the University of Uppsala in Sweden and the Central European University of Budapest, as well as some distinguished academics from a variety of institutions including Harvard and Stanford, and the presidents of three major funding organizations: The Volkswagen Foundation, The German National Science Foundation and the Max Planck Society. The speakers were primarily from the humanities and social sciences but there also were two physicists, two biologists and one mathematician. I was the only speaker from Engineering. Following Karl Pister's generous invitation to present a seminar here, I would like to tell you in a severely revised form some of what I tried to say at the Conference in Berlin. When talking to colleagues in the Humanities and Social Sciences, one of my most difficult tasks is to persuade them that those who practice science and engineering are not confined to cold logic and bloodless experiments but that instead, science and engineering is a human enterprise, subject to all the paradoxes, inconsistencies and aesthetic judgments that characterize the human condition. When scientists and engineers are at their best, they suffer the same frustrations, self-doubt, and delights common to artists or novelists or literary critics, or to anyone who creates to extend knowledge and awareness. Like all other members of a university, scientists and engineers strive to make a better world; in participating in this common activity, they necessarily operate within the borders set by our common human nature. I stress this common activity and this common purpose because ultimately, it is this commonality that provides the only sound basis for overcoming the alienation, this Sprachlosigkeit, that under another name, is known as the silence between the cultures. I can best illustrate what I have just tried to say with a quotation and a cartoon. The quotation is a famous one, from Theodor Adorno: ''The most successful artistic creations are those that are lucky at their most dubious places''. Adorno was referring to painting, sculpture, literature and especially to music. However, what he said also holds for science and engineering. All students of history know that without occasional miracles, there would be little progress. Along with all the other humanities, sciences and engineering could not succeed without them. I would like to discuss three topics and again, I want to apologize for my simplistic views. (1) Two structural reasons that contribute to poor communication between disciplines. (2) Is Sprachlosigkeit necessarily bad? Why should we worry about it? (3) Some modest proposals that may facilitate communication across disciplinary boundaries with emphasis on the Bronowski Project for engineering students.« less

Engineering online and in-person social networks to sustain physical activity: application of a conceptual model.

PubMed

Rovniak, Liza S; Sallis, James F; Kraschnewski, Jennifer L; Sciamanna, Christopher N; Kiser, Elizabeth J; Ray, Chester A; Chinchilli, Vernon M; Ding, Ding; Matthews, Stephen A; Bopp, Melissa; George, Daniel R; Hovell, Melbourne F

2013-08-14

High rates of physical inactivity compromise the health status of populations globally. Social networks have been shown to influence physical activity (PA), but little is known about how best to engineer social networks to sustain PA. To improve procedures for building networks that shape PA as a normative behavior, there is a need for more specific hypotheses about how social variables influence PA. There is also a need to integrate concepts from network science with ecological concepts that often guide the design of in-person and electronically-mediated interventions. Therefore, this paper: (1) proposes a conceptual model that integrates principles from network science and ecology across in-person and electronically-mediated intervention modes; and (2) illustrates the application of this model to the design and evaluation of a social network intervention for PA. A conceptual model for engineering social networks was developed based on a scoping literature review of modifiable social influences on PA. The model guided the design of a cluster randomized controlled trial in which 308 sedentary adults were randomly assigned to three groups: WalkLink+: prompted and provided feedback on participants' online and in-person social-network interactions to expand networks for PA, plus provided evidence-based online walking program and weekly walking tips; WalkLink: evidence-based online walking program and weekly tips only; Minimal Treatment Control: weekly tips only. The effects of these treatment conditions were assessed at baseline, post-program, and 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome was accelerometer-measured PA. Secondary outcomes included objectively-measured aerobic fitness, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, and neighborhood walkability; and self-reported measures of the physical environment, social network environment, and social network interactions. The differential effects of the three treatment conditions on primary and secondary outcomes will be analyzed using general linear modeling (GLM), or generalized linear modeling if the assumptions for GLM cannot be met. Results will contribute to greater understanding of how to conceptualize and implement social networks to support long-term PA. Establishing social networks for PA across multiple life settings could contribute to cultural norms that sustain active living. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01142804.

The Humanistic Side of Engineering: Considering Social Science and Humanities Dimensions of Engineering in Education and Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hynes, Morgan; Swenson, Jessica

2013-01-01

Mathematics and science knowledge/skills are most commonly associated with engineering's pre-requisite knowledge. Our goals in this paper are to argue for a more systematic inclusion of social science and humanities knowledge in the introduction of engineering to K-12 students. As part of this argument, we present a construct for framing the…

An Introduction to Thermal-Fluid Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Warhaft, Zellman

1998-01-01

This text is the first to provide an integrated introduction to basic engineering topics and the social implications of engineering practice. Aimed at beginning engineering students, the book presents the basic ideas of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and combustion through a real-world engineering situation. It relates the engine to the atmosphere in which it moves and exhausts its waste products. The book also discusses the greenhouse effect and atmospheric inversions, and the social implications of engineering in a crowded world with increasing energy demands. Students in mechanical, civil, agricultural, environmental, aerospace, and chemical engineering will welcome this engaging, well-illustrated introduction to thermal-fluid engineering.

How Newcomers Learn the Social Norms of an Organization: A Case Study of the Socialization of Newly Hired Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korte, Russell F.

2009-01-01

Current scholarship views organizational socialization as a learning process that is primarily the responsibility of the newcomer. Yet recent learning research recognizes the importance of the social interactions in the learning process. This study investigated how newly hired engineers at a large manufacturing company learned job-related tasks…

How Social Networks Influence Female Students' Choices to Major in Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weinland, Kathryn Ann

2012-01-01

Scope and Method of Study: This study examined how social influence plays a part in female students' choices of college major, specifically engineering instead of science, technology, and math. Social influence may show itself through peers, family members, and teachers and may encompass resources under the umbrella of social capital. The…

Operationalizing Offensive Social Engineering for the Air Force

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-01

some concerns 2 of their members. The information was posted to a social networking site billing itself as military only but with no military ties. In...70 viii List of Figures Figure Page 1.1. Member Profile on a Social Networking Website [26] . . . . . . 3...Profile on a Social Networking Website [26] 1.3 Purpose Recognizing the advantages of social engineering and its current lack of incor- poration in the

Socialization Experiences Resulting from Engineering Teaching Assistantships at Purdue University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mena, Irene B.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the types of socialization experiences that result from engineering teaching assistantships. Using situated learning as the theoretical framework and phenomenology as the methodological framework, this study highlights the experiences of 28 engineering doctoral students who worked as…

Conflict Management in Collaborative Engineering Design: Basic Research in Fundamental Theory, Modeling Framework, and Computer Support for Collaborative Engineering Activities

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-01-01

behaviors are influenced by social interactions, and to how modern IT sys- tems should be designed to support these group technical activities. The...engineering disciplines to behavior, decision, psychology, organization, and the social sciences. “Conflict manage- ment activity in collaborative...Researchers instead began to search for an entirely new paradigm, starting from a theory in social science, to construct a conceptual framework to describe

How Newcomers Learn the Social Norms of an Organization: A Case Study of the Socialization of Newly Hired Engineers. Research Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korte, Russel

2009-01-01

Current scholarship views organizational socialization as a learning process that is primarily the responsibility of the newcomer. Yet recent learning research recognizes the importance of the social interactions in the learning process. This study investigated how newly hired engineers at a large manufacturing company learned job-related tasks…

Introduction to System Health Engineering and Management in Aerospace

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Stephen B.

2005-01-01

This paper provides a technical overview of Integrated System Health Engineering and Management (ISHEM). We define ISHEM as "the paper provides a techniques, and technologies used to design, analyze, build, verify, and operate a system to prevent faults and/or minimize their effects." This includes design and manufacturing techniques as well operational and managerial methods. ISHEM is not a "purely technical issue" as it also involves and must account for organizational, communicative, and cognitive f&ms of humans as social beings and as individuals. Thus the paper will discuss in more detail why all of these elements, h m the technical to the cognitive and social, are necessary to build dependable human-machine systems. The paper outlines a functional homework and architecture for ISHEM operations, describes the processes needed to implement ISHEM in the system life-cycle, and provides a theoretical framework to understand the relationship between the different aspects of the discipline. It then derives from these and the social and cognitive bases a set of design and operational principles for ISHEM.

Empathy among students in engineering programmes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rasoal, Chato; Danielsson, Henrik; Jungert, Tomas

2012-10-01

Engineers face challenges when they are to manage project groups and be leaders for organisations because such positions demand skills in social competence and empathy. Previous studies have shown that engineers have low degrees of social competence skills. In this study, the level of empathy as measured by the four subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, perspective taking, fantasy, empathic distress and empathic concern, among engineering students was compared to students in health care profession programmes. Participants were undergraduate students at Linköping University, 365 students from four different health care profession programmes and 115 students from two different engineering programmes. When the empathy measures were corrected for effects of sex, engineering students from one of the programmes had lower empathy than psychology and social worker students on the fantasy and perspective-taking subscales. These results raise questions regarding opportunities for engineering students to develop their empathic abilities. It is important that engineering students acquire both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills regarding empathy.

[Theories and methodologies of engineering designs on sustainable agricultural land consolidation project--a case study of Xuemeiyang land consolidation project in Changtai County, Fujian Province].

PubMed

Ye, Yanmei; Wu, Cifang; Cheng, Chengbiao; Qiu, Lingzhang; Huang, Shengyu; Zheng, Ruihui

2002-09-01

The concept and characteristics of engineering designs on sustainable agricultural land consolidation project were discussed in this paper. Principles, basic methods and procedures of engineering designs on agricultural land consolidation project were put forward, which were successfully adopted for designing agricultural land consolidation in Xuemeiyang region of Changtai County, including diversity designs of sustainable land use, engineering designs of soil improvement, roads, ditches, and drains for protecting existent animal environments, and design of ecological shelter-forests in farmland. Moreover, from sustainable economic, ecological and social points, the results of these engineering designs were evaluated based on fouteen important indexes. After carrying out these engineeringdesigns, the eco-environments and agricultural production conditions were significantly improved, and the farm income was increased in planned regions.

Global challenges as inspiration: a classroom strategy to foster social responsibility.

PubMed

Vanasupa, Linda; Slivovsky, Lynn; Chen, Katherine C

2006-04-01

Social responsibility is at the heart of the Engineer's Creed embodied in the pledge that we will dedicate [our] professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and betterment of human welfare... [placing] public welfare above all other considerations. However, half century after the original creed was written, we find ourselves in a world with great technological advances and great global-scale technologically-enabled peril. These issues can be naturally integrated into the engineering curriculum in a way that enhances the development of the technological skill set. We have found that these global challenges create a natural opportunity to foster social responsibility within the engineering students whom we educate. In freshman through senior-level materials engineering courses, we used five guiding principles to shape several different classroom activities and assignments. Upon testing an initial cohort of 28 students had classroom experiences based on these five principles, we saw a shift in attitude: before the experience, 18% of the cohort viewed engineers as playing an active role in solving global problems; after the experiences, 79% recognized the engineer's role in solving global-scale problems. In this paper, we present how global issues can be used to stimulate thinking for socially-responsible engineering solutions. We set forth five guiding principles that can foster the mindset for socially responsible actions along with examples of how these principles translate into classroom activities.

Motivating First-Year University Students by Interdisciplinary Study Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koch, Franziska D.; Dirsch-Weigand, Andrea; Awolin, Malte; Pinkelman, Rebecca J.; Hampe, Manfred J.

2017-01-01

In order to increase student commitment from the beginning of students' university careers, the Technische Universität Darmstadt has introduced interdisciplinary study projects involving first-year students from the engineering, natural, social and history, economics and/or human sciences departments. The didactic concept includes sophisticated…

Collegiality and commerce: The culture of consideration amongst engineers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nugent, Paul David

This study is a participant observation ethnography of engineering relationships at a defense contracting plant that specializes in the design and manufacture of launch control systems for nuclear submarines. "Consideration" is presented as a unique mode of interaction enabling resource exchange and pivotal in developing and strengthening work relationships. Consideration differs from other modes of exchange such as markets, gift-giving, and charity primarily in that the bestowal of the resource involves little sacrifice. The manner in which consideration is enacted by the engineers, the structural and cultural conditions supporting consideration, and the social and economic consequences of consideration are presented. From these findings it is concluded that consideration is a unique form of economic exchange embedded in concrete relationships that forces us to rethink and extend current conceptualizations of trust, networks, social capital, and friendship in the workplace. The data for the analysis were drawn from twenty interviews and fieldnotes collected and transcribed over a twelve month period. Quotations from the interviews and exerpts from the fieldnotes are included to illustrate claims being made in the analysis as well as to familiarize the reader with the culture developed by engineers and managers in a defense contracting plant.

Empathy among Students in Engineering Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasoal, Chato; Danielsson, Henrik; Jungert, Tomas

2012-01-01

Engineers face challenges when they are to manage project groups and be leaders for organisations because such positions demand skills in social competence and empathy. Previous studies have shown that engineers have low degrees of social competence skills. In this study, the level of empathy as measured by the four subscales of the Interpersonal…

Social Dimension of Web 2.0 in Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahrens, Andreas; Zascerinska, Jelena

2010-01-01

Contemporary engineers need to become more cognizant and more responsive to the emerging needs of the market for engineering and technology services. Social dimension of Web 2.0 which penetrates our society more thoroughly with the availability of broadband services has the potential to contribute decisively to the sustainable development of…

Social Dimension of Web 2.0 in Engineering Education: Students' View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zascerinska, Jelena; Bassus, Olaf; Ahrens, Andreas

2010-01-01

Contemporary engineers need to become more cognizant and more responsive to the emerging needs of the market for engineering and technology services. Social dimension of Web 2.0 which penetrates our society more thoroughly with the availability of broadband services has the potential to contribute decisively to the sustainable development of…

An Examination of the Social Systems of Engineering Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawson, Errol

2006-01-01

In this article, the author describes his PhD thesis, titled "An examination of the social systems of engineering projects," which was transdisciplinary in that it drew from bodies of knowledge in domains of engineering, management, sociology, education and philosophy. The thesis drew together threads of the representation of real-world entities…

Engineering the Future: The Social Necessity of Communicative Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ravesteijn, Wim; De Graaff, Erik; Kroesen, Otto

2006-01-01

It is a long and winding road from invention to innovation. Starting from this observation, this paper presents a historical perspective on the capabilities engineers should possess to do their work. The importance of the "communicative competence" involved in creating a social base for innovation is underpinned. We will present a…

How to Address the Volitional Dimension of the Engineer's Social Responsibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heikkero, T.

2008-01-01

In this paper I argue that volitional aspects, i.e. ethos, attitude, pathos, will, underlying emotion, in engineering action need to be addressed when teaching social responsibility within the engineering curriculum. After presenting reasons for this claim, I look at two different, but not mutually exclusive, approaches to address volitional…

Intending to stay: Positive images, attitudes, and classroom experiences as influences on students' intentions to persist in science and engineering majors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyer, Mary Beth

2000-10-01

Contemporary research on persistence in undergraduate education in science and engineering has focused primarily on identifying the structural, social, and psychological barriers to participation by students in underrepresented groups. As a result, there is a wealth of data to document why students leave their majors, but there is little direct empirical data to support prevailing presumptions about why students stay. Moreover, researchers have used widely differing definitions and measures of persistence, and they have seldom explored field differences. This study compared three ways of measuring persistence. These constituted three criterion variables: commitment to major, degree aspirations, and commitment to a science/engineering career. The study emphasized social factors that encourage students to persist, including four predictor variables---(1) positive images of scientists/engineers, (2) positive attitudes toward gender and racial equality, (3) positive classroom experiences, and (4) high levels of social integration. In addition, because researchers have repeatedly documented the degree to which women are more likely than men to drop out of science and engineering majors, the study examined the potential impact of gender in relation to these predictor variables. A survey was administered in the classroom to a total of 285 students enrolled in a required course for either a biological sciences and or an engineering major. Predictor variables were developed from standard scales, including the Images of Science/Scientists Scale, the Attitudes toward Women Scale, the Women in Science Scale, and the Perceptions of Prejudice Scale. Based on logistic regression models, results indicate that positive images of scientists and engineers was significantly related to improving the odds of students having a high commitment to major, high degree aspirations, and high commitment to career. There was also evidence that positive attitudes toward gender and racial equality as well as positive classroom experiences improved the odds of students' having high degree aspirations. There was limited evidence to suggest the significance of gender in interaction with the predictor variables. There was tentative evidence that field differences may play a critical role in persistence. The study concludes on two points. The first is that gender may be a more important factor in explaining why some students leave their science and engineering majors than in explaining why others stay. The second is that research directed at improving diversity in science would benefit from discussion about the measures of persistence.

KSC-2013-3989

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-11-16

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the conference room of Operations Support Building II at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, social media participants listen to a briefing on future agency programs by Billy Stover, a NASA Commercial Crew Program Safety engineer. The social media participants gathered at the Florida spaceport for the launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft. Their visit included tours of key facilities and participating in presentations by key NASA leaders who updated the space agency's current efforts. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossman

Public goods and procreation.

PubMed

Anomaly, Jonathan

2014-01-01

Procreation is the ultimate public goods problem. Each new child affects the welfare of many other people, and some (but not all) children produce uncompensated value that future people will enjoy. This essay addresses challenges that arise if we think of procreation and parenting as public goods. These include whether individual choices are likely to lead to a socially desirable outcome, and whether changes in laws, social norms, or access to genetic engineering and embryo selection might improve the aggregate outcome of our reproductive choices.

Education in Marine Science and Technology--Historical and Current Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abel, Robert B.

This review of marine science and technology education and related issues was presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, December 27, 1967. Areas reviewed include manpower supply and demand, oceanography education history, oceanography and the social sciences, training of technicians, the ocean engineer, education for…

The People Unite: Learning Meaningful Civics Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pitts, Annette Boyd; Dziuban, Charles; Cornett, Jeffrey W.

2011-01-01

Throughout the world, today's students are being characterized as digital natives, the "net generation." This twenty-first-century student cohort is adept at multi-tasking and at using a variety of tools and resources including electronic search engines, blogs, wikis, visual images, videos, gaming platforms, and social networking.…

Article Booklet for the Eleventh Course by Newspaper Connections: Technology and Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burke, John G.; And Others

Controversies involving science, technology, and society are explored in 15 articles written by historians, social scientists, management consultants, engineers, and experts in the history of science. Technological development in an historical context is the central theme of the booklet. Major issues discussed include effects, preconditions, and…

Job Satisfaction of Academics: Reflections about Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bilge, Filiz; Akman, Yasemin; Kelecioglu, Hulya

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of academics' job satisfaction to intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as gender, age, marital status, seniority, academic status, position, area of work (science and engineering, social science), and presence or absence of academic experience abroad. Participants included 203 academics…

75 FR 21113 - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) Request for Grant Proposals: Community College...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-22

... business management and tourism and hospitality management. Faculty participants will be required to have... involved in the social and cultural life of their local U.S. communities: For example, making presentations...; Allied Health Fields, including Nursing; Applied Engineering; Information Technology; and Media. In...

Awareness of Malicious Social Engineering among Facebook Users

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slonka, Kevin J.

2014-01-01

With the rapid growth of Facebook, the social networking website is becoming a lucrative target for malicious activity. Users of Facebook therefore should be aware of various malicious attacks and know how to identify them. This research analyzed Facebook users' level of understanding in the domain of malicious social engineering on Facebook. The…

Social Cognitive Predictors of Adjustment to Engineering Majors across Gender and Race/Ethnicity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lent, Robert W.; Miller, Matthew J.; Smith, Paige E.; Watford, Bevlee A.; Lim, Robert H.; Hui, Kayi; Morrison, M. Ashley; Wilkins, Gregory; Williams, Kevin

2013-01-01

We tested a social cognitive model of academic adjustment in a sample of 1377 students enrolled in engineering schools at two predominantly White and two historically Black state universities. The model brought together central elements of social cognitive career theory's (SCCT) segmental models of educational/vocational satisfaction, interest,…

Understanding Latino Students' Sense of Belonging in Engineering: The Impact of Institutional Agents at one Predominantly White Institution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alva, Desiree D.

This study explores the ways in which institutional agents (i.e., faculty, staff, and advisors) influence Latino engineering students' sense of belonging at a predominantly White institution (PWI). Research (e.g., Museus, Palmer, Davis, & Maramba, 2011) has shown the struggles that Latino students face in pursuing higher education (e.g., culture shock, marginalization, financial barriers), as well as the obstacles that some of them face related to their undocumented status (e.g., out-of-state tuition, ineligibility for federal student aid) (Gildersleeve & Ranero, 2010; Gildersleeve, Rumann, & Mondragon, 2010). However, there is little to no empirical research that describes how successful Latino engineering students connect socially in order to feel a sense of belonging in competitive majors, such as engineering, at a PWI. To explore this phenomenon, this study addressed the following research questions: (a) How do Latino students describe their social connections with institutional agents? (b) According to Latino students, how have those social connections influenced their sense of belonging in engineering at a PWI? (c) How are the social connections and their influence on sense of belonging in engineering alike or different for Latinos who identify as undocumented? Using a qualitative case study design (i.e., on-site observations, interviews, and a constant comparative method), the social connections that seven Latino students made at one Midwestern university were explored in an effort to understand the influence that institutional agents had on their sense of belonging in engineering at a PWI. The findings revealed that while Latinos felt marginalized, they eventually felt a sense of belonging in engineering through developing their engineering identity with the support of institutional agents and peers. Further implications for theory, methodology, policy, and practice were also explored.

Developing the STS sound pollution unit for enhancing students' applying knowledge among science technology engineering and mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jumpatong, Sutthaya; Yuenyong, Chokchai

2018-01-01

STEM education suggested that students should be enhanced to learn science with integration between Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. To help Thai students make sense of relationship between Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, this paper presents learning activities of STS Sound Pollution. The developing of STS Sound Pollution is a part of research that aimed to enhance students' perception of the relationship between Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. This paper will discuss how to develop Sound Pollution through STS approach in framework of Yuenyong (2006) where learning activities were provided based on 5 stages. These included (1) identification of social issues, (2) identification of potential solutions, (3) need for knowledge, (4) decisionmaking, and (5) socialization stage. The learning activities could be highlighted as following. First stage, we use video clip of `Problem of people about Sound Pollution'. Second stage, students will need to identification of potential solutions by design Home/Factory without noisy. The need of scientific and other knowledge will be proposed for various alternative solutions. Third stage, students will gain their scientific knowledge through laboratory and demonstration of sound wave. Fourth stage, students have to make decision for the best solution of designing safety Home/Factory based on their scientific knowledge and others (e.g. mathematics, economics, art, value, and so on). Finally, students will present and share their Design Safety Home/Factory in society (e.g. social media or exhibition) in order to validate their ideas and redesigning. The paper, then, will discuss how those activities would allow students' applying knowledge of science technology engineering, mathematics and others (art, culture and value) for their possible solution of the STS issues.

The social nature of engineering and its implications for risk taking.

PubMed

Ross, Allison; Athanassoulis, Nafsika

2010-03-01

Making decisions with an, often significant, element of risk seems to be an integral part of many of the projects of the diverse profession of engineering. Whether it be decisions about the design of products, manufacturing processes, public works, or developing technological solutions to environmental, social and global problems, risk taking seems inherent to the profession. Despite this, little attention has been paid to the topic and specifically to how our understanding of engineering as a distinctive profession might affect how we should make decisions under risk. This paper seeks to remedy this, firstly by offering a nuanced account of risk and then by considering how specific claims about our understanding of engineering as a social profession, with corresponding social values and obligations, should inform how we make decisions about risk in this context.

Characteristics of Israeli women studying nursing compared to women studying education and engineering.

PubMed

Horn, H; Holzemer, W L

1991-11-01

This study examined the demographic characteristics, vocational personality, and sex-role orientation of Israeli women studying nursing compared to women studying education and engineering. The convenience sample was 176 university students. The instrument included a demographic inventory, Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) questionnaire, and the Sex-Role Orientation Attitude questionnaire. Nursing and education students had Holland's "social" personality types and engineering students were more "realistic" or "investigative". Nursing and engineering students were significantly more feminist in their orientation than education majors. Nursing students were nontraditional women who had traditional family backgrounds, yet were nontraditional in their feminist orientation. With nursing's move into colleges and universities, the need for academically qualified applicants has intensified. Developing a better understanding of the unique nature of nursing and nursing students is a challenge.

Engineering as a Social Activity: Preparing Engineers to Thrive in the Changing World of Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joyner, Fredricka F.; Mann, Derek T. Y.; Harris, Todd

2012-01-01

Key macro-trends are combining to create a new work context for the practice of engineering. Telecommuting and virtual teams create myriad possibilities and challenges related to managing work and workers. Social network technology tools allow for unprecedented global, 24/7 collaboration. Globalization has created hyper-diverse organizations,…

Socio-Psycho-Linguistic Determined Expert-Search System (SPLDESS) Development with Multimedia Illustration Elements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ponomarev, Vasily

SPLDESS development with the elements of a multimedia illustration of traditional hypertext search results by Internet search engine provides research of information propagation innovative effect during the public access information-recruiting networks of information kiosks formation at the experimental stage with the mirrors at the constantly updating portal for Internet users. Author of this publication put the emphasis on a condition of pertinent search engine results of the total answer by the user inquiries, that provide the politically correct and not usurping socially-network data mining effect at urgent monitoring. Development of the access by devices of the new communication types with the newest technologies of data transmission, multimedia and an information exchange from the first innovation line usage support portal is presented also (including the device of social-psycho-linguistic determination according the author's conception).

An Agent-Based Optimization Framework for Engineered Complex Adaptive Systems with Application to Demand Response in Electricity Markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haghnevis, Moeed

The main objective of this research is to develop an integrated method to study emergent behavior and consequences of evolution and adaptation in engineered complex adaptive systems (ECASs). A multi-layer conceptual framework and modeling approach including behavioral and structural aspects is provided to describe the structure of a class of engineered complex systems and predict their future adaptive patterns. The approach allows the examination of complexity in the structure and the behavior of components as a result of their connections and in relation to their environment. This research describes and uses the major differences of natural complex adaptive systems (CASs) with artificial/engineered CASs to build a framework and platform for ECAS. While this framework focuses on the critical factors of an engineered system, it also enables one to synthetically employ engineering and mathematical models to analyze and measure complexity in such systems. In this way concepts of complex systems science are adapted to management science and system of systems engineering. In particular an integrated consumer-based optimization and agent-based modeling (ABM) platform is presented that enables managers to predict and partially control patterns of behaviors in ECASs. Demonstrated on the U.S. electricity markets, ABM is integrated with normative and subjective decision behavior recommended by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The approach integrates social networks, social science, complexity theory, and diffusion theory. Furthermore, it has unique and significant contribution in exploring and representing concrete managerial insights for ECASs and offering new optimized actions and modeling paradigms in agent-based simulation.

Engineering online and in-person social networks to sustain physical activity: application of a conceptual model

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background High rates of physical inactivity compromise the health status of populations globally. Social networks have been shown to influence physical activity (PA), but little is known about how best to engineer social networks to sustain PA. To improve procedures for building networks that shape PA as a normative behavior, there is a need for more specific hypotheses about how social variables influence PA. There is also a need to integrate concepts from network science with ecological concepts that often guide the design of in-person and electronically-mediated interventions. Therefore, this paper: (1) proposes a conceptual model that integrates principles from network science and ecology across in-person and electronically-mediated intervention modes; and (2) illustrates the application of this model to the design and evaluation of a social network intervention for PA. Methods/Design A conceptual model for engineering social networks was developed based on a scoping literature review of modifiable social influences on PA. The model guided the design of a cluster randomized controlled trial in which 308 sedentary adults were randomly assigned to three groups: WalkLink+: prompted and provided feedback on participants’ online and in-person social-network interactions to expand networks for PA, plus provided evidence-based online walking program and weekly walking tips; WalkLink: evidence-based online walking program and weekly tips only; Minimal Treatment Control: weekly tips only. The effects of these treatment conditions were assessed at baseline, post-program, and 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome was accelerometer-measured PA. Secondary outcomes included objectively-measured aerobic fitness, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, and neighborhood walkability; and self-reported measures of the physical environment, social network environment, and social network interactions. The differential effects of the three treatment conditions on primary and secondary outcomes will be analyzed using general linear modeling (GLM), or generalized linear modeling if the assumptions for GLM cannot be met. Discussion Results will contribute to greater understanding of how to conceptualize and implement social networks to support long-term PA. Establishing social networks for PA across multiple life settings could contribute to cultural norms that sustain active living. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01142804 PMID:23945138

Building a Network to Support Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spears, Jacqueline D.; Dyer, Ruth A.; Franks, Suzanne E.; Montelone, Beth A.

Women today constitute over half of the U.S. population and almost half of its overall workforce, yet they make up less than a quarter of the science and engineering workforce. Many historical and social factors contribute to this discrepancy, and numerous individual, institutional, and governmental attempts have been made to redress it. However, many of the efforts to promote, include, and engage girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and professions have been made in isolation. At Kansas State University, the authors have begun a systemic effort to increase the participation of girls and women in STEM. This article describes the creation and initial activities of a network of partners that includes universities, school districts, corporations, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations, assembled under the aegis of a project supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.

Social Studies Versus Social Engineering: Values Education Reconsidered.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

English, Raymond

Public schools must conform to the changed mood of public opinion, which in the 1980s favors traditional education both academically and in morality and standards of behavior. The educational trends of the 1960s and 1970s were associated with sustained attempts to use the public schools as instruments of social engineering, that is, instruments to…

Dialogue on sustainable development as part of engineering education: the relevance of the Finnish case : commentary on "a national collaboration process: Finnish engineering education for the benefit of people and environment".

PubMed

Geerts, Robert

2013-12-01

Society invests in the education of engineers because it is expected that the works of engineers will bring good results for society. Because the work of engineers is not value free or neutral, it is important that engineers are educated in the important principles of the social sciences and humanities. This education is essential for the awareness and understanding of what is good for society. Therefore the concept of sustainable development should be part of an education in engineering but only when the social sciences are also a part of it.

Effects of Curriculum and Nonacademic Factors on Undergraduate Electronic Engineering Program Retention

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulaiman, Munir

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs in higher education institutions, particularly engineering programs, face challenges related to recruitment, retention, and graduation rates. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are significant relationships among students' major preference, academic skills, nonacademic characteristics and perceptions, and retention to year 2 among students in electronic engineering, other STEM, and non STEM majors. The academic skills considered were study habits, intellectual interest, verbal and writing confidence, and academic assistance. The non-academic factors included academic support, family support, financial support, and student social integration into the campus environment. Tinto's theory of retention served as the theoretical framework. The research design was quantitative with a general linear method of analysis using responses to the College Student Inventory (CSI) survey as secondary data to determine the relationships among the independent variables (major and academic and non-academic factors) and dependent variable (retention). Participants were 3,575 first year undergraduate full-time students from three entering classes, 2012 to 2014. Findings suggested that student major and non-academic factors had no effect on student retention, but student study habits and seeking academic assistance were predictors of retention in each of the three groups of majors: engineering, other STEM majors, and nonSTEM majors. Strategies to help increase undergraduate students' study skills and help seeking behaviors may contribute to positive social change at HBCU institutions.

Nursing and the Emergence of Egoless Care: A Discussion on Social Engineering in Mental Health.

PubMed

Schout, Gert; de Jong, Gideon

2018-02-01

The narrowing of the diverse fields of psychiatry to just the single dimension of the biomedical model has resulted in a situation where professions with a focus on curing (psychiatrists and psychologists) are favoured over those with a focus on caring and encouraging near communities to care for each other (nurses). The social engineering of mental problems leads to a state of helplessness. This paper contributes to an understanding of the barriers to utilise the social resources of people with mental health problems and argues for forms of "indirect social engineering" and "egoless care," and, ultimately, a rediscovery of nursing, using the mental health care in the Netherlands as a case study.

Social Cognitive Predictors of Academic Interests and Goals in Engineering: Utility for Women and Students at Historically Black Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lent, Robert W.; Brown, Steven D.; Sheu, Hung-Bin; Schmidt, Janet; Brenner, Bradley R.; Gloster, Clay S.; Wilkins, Gregory; Schmidt, Linda C.; Lyons, Heather

2005-01-01

This study examined the utility of social cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) in predicting engineering interests and major choice goals among women and men and among students at historically Black and predominantly White universities. Participants (487 students in introductory engineering courses at 3…

Training Social Competence in Engineering Education: Necessary, Possible or Not Even Desirable? An Explorative Study from a Surveying Education Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emilsson, U. Melin; Lilje, B.

2008-01-01

The aim of this paper is to discuss whether "social competence" is necessary for engineers to contribute to sustainable development and if it is, how to teach communication, group-processes and leadership in technical environments like engineering education programmes. The article reflects on a pedagogical project carried out in the…

Bridge to Persistence: Interactions with Educators as Social Capital for Latina/o Engineering Majors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dika, Sandra L.; Martin, Julie P.

2018-01-01

This study employs the notion of bridging social capital to investigate the extent to which different forms and quantity of interactions with educators predict intentions to persist in engineering among a sample of Latina/o engineering majors from five public 4-year institutions in the United States. Different forms of capital were effective for…

Differences in short-term memory span of social sciences, science and engineering, and business majors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Naeem Ullah

This study investigated the difference in the short-term memory span of students of three major groups, namely Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business. This study was designed to answer the following two questions: (1) Is there a difference between short-term memory span, measured by digit span, among the students in or intended for Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business majors? (2) Is there a difference of short-term memory span, measured by word span, among students in or intended for Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business majors? For answering these two questions, inferential and descriptive statistics were used. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the means of the scores of digit span and word span among the three major groups. The means of digit span and word span among the three groups were compared to find out if a statistically significant difference existed among them or not. The observations were recorded at the level of significance at alpha = .05, and highly significant at alpha = .01. The answer to the first question is yes. The results of this study showed a statistically significant difference in the means of the digit span of the three major groups of students in or intended for Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business. The mean scaled score for digit span was 12.88 for Social Sciences, 14.27 for Science and Engineering, and 15.33 for Business majors, respectively. The means of the free recalls word span of the three groups was 7.23 for Social Sciences, 7.89 for Science and Engineering, and 7.12 for Business majors, respectively. No significant difference was observed in the means of the word span of the three groups. In general observations, it is noted that students want to stay in the subjects or majors in which they can perform well or feel comfortable. In addition to this, students are screened in the school system due to levels of performance or selection pressure. Students' academic performances are dependent on their academic environment and on their inherited construct of short-term and long-term memory span. The use of the memory in certain majors, such as Science and Engineering and Business, are more demanding as compared to Social Science majors. For example, for Science and Engineering majors, students need to memorize complex structures and also need to keep larger information at a stretch in their short-term memory to incorporate it into incoming and outgoing information. Of the other memory related constructs, the present study examined only the short-term memory of the students of different majors, and it was found that the students of the Social Sciences had a shorter digit span as compared to the Science and Engineering and Business majors. Business major students had the largest digit span as compared to the Social Sciences and Science and Engineering majors. This supports the idea that memory construct plays a role in the selection of student majors.

Social Networking—Another Breach In The Wall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bamnote, Gajendra; Patil, Gajendra; Shejole, Amol

2010-11-01

With the increasing popularity of social networks like Facebook and MySpace, such sites have lately become the favourite destinations for spammers and attackers. Social networks have experienced complex social engineering attacks, massive spam and aggressive malware distribution in the recent past. This paper presents a practical case study of social engineering, malware distribution and phishing attacks against social networking sites that are identified over last few months. It is explained how private data of the users are exposed to attackers and how easily their privacy is compromised as a result of these attacks and their own careless behaviour.

Changing College Majors: Does It Happen More in STEM and Do Grades Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Barbara

2015-01-01

This study examines the within-field persistence rates of physical science/engineering (PS/E) students compared with those of students in life science, business, social science, education, and humanities. The data are drawn from a nationally representative sample of college matriculates and include students' high school and college transcript…

Recruiting Talent: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Graduates the First Participants in its Research Scholars Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lords, Erik

2001-01-01

Describes the Minority Research Scholars Program (MRSP) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, which funds the education of a group of minority students in seven disciplines: science, engineering and technology, social work, nursing, dental hygiene, physical education, and allied health. The program includes research projects,…

Implementing a High School Level Geospatial Technologies and Spatial Thinking Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Curtis P.; Oberle, Alex; Sugumaran, Ramanathan

2011-01-01

Understanding geospatial technologies (GSTs) and spatial thinking is increasingly vital to contemporary life including common activities and hobbies; learning in science, mathematics, and social science; and employment within fields as diverse as engineering, health, business, and planning. As such, there is a need for a stand-alone K-12…

Engineering Knowledge and Student Development: An Institutional and Pedagogical Critique of Engineering Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Xiaofeng

Educators have recommended the integration of engineering and the liberal arts as a promising educational model to prepare young engineers for global economic, environmental, sociotechnical, and ethical challenges. Drawing upon philosophy of technology, engineering studies, and educational psychology, this dissertation examines diverse visions and strategies for integrating engineering and liberal education and explores their impacts on students' intellectual and moral development. Based on archival research, interviews, and participant observation, the dissertation presents in-depth case studies of three educational initiatives that seek to blend engineering with the humanities, social sciences, and arts: Harvey Mudd College, the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, and the Programs in Design and Innovation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The research finds that learning engineering in a liberal arts context increases students' sense of "owning" their education and contributes to their communication, teamwork, and other non-technical professional skills. In addition, opportunities for extensive liberal arts learning in the three cases encourage some students to pursue alternative, less technocentric approaches to engineering. Nevertheless, the case studies suggest that the epistemological differences between the engineering and liberal arts instructors help maintain a technical/social dualism among most students. Furthermore, the dissertation argues a "hidden curriculum," which reinforces the dominant ideology in the engineering profession, persists in the integrated programs and prevents the students from reflecting on the broad social context of engineering and critically examining the assumptions upheld in the engineering profession.

Evaluation of Social Competencies in Chemical Engineering: Application and Results of the Pilot Test (Academic Year 2012-2013)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grande, Francisco José Suñé; Witt, Hans Jörg; Avalos, Josep Bonet

2015-01-01

The Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria Química has a long tradition in the deployment of social competencies in engineering curricula through Integrated Projects (IP) carried out in structured teams. Social competencies are taught and practiced during the development of the IPs. We conceptually introduce a methodology for a 360 degrees…

Influence of Social Cognitive and Ethnic Variables on Academic Goals of Underrepresented Students in Science and Engineering: A Multiple-Groups Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byars-Winston, Angela; Estrada, Yannine; Howard, Christina; Davis, Dalelia; Zalapa, Juan

2010-01-01

In this study we investigated the academic interests and goals of 223 African American, Latino/a, Southeast Asian, and Native American undergraduate students in 2 groups: biological science (BIO) and engineering (ENG) majors. Using social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), we examined the relationships of social cognitive…

How Do Teachers Prepare for and Respond to Students' Evoked Emotions When Addressing Real Social Inequalities through Engineering Activities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Alberto J.

2017-01-01

Making engineering and science culturally and socially relevant requires teachers to have broader content knowledge and an increased repertoire of pedagogical skills. One aspect of being an effective and culturally inclusive teacher that is seldom discussed is the ability to engage with the emotions associated with working for social justice. In…

How Should We Foster the Professional Integrity of Engineers in Japan? A Pride-Based Approach

PubMed Central

2007-01-01

I discuss the predicament that engineering-ethics education in Japan now faces and propose a solution to this. The predicament is professional motivation, i.e., the problem of how to motivate engineering students to maintain their professional integrity. The special professional responsibilities of engineers are often explained either as an implicit social contract between the profession and society (the “social-contract” view), or as requirements for membership in the profession (the “membership-requirement” view). However, there are empirical data that suggest that such views will not do in Japan, and this is the predicament that confronts us. In this country, the profession of engineering did not exist 10 years ago and is still quite underdeveloped. Engineers in this country do not have privileges, high income, or high social status. Under such conditions, neither the social-contract view nor the membership-requirement view is convincing. As an alternative approach that might work in Japan, I propose a pride-based view. The notion of pride has been analyzed in the virtue-ethics literature, but the full potential of this notion has not been explored. Unlike other kinds of pride, professional pride can directly benefit the general public by motivating engineers to do excellent work even without social rewards, since being proud of themselves is already a reward. My proposal is to foster a particular kind of professional pride associated with the importance of professional services in society, as the motivational basis for professional integrity. There is evidence to suggest that this model works. PMID:18000761

How should we foster the professional integrity of engineers in Japan? A pride-based approach.

PubMed

Iseda, Tetsuji

2008-06-01

I discuss the predicament that engineering-ethics education in Japan now faces and propose a solution to this. The predicament is professional motivation, i.e., the problem of how to motivate engineering students to maintain their professional integrity. The special professional responsibilities of engineers are often explained either as an implicit social contract between the profession and society (the "social-contract" view), or as requirements for membership in the profession (the "membership-requirement" view). However, there are empirical data that suggest that such views will not do in Japan, and this is the predicament that confronts us. In this country, the profession of engineering did not exist 10 years ago and is still quite underdeveloped. Engineers in this country do not have privileges, high income, or high social status. Under such conditions, neither the social-contract view nor the membership-requirement view is convincing. As an alternative approach that might work in Japan, I propose a pride-based view. The notion of pride has been analyzed in the virtue-ethics literature, but the full potential of this notion has not been explored. Unlike other kinds of pride, professional pride can directly benefit the general public by motivating engineers to do excellent work even without social rewards, since being proud of themselves is already a reward. My proposal is to foster a particular kind of professional pride associated with the importance of professional services in society, as the motivational basis for professional integrity. There is evidence to suggest that this model works.

Unstable identity compatibility: how gender rejection sensitivity undermines the success of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

PubMed

Ahlqvist, Sheana; London, Bonita; Rosenthal, Lisa

2013-09-01

Although the perceived compatibility between one's gender and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) identities (gender-STEM compatibility) has been linked to women's success in STEM fields, no work to date has examined how the stability of identity over time contributes to subjective and objective STEM success. In the present study, 146 undergraduate female STEM majors rated their gender-STEM compatibility weekly during their freshman spring semester. STEM women higher in gender rejection sensitivity, or gender RS, a social-cognitive measure assessing the tendency to perceive social-identity threat, experienced larger fluctuations in gender-STEM compatibility across their second semester of college. Fluctuations in compatibility predicted impaired outcomes the following school year, including lower STEM engagement and lower academic performance in STEM (but not non-STEM) classes, and significantly mediated the relationship between gender RS and STEM engagement and achievement in the 2nd year of college. The week-to-week changes in gender-STEM compatibility occurred in response to negative academic (but not social) experiences.

Incorporating Social System Dynamics into the Food-Energy-Water System Resilience-Sustainability Modeling Process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Givens, J.; Padowski, J.; Malek, K.; Guzman, C.; Boll, J.; Adam, J. C.; Witinok-Huber, R.

2017-12-01

In the face of climate change and multi-scalar governance objectives, achieving resilience of food-energy-water (FEW) systems requires interdisciplinary approaches. Through coordinated modeling and management efforts, we study "Innovations in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (INFEWS)" through a case-study in the Columbia River Basin. Previous research on FEW system management and resilience includes some attention to social dynamics (e.g., economic, governance); however, more research is needed to better address social science perspectives. Decisions ultimately taken in this river basin would occur among stakeholders encompassing various institutional power structures including multiple U.S. states, tribal lands, and sovereign nations. The social science lens draws attention to the incompatibility between the engineering definition of resilience (i.e., return to equilibrium or a singular stable state) and the ecological and social system realities, more explicit in the ecological interpretation of resilience (i.e., the ability of a system to move into a different, possibly more resilient state). Social science perspectives include but are not limited to differing views on resilience as normative, system persistence versus transformation, and system boundary issues. To expand understanding of resilience and objectives for complex and dynamic systems, concepts related to inequality, heterogeneity, power, agency, trust, values, culture, history, conflict, and system feedbacks must be more tightly integrated into FEW research. We identify gaps in knowledge and data, and the value and complexity of incorporating social components and processes into systems models. We posit that socio-biophysical system resilience modeling would address important complex, dynamic social relationships, including non-linear dynamics of social interactions, to offer an improved understanding of sustainable management in FEW systems. Conceptual modeling that is presented in our study, represents a starting point for a continued research agenda that incorporates social dynamics into FEW system resilience and management.

Developing Sustainable Urban Water-Energy Infrastructures: Applying a Multi-Sectoral Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems (SEIS) Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramaswami, A.

2016-12-01

Urban infrastructure - broadly defined to include the systems that provide water, energy, food, shelter, transportation-communication, sanitation and green/public spaces in cities - have tremendous impact on the environment and on human well-being (Ramaswami et al., 2016; Ramaswami et al., 2012). Aggregated globally, these sectors contribute 90% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 96% of global water withdrawals. Urban infrastructure contributions to such impacts are beginning to dominate. Cities are therefore becoming the action arena for infrastructure transformations that can achieve high levels of service delivery while reducing environmental impacts and enhancing human well-being. Achieving sustainable urban infrastructure transitions requires: information about the engineered infrastructure, and its interaction with the natural (ecological-environmental) and the social sub-systems In this paper, we apply a multi-sector, multi-scalar Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems framework that describes the interactions among biophysical engineered infrastructures, the natural environment and the social system in a systems-approach to inform urban infrastructure transformations. We apply the SEIS framework to inform water and energy sector transformations in cities to achieve environmental and human health benefits realized at multiple scales - local, regional and global. Local scales address pollution, health, wellbeing and inequity within the city; regional scales address regional pollution, scarcity, as well as supply risks in the water-energy sectors; global impacts include greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts. Different actors shape infrastructure transitions including households, businesses, and policy actors. We describe the development of novel cross-sectoral strategies at the water-energy nexus in cities, focusing on water, waste and energy sectors, in a case study of Delhi, India. Ramaswami, A.; Russell, A.G.; Culligan, P.J.; Sharma, K.R.; Kumar, E. (2016). Meta-Principles for developing smart, sustainable, and healthy cities, Science, 352(6288), 940-3. Ramaswami, A., et al. A Social-Ecological Infrastructural Systems Framework for Inter-Disciplinary Study of Sustainable City-Systems. J. Ind Ecol, 16(6): 801-813, 2012.

Studies on behaviour of information to extract the meaning behind the behaviour

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasution, M. K. M.; Syah, R.; Elveny, M.

2017-01-01

Web as social media can be used as a reference for determining social behaviour. However, the information extraction involves a search engine is not easy to give that picture. There are several properties of the search engine to be formally disclosed to provide assurance that the information is feasible. Although quite a lot of research that has revealed the interest of the Web as social media, but a few of them that have revealed behaviour of information related to social behaviour. In this case, it needs the formal steps to present possibilities related properties. There are 12 properties that are interconnected as behaviour of information and then it reveals several meanings based on the simulation results of any search engine.

Principles of Sociology in Systems Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Michael D.; Andrews, James G.; Larsen, Jordan A.

2017-01-01

Systems engineering involves both the integration of the system and the integration of the disciplines which develop and operate the system. Integrating the disciplines is a sociological effort to bring together different groups, often with different terminology, to achieve a common goal, the system. The focus for the systems engineer is information flow through the organization, between the disciplines, to ensure the system is developed and operated with all relevant information informing system decisions. Robert K. Merton studied the sociological principles of the sciences and the sociological principles he developed apply to systems engineering. Concepts such as specification of ignorance, common terminology, opportunity structures, role-sets, and the reclama (reconsideration) process are all important sociological approaches that should be employed by the systems engineer. In bringing the disciplines together, the systems engineer must also be wary of social ambivalence, social anomie, social dysfunction, insider-outsider behavior, unintended consequences, and the self-fulfilling prophecy. These sociological principles provide the systems engineer with key approaches to manage the information flow through the organization as the disciplines are integrated and share their information. This also helps identify key sociological barriers to information flow through the organization. This paper will discuss this theoretical basis for the application of sociological principles to systems engineering.

The Meaning of Money in the Socialization of Science and Engineering Doctoral Students: Nurturing the Next Generation of Academic Capitalists?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szelenyi, Katalin

2013-01-01

Based on ethnographic interviews with 48 doctoral students and 22 faculty members in science and engineering, this study examines the ways in which doctoral students and faculty make market, symbolic, and social meaning of the presence or absence of money in doctoral student socialization and of funding from governmental and industrial sources.…

Social media networking: YouTube and search engine optimization.

PubMed

Jackson, Rem; Schneider, Andrew; Baum, Neil

2011-01-01

This is the third part of a three-part article on social media networking. This installment will focus on YouTube and search engine optimization. This article will explore the application of YouTube to the medical practice and how YouTube can help a practice retain its existing patients and attract new patients to the practice. The article will also describe the importance of search engine optimization and how to make your content appear on the first page of the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and YouTube.

Effects of globalisation on higher engineering education in Germany - current and future demands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morace, Christophe; May, Dominik; Terkowsky, Claudius; Reynet, Olivier

2017-03-01

Germany is well known around the world for the strength of its economy, its industry and for the 'German model' for higher engineering education based on developing technological skills at a very high level. In this article, we firstly describe the former and present model of engineering education in Germany in a context of the globalisation of the world economy and of higher education, in order to understand how it covers the current demand for engineering resources. Secondly, we analyse the impact of globalisation from a technological perspective. To this end, we describe initiatives for innovation driven by the German federal government and engineering societies, and summarise the first impacts on engineering education and on social competence for engineers. Thirdly, we explore to what extent engineering education in Germany trains engineers in social and intercultural competency to comply with the future demands of the challenge of globalisation.

Improving therapeutic outcomes in autism spectrum disorders: Enhancing social communication and sensory processing through the use of interactive robots.

PubMed

Sartorato, Felippe; Przybylowski, Leon; Sarko, Diana K

2017-07-01

For children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), social robots are increasingly utilized as therapeutic tools in order to enhance social skills and communication. Robots have been shown to generate a number of social and behavioral benefits in children with ASD including heightened engagement, increased attention, and decreased social anxiety. Although social robots appear to be effective social reinforcement tools in assistive therapies, the perceptual mechanism underlying these benefits remains unknown. To date, social robot studies have primarily relied on expertise in fields such as engineering and clinical psychology, with measures of social robot efficacy principally limited to qualitative observational assessments of children's interactions with robots. In this review, we examine a range of socially interactive robots that currently have the most widespread use as well as the utility of these robots and their therapeutic effects. In addition, given that social interactions rely on audiovisual communication, we discuss how enhanced sensory processing and integration of robotic social cues may underlie the perceptual and behavioral benefits that social robots confer. Although overall multisensory processing (including audiovisual integration) is impaired in individuals with ASD, social robot interactions may provide therapeutic benefits by allowing audiovisual social cues to be experienced through a simplified version of a human interaction. By applying systems neuroscience tools to identify, analyze, and extend the multisensory perceptual substrates that may underlie the therapeutic benefits of social robots, future studies have the potential to strengthen the clinical utility of social robots for individuals with ASD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chinese engineering students' cross-cultural adaptation in graduate school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Xinquan

This study explores cross-cultural adaptation experience of Chinese engineering students in the U.S. I interact with 10 Chinese doctoral students in engineering from a public research university through in-depth interviews to describe (1) their perceptions of and responses to key challenges they encountered in graduate school, (2) their perspectives on the challenges that stem from cross-cultural differences, and (3) their conceptualization of cross-cultural adaptation in the context of graduate school. My findings reveal that the major challenges participants encounter during graduate school are academic issues related to cultural differences and difficulties of crossing cultural boundaries and integrating into the university community. These challenges include finding motivation for doctoral study, becoming an independent learner, building a close relationship with faculty, interacting and forming relationships with American people, and gaining social recognition and support. The engineering students in this study believe they are less successful in their social integration than they are in accomplishing academic goals, mainly because of their preoccupation with academics, language barriers and cultural differences. The presence of a large Chinese student community on campus has provided a sense of community and social support for these students, but it also contributes to diminishing their willingness and opportunities to interact with people of different cultural backgrounds. Depending on their needs and purposes, they have different insights into the meaning of cross-cultural adaptation and therefore, and choose different paths to establish themselves in a new environment. Overall, they agree that cross-cultural adaptation involves a process of re-establishing themselves in new academic, social, and cultural communities, and adaptation is necessary for their personal and professional advancement in the U.S. They also acknowledge that encountering and adjusting to cross-cultural challenges allow them to grow as a person and develop a new sense of self and identity, and negotiating cultural differences help them gain a deeper understanding of their own and other cultures. These findings offer insights into understanding the interconnections among international students' academic life, socialization, and cross-cultural adaptation.

Activist engineering: changing engineering practice by deploying praxis.

PubMed

Karwat, Darshan M A; Eagle, Walter E; Wooldridge, Margaret S; Princen, Thomas E

2015-02-01

In this paper, we reflect on current notions of engineering practice by examining some of the motives for engineered solutions to the problem of climate change. We draw on fields such as science and technology studies, the philosophy of technology, and environmental ethics to highlight how dominant notions of apoliticism and ahistoricity are ingrained in contemporary engineering practice. We argue that a solely technological response to climate change does not question the social, political, and cultural tenet of infinite material growth, one of the root causes of climate change. In response to the contemporary engineering practice, we define an activist engineer as someone who not only can provide specific engineered solutions, but who also steps back from their work and tackles the question, What is the real problem and does this problem "require" an engineering intervention? Solving complex problems like climate change requires radical cultural change, and a significant obstacle is educating engineers about how to conceive of and create "authentic alternatives," that is, solutions that differ from the paradigm of "technologically improving" our way out of problems. As a means to realize radically new solutions, we investigate how engineers might (re)deploy the concept of praxis, which raises awareness in engineers of the inherent politics of technological design. Praxis empowers engineers with a more comprehensive understanding of problems, and thus transforms technologies, when appropriate, into more socially just and ecologically sensitive interventions. Most importantly, praxis also raises a radical alternative rarely considered-not "engineering a solution." Activist engineering offers a contrasting method to contemporary engineering practice and leads toward social justice and ecological protection through problem solving by asking not, How will we technologize our way out of the problems we face? but instead, What really needs to be done?

Beyond Academic and Social Integration: Understanding the Impact of a STEM Enrichment Program on the Retention and Degree Attainment of Underrepresented Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Tonisha B.

2016-01-01

The current study used a case study methodological approach, including document analysis, semistructured interviews, and participant observations, to investigate how a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrichment program supported retention and degree attainment of underrepresented students at a large, public, predominantly…

Segregation in Residential Areas: Papers on Racial and Socioeconomic Factors in Choice of Housing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawley, Amos H., Ed.; Rock, Vincent P., Ed.

The papers included in this volume were originally prepared for the Social Science Panel brought together by the Division of Behavioral Sciences of the National Research Council at the request of the National Academy of Sciences--National Academy of Engineering's Advisory Committee to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The task of…

Distance Art Education: The Federal School and Social Engineering in the United States, 1900 to 1925

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Funk, Clayton

2009-01-01

The Federal School was a correspondence art school in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the early 20th century. At that time, scientific methods changed the organization and practice of commercial art training and industrial education, which included correspondence courses from the Federal School. Standards of intelligence were determined with…

Applied group theory applications in the engineering (physical, chemical, and medical), biological, social, and behavioral sciences and in the fine arts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borg, S. F.

1976-01-01

A generalized applied group theory is developed, and it is shown that phenomena from a number of diverse disciplines may be included under the umbrella of a single theoretical formulation based upon the concept of a group consistent with the usual definition of this term.

Social Class and the STEM Career Pipeline an Ethnographic Investigation of Opportunity Structures in a High-Poverty versus Affluent High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikischer, Andrea B.

2013-01-01

This research investigates science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) high school opportunity structures, including student experiences with math and science course sequences and progress, college guidance and counseling, and STEM extracurricular activities (Weis and Eisenhart, 2009), specifically related to STEM fields and career and…

English Proficiency and Admission and Graduation of Post-Secondary Students at a Puerto Rican University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alea, Jamie

2009-01-01

This dissertation has examined English proficiency as a mediating social factor within the occupational structure of Puerto Rico. It included an analysis of the educational records of 641 students majoring in industrial engineering, nursing, education and finance of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez from 1998-2000. The investigation…

Editors' overview perspectives on teaching social responsibility to students in science and engineering.

PubMed

Zandvoort, Henk; Børsen, Tom; Deneke, Michael; Bird, Stephanie J

2013-12-01

Global society is facing formidable current and future problems that threaten the prospects for justice and peace, sustainability, and the well-being of humanity both now and in the future. Many of these problems are related to science and technology and to how they function in the world. If the social responsibility of scientists and engineers implies a duty to safeguard or promote a peaceful, just and sustainable world society, then science and engineering education should empower students to fulfil this responsibility. The contributions to this special issue present European examples of teaching social responsibility to students in science and engineering, and provide examples and discussion of how this teaching can be promoted, and of obstacles that are encountered. Speaking generally, education aimed at preparing future scientists and engineers for social responsibility is presently very limited and seemingly insufficient in view of the enormous ethical and social problems that are associated with current science and technology. Although many social, political and professional organisations have expressed the need for the provision of teaching for social responsibility, important and persistent barriers stand in the way of its sustained development. What is needed are both bottom-up teaching initiatives from individuals or groups of academic teachers, and top-down support to secure appropriate embedding in the university. Often the latter is lacking or inadequate. Educational policies at the national or international level, such as the Bologna agreements in Europe, can be an opportunity for introducing teaching for social responsibility. However, frequently no or only limited positive effect of such policies can be discerned. Existing accreditation and evaluation mechanisms do not guarantee appropriate attention to teaching for social responsibility, because, in their current form, they provide no guarantee that the curricula pay sufficient attention to teaching goals that are desirable for society as a whole.

Re-Engineering Mexican Higher Education toward Economic Development and Quality. The XXI Century Challenge.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mungaray-Lagarda, Alejandro

2002-01-01

Explaining the Mexico has faced deep economic and social changes over the last decade, explores the changes or re-engineering needed in the country's higher education institutions to improve institutional efficiency through greater linkages with local economic and social development. (EV)

University Students' Knowledge and Attitude about Genetic Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bal, Senol; Samanci, Nilay Keskin; Bozkurt, Orçun

2007-01-01

Genetic engineering and biotechnology made possible of gene transfer without discriminating microorganism, plant, animal or human. However, although these scientific techniques have benefits, they cause arguments because of their ethical and social impacts. The arguments about ethical ad social impacts of biotechnology made clear that not only…

Reengineering Biomedical Translational Research with Engineering Ethics.

PubMed

Sunderland, Mary E; Nayak, Rahul Uday

2015-08-01

It is widely accepted that translational research practitioners need to acquire special skills and knowledge that will enable them to anticipate, analyze, and manage a range of ethical issues. While there is a small but growing literature that addresses the ethics of translational research, there is a dearth of scholarship regarding how this might apply to engineers. In this paper we examine engineers as key translators and argue that they are well positioned to ask transformative ethical questions. Asking engineers to both broaden and deepen their consideration of ethics in their work, however, requires a shift in the way ethics is often portrayed and perceived in science and engineering communities. Rather than interpreting ethics as a roadblock to the success of translational research, we suggest that engineers should be encouraged to ask questions about the socio-ethical dimensions of their work. This requires expanding the conceptual framework of engineering beyond its traditional focus on "how" and "what" questions to also include "why" and "who" questions to facilitate the gathering of normative, socially-situated information. Empowering engineers to ask "why" and "who" questions should spur the development of technologies and practices that contribute to improving health outcomes.

Using Web 2.0 Techniques in NASA's Ares Engineering Operations Network (AEON) Environment - First Impressions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scott, David W.

2010-01-01

The Mission Operations Laboratory (MOL) at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is responsible for Engineering Support capability for NASA s Ares rocket development and operations. In pursuit of this, MOL is building the Ares Engineering and Operations Network (AEON), a web-based portal to support and simplify two critical activities: Access and analyze Ares manufacturing, test, and flight performance data, with access to Shuttle data for comparison Establish and maintain collaborative communities within the Ares teams/subteams and with other projects, e.g., Space Shuttle, International Space Station (ISS). AEON seeks to provide a seamless interface to a) locally developed engineering applications and b) a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) collaborative environment that includes Web 2.0 capabilities, e.g., blogging, wikis, and social networking. This paper discusses how Web 2.0 might be applied to the typically conservative engineering support arena, based on feedback from Integration, Verification, and Validation (IV&V) testing and on searching for their use in similar environments.

Preparing engineers for the challenges of community engagement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harsh, Matthew; Bernstein, Michael J.; Wetmore, Jameson; Cozzens, Susan; Woodson, Thomas; Castillo, Rafael

2017-11-01

Despite calls to address global challenges through community engagement, engineers are not formally prepared to engage with communities. Little research has been done on means to address this 'engagement gap' in engineering education. We examine the efficacy of an intensive, two-day Community Engagement Workshop for engineers, designed to help engineers better look beyond technology, listen to and learn from people, and empower communities. We assessed the efficacy of the workshop in a non-experimental pre-post design using a questionnaire and a concept map. Questionnaire results indicate participants came away better able to ask questions more broadly inclusive of non-technological dimensions of engineering projects. Concept map results indicate participants have a greater understanding of ways social factors shape complex material systems after completing the programme. Based on the workshop's strengths and weaknesses, we discuss the potential of expanding and supplementing the programme to help engineers account for social aspects central to engineered systems.

Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers.

PubMed

Logel, Christine; Walton, Gregory M; Spencer, Steven J; Iserman, Emma C; von Hippel, William; Bell, Amy E

2009-06-01

Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person's many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women's performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women's underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women's performance in school and at work.

Several problems in regard to national land management

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dong Wenlang

1983-09-21

This article examines several problems with regard to land management in China. National land management is defined as development of the territorial land (including the earth's surface and underground), territorial waters and territorial air space under the jurisdiction of a sovereign country. The Chinese State Council established the Bureau of National Land Management in 1981. Areas of concern include natural resources, or land resources (including continental land, rivers and lakes, territorial waters and what is beneath the waters and the airspace above the waters, also the continental shelves), mineral resources and biological resources; social resources, which include human resources, intellectualmore » resources, social and cultural traditions, and the material and technical foundations of a society. Untapped resources of land, waters, forests, grasslands and minerals are to be developed through reclamation, mining, and engineering projects. Geography and national land economics are the theoretical and applied sciences directly related to national land management.« less

Transfer students in STEM majors at a Midwestern University: Academic and social involvement factors that influence student success

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez, Carlos

There is soon-to-be a shortage of qualified U.S. workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As a result, many science-related jobs are being filled by technically-skilled foreign workers. If the U.S wants to maintain its global economic leadership, then it must ensure a continuous growth of highly-trained individuals in STEM disciplines. Therefore, American institutions of higher education, including community colleges, must identify potential factors that contribute to the lack of interest in STEM majors, as well as the low rate of success of students who enter STEM majors but struggle to finish their degrees. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the perceptions of community college transfer students who are pursuing bachelor degrees in STEM majors at Iowa State University (ISU). What were their transfer experiences and what influenced their academic success in STEM. Participants were encouraged to share their transfer experiences while at the community college as well as their experiences on the ISU campus. They were also asked about their level of academic involvement, their relationships with faculty, and their participation in peer group activities prior to and after transferring. The research design included both quantitative and qualitative components, which provided an in-depth look at the experiences of STEM non-engineering and engineering students. Quantitative data include students' background characteristics, demographic information, and college activities at the community college and ISU. Qualitative data were used to illuminate students' overall transfer experience and their successful journey in STEM fields. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods allowed a better understanding of the strategies students put into practice once they transfer from a community college to a four-year institution in pursuit of a STEM bachelor's degree. The results of this study suggest that there is an association among the background characteristics, community college experiences, university experiences, and the overall adjustment and cumulative GPA of transfer students from STEM non-engineering and engineering majors. In addition, students reported how their early experiences in science and mathematics inspired them to pursue a career in STEM. Even though students chose to go into STEM areas at the community college and university level due to prior interest, the role of academic advisors and faculty were crucial to the adjustment process. Thus, it is vital for academic advisors and faculty to assist students in researching the transfer process to four-year institutions because students need to understand why this is essential to their academic and social adjustment process. The results indicate that it is important to encourage students to interact inside and outside the classroom with other students and instructors. Also, students should become more involved in academic and social groups since these are important factors in enhancing their academic and social adjustment.

Maine Tidal Power Initiative: Environmental Impact Protocols For Tidal Power

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peterson, Michael Leroy; Zydlewski, Gayle Barbin; Xue, Huijie

2014-02-02

The Maine Tidal Power Initiative (MTPI), an interdisciplinary group of engineers, biologists, oceanographers, and social scientists, has been conducting research to evaluate tidal energy resources and better understand the potential effects and impacts of marine hydro-kinetic (MHK) development on the environment and local community. Project efforts include: 1) resource assessment, 2) development of initial device design parameters using scale model tests, 3) baseline environmental studies and monitoring, and 4) human and community responses. This work included in-situ measurement of the environmental and social response to the pre-commercial Turbine Generator Unit (TGU®) developed by Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) as wellmore » as considering the path forward for smaller community scale projects.« less

Using social media to facilitate knowledge transfer in complex engineering environments: a primer for educators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Glen; Salomone, Sonia

2013-03-01

While highly cohesive groups are potentially advantageous they are also often correlated with the emergence of knowledge and information silos based around those same functional or occupational clusters. Consequently, an essential challenge for engineering organisations wishing to overcome informational silos is to implement mechanisms that facilitate, encourage and sustain interactions between otherwise disconnected groups. This paper acts as a primer for those seeking to gain an understanding of the design, functionality and utility of a suite of software tools generically termed social media technologies in the context of optimising the management of tacit engineering knowledge. Underpinned by knowledge management theory and using detailed case examples, this paper explores how social media technologies achieve such goals, allowing for the transfer of knowledge by tapping into the tacit and explicit knowledge of disparate groups in complex engineering environments.

Professional Socialization of Electrical Engineers in University Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keltikangas, Kirsti; Martinsuo, Miia

2009-01-01

University educators constantly seek ways in which courses and curricula would promote students' professional development in line with the needs of industries. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for analysing professional socialization particularly in the context of electrical engineering education and explore factors associated…

Introducing Ethical, Social and Environmental Issues in ICT Engineering Degrees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miñano, Rafael; Aller, Celia Fernández; Anguera, Áurea; Portillo, Eloy

2015-01-01

This paper describes the experience of introducing ethical, social and environmental issues in undergraduate ICT engineering degrees at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The experience before the Bologna Process was concentrated on developing elective courses related mainly on the field of the International Development Cooperation. The…

Sociotechnical Systems Design: An Engineering Program for Social-Science Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Howard L.; And Others

The University of Wisconsin College of Engineering's Sociotechnical Systems Design (STSD) Program, which was developed to provide social science students with systems concepts and basic technological skills necessary for attacking these problems, is considered. The need for such professionals, current educational responses, the organization of the…

Psycho-Social Determinants of Gender Prejudice in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nnachi, N. O.; Okpube, M. N.

2015-01-01

This work focused on the "Psycho-social Determinants of Gender Prejudice in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)". The females were found to be underrepresented in STEM fields. The under-representation results from gender stereotype, differences in spatial skills, hierarchical and territorial segregations and…

Preparing Engineers for Social Responsibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zandvoort, H.

2008-01-01

In this paper I introduce the contributions to a special section of the journal: one devoted to the question of how engineering curricula can or should contribute to the preparation of graduates for socially responsible decision making and conduct. The special section is motivated by the circumstance that, although there is broad agreement that…

Academic satisfaction among Latino/a and White men and women engineering students.

PubMed

Flores, Lisa Y; Navarro, Rachel L; Lee, Hang Shim; Addae, Dorothy A; Gonzalez, Rebecca; Luna, Laura L; Jacquez, Ricardo; Cooper, Sonya; Mitchell, Martha

2014-01-01

The current study tests a model of academic satisfaction in engineering based on Lent, Brown, and Hackett's (1994, 2000) social cognitive career theory among a sample of 527 engineering majors attending a Hispanic serving institution. The findings indicated that (a) an alternative bidirectional model fit the data for the full sample; (b) all of the hypothesized relations were significant for the full sample, except the path from engineering interests to goals; (c) social cognitive career theory predictors accounted for a significant amount of variance in engineering goals (26.6%) and academic satisfaction (45.1%); and (d) the model parameters did not vary across men and women or across Latino/a and White engineering undergraduate students. Implications for research and practice are discussed in relation to persistence in engineering among women and Latinos/as. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Data-Driven Engineering of Social Dynamics: Pattern Matching and Profit Maximization

PubMed Central

Peng, Huan-Kai; Lee, Hao-Chih; Pan, Jia-Yu; Marculescu, Radu

2016-01-01

In this paper, we define a new problem related to social media, namely, the data-driven engineering of social dynamics. More precisely, given a set of observations from the past, we aim at finding the best short-term intervention that can lead to predefined long-term outcomes. Toward this end, we propose a general formulation that covers two useful engineering tasks as special cases, namely, pattern matching and profit maximization. By incorporating a deep learning model, we derive a solution using convex relaxation and quadratic-programming transformation. Moreover, we propose a data-driven evaluation method in place of the expensive field experiments. Using a Twitter dataset, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our dynamics engineering approach for both pattern matching and profit maximization, and study the multifaceted interplay among several important factors of dynamics engineering, such as solution validity, pattern-matching accuracy, and intervention cost. Finally, the method we propose is general enough to work with multi-dimensional time series, so it can potentially be used in many other applications. PMID:26771830

Data-Driven Engineering of Social Dynamics: Pattern Matching and Profit Maximization.

PubMed

Peng, Huan-Kai; Lee, Hao-Chih; Pan, Jia-Yu; Marculescu, Radu

2016-01-01

In this paper, we define a new problem related to social media, namely, the data-driven engineering of social dynamics. More precisely, given a set of observations from the past, we aim at finding the best short-term intervention that can lead to predefined long-term outcomes. Toward this end, we propose a general formulation that covers two useful engineering tasks as special cases, namely, pattern matching and profit maximization. By incorporating a deep learning model, we derive a solution using convex relaxation and quadratic-programming transformation. Moreover, we propose a data-driven evaluation method in place of the expensive field experiments. Using a Twitter dataset, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our dynamics engineering approach for both pattern matching and profit maximization, and study the multifaceted interplay among several important factors of dynamics engineering, such as solution validity, pattern-matching accuracy, and intervention cost. Finally, the method we propose is general enough to work with multi-dimensional time series, so it can potentially be used in many other applications.

Piloting Telepresence-Enabled Education and Outreach Programs from a UNOLS Ship - Live Interactive Broadcasts from the R/V Endeavor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pereira, M.; Coleman, D.; Donovan, S.; Sanders, R.; Gingras, A.; DeCiccio, A.; Bilbo, E.

2016-02-01

The University of Rhode Island's R/V Endeavor was recently equipped with a new satellite telecommunication system and a telepresence system to enable live ship-to-shore broadcasts and remote user participation through the Inner Space Center. The Rhode Island Endeavor Program, which provides state-funded ship time to support local oceanographic research and education, funded a 5-day cruise off the Rhode Island coast that involved a multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, students, educators and video producers. Using two remotely operated vehicle (ROV) systems, several dives were conducted to explore various shipwrecks including the German WWII submarine U-853. During the cruise, a team of URI ocean engineers supported ROV operations and performed engineering tests of a new manipulator. Colleagues from the United States Coast Guard Academy operated a small ROV to collect imagery and environmental data around the wreck sites. Additionally, a team of engineers and oceanographers from URI tested a new acoustic sound source and small acoustic receivers developed for a fish tracking experiment. The video producers worked closely with the participating scientists, students and two high school science teachers to communicate the oceanographic research during live educational broadcasts streamed into Rhode Island classrooms, to the public Internet, and directly to Rhode Island Public Television. This work contributed to increasing awareness of possible career pathways for the Rhode Island K-12 population, taught about active oceanographic research projects, and engaged the public in scientific adventures at sea. The interactive nature of the broadcasts included live responses to questions submitted online and live updates and feedback using social media tools. This project characterizes the power of telepresence and video broadcasting to engage diverse learners and exemplifies innovative ways to utilize social media and the Internet to draw a varied audience.

Interdisciplinary Interactions During R&D and Early Design of Large Engineered Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGowan, Anna-Maria Rivas

2014-01-01

Designing Large-Scale Complex Engineered Systems (LaCES) such as aircraft and submarines requires the input of thousands of engineers and scientists whose work is proximate in neither time nor space. Comprehensive knowledge of the system is dispersed among specialists whose expertise is in typically one system component or discipline. This study examined the interactive work practices among such specialists seeking to improve engineering practice through a rigorous and theoretical understanding of current practice. This research explored current interdisciplinary practices and perspectives during R&D and early LaCES design and identified why these practices and perspectives prevail and persist. The research design consisted of a three-fold, integrative approach that combined an open-ended survey, semi-structured interviews, and ethnography. Significant empirical data from experienced engineers and scientists in a large engineering organization were obtained and integrated with theories from organization science and engineering. Qualitative analysis was used to obtain a holistic, contextualized understanding. The over-arching finding is that issues related to cognition, organization, and social interrelations mostly dominate interactions across disciplines. Engineering issues, such as the integration of hardware or physics-based models, are not as significant. For example, organization culture is an important underlying factor that guided researchers more toward individual sovereignty over cross-disciplinarity. The organization structure and the engineered system architecture also serve as constraints to the engineering work. Many differences in work practices were observed, including frequency and depth of interactions, definition or co-construction of requirements, clarity or creation of the system architecture, work group proximity, and cognitive challenges. Practitioners are often unaware of these differences resulting in confusion and incorrect assumptions regarding work expectations. Cognitively, the enactment and coconstruction of knowledge are the fundamental tasks of the interdisciplinary interactions. Distributed and collective cognition represent most of the efforts. Argument, ignorance, learning, and creativity are interrelated aspects of the interactions that cause discomfort but yield benefits such as problem mitigation, broader understanding, and improved system design and performance. The quality and quantity of social interrelations are central to all work across disciplines with reciprocity, respectful engagement, and heedful interrelations being significant to the effectiveness of the engineering and scientific work.

Energy self-sufficiency in Northampton, Massachusetts

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

The study is not an engineering analysis but begins the process of exploring the potential for conservation and local renewable-resource development in a specific community, Northampton, Massachusetts, with the social, institutional, and environmental factors in that community taken into account. Section I is an extensive executive summary of the full study, and Section II is a detailed examination of the potential for increased local energy self-sufficiency in Northampton, including current and future demand estimates, the possible role of conservation and renewable resources, and a discussion of the economic and social implications of alternative energy systems. (MOW)

MDO and Cross-Disciplinary Practice in R&D: A Portrait of Principles and Current Practice

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rivas McGowan, Anna-Maria; Papalambros, Panos Y.; Baker, Wayne E.

2014-01-01

For several decades, Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) has served an important role in aerospace engineering by incorporating physics based disciplinary models into integrated system or sub-system models for use in research, development, (R&D) and design. This paper examines MDO's role in facilitating the integration of the researchers from different single disciplines during R&D and early design of large-scale complex engineered systems (LaCES) such as aerospace systems. The findings in this paper are summarized from a larger study on interdisciplinary practices and perspectives that included considerable empirical data from surveys, interviews, and ethnography. The synthesized findings were derived by integrating the data with theories from organization science and engineering. The over-arching finding is that issues related to cognition, organization, and social interrelations mostly dominate interactions across disciplines. Engineering issues, such as the integration of hardware or physics-based models, are not as significant. Correspondingly, the data showed that MDO is not the primary integrator of researchers working across disciplines during R&D and early design of LaCES. Cognitive focus such as analysis versus design, organizational challenges such as incentives, and social opportunities such as personal networks often drove the human interactive practices among researchers from different disciplines. Facilitation of the inherent confusion, argument, and learning in crossdisciplinary research was identified as one of several needed elements of enabling successful research across disciplines.

'can i get your Email': Gender, Networking and Social Capital in AN Undergraduate Bioengineering Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erickson, Shelley K.

Based on observations and interviews, this article explores how female and male biomedical engineering students network and generate social capital (who one knows) in an undergraduate classroom. Stark differences were observed between female and male students and their interactions with a series of guest lecturers. Although women engineering students may be differentially affected by how they raise their social capital, this study does not suggest that women engineering students are wholly incapable of raising their social capital. Rather, a disconnect occurs between the student population receiving information about networking and women students acting on informal and spontaneous opportunities as they arise. Institutional and departmental support (i.e., internship programs and discussion in the classroom and at orientation) appears to favor those who rely on more formal means of networking.

Commonwealth of Independent States aerospace science and technology, 1992: A bibliography with indexes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

This bibliography contains 1237 annotated references to reports and journal articles of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) intellectual origin entered into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during 1992. Representative subject areas include the following: aeronautics, astronautics, chemistry and materials, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, physics, social sciences, and space sciences.

The ethics of clinical research and the conduct of clinical drug trials: international comparisons and codes of conduct.

PubMed

Beran, R G

2000-01-01

Human research must respect most rigorous ethical standards to protect both the investigators and subjects. Codes of ethical practice relevant to such research are subjected to reviews around the world including The European Union (EU), the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement (including the Medical Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council), the Finnish Parliament Research Act (April 1999) and the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans in accordance with the NHMRC Act 1992 (Cth) from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. The Australian Statement was endorsed by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, the Australian Research Council, the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and supported by the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. This reflects the extensive ramifications of human experimentation and the range of stack holders. Private organisations have also produced interpretations of minimum standards of good clinical practice. The paper that follows analyses approaches to human experimentation and the minimal ethical expectations in the conduct of such research.

[Opinions of a group of university students about science and technology].

PubMed

Lisker, Rubén; Carnevale, Alessandra; Pérez Vera, Patricia; Betancourt, Miguel

2002-01-01

To learn the opinions of university students of four different areas on the impact of science and technology on society. One Hundred and sixty three close to graduate students of the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana campus Iztapalapa, distributed as follows: Administration 59, Biology 50, Social Sciences 36 and Engineering 18. For the survey we translated into spanish part of a questionnaire employed in several countries to explore ideas on the impact of science and technology on society of several groups. It contained general questions such as. Do you believe that science and technology are equally good or bad to society, or degree of knowledge of several technologies such as computation or in vitro fertilization. It includes also more specific questions, such as would your have problems with the use of genetically modified vegetables? The results suggested that Administration and Social Sciences students had less interest in Science and Technology than the other, and that in general, the knowledge of all students is rather limited including biotechnology, genetic enginering and gene therapy. We compared the results with those obtained previously in a group of Mexican Physicians and Biology students from India, Thailand and Singapor.

The good engineer: giving virtue its due in engineering ethics.

PubMed

Harris, Charles E

2008-06-01

During the past few decades, engineering ethics has been oriented towards protecting the public from professional misconduct by engineers and from the harmful effects of technology. This "preventive ethics" project has been accomplished primarily by means of the promulgation of negative rules. However, some aspects of engineering professionalism, such as (1) sensitivity to risk (2) awareness of the social context of technology, (3) respect for nature, and (4) commitment to the public good, cannot be adequately accounted for in terms of rules, certainly not negative rules. Virtue ethics is a more appropriate vehicle for expressing these aspects of engineering professionalism. Some of the unique features of virtue ethics are the greater place it gives for discretion and judgment and also for inner motivation and commitment. Four of the many professional virtues that are important for engineers correspond to the four aspects of engineering professionalism listed above. Finally, the importance of the humanities and social sciences in promoting these virtues suggests that these disciplines are crucial in the professional education of engineers.

The Engineer and the Societal Dilemma: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coleman, Robert J.

The University of North Carolina's Electrical Engineering Department developed and delivered a course for undergraduate engineering students. The course integrated technical, social, and ethical perspectives on problems and issues faced in the world of practicing engineers. It achieved this integration by making use of professors in engineering,…

A natural experiment of social network formation and dynamics.

PubMed

Phan, Tuan Q; Airoldi, Edoardo M

2015-05-26

Social networks affect many aspects of life, including the spread of diseases, the diffusion of information, the workers' productivity, and consumers' behavior. Little is known, however, about how these networks form and change. Estimating causal effects and mechanisms that drive social network formation and dynamics is challenging because of the complexity of engineering social relations in a controlled environment, endogeneity between network structure and individual characteristics, and the lack of time-resolved data about individuals' behavior. We leverage data from a sample of 1.5 million college students on Facebook, who wrote more than 630 million messages and 590 million posts over 4 years, to design a long-term natural experiment of friendship formation and social dynamics in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The analysis shows that affected individuals are more likely to strengthen interactions, while maintaining the same number of friends as unaffected individuals. Our findings suggest that the formation of social relationships may serve as a coping mechanism to deal with high-stress situations and build resilience in communities.

A natural experiment of social network formation and dynamics

PubMed Central

Phan, Tuan Q.; Airoldi, Edoardo M.

2015-01-01

Social networks affect many aspects of life, including the spread of diseases, the diffusion of information, the workers' productivity, and consumers' behavior. Little is known, however, about how these networks form and change. Estimating causal effects and mechanisms that drive social network formation and dynamics is challenging because of the complexity of engineering social relations in a controlled environment, endogeneity between network structure and individual characteristics, and the lack of time-resolved data about individuals' behavior. We leverage data from a sample of 1.5 million college students on Facebook, who wrote more than 630 million messages and 590 million posts over 4 years, to design a long-term natural experiment of friendship formation and social dynamics in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The analysis shows that affected individuals are more likely to strengthen interactions, while maintaining the same number of friends as unaffected individuals. Our findings suggest that the formation of social relationships may serve as a coping mechanism to deal with high-stress situations and build resilience in communities. PMID:25964337

Integrating Social Sustainability in Engineering Education at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Björnberg, Karin Edvardsson; Skogh, Inga-Britt; Strömberg, Emma

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate what are perceived to be the main challenges associated with the integration of social sustainability into engineering education at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with programme leaders and teachers from…

Teaching "Community Engagement" in Engineering Education for International Development: Integration of an Interdisciplinary Social Work Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbert, Dorie J.; Held, Mary Lehman; Ellzey, Janet L.; Bailey, William T.; Young, Laurie B.

2015-01-01

This article reviews the literature on challenges faced by engineering faculty in educating their students on community-engaged, sustainable technical solutions in developing countries. We review a number of approaches to increasing teaching modules on social and community components of international development education, from adding capstone…

Incorporating Learning Theory into Existing Systems Engineering Models

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

3. Social  Cognition 22 Table 1. Classification of learning theories Behaviorism Cognitivism Constructivism Connectivism...Introdution to design of large scale systems. New York: Mcgraw-Hill. Grusec. J. (1992). Social learning theory and development psychology: The... LEARNING THEORY INTO EXISTING SYSTEMS ENGINEERING MODELS by Valentine Leo September 2013 Thesis Advisor: Gary O. Langford Co-Advisor

An Interdisciplinary Approach Between Medical Informatics and Social Sciences to Transdisciplinary Requirements Engineering for an Integrated Care Setting.

PubMed

Vielhauer, Jan; Böckmann, Britta

2017-01-01

Requirements engineering of software products for elderly people faces some special challenges to ensure a maximum of user acceptance. Within the scope of a research project, a web-based platform and a mobile app are approached to enable people to live in their own home as long as possible. This paper is about a developed method of interdisciplinary requirements engineering by a team of social scientists in cooperation with computer scientists.

Green Turning Brown - Domain Engineering for Social and Health Services in Finland.

PubMed

Suomi, Reima; Nykänen, Pirkko; Vepsäläinen, Tapio; Hiltunen, Riina

2017-01-01

Being able to design information systems to an untouched domain, without the burden of existing information systems, especially legacy systems, is often seen as a dream of most information system professionals. Uncharted domains are anyway scarce, and often such greenfield projects turn into brownfield projects, also to projects where existing structures severely constrain the development of new systems. In this article we discuss the concepts of greenfield and brownfield domain engineering and software development, and reflect their possible messages to the re-engineering of the Finnish health- and social care ecosystem currently under way. In our fieldwork we could identify a lot of need and wish for greenfield domain engineering in the Finnish health and social services delivery. As well we found a lot of brownfield elements inhibiting change. Our proposal for the future is a ecosystem approach, where new and established elements could live together in a self-governed balance.

The physics of teams: Interdependence, measurable entropy and computational emotion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lawless, William F.

2017-08-01

Most of the social sciences, including psychology, economics and subjective social network theory, are modeled on the individual, leaving the field not only a-theoretical, but also inapplicable to a physics of hybrid teams, where hybrid refers to arbitrarily combining humans, machines and robots into a team to perform a dedicated mission (e.g., military, business, entertainment) or to solve a targeted problem (e.g., with scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs). As a common social science practice, the ingredient at the heart of the social interaction, interdependence, is statistically removed prior to the replication of social experiments; but, as an analogy, statistically removing social interdependence to better study the individual is like statistically removing quantum effects as a complication to the study of the atom. Further, in applications of Shannon’s information theory to teams, the effects of interdependence are minimized, but even there, interdependence is how classical information is transmitted. Consequently, numerous mistakes are made when applying non-interdependent models to policies, the law and regulations, impeding social welfare by failing to exploit the power of social interdependence. For example, adding redundancy to human teams is thought by subjective social network theorists to improve the efficiency of a network, easily contradicted by our finding that redundancy is strongly associated with corruption in non-free markets. Thus, built atop the individual, most of the social sciences, economics and social network theory have little if anything to contribute to the engineering of hybrid teams. In defense of the social sciences, the mathematical physics of interdependence is elusive, non-intuitive and non-rational. However, by replacing determinism with bistable states, interdependence at the social level mirrors entanglement at the quantum level, suggesting the applicability of quantum tools for social science. We report how our quantum-like models capture some of the essential aspects of interdependence, a tool for the metrics of hybrid teams; as an example, we find additional support for our model of the solution to the open problem of team size. We also report on progress with the theory of computational emotion for hybrid teams, linking it qualitatively to the second law of thermodynamics. We conclude that the science of interdependence

Career preference theory: A grounded theory describing the effects of undergraduate career preferences on student persistence in engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dettinger, Karen Marie

This study used grounded theory in a case study at a large public research university to develop a theory about how the culture in engineering education affects students with varying interests and backgrounds. According to Career Preference Theory, the engineering education system has evolved to meet the needs of one type of student, the Physical Scientist. While this educational process serves to develop the next generation of engineering faculty members, the majority of engineering undergraduates go on to work as practicing engineers, and are far removed from working as physical scientists. According to Career Preference Theory, students with a history of success in mathematics and sciences, and a focus on career, enter engineering. These students, who actually have a wide range of interests and values, each begin seeking an identity as a practicing engineer. Career Preference Theory is developed around a concept, Career Identity Type, that describes five different types of engineering students: Pragmatic, Physical Scientist, "Social" Scientist, Designer, and Educator. According to the theory, each student must develop an identity within the engineering education system if they are to persist in engineering. However, the current undergraduate engineering education system has evolved in such a way that it meets only the needs of the Physical Scientist. Pragmatic students are also likely to succeed because they tend to be extremely goal-focused and maintain a focus on the rewards they will receive once they graduate with an engineering degree. However, "Social" Scientists, who value interpersonal relationships and giving back to society; Designers, who value integrating ideas across disciplines to create aesthetically pleasing and useful products; and Educators, who have a strong desire to give back to society by working with young people, must make some connection between these values and a future engineering career if they are to persist in engineering. According to Career Preference Theory, "Social" Scientists, Designers, and Educators are likely to leave engineering, while Pragmatics and Physical Scientists are likely to persist.

Job stress models, depressive disorders and work performance of engineers in microelectronics industry.

PubMed

Chen, Sung-Wei; Wang, Po-Chuan; Hsin, Ping-Lung; Oates, Anthony; Sun, I-Wen; Liu, Shen-Ing

2011-01-01

Microelectronic engineers are considered valuable human capital contributing significantly toward economic development, but they may encounter stressful work conditions in the context of a globalized industry. The study aims at identifying risk factors of depressive disorders primarily based on job stress models, the Demand-Control-Support and Effort-Reward Imbalance models, and at evaluating whether depressive disorders impair work performance in microelectronics engineers in Taiwan. The case-control study was conducted among 678 microelectronics engineers, 452 controls and 226 cases with depressive disorders which were defined by a score 17 or more on the Beck Depression Inventory and a psychiatrist's diagnosis. The self-administered questionnaires included the Job Content Questionnaire, Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, demography, psychosocial factors, health behaviors and work performance. Hierarchical logistic regression was applied to identify risk factors of depressive disorders. Multivariate linear regressions were used to determine factors affecting work performance. By hierarchical logistic regression, risk factors of depressive disorders are high demands, low work social support, high effort/reward ratio and low frequency of physical exercise. Combining the two job stress models may have better predictive power for depressive disorders than adopting either model alone. Three multivariate linear regressions provide similar results indicating that depressive disorders are associated with impaired work performance in terms of absence, role limitation and social functioning limitation. The results may provide insight into the applicability of job stress models in a globalized high-tech industry considerably focused in non-Western countries, and the design of workplace preventive strategies for depressive disorders in Asian electronics engineering population.

CIVIL ENGINEERS' ROLES IN PUBLIC WORKS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murata, Teruaki

Recently, the public interests are becoming high in the way of executing public works and the future direction of infrastructure development, which raises nation-wide discussion on these issues. How should we make our country's growth strategy for sustainable development? How should we realize the grand design of infrastructure needed for the implementation of such a strategy? It is obvious that further discussions are needed for these challenging questions. With an aim to promote such discussions, this paper reviews the history of public works and the professional practices (or accomplishments) of our great civil engineers, and discusses the future of public works and the roles of civil engineers based on their origin. Further, in this paper, the author, as the chairman of the Public Works Committee of Japan Civil Engineering Contractors Association, introduces the Association's proposal of "realization of an attractive construction industry." However, for its realization, sustainable institutional arrangements under social consensus are indispensable. Also, individual engineer must establish his/her own identity based on sense of social ethics. It is the author's hope that, through these journals, the professional practices of civil engineers will be widely known to the public with objective logics and discussed to achieve social consensus.

The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education.

PubMed

Kamel Boulos, Maged N; Wheeler, Steve

2007-03-01

Web 2.0 sociable technologies and social software are presented as enablers in health and health care, for organizations, clinicians, patients and laypersons. They include social networking services, collaborative filtering, social bookmarking, folksonomies, social search engines, file sharing and tagging, mashups, instant messaging, and online multi-player games. The more popular Web 2.0 applications in education, namely wikis, blogs and podcasts, are but the tip of the social software iceberg. Web 2.0 technologies represent a quite revolutionary way of managing and repurposing/remixing online information and knowledge repositories, including clinical and research information, in comparison with the traditional Web 1.0 model. The paper also offers a glimpse of future software, touching on Web 3.0 (the Semantic Web) and how it could be combined with Web 2.0 to produce the ultimate architecture of participation. Although the tools presented in this review look very promising and potentially fit for purpose in many health care applications and scenarios, careful thinking, testing and evaluation research are still needed in order to establish 'best practice models' for leveraging these emerging technologies to boost our teaching and learning productivity, foster stronger 'communities of practice', and support continuing medical education/professional development (CME/CPD) and patient education.

Selected Readings in Genetic Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mertens, Thomas R.; Robinson, Sandra K.

1973-01-01

Describes different sources of readings for understanding issues and concepts of genetic engineering. Broad categories of reading materials are: concerns about genetic engineering; its background; procedures; and social, ethical and legal issues. References are listed. (PS)

Predictors of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics choice options: A meta-analytic path analysis of the social-cognitive choice model by gender and race/ethnicity.

PubMed

Lent, Robert W; Sheu, Hung-Bin; Miller, Matthew J; Cusick, Megan E; Penn, Lee T; Truong, Nancy N

2018-01-01

We tested the interest and choice portion of social-cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. Data from 143 studies (including 196 independent samples) conducted over a 30-year period (1983 through 2013) were subjected to meta-analytic path analyses. The interest/choice model was found to fit the data well over all samples as well as within samples composed primarily of women and men and racial/ethnic minority and majority persons. The model also accounted for large portions of the variance in interests and choice goals within each path analysis. Despite the general predictive utility of SCCT across gender and racial/ethnic groups, we did find that several parameter estimates differed by group. We present both the group similarities and differences and consider their implications for future research, intervention, and theory refinement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

34 CFR Appendix to Part 648 - Academic Areas

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Administration and Supervision 13.05Educational/Instructional Media Design 13.06Educational Evaluation, Research, and Statistics 13.07International and Comparative Education 13.08Educational Psychology 13.09Social....27Systems Engineering 14.28Textile Sciences and Engineering 14.29Engineering Design 14.30Engineering...

34 CFR Appendix to Part 648 - Academic Areas

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Administration and Supervision 13.05Educational/Instructional Media Design 13.06Educational Evaluation, Research, and Statistics 13.07International and Comparative Education 13.08Educational Psychology 13.09Social....27Systems Engineering 14.28Textile Sciences and Engineering 14.29Engineering Design 14.30Engineering...

34 CFR Appendix to Part 648 - Academic Areas

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Administration and Supervision 13.05Educational/Instructional Media Design 13.06Educational Evaluation, Research, and Statistics 13.07International and Comparative Education 13.08Educational Psychology 13.09Social....27Systems Engineering 14.28Textile Sciences and Engineering 14.29Engineering Design 14.30Engineering...

34 CFR Appendix to Part 648 - Academic Areas

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Administration and Supervision 13.05Educational/Instructional Media Design 13.06Educational Evaluation, Research, and Statistics 13.07International and Comparative Education 13.08Educational Psychology 13.09Social....27Systems Engineering 14.28Textile Sciences and Engineering 14.29Engineering Design 14.30Engineering...

How Ontologies are Made: Studying the Hidden Social Dynamics Behind Collaborative Ontology Engineering Projects.

PubMed

Strohmaier, Markus; Walk, Simon; Pöschko, Jan; Lamprecht, Daniel; Tudorache, Tania; Nyulas, Csongor; Musen, Mark A; Noy, Natalya F

2013-05-01

Traditionally, evaluation methods in the field of semantic technologies have focused on the end result of ontology engineering efforts, mainly, on evaluating ontologies and their corresponding qualities and characteristics. This focus has led to the development of a whole arsenal of ontology-evaluation techniques that investigate the quality of ontologies as a product . In this paper, we aim to shed light on the process of ontology engineering construction by introducing and applying a set of measures to analyze hidden social dynamics. We argue that especially for ontologies which are constructed collaboratively, understanding the social processes that have led to its construction is critical not only in understanding but consequently also in evaluating the ontology. With the work presented in this paper, we aim to expose the texture of collaborative ontology engineering processes that is otherwise left invisible. Using historical change-log data, we unveil qualitative differences and commonalities between different collaborative ontology engineering projects. Explaining and understanding these differences will help us to better comprehend the role and importance of social factors in collaborative ontology engineering projects. We hope that our analysis will spur a new line of evaluation techniques that view ontologies not as the static result of deliberations among domain experts, but as a dynamic, collaborative and iterative process that needs to be understood, evaluated and managed in itself. We believe that advances in this direction would help our community to expand the existing arsenal of ontology evaluation techniques towards more holistic approaches.

How Ontologies are Made: Studying the Hidden Social Dynamics Behind Collaborative Ontology Engineering Projects

PubMed Central

Strohmaier, Markus; Walk, Simon; Pöschko, Jan; Lamprecht, Daniel; Tudorache, Tania; Nyulas, Csongor; Musen, Mark A.; Noy, Natalya F.

2013-01-01

Traditionally, evaluation methods in the field of semantic technologies have focused on the end result of ontology engineering efforts, mainly, on evaluating ontologies and their corresponding qualities and characteristics. This focus has led to the development of a whole arsenal of ontology-evaluation techniques that investigate the quality of ontologies as a product. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the process of ontology engineering construction by introducing and applying a set of measures to analyze hidden social dynamics. We argue that especially for ontologies which are constructed collaboratively, understanding the social processes that have led to its construction is critical not only in understanding but consequently also in evaluating the ontology. With the work presented in this paper, we aim to expose the texture of collaborative ontology engineering processes that is otherwise left invisible. Using historical change-log data, we unveil qualitative differences and commonalities between different collaborative ontology engineering projects. Explaining and understanding these differences will help us to better comprehend the role and importance of social factors in collaborative ontology engineering projects. We hope that our analysis will spur a new line of evaluation techniques that view ontologies not as the static result of deliberations among domain experts, but as a dynamic, collaborative and iterative process that needs to be understood, evaluated and managed in itself. We believe that advances in this direction would help our community to expand the existing arsenal of ontology evaluation techniques towards more holistic approaches. PMID:24311994

PhD Topic Arrangement in "D"iscourse Communities of Engineers and Social Sciences/Humanities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hasrati, Mostafa; Street, Brian

2009-01-01

This article is the result of a grounded theory investigation into the ways PhD topics are assigned by supervisors in engineering and selected by students in the social sciences/humanities in UK universities, broadly referred to as "topic arrangement", which can be regarded as one aspect of academic socialisation into academic Discourse…

Changing Middle-School Students' Attitudes and Performance regarding Engineering with Computer-Based Social Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plant, E. Ashby; Baylor, Amy L.; Doerr, Celeste E.; Rosenberg-Kima, Rinat B.

2009-01-01

Women's under-representation in fields such as engineering may result in part from female students' negative beliefs regarding these fields and their low self-efficacy for these fields. In this experiment, we investigated the use of animated interface agents as social models for changing male and female middle-school students' attitudes toward…

Corporate Social Responsibility in Engineering Education. A French Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Didier, C.; Huet, R.

2008-01-01

In this paper, we present and discuss the results of a survey of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is being discussed and taught in engineering education in France. We shall first describe how those questions have been recently tackled in various programmes of higher education in France. We shall also analyse what faculty members have to…

Crossing boundaries: the design of an interdisciplinary training program to improve care for the frail elderly.

PubMed

Kolomitro, Klodiana; Stockley, Denise; Egan, Rylan; MacDonald, Michelle L

2015-01-01

The Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network (TVN) was funded in July 2012 under the Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence program. This article highlights the development and preliminary evaluation of the TVN Interdisciplinary Training Program. This program is based on an experiential learning approach that crosses a multitude of disciplines including health sciences, law, social sciences, and ethical aspects of working with the frail elderly. Opportunities within the program include mentorship, interdisciplinary online collaborative projects, external placements, academic products, pre-grant submission, trainee-driven requirements, Network meetings, online modules/webinars, and most importantly active involvement with patients, families, and their support systems. The authors have 120 trainees from approximately 23 different disciplines including law, ethics, public policy, social work, and engineering engaged in the program. Based on our evaluation this program has been perceived as highly valuable by the participants and the community.

Preliminary engineering cost trends for highway projects.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-10-21

Preliminary engineering (PE) for a highway project encompasses two efforts: planning to minimize the physical, social, and human environmental impacts of projects and engineering design to deliver the best alternative. PE efforts begin years in advan...

Engineering education for youth: Diverse elementary school students' experiences with engineering design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hegedus, Theresa

Lingering concerns over the persistent achievement gap amidst the trend of an increasingly diverse society have been compounded by calls from the Oval Office, the National Science Board, and nationwide media to also address our current creativity crisis. Now, more than ever, we have a responsibility to produce a STEM-capable (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce to meet the demands of our rapidly changing local and global economic landscape. Barriers exist in our traditional educational system, which has historically limited underrepresented groups' affiliation and membership in the disciplines of science and engineering. The recent incorporation of engineering into the latest science education reform efforts presents an opportunity to expose students as early as elementary school to engineering practices and habits of mind, which have the potential to stimulate creative thinking skills through engineering design. This qualitative study was designed to examine the ways in which engineering education has the potential to promote creativity and academic competence in elementary science classrooms. As a part of my study, a diverse group of students from two fifth-grade classrooms took part in a 10-12 hour, engineering-based curriculum unit (Engineering is Elementary) during their regular science instructional time. Using a sociocultural lens, to include cultural production and identities in practice as part of my framework, I analyzed group and individual performances through classroom observations, student interviews, and teacher reflections to better understand the meaning students made of their experiences with engineering. Findings from the study included the ways in which creativity was culturally produced in the classroom to include: 1) idea generation; 2) design and innovation; 3) gumption/resourcefulness; and 4) social value. Opportunities for collaboration increased through each stage of the unit culminating with the design challenge. Engineering teams required cultivation by the teacher as students negotiated spaces for collaboration through challenges of competition versus compromise; assumed versus assigned roles; management of verbal versus non-verbal communication; and shifts from teacher-as-authority-figure to peers as sources of knowledge and inspiration. The engineering design challenge provided an ideal context for broaching socio-scientific issues and attention to ethical considerations. Students made reference to their growing environmental awareness and developing moral reasoning in their definitions and reflections on green engineering. Throughout the course of the unit, successful students, struggling students, and students with uncertain trajectories established themselves as competent and efficacious engineers. Implications of the study include ways to assist teachers in recognizing and cultivating creativity and collaboration in addition to effectively incorporating socio-scientific issues as part of the engineering (and science) curriculum. I also present recommendations for promoting equity in classroom engineering, pre-service teacher initiatives, and strategies for capitalizing on the complementarity between science and engineering.

DoD Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program for Socially and Economically Disadvantaged High School Students. 1991-1992 Activities

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-04-01

history of science using the book Coming of Age in the Milky hay by Timothy Ferris. A summary of their activities and projects is included in section 3...book on the history of science by Timothy Ferris. A series of scientific films was also selected and shown by Dr. Kung. These covered topics such as

DOD Financial Management: Significant Improvements Needed in Efforts to Address Improper Payment Requirements

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-01

Agenda RAA Recovery Auditing Act SBR Statement of Budgetary Resources TMA TRICARE Management Activity USACE United States Army Corps of Engineers...Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 included the provisions commonly referred to as the Recovery Auditing Act ( RAA ).12...Administration, and Social Security Administration. The RAA required, among other things, that all executive branch agencies entering into contracts

Science, Engineering Employment Up in 1970s.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chemical and Engineering News, 1984

1984-01-01

Highlights findings from the National Science Foundation's "1982 Postcensal Survey of Natural and Social Scientists and Engineers." Indicates that, from 1972 to 1982, employment of scientists and engineers increased 4 percent per year. However, these employment gains do not reflect the picture for chemists or chemical engineers. (JN)

Implementing feminist theory in engineering: obstacles within the gender studies tradition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Udén, Maria K.

2017-05-01

Scholars have noted that there is hesitation to utilise findings from gender studies in engineering education. Issues within gender studies may be part of the matching problem. Debates concerning two concepts for new engineering paradigms are investigated: care and heterogeneity. Their appeals and the respective complications which they tend to be associated with are revisited. Two examples are explored in detail. The tensions revealed lead to the contents of technical work. More social sciences content in engineering education is sometimes suggested, as a way to support more humane approaches. But, if the calculations that decide how many bolts of what dimension are to be put where are 'masculinist reductionism', it still remains that someone will have to do those calculations. Is emphasis on social issues really what we want from engineers?

Secreting and sensing the same molecule allows cells to achieve versatile social behaviors

PubMed Central

Youk, Hyun; Lim, Wendell A.

2014-01-01

Cells that secrete and sense the same signaling molecule are ubiquitous. To uncover the functional capabilities of the core ‘secrete-and-sense’ circuit motif shared by these cells, we engineered yeast to secrete and sense the mating pheromone. Perturbing each circuit element revealed parameters that control the degree to which the cell communicated with itself versus with its neighbors. This tunable interplay of self- and neighbor-communication enables cells to span a diverse repertoire of cellular behaviors. These include a cell being asocial by responding only to itself, social through quorum sensing and an isogenic population of cells splitting into social and asocial subpopulations. A mathematical model explained these behaviors. The versatility of the secrete-and-sense circuit motif may explain its recurrence across species. PMID:24503857

NASA and Earth Science Week: a Model for Engaging Scientists and Engineers in Education and Outreach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwerin, T. G.; deCharon, A.; Brown de Colstoun, E. C.; Chambers, L. H.; Woroner, M.; Taylor, J.; Callery, S.; Jackson, R.; Riebeek, H.; Butcher, G. J.

2014-12-01

Earth Science Week (ESW) - the 2nd full week in October - is a national and international event to help the public, particularly educators and students, gain a better understanding and appreciation for the Earth sciences. The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) organizes ESW, along with partners including NASA, using annual themes (e.g., the theme for 2014 is Earth's Connected Systems). ESW provides a unique opportunity for NASA scientists and engineers across multiple missions and projects to share NASA STEM, their personal stories and enthusiasm to engage and inspire the next generation of Earth explorers. Over the past five years, NASA's ESW campaign has been planned and implemented by a cross-mission/cross-project group, led by the NASA Earth Science Education and Pubic Outreach Forum, and utilizing a wide range of media and approaches (including both English- and Spanish-language events and content) to deliver NASA STEM to teachers and students. These included webcasts, social media (blogs, twitter chats, Google+ hangouts, Reddit Ask Me Anything), videos, printed and online resources, and local events and visits to classrooms. Dozens of NASA scientists, engineers, and communication and education specialists contribute and participate each year. This presentation will provide more information about this activity and offer suggestions and advice for others engaging scientists and engineers in education and outreach programs and events.

Methodology discourses as boundary work in the construction of engineering education.

PubMed

Beddoes, Kacey

2014-04-01

Engineering education research is a new field that emerged in the social sciences over the past 10 years. This analysis of engineering education research demonstrates that methodology discourses have played a central role in the construction and development of the field of engineering education, and that they have done so primarily through boundary work. This article thus contributes to science and technology studies literature by examining the role of methodology discourses in an emerging social science field. I begin with an overview of engineering education research before situating the case within relevant bodies of literature on methodology discourses and boundary work. I then identify two methodology discourses--rigor and methodological diversity--and discuss how they contribute to the construction and development of engineering education research. The article concludes with a discussion of how the findings relate to prior research on methodology discourses and boundary work and implications for future research.

Motivational factors, gender and engineering education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolmos, Anette; Mejlgaard, Niels; Haase, Sanne; Egelund Holgaard, Jette

2013-06-01

Based on survey data covering the full population of students enrolled in Danish engineering education in autumn 2010, we explore the motivational factors behind educational choice, with a particular aim of comparing male and female students1 reasons for choosing a career in engineering. We find that women are significantly more influenced by mentors than men, while men tend to be more motivated by intrinsic and financial factors, and by the social importance of the engineering profession. Parental influence is low across all programmes and by differentiating between specific clusters of engineering programmes, we further show that these overall gender differences are subtle and that motivational factors are unequally important across the different educational programmes. The findings from this study clearly indicate that intrinsic and social motivations are the most important motivational factors; however, gender and programme differentiation needs to be taken into account, and points towards diverse future strategies for attracting students to engineering education.

Low order climate models as a tool for cross-disciplinary collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newton, R.; Pfirman, S. L.; Tremblay, B.; Schlosser, P.

2014-12-01

Human impacts on climate are pervasive and significant and project future states cannot be projected without taking human influence into account. We recently helped convene a meeting of climatologists, policy analysts, lawyers and social scientists to discuss the dramatic loss in Arctic summer sea ice. A dialogue emerged around distinct time scales in the integrated human/natural climate system. Climate scientists tended to discuss engineering solutions as though they could be implemented immediately, whereas lags of 2 or more decades were estimated by social scientists for societal shifts and similar lags were cited for deployment by the engineers. Social scientists tended to project new climate states virtually overnight, while climatologists described time scales of decades to centuries for the system to respond to changes in forcing functions. For the conversation to develop, the group had to come to grips with an increasingly complex set of transient effect time scales and lags between decisions, changes in forcing, and system outputs. We use several low-order dynamical system models to explore mismatched timescales, ranges of lags, and uncertainty in cost estimates on climate outcomes, focusing on Arctic-specific issues. In addition to lessons regarding what is/isn't feasible from a policy and engineering perspective, these models provide a useful tool to concretize cross-disciplinary thinking. They are fast and easy to iterate through a large region of the problem space, while including surprising complexity in their evolution. Thus they are appropriate for investigating the implications of policy in an efficient, but not unrealistic physical setting. (Earth System Models, by contrast, can be too resource- and time-intensive for iteratively testing "what if" scenarios in cross-disciplinary collaborations.) Our runs indicate, for example, that the combined social, engineering and climate physics lags make it extremely unlikely that an ice-free summer ecology in the Arctic can be avoided. Further, if prospective remediation strategies are successful, a return to perennial ice conditions between one and two centuries from now is entirely likely, with interesting and large impacts on Northern economies.

Sustainable Development in Engineering Education: A Pedagogical Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahrens, A.; Zascerinska, J.

2012-01-01

Engineering education is facing a challenge of the development of student engineers' social responsibility in the context of sustainable development. The aim of the research is to analyze efficiency of engineering curriculum in the context of sustainable development underpinning elaboration of pedagogical guidelines on the development of students'…

The Challenge of the Humanities and Social Science Education Through the Basic Seminar (Science of Snow Sports)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taniai, Tetsuyuki; Sugimoto, Taku; Sato, Ken-Ichi; Ikota, Masaru

The Education Center of Chiba Institute of Technology is taking a new approach to the introduction of liberal arts subjects commonly included in the curriculum of all departments through a newly established basic seminar, the Science of Snow Sports. Each faculty member has been working on setting up classes that cross the conventional boundaries of fields and disciplines and which are targeted at students of all faculties and departments. This paper describes the potential for teaching liberal arts and social science subjects to engineering students through the medium of sports science, based on actual experience gained via this new approach.

A qualitative examination of the nature and impact of three California minority engineering programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christie, Barbara A.

According to the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), the national retention rate of engineering students is 68% and the national retention rate for underrepresented minority engineering students (African American, Latino, Native American and Pacific Islanders) is 37%. In response to the severity of retention issues concerning underrepresented minority students, colleges and universities across the United States have developed special programs known as minority engineering programs (MEP). MEPs are designed to provide academic support, personal counseling, social networking, career counseling and professional development as a means to improve retention. In order to provide a detailed description of the MEPs, the research method selected is a case study. This case study is an examination of the nature and impact of three MEPs in California. This study is also an analysis of the lack of participation by freshmen and sophomore students who qualify for these programs. Methodology included extensive surveys and interviews of students, faculty and staff, site visits, and examination of documents. Over 500 students were surveyed during lower division engineering courses. The qualifying students who gave permission for further interviews were provided with questions about their participation or nonparticipation and the reasons for their behavior. Faculty members were interviews about their knowledge and personal involvement with the minority engineering program on their campuses. Program directors were interviewed to discuss program design and implementation. A categorical method was used to separate the different groups within the study. Of the 509 respondents, 132 were classified as qualifier/nonparticipant freshman and sophomore engineering students. The results demonstrated that a high percentage of the qualifier/nonparticipants are unaware of the programs and events on their campuses. During the interviews the students stated they are very interested in academic enrichment, social networking and professional development. The students also stated they feel the faculty should provide information on enrichment programs available on campus. Conversely, during the faculty interviews, they stated that it is not their responsibility to inform students and were unfamiliar with the minority engineering programs on their campuses. These results concurred with works of Raymond Landis and Elaine Seymour.

How Do Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Minority Faculty Members Describe Their Experiences of Graduate Student and Faculty Socialization?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Ayana M.

2012-01-01

To remain globally competitive in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), we must increase our number of underrepresented minority scientists (URMs) as our country's population becomes more diverse. For URMs to move up the educational and professional ranks, they need to be properly socialized as graduate students and…

Social Network Theory in Engineering Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simon, Peter A.

Collaborative groups are important both in the learning environment of engineering education and, in the real world, the business of engineering design. Selecting appropriate individuals to form an effective group and monitoring a group's progress are important aspects of successful task performance. This exploratory study looked at using the concepts of cognitive social structures, structural balance, and centrality from social network analysis as well as the measures of emotional intelligence. The concepts were used to analyze potential team members to examine if an individual's ability to perceive emotion in others and the self and to use, understand, and manage those emotions are a factor in a group's performance. The students from a capstone design course in computer engineering were used as volunteer subjects. They were formed into groups and assigned a design exercise to determine whether and which of the above-mentioned tools would be effective in both selecting teams and predicting the quality of the resultant design. The results were inconclusive with the exception of an individual's ability to accurately perceive emotions. The instruments that were successful were the Self-Monitoring scale and the accuracy scores derived from cognitive social structures and Level IV of network levels of analysis.

The First Year of College: Understanding Student Persistence in Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayden, Marina Calvet

This research study aimed to expand our understanding of the factors that influence student persistence in engineering. The unique experiences of engineering students were examined as they transitioned into and navigated their first year of college at a public research university in California. Most students provided similar responses with respect to the way they experienced the transition to college and social life. There was, however, wide student response variation regarding their experience of academic life and academic policies, as well as in their level of pre-college academic preparation and financial circumstances. One key finding was that students' experiences during the first year of college varied widely based on the extent to which they had acquired organizational and learning skills prior to college. The study used a mixed methods approach. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an online survey and one-on-one interviews conducted with freshman students near the end of their first year of college. The theoretical foundations of this study included Astin's Theory of Student Involvement and Tinto's Theory of Student Departure. The design of the study was guided by these theories which emphasize the critical importance of student involvement with the academic and social aspects of college during the first year of college.

Near Real Time Analytics of Human Sensor Networks in the Realm of Big Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aulov, O.; Halem, M.

2012-12-01

With the prolific development of social media, emergency responders have an increasing interest in harvesting social media from outlets such as Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook, in order to assess the scale and specifics of extreme events including wild fires, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, oil spills, etc. A number of experimental platforms have successfully been implemented to demonstrate the utilization of social media data in extreme events, including Twitter Earthquake Detector, which relied on tweets for earthquake monitoring; AirTwitter, which used tweets for air quality reporting; and our previous work, using Flickr data as boundary value forcings to improve the forecast of oil beaching in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The majority of these platforms addressed a narrow, specific type of emergency and harvested data from a particular outlet. We demonstrate an interactive framework for monitoring, mining and analyzing a plethora of heterogeneous social media sources for a diverse range of extreme events. Our framework consists of three major parts: a real time social media aggregator, a data processing and analysis engine, and a web-based visualization and reporting tool. The aggregator gathers tweets, Facebook comments from fan pages, Google+ posts, forum discussions, blog posts (such as LiveJournal and Blogger.com), images from photo-sharing platforms (such as Flickr, Picasa), videos from video-sharing platforms (youtube, Vimeo), and so forth. The data processing and analysis engine pre-processes the aggregated information and annotates it with geolocation and sentiment information. In many cases, the metadata of the social media posts does not contain geolocation information—-however, a human reader can easily guess from the body of the text what location is discussed. We are automating this task by use of Named Entity Recognition (NER) algorithms and a gazetteer service. The visualization and reporting tool provides a web-based, user-friendly interface that provides time-series analysis and plotting tools, geo-spacial visualization tools with interactive maps, and cause-effect inference tools. We demonstrate how we address big data challenges of monitoring, aggregating and analyzing vast amounts of social media data at a near realtime. As a result, our framework not only allows emergency responders to augment their situational awareness with social media information, but can also allow them to extract geophysical data and incorporate it into their analysis models.

The Social Role of Engineers: A Philosophical Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vesilind, P. Aarne

1991-01-01

The perspectives that distinguish engineers and the public they serve and the educational implications of those perspectives are discussed. The philosophies of utilitarianism, ethical egoism, positivism, and idealism are presented in terms of engineers and the public. (KR)

Undergraduate environmental engineering education in China

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, C.; Bero, B.N.

1999-07-01

In this paper, the development process, present situations, causes of improvement, and trends of higher education of environmental engineering in China are discussed. Several education modes in environmental engineering in China are also presented. The development process can be divided into three stages: the beginning stage, the expansion stage, and the modification stage. The 1970's and early 1980's wake of environmental consciousness and serious pollution situation in China resulted in about 20 universities setting up an environmental engineering specialty. The late 1980's and middle 1990's job opportunities for undergraduates in China resulted in many universities' creation of the environmental engineeringmore » specialty from specialties such as geography, geology, hydrology, mining engineering, and mineral separation engineering where job opportunities were stagnant. At present, adjustment and improvement of environmental engineering education are urgently required because of the excessive increase of undergraduate number, change of job opportunities and implementation of five-work-day system in China. Other problems include how to determine the ratio of social science courses to engineering science courses, how to determine the relationship of fundamental and applied courses, and how to determine the specialized direction. Hunan University, as a typical university conferring an accredited Bachelor degree in Environmental Engineering in four academic years in China, has been improving the instruction schedule for undergraduate education in environmental engineering. The curricula of the three phases for undergraduates of environmental engineering specialty at Hunan University are presented as a case study.« less

Alternative Pathways to Engineering Success--Using Academic and Social Integration to Understand Two-Year Engineering Student Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marra, Rose M.; Tsai, Chia-Lin; Bogue, Barbara; Pytel, Jean Landa

2015-01-01

The need for educating engineers in the United States continues as the projected demand is rising the number of high school seniors planning to enter engineering careers has remained relatively stable (Sargent, 2014). Additionally, figures show that attrition rates in undergraduate engineering continue to be an area of concern, (Sargent, 2014;…

A Survey of Cooperative Engineering Education. Bulletin, 1949, No. 15

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Armsby, Henry H.

1949-01-01

Engineers are increasingly being called to occupy positions of leadership in which they need knowledge of society and of social processes sometimes to a greater degree than they need engineering skill. Many educators are deeply concerned over the question of how engineering students may acquire this knowledge in addition to the technical knowledge…

A Fuzzy Evaluation Method for System of Systems Meta-architectures

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

Procedia Computer Science Procedia Computer Science 00 (2013) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/ procedia Conference on Systems Engineering...boundary includes integration of technical systems as well as cognitive and social processes, which alter system behavior [2]. Most system architects...unclassified c. THIS PAGE unclassified Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 Pape/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2013) 000

Economic Impacts from Spending by Marina Slip Reenter at Raystown Lake

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-02-01

Impacts from Spending by Marina Slip Renters at Raystown Lake Wen-Huei Chang, Richard Kasul, LiChu Lee, and Kathleen Perales Environmental ...water quality, social or environmental impacts , or the like. This study did not include changes in use based on increases in gasoline prices or...1997. Classifcation of Corps of Engineers Projects for Economic Impact Assesment . Unpublished MS Thesis. East Lansing, MI: Department of Park

Improving Performance Of Industrial Enterprises With CGT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolgih, I. N.; Bannova, K. A.; Kuzmina, N. A.; Zdanova, A. B.

2016-04-01

At the present day, a falling in the overall level of efficiency production activities, especially in the machine-building companies makes it necessary to development various actions in the State support, including through the creation consolidated taxation system. Such support will help improve efficiency of activity not only the industrial companies, but also will allow improve economic and social situation in regions where often large engineering factories is city-forming.

Engineers' professional learning: a practice-theory perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reich, Ann; Rooney, Donna; Gardner, Anne; Willey, Keith; Boud, David; Fitzgerald, Terry

2015-07-01

With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical acquisition and transfer of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices - site walks and design review meetings - in which learning takes place.

Sustainable Development in Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taoussanidis, Nikolaos N.; Antoniadou, Myrofora A.

2006-01-01

The principles and practice of environmentally and socially sustainable engineering are in line with growing community expectations and the strengthening voice of civil society in engineering interventions. Pressures towards internationalization and globalization are reflected in new course accreditation criteria and higher education structures.…

Exploring Effects of Organizational Culture upon Implementation of Information Security Awareness and Training Programs within the Defense Industry Located in the Tennessee Valley Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grant, Robert Luther

2017-01-01

Data breaches due to social engineering attacks and employee negligence are on the rise. The only known defense against social engineering attacks and employee negligence is information security awareness and training. However, implementation of awareness and training programs within organizations are lagging in priority. This research used the…

KSC-2015-1217

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-28

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Wendy Edelstein, instrument manager for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, discusses the science and engineering of the mission with the audience of a NASA Social held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This NASA Social brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries to participate in launch activities and communicate their experience with social media followers. The SMAP mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg on Jan. 29. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://www.nasa.gov/smap. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

KSC-2015-1205

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-28

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Jared Entin, program scientist for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, discusses the science and engineering of the mission with the audience of a NASA Social held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This NASA Social brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries to participate in launch activities and communicate their experience with social media followers. The SMAP mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg on Jan. 29. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://www.nasa.gov/smap. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

KSC-2015-1204

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-28

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Jared Entin, program scientist for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, discusses the science and engineering of the mission with the audience of a NASA Social held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This NASA Social brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries to participate in launch activities and communicate their experience with social media followers. The SMAP mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg on Jan. 29. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://www.nasa.gov/smap. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

CRISPR-Cas: From the Bacterial Adaptive Immune System to a Versatile Tool for Genome Engineering.

PubMed

Kirchner, Marion; Schneider, Sabine

2015-11-09

The field of biology has been revolutionized by the recent advancement of an adaptive bacterial immune system as a universal genome engineering tool. Bacteria and archaea use repetitive genomic elements termed clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) in combination with an RNA-guided nuclease (CRISPR-associated nuclease: Cas) to target and destroy invading DNA. By choosing the appropriate sequence of the guide RNA, this two-component system can be used to efficiently modify, target, and edit genomic loci of interest in plants, insects, fungi, mammalian cells, and whole organisms. This has opened up new frontiers in genome engineering, including the potential to treat or cure human genetic disorders. Now the potential risks as well as the ethical, social, and legal implications of this powerful new technique move into the limelight. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Problem-based learning in optical engineering studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voznesenskaya, Anna

2016-09-01

Nowadays, the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is one of the most prospective educational technologies. PBL is based on evaluation of learning outcomes of a student, both professional and personal, instead of traditional evaluation of theoretical knowledge and selective practical skills. Such an approach requires changes in the curricula development. There should be introduced projects (cases) imitating real tasks from the professional life. These cases should include a problem summary with necessary theoretic description, charts, graphs, information sources etc, task to implement and evaluation indicators and criteria. Often these cases are evaluated with the assessment-center method. To motivate students for the given task they could be divided into groups and have a contest. Whilst it looks easy to implement in social, economic or teaching fields PBL is pretty complicated in engineering studies. Examples of cases in the first-cycle optical engineering studies are shown in this paper. Procedures of the PBL implementation and evaluation are described.

How is that done? Student views on resources used outside the engineering classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maclaren, Peter

2018-07-01

While the traditional lecture remains a key feature in the teaching of mathematically intensive disciplines at a tertiary level, what students do outside class, the resources they use, and how they use them are critical factors in their success. This study reports on a survey of students studying a range of engineering subjects, giving their views on the effectiveness of resources that they use outside the classroom. Resource types examined included textbooks, lecturer course notes, in-class developed notes, and other online material, including multimedia. While lecturer-generated material was generally seen as more effective than formal textbooks and social media, external screencasts were rated as most effective where material appropriate to their class was available. It is suggested that student use of screencast resources has the potential to facilitate improved learning outcomes, and with accompanying changes in assessment focus, may enable more substantive pedagogical changes.

76 FR 37158 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-24

... Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) program. In 2003... representative scientific or engineering organization.'' On the basis of these recommendations, the Committee was... individual's work on the current state of physical, biological, mathematical, engineering or social and...

Social media and digital technology use among Indigenous young people in Australia: a literature review.

PubMed

Rice, Emma S; Haynes, Emma; Royce, Paul; Thompson, Sandra C

2016-05-25

The use of social media and digital technologies has grown rapidly in Australia and around the world, including among Indigenous young people who face social disadvantage. Given the potential to use social media for communication, providing information and as part of creating and responding to social change, this paper explores published literature to understand how Indigenous Australian youth use digital technologies and social media, and its positive and negative impacts. Online literature searches were conducted in three databases: PubMed, Google Scholar and Informit in August 2014; with further searches of additional relevant databases (Engineering Village; Communication & mass media complete; Computers & applied sciences complete; Web of Science) undertaken in May 2015. In addition, relevant literature was gathered using citation snowballing so that additional peer-reviewed and grey literature was included. Articles were deemed relevant if they discussed social media and/or digital technologies and Indigenous Australians. After reading and reviewing all relevant articles, a thematic analysis was used to identify overall themes and identify specific examples. A total of 22 papers were included in the review. Several major themes were identified about how and why Indigenous young people use social media: identity, power and control, cultural compatibility and community and family connections. Examples of marketing for health and health promotion approaches that utilize social media and digital technologies were identified. Negative uses of social media such as cyber bullying, cyber racism and the exchange of sexually explicit content between minors are common with limited approaches to dealing with this at the community level. Strong cultural identity and community and family connections, which can be enhanced through social media, are linked to improved educational and health outcomes. The confidence that Indigenous young people demonstrate when approaching the use of social media invites its further use, including in arenas where this group may not usually participate, such as in research. Future research could examine ways to minimise the misuse of social media while maximising its positive potential in the lives of Indigenous young people. Future research should also focus on the positive application of social media and showing evidence in health promotion interventions in order to reduce health inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people.

Challenges in Requirements Engineering: A Research Agenda for Conceptual Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

March, Salvatore T.; Allen, Gove N.

Domains for which information systems are developed deal primarily with social constructions—conceptual objects and attributes created by human intentions and for human purposes. Information systems play an active role in these domains. They document the creation of new conceptual objects, record and ascribe values to their attributes, initiate actions within the domain, track activities performed, and infer conclusions based on the application of rules that govern how the domain is affected when socially-defined and identified causal events occur. Emerging applications of information technologies evaluate such business rules, learn from experience, and adapt to changes in the domain. Conceptual modeling grammars aimed at representing their system requirements must include conceptual objects, socially-defined events, and the rules pertaining to them. We identify challenges to conceptual modeling research and pose an ontology of the artificial as a step toward meeting them.

Does Engineering Education Need to Engage More with the Economic and Social Aspects of Sustainability?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzpatrick, John J.

2017-01-01

This paper questions if engineering educators are producing engineers that are accelerating humanity along an unsustainable path. Even though technology and engineering are important drivers in trying to move humanity towards an environmentally sustainable paradigm, the paper suggests that maybe the most important levers and challenges lie in the…

Exploring Engineering--Pros Can Help Make It Real

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roman, Harry T.

2008-01-01

Engineering is one of the oldest professions, dating back to humanity's early times. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were all primarily feats of engineering. Most also had profound social/cultural impacts. Engineers are agents of change, devotees of capitalism, and dreamers of the possible. They are also in a unique position to work with…

Interdisciplinary Student/Teacher Materials in Energy, the Environment, and the Economy: 3, Energy, Engines, and the Industrial Revolution, Grades 8, 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childs, Barbara; And Others

This instructional unit for grades 8-9 combines science and social studies in a look at the broad social and economic upheavals that took place during the industrial revolution, giving special emphasis to the role of energy. The invention and development of the steam engine is highlighted in one lesson. Other lessons show how the industrial…

Encouraging Undergraduate Engineering Students towards Civic Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallen, Matthew R.; Pandit, Abhay S.

2009-01-01

Responding to the calls for teaching "soft skills" within the undergraduate engineering curriculum and for the university to address a perceived decrease in social capital, a programme titled Community Awareness Initiatives Responsibly Directed by Engineers (CAIRDE, an Irish language word meaning "friends") was instituted at…

Learning and Construction in Engineering Jobs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buch, Anders

Knowledge production and learning in engineering is a local, situated, negotiated, and thoroughly social process. Although engineering work entails the construal, production, and application of artifacts and technical devices belonging to the "object world," the process of designing is a process of achieving consensus among real or…

Broadening ethics teaching in engineering: beyond the individualistic approach.

PubMed

Conlon, Eddie; Zandvoort, Henk

2011-06-01

There is a widespread approach to the teaching of ethics to engineering students in which the exclusive focus is on engineers as individual agents and the broader context in which they do their work is ignored. Although this approach has frequently been criticised in the literature, it persists on a wide scale, as can be inferred from accounts in the educational literature and from the contents of widely used textbooks in engineering ethics. In this contribution we intend to: (1) Restate why the individualistic approach to the teaching of ethics to engineering students is inadequate in view of preparing them for ethical, professional and social responsibility; (2) Examine the existing literature regarding the possible contribution of Science, Technology and Society (STS) scholarship in addressing the inadequacies of the individualistic approach; and (3) Assess this possible contribution of STS in order to realise desired learning outcomes regarding the preparation of students for ethical and social responsibility.

Social and Emotional Learning and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schonert-Reichl, Kimberly A.

2017-01-01

Teachers are the engine that drives social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and practices in schools and classrooms, and their own social-emotional competence and wellbeing strongly influence their students. But when teachers poorly manage the social and emotional demands of teaching, students' academic achievement and behavior both suffer.…

Doing Justice in Evaluation Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, David

The net result of the social-scientific developments in the 19th and 20th centuries is that educational research has inherited a science that is assumed to constitute a disinterested technology of social engineering and a benevolent source of positive social advance. Unfortunately, the social experiment conducted on traditional lines depends upon…

Social license to operate: case from brazilian mining industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santiago, Ana Lúcia F.; Demajorovic, Jacques; Aledo, Antonio

2015-04-01

The approach of the Social License to Operate (SLO) emerges as an important element in academic discussions and business practices related to extractive industries. It appears that in productive activities with great potential to produce economic, social and environmental impacts, conventional approaches based on legal compliance no longer sufficient to legitimize the actions of companies and engagement stakeholders. Studies highlight the need of mining activities receiving a SLO "issued" by companies stakeholders, including society, government, non-governmental organizations, media and communities. However, local communities appears as major stakeholders in governance arrangements, by virtue of its proximity to extractive areas and ability to affect the company's results. Stakeholders with unmet expectations can generate conflicts and risks to the company, the knowledge of these expectations and an awareness of company managers of the importance of Social License to Operate (SLO), can generate strategies and mitigating actions to prevent and or minimize possible conflicts. The concept of SLO arises in engineering extractive industry, when you need to respond to social challenges, beyond the usual environmental challenges, technological and management. According to Franks and Cohen (2012) there is a tendency of engineering sectors, sustainability, environmental, safety and especially in risk mappings, treat the technological issues in a neutral manner, separating the technological research projects of social influences. I want to contribute to the advancement of the debate on stakeholder engagement and adopting as focus on the company's relationship with the community, the aim of this study was to understand how a social project held by one of the largest mining companies in Brazil contributed to the process of SLO. This methodological procedure adopted was a qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory interviews with the communities located in rural areas of direct influence of the company's approach. The results show that the strategy adopted by the company contributed to the process of SLO, furthermore it is necessary adopt strong methodologies that facilitate the engagement processes of the other company's stakeholders, as well as the challenge to keep on local legitimacy earned. Key words: Mining, social license to operate (SLO), social impact, corporate social responsibility, stakeholders. References: * FRANKS, DANIEL M.; COHEN, TAMAR. Social Licence in Design: Constructive technology assessment within a mineral research and development institution. Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Australia. 79 122 Technological Forecasting & Social Change. 2012.

The McBride Honors Program in Public Affairs for Scientists and Engineers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harrison, W. J.; Miller, R. L.; Olds, B. M.; Sacks, A. B.

2006-12-01

The McBride Honors Program in Public Affairs at The Colorado School of Mines (CSM), instituted in 1978, is an award-winning exemplar in the liberal arts which provides a select number of CSM engineering students an opportunity to cross the boundaries of their technical expertise in engineering and applied science, and to gain the understanding and appreciation of the contexts in which engineering and applied science and all human systems reside, and specifically to explore and integrate the social, cultural, ethical and environmental implications of their future professional judgments and their roles as citizens in varied and complex settings. The 27 semester-hour program of seminars, courses, and off-campus activities features small seminars; a cross-disciplinary approach; and opportunities for one-on-one faculty tutorials, instruction and practice in oral and written communication, a Washington, D.C. public policy seminar, a practicum experience (internship or foreign study). Circumstances external to the McBride Program itself, which include the development and growth of the field of Public Affairs nationally and the persistence of legacy courses, have created the need to revitalize and refocus the historically cross-departmental Program. A recent curriculum reform effort has achieved a more thoroughly interdisciplinary learning experience to educate engineers and scientists who, as called for in the National Academy of Engineering's The Engineer of 2020 "will assume leadership positions from which they can serve as positive influences in the making of public policy and in the administration of government and industry". In this presentation we showcase best practices in curriculum reform, exemplified by a seminar in National policy analysis where students and faculty have recently investigated federal science funding decisions in support of natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildland fires, and pandemic disease.

The Roles of Implicit Understanding of Engineering Ethics in Student Teams' Discussion.

PubMed

Lee, Eun Ah; Grohman, Magdalena; Gans, Nicholas R; Tacca, Marco; Brown, Matthew J

2017-12-01

Following previous work that shows engineering students possess different levels of understanding of ethics-implicit and explicit-this study focuses on how students' implicit understanding of engineering ethics influences their team discussion process, in cases where there is significant divergence between their explicit and implicit understanding. We observed student teams during group discussions of the ethical issues involved in their engineering design projects. Through the micro-scale discourse analysis based on cognitive ethnography, we found two possible ways in which implicit understanding influenced the discussion. In one case, implicit understanding played the role of intuitive ethics-an intuitive judgment followed by reasoning. In the other case, implicit understanding played the role of ethical insight, emotionally guiding the direction of the discussion. In either case, however, implicit understanding did not have a strong influence, and the conclusion of the discussion reflected students' explicit understanding. Because students' implicit understanding represented broader social implication of engineering design in both cases, we suggest to take account of students' relevant implicit understanding in engineering education, to help students become more socially responsible engineers.

KSC-2015-1219

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-28

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Dara Entekhabi, science team leader at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and other experts discuss the science and engineering of NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, with the audience of a NASA Social held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This NASA Social brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries to participate in launch activities and communicate their experience with social media followers. The SMAP mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg on Jan. 29. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://www.nasa.gov/smap. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

KSC-2015-1218

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-28

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Dara Entekhabi, science team leader at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, discusses the science and engineering of NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, with the audience of a NASA Social held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This NASA Social brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries to participate in launch activities and communicate their experience with social media followers. The SMAP mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg on Jan. 29. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://www.nasa.gov/smap. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Multiple Factors-Aware Diffusion in Social Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-22

Multiple Factors-Aware Diffusion in Social Networks Chung-Kuang Chou(B) and Ming-Syan Chen Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan...propagates from nodes to nodes over a social network . The behavior that a node adopts an information piece in a social network can be affected by...Twitter dataset. Keywords: Social networks · Diffusion models 1 Introduction Information diffusion in social networks has been an active research field

76 FR 21073 - Notice of Intent To Seek Approval To Continue an Information Collection

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-14

... Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) program. In 2003, to comply with E... would ``receive recommendations made by any other nationally representative scientific or engineering..., biological, mathematical, engineering or social and behavioral sciences. 2. Achievements of an unusually...

Differentiating between Women in Hard and Soft Science and Engineering Disciplines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camp, Amanda G.; Gilleland, Diane S.; Pearson, Carolyn; Vander Putten, James

2010-01-01

The intent of this study was to investigate characteristics that differentiate between women in soft (social, psychological, and life sciences) and hard (engineering, mathematics, computer science, physical science) science and engineering disciplines. Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study: 1996-2001 (2002), a descriptive…

Engineers' Professional Learning: A Practice-Theory Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reich, Ann; Rooney, Donna; Gardner, Anne; Willey, Keith; Boud, David; Fitzgerald, Terry

2015-01-01

With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory…

The Dean as Advocate for Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCoy, John J.

1997-01-01

Engineering education will be profoundly affected by changes in the U.S. corporate culture, career aspirations of entering college students, research funding sources, and the globalization of engineering design. The engineering school's dean must interpret these strong social pressures for change in curriculum content and operations and serve as…

How robotics programs influence young women's career choices : a grounded theory model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Craig, Cecilia Dosh-Bluhm

The fields of engineering, computer science, and physics have a paucity of women despite decades of intervention by universities and organizations. Women's graduation rates in these fields continue to stagnate, posing a critical problem for society. This qualitative grounded theory (GT) study sought to understand how robotics programs influenced young women's career decisions and the program's effect on engineering, physics, and computer science career interests. To test this, a study was mounted to explore how the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC) program influenced young women's college major and career choices. Career theories suggested that experiential programs coupled with supportive relationships strongly influence career decisions, especially for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. The study explored how and when young women made career decisions and how the experiential program and! its mentors and role models influenced career choice. Online focus groups and interviews (online and face-to-face) with 10 female FRC alumnae and GT processes (inductive analysis, open coding, categorizations using mind maps and content clouds) were used to generate a general systems theory style model of the career decision process for these young women. The study identified gender stereotypes and other career obstacles for women. The study's conclusions include recommendations to foster connections to real-world challenges, to develop training programs for mentors, and to nurture social cohesion, a mostly untapped area. Implementing these recommendations could help grow a critical mass of women in engineering, physics, and computer science careers, a social change worth pursuing.

Engineers and Their Role in Public Policy: An Active Learning Experience for Enhancing the Understanding of the State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acevedo, Jorge; Barros, Ricardo; Ramirez, Catalina; Realpe, Natalia

2009-01-01

To achieve effective intervention of engineers in the public sector, engineers should develop skills to comprehend their ethical and professional responsibility, and they should gain the necessary education to understand the possible impact of engineering solutions in a global and social context. An active learning process has been conceived,…

Organizational stress and individual strain: A social-psychological study of risk factors in coronary heart disease among administrators, engineers, and scientists

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caplan, R. D.

1971-01-01

It is hypothesized that organizational stresses, such as high quantitative work load, responsibility for persons, poor relations with role senders, and contact with alien organizational territories, may be associated with high levels of psychological and physiological strain which are risk factors in coronary heart disease. It is further hypothesized that persons with coronary-prone Type A personality characteristics are most likely to exhibit strain under conditions of organizational stress. Measures of these stresses, personality traits, and strains were obtained from 205 male NASA administrators, engineers, and scientists. Type A personality measures included sense of time urgency, persistence, involved striving, leadership, and preference for competitive and environmentally overburdening situations.

Causal Relation Analysis Tool of the Case Study in the Engineer Ethics Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Yoshio; Morita, Keisuke; Yasui, Mitsukuni; Tanada, Ichirou; Fujiki, Hiroyuki; Aoyagi, Manabu

In engineering ethics education, the virtual experiencing of dilemmas is essential. Learning through the case study method is a particularly effective means. Many case studies are, however, difficult to deal with because they often include many complex causal relationships and social factors. It would thus be convenient if there were a tool that could analyze the factors of a case example and organize them into a hierarchical structure to get a better understanding of the whole picture. The tool that was developed applies a cause-and-effect matrix and simple graph theory. It analyzes the causal relationship between facts in a hierarchical structure and organizes complex phenomena. The effectiveness of this tool is shown by presenting an actual example.

Preventing unintentional injuries in the home using the Health Impact Pyramid.

PubMed

Mack, Karin A; Liller, Karen D; Baldwin, Grant; Sleet, David

2015-04-01

Injuries continue to be the leading cause of death for the first four decades of life. These injuries result from a confluence of behavioral, physical, structural, environmental, and social factors. Taken together, these illustrate the importance of taking a broad and multileveled approach to injury prevention. Using examples from fall, fire, scald, and poisoning-related injuries, this article illustrates the utility of an approach that incorporates a social-environmental perspective in identifying and selecting interventions to improve the health and safety of individuals. Injury prevention efforts to prevent home injuries benefit from multilevel modifications of behavior, public policy, laws and enforcement, the environment, consumer products and engineering standards, as demonstrated with Frieden's Health Impact Pyramid. A greater understanding, however, is needed to explain the associations between tiers. While interventions that include modifications of the social environment are being field-tested, much more work needs to be done in measuring social-environmental change and in evaluating these programs to disentangle what works best. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

Reasons and motivations for the option of an engineering career in Portugal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dias, Diana

2011-08-01

Towards the end of their secondary education, students face significant pressures in their decision about their career plan. These pressures are internal and external, personal and social, individual and from the reference group. This paper aims at understanding the reasons driving engineering students' choices, their perceived needs and aspirations. Moreover, it discusses how, in that process, students are constrained by family and friends and are conditioned by factors such as their socioeconomic and cultural background, employability prospects and gender. The construction of a career map/plan and the reasons and motivations for the option of an engineering career are reviewed, based on the qualitative analysis of students' discourses. The data indicate the relevance of several criteria such as social status, intelligence, gender, competences, values and interests in the construction of career aspirations. All these levels are highly influenced by self-esteem, which is closely related to the social value of training options and career paths.

The association between tolerance for ambiguity and fear of negative evaluation: A study of engineering technology capstone courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dubikovsky, Sergey I.

For many students in engineering and engineering technology programs in the US, senior capstone design courses require students to form a team, define a problem, and find a feasible technical solution to address this problem. Students must integrate the knowledge and skills acquired during their studies at the college or university level. These truly integrative design activities do not have a single "correct" solution. Instead, there is an array of solutions, many of which could be used to achieve the final result. This ambiguity can cause students to experience anxiety during the projects. This study examined the main topics: • To what extent is a social anxiety (measured as fear of negative evaluation) related to tolerance for ambiguity in senior engineering capstone courses? • How does exposure to ambiguity prior to and during capstone courses affect tolerance for ambiguity? The study looked at the standard educational practices to see if they have unintended consequences, such a social anxiety in dealing with ambiguity. Those consequences are highly undesirable because they reduce students' learning. It was hypothesized that the lecture-based approaches that are more common in the first three years of study would not prepare students for self-directed capstone courses because the students would rarely have experienced problem-based learning before. The study used a quantitative approach and examined students' perceptions of their tolerance for ambiguity, and social anxiety before and after their senior capstone design experience. A survey instrument was adapted to measure exposure to ambiguity, which was studied as a potential moderator of the relationship between social anxiety and tolerance for ambiguity. The study indicated that social anxiety, as measured by fear of negative evaluation, does not play a major role in capstone courses. The second finding is that a single course, even if it was administered as a problem-based senior class, failed to increase students' tolerance for ambiguity. Students with low tolerance have more problems with ambiguity, whereas students with high tolerance can more easily endure changes and find it easier to act in the absence of complete information. The third important finding was that exposure to ambiguity prior to capstone courses does affect tolerance for ambiguity while controlling for instructor and if exposure to ambiguity is included as a moderator. It was not in the scope of this study to explore the effect of instructor more deeply, but this provides a direction for future research, especially in this time of expanding implementation of project- and problem-based learning methods in technical curricula.

Characteristics of the Process of Culture Development Project Activities (Culture of Social Engineering) at the Future Bachelors of Social Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikitina, Natalya I.; Romanova, Elena Yu.; Vasilyeva, Tatyana V.; Nikishina, Irina N.; Grebennikova, Veronica M.

2017-01-01

In modern Russia professional activity productivity of social work specialist depends largely on his abilities and skills in the field of social design. University graduate's (social work bachelor`s) high level of professional-project activity culture can be regarded as one of the necessary conditions of successful labour market adaptation of…

STEM: Science Technology Engineering Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnevale, Anthony P.; Smith, Nicole; Melton, Michelle

2011-01-01

The generative economic power and social influence of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has made the production of a capable science and engineering workforce a priority among business and policy leaders. They are rightly concerned that without a robust STEM workforce, the nation will become less competitive in the global…

Integrating Innovation Skills in an Introductory Engineering Design-Build Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liebenberg, Leon; Mathews, Edward Henry

2012-01-01

Modern engineering curricula have started to emphasize design, mostly in the form of design-build experiences. Apart from instilling important problem-solving skills, such pedagogical frameworks address the critical social skill aspects of engineering education due to their team-based, project-based nature. However, it is required of the…

Brains--Computers--Machines: Neural Engineering in Science Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chudler, Eric H.; Bergsman, Kristen Clapper

2016-01-01

Neural engineering is an emerging field of high relevance to students, teachers, and the general public. This feature presents online resources that educators and scientists can use to introduce students to neural engineering and to integrate core ideas from the life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, computer science, and engineering…

Engineering Communication Interface: An Engineering Multi-Disciplinary Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prescott, David; El-Sakran, Tharwat; Albasha, Lutfi; Aloul, Fadi; Al-Assaf, Yousef

2011-01-01

Well-developed professional communication skills, collaborative work practices, effective self-management and a clear understanding of social responsibility and ethical practices are essential for the new engineer who hopes to contribute to the profession and build a career. These attributes are in addition to the traditional sound knowledge of…

Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: increasing girls' interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes.

PubMed

Cheryan, Sapna; Master, Allison; Meltzoff, Andrew N

2015-01-01

Despite having made significant inroads into many traditionally male-dominated fields (e.g., biology, chemistry), women continue to be underrepresented in computer science and engineering. We propose that students' stereotypes about the culture of these fields-including the kind of people, the work involved, and the values of the field-steer girls away from choosing to enter them. Computer science and engineering are stereotyped in modern American culture as male-oriented fields that involve social isolation, an intense focus on machinery, and inborn brilliance. These stereotypes are compatible with qualities that are typically more valued in men than women in American culture. As a result, when computer science and engineering stereotypes are salient, girls report less interest in these fields than their male peers. However, altering these stereotypes-by broadening the representation of the people who do this work, the work itself, and the environments in which it occurs-significantly increases girls' sense of belonging and interest in the field. Academic stereotypes thus serve as gatekeepers, driving girls away from certain fields and constraining their learning opportunities and career aspirations.

Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: increasing girls’ interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes

PubMed Central

Cheryan, Sapna; Master, Allison; Meltzoff, Andrew N.

2015-01-01

Despite having made significant inroads into many traditionally male-dominated fields (e.g., biology, chemistry), women continue to be underrepresented in computer science and engineering. We propose that students’ stereotypes about the culture of these fields—including the kind of people, the work involved, and the values of the field—steer girls away from choosing to enter them. Computer science and engineering are stereotyped in modern American culture as male-oriented fields that involve social isolation, an intense focus on machinery, and inborn brilliance. These stereotypes are compatible with qualities that are typically more valued in men than women in American culture. As a result, when computer science and engineering stereotypes are salient, girls report less interest in these fields than their male peers. However, altering these stereotypes—by broadening the representation of the people who do this work, the work itself, and the environments in which it occurs—significantly increases girls’ sense of belonging and interest in the field. Academic stereotypes thus serve as gatekeepers, driving girls away from certain fields and constraining their learning opportunities and career aspirations. PMID:25717308

Organizational Influences on Interdisciplinary Interactions during Research and Design of Large-Scale Complex Engineered Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGowan, Anna-Maria R.; Seifert, Colleen M.; Papalambros, Panos Y.

2012-01-01

The design of large-scale complex engineered systems (LaCES) such as an aircraft is inherently interdisciplinary. Multiple engineering disciplines, drawing from a team of hundreds to thousands of engineers and scientists, are woven together throughout the research, development, and systems engineering processes to realize one system. Though research and development (R&D) is typically focused in single disciplines, the interdependencies involved in LaCES require interdisciplinary R&D efforts. This study investigates the interdisciplinary interactions that take place during the R&D and early conceptual design phases in the design of LaCES. Our theoretical framework is informed by both engineering practices and social science research on complex organizations. This paper provides preliminary perspective on some of the organizational influences on interdisciplinary interactions based on organization theory (specifically sensemaking), data from a survey of LaCES experts, and the authors experience in the research and design. The analysis reveals couplings between the engineered system and the organization that creates it. Survey respondents noted the importance of interdisciplinary interactions and their significant benefit to the engineered system, such as innovation and problem mitigation. Substantial obstacles to interdisciplinarity are uncovered beyond engineering that include communication and organizational challenges. Addressing these challenges may ultimately foster greater efficiencies in the design and development of LaCES and improved system performance by assisting with the collective integration of interdependent knowledge bases early in the R&D effort. This research suggests that organizational and human dynamics heavily influence and even constrain the engineering effort for large-scale complex systems.

Google matrix analysis of directed networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ermann, Leonardo; Frahm, Klaus M.; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2015-10-01

In the past decade modern societies have developed enormous communication and social networks. Their classification and information retrieval processing has become a formidable task for the society. Because of the rapid growth of the World Wide Web, and social and communication networks, new mathematical methods have been invented to characterize the properties of these networks in a more detailed and precise way. Various search engines extensively use such methods. It is highly important to develop new tools to classify and rank a massive amount of network information in a way that is adapted to internal network structures and characteristics. This review describes the Google matrix analysis of directed complex networks demonstrating its efficiency using various examples including the World Wide Web, Wikipedia, software architectures, world trade, social and citation networks, brain neural networks, DNA sequences, and Ulam networks. The analytical and numerical matrix methods used in this analysis originate from the fields of Markov chains, quantum chaos, and random matrix theory.

Practical Guidance on Science and Engineering Ethics Education for Instructors and Administrators: Papers and Summary from a Workshop, December 12, 2012

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benya, Frazier F., Ed.; Fletcher, Cameron H.,Ed.; Hollander, Rachelle D.,Ed.

2013-01-01

Over the last two decades, colleges and universities in the United States have significantly increased the formal ethics instruction they provide in science and engineering. Today, science and engineering programs socialize students into the values of scientists and engineers as well as their obligations in the conduct of scientific research and…

A multidimensional approach to examine student interdisciplinary learning in science and engineering in higher education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spelt, Elisabeth Jacoba Hendrika; Luning, Pieternelleke Arianne; van Boekel, Martinus A. J. S.; Mulder, Martin

2017-11-01

Preparing science and engineering students to work in interdisciplinary teams necessitates research on teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking. A multidimensional approach was taken to examine student interdisciplinary learning in a master course on food quality management. The collected 615 student experiences were analysed for the cognitive, emotional, and social learning dimensions using the learning theory of Illeris. Of these 615 experiences, the analysis showed that students reported 214, 194, and 207 times on, respectively, the emotional, the cognitive, and the social dimension. Per learning dimension, key learning experiences featuring interdisciplinary learning were identified such as 'frustrations in selecting and matching disciplinary knowledge to complex problems' (emotional), 'understanding how to apply theoretical models or concepts to real-world situations' (cognitive), and 'socially engaging with peers to recognise similarities in perceptions and experiences' (social). Furthermore, the results showed that students appreciated the cognitive dimension relatively more than the emotional and social dimensions.

Bioethics for Technical Experts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, Shigetaka

Along with rapidly expanding applications of life science and technology, technical experts have been implicated more and more often with ethical, social, and legal problems than before. It should be noted that in this background there are scientific and social uncertainty elements which are inevitable during the progress of life science in addition to the historically-established social unreliability to scientists and engineers. In order to solve these problems, therefore, we should establish the social governance with ‘relief’ and ‘reliance’ which enables for both citizens and engineers to share the awareness of the issues, to design social orders and criterions based on hypothetical sense of values for bioethics, to carry out practical use management of each subject carefully, and to improve the sense of values from hypothetical to universal. Concerning these measures, the technical experts can learn many things from the present performance in the medical field.

Fostering Social Engagement and Self-Efficacy in Later Life: Studies with Ubiquitous Computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morris, Margaret E.; Lundell, Jay; Dishongh, Terry; Needham, Brad

This chapter describes a multiyear project with a team of social scientists and engineers at Intel focused on emerging technologies and successful aging. Theories of behavioral change are linked to the capabilities of emerging technologies for capturing and reflecting variability in activity and health status. The technologies described in this chapter reflect an attempt to integrate psychological theory and ethnographic research with ubiquitous computing. Ethnographic research that we conducted at the outset of this project consistently underscored the value of social engagement for successful aging. It also pointed out the significant social barriers encountered by many older adults. These barriers - which include changes in lifestyle, mobility, and cognitive functioning - are compounded by a perceived inability to change isolating circumstances. To address these social needs and barriers, we developed a set of prototypes involving sensor networks and feedback displays. This chapter describes the social health technologies that we developed, reactions of the older adults and family caregivers who participated in in-home trials, and implications for future development. We also describe the need for tools to encourage self-awareness and self-efficacy for a broad range of health concerns.

Investigating the impact of a LEGO(TM)-based, engineering-oriented curriculum compared to an inquiry-based curriculum on fifth graders' content learning of simple machines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marulcu, Ismail

This mixed method study examined the impact of a LEGO-based, engineering-oriented curriculum compared to an inquiry-based curriculum on fifth graders' content learning of simple machines. This study takes a social constructivist theoretical stance that science learning involves learning scientific concepts and their relations to each other. From this perspective, students are active participants, and they construct their conceptual understanding through the guidance of their teacher. With the goal of better understanding the use of engineering education materials in classrooms the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council in the book "Engineering in K-12 Education" conducted an in-depth review of the potential benefits of including engineering in K--12 schools as (a) improved learning and achievement in science and mathematics, (b) increased awareness of engineering and the work of engineers, (c) understanding of and the ability to engage in engineering design, (d) interest in pursuing engineering as a career, and (e) increased technological literacy (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). However, they also noted a lack of reliable data and rigorous research to support these assertions. Data sources included identical written tests and interviews, classroom observations and videos, teacher interviews, and classroom artifacts. To investigate the impact of the design-based simple machines curriculum compared to the scientific inquiry-based simple machines curriculum on student learning outcomes, I compared the control and the experimental groups' scores on the tests and interviews by using ANCOVA. To analyze and characterize the classroom observation videotapes, I used Jordan and Henderson's (1995) method and divide them into episodes. My analyses revealed that the design-based Design a People Mover: Simple Machines unit was, if not better, as successful as the inquiry-based FOSS Levers and Pulleys unit in terms of students' content learning. I also found that students in the engineering group outperformed students in the control group in regards to their ability to answer open-ended questions when interviewed. Implications for students' science content learning and teachers' professional development are discussed.

Resources for Teachers. "Turning Ideas Into Reality: The Executive Branch Fosters Engineering Excellence." An Institute for Pre-College Science and Social Studies Teachers (West Hartford, Connecticut, February 18-19, 24-26, 1989). Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierce, Preston E., Comp.

A compilation of resources is provided for those interested in examining action taken by the executive branch of the federal government to foster scientific and engineering excellence in the United States in the nineteenth century. The resources are intended for use by pre-college secondary science and social studies teachers. Each of the…

Nanotechnology: Societal Implications - II. Individual Perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roco, Mihail C.; Bainbridge, William S.

Advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology promise to have major impacts on human health, wealth, and peace in the coming decades. Among the expected breakthroughs are `designer' materials created from directed assembly of atoms and molecules, and the emergence of entirely new phenomena in chemistry and physics. This book includes a collection of essays by leading scientists, engineers, and social scientists reviewing the possible uses of these impending developments in various applications, and the corresponding issues that they raise.

Nanotechnology: Societal Implications - I. Maximising Benefits for Humanity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roco, Mihail C.; Bainbridge, William S.

Advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology promise to have major impacts on human health, wealth, and peace in the coming decades. Among the expected breakthroughs are `designer' materials created from directed assembly of atoms and molecules, and the emergence of entirely new phenomena in chemistry and physics. This book includes a collection of essays by leading scientists, engineers, and social scientists reviewing the possible uses of these impending developments in various applications, and the corresponding issues that they raise.

The Top 10 Challenges in Extreme-Scale Visual Analytics

PubMed Central

Wong, Pak Chung; Shen, Han-Wei; Johnson, Christopher R.; Chen, Chaomei; Ross, Robert B.

2013-01-01

In this issue of CG&A, researchers share their R&D findings and results on applying visual analytics (VA) to extreme-scale data. Having surveyed these articles and other R&D in this field, we’ve identified what we consider the top challenges of extreme-scale VA. To cater to the magazine’s diverse readership, our discussion evaluates challenges in all areas of the field, including algorithms, hardware, software, engineering, and social issues. PMID:24489426

Did we really #prayfornepal? Instagram posts as a massive digital funeral in Nepal earthquake aftermath

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamil, P. I.; Pratama, A. J.; Hidayatulloh, A.

2016-05-01

Social media has been part of our daily life for years, and now it has become a treasure trove of data for social scientists to mine. Using our own data mining engine we downloaded 1500 Instagram posts related to the Nepal earthquake in April 2015, a disaster which caused tremendous losses counted in human lives and infrastructures. We predicted that the social media will be a place where people respond and express themselves emotionally in light of a disaster of such massive scale, a "megadeath" event. We ended up with data on 1017 posts tracked with the hashtag #prayfornepal, consisting of the post's date, time, geolocation, image, post ID, username and ID, caption, and hashtag. We categorized the posts into 7 categories and found that most of the photos (30,29%) are related to Nepal but not directly related to the disasters, which reflects death imprint, one of psychosocial responses after a megadeath event. Other analyses were done to compare each photo category, including geo-location, hashtag network and caption network which will be visualized with ArcGIS, NodeXL, Gephi, and our own word cloud engine to examine other digital reactions to Nepal Earthquake in Instagram. This study can give an overview of how community reacts to a disaster in digital world and utilize it for disaster response and awareness.

System engineering of aerospace and advanced technology programs at an astronautics company (record of study)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kennedy, Mike O.

An internship with the Martin Marietta Astronautics Group that was performed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Engineering degree is documented. The internship included assignments with two Martin Marietta companies, on three different programs and in four areas of engineering. A first-hand look is taken at system engineering, SDI and advanced program management, and the way Martin Marietta conducts business. The five internship objectives were related to assignments in system modeling, system integration, engineering analysis and technical management: (1) The effects of thermally and mechanically induced mirror surface distortions upon the wavefront intensity field of a high energy laser beam passing through the optical train of a space-based laser system were modeled. (2) The restrictive as opposed to the broad interpretation of the 1972 ABM Treaty, and the capability of the Strategic Defense Initiative Zenith Star Program to comply with the Treaty were evaluated. (3) The capability of Martin Marietta to develop an automated analysis system to integrate and analyze Superconducting Super Collider detector designs was investigated. (4) The thermal models that were developed in support of the Small Intercontinental Ballistic Missile flight tests were described. (5) The technical management role of the Product Integrity Engineer assigned to the Zenith Star spacecraft's Beam Control and Transfer Subsystem was discussed. The relationships between the engineering, business, security and social concerns associated with the practice of engineering and the management of programs by a major defense contractor are explored.

Social norms of "good" design: Interdisciplinary perspectives from a survey of engineers and clinicians in bioengineering.

PubMed

Johnson, Angela N

2016-08-01

In bioengineering training for new researchers and engineers, a great deal of time is spent discussing what constitutes "good" design. Conceptualization of good design, however, varies widely across interdisciplinary team members, with potential to both foster innovation or lead to unproductive conflict. To explore how groups central to bioengineering teams (physicians/clinicians and engineers/physicists) conceptualize good design, we asked 176 professionals in bioengineering to complete a comprehensive online survey including items designed to assess cognitive and moral foundations (validated MFQ30 tool) and custom items assessing perceptions on good design in three areas (good design characteristics, reputation of design approvers, and perceived design patient/consumer suitability). Of those that responded, 82 completed all quantitative survey sections and were included in this preliminary analysis. Correlations between response areas were examined to explore the possible links between cognitive and moral biases and perspectives on good design. The survey results indicated that both groups were more conservative than average Americans based on previous reports, and clinicians scored higher on average for all MFQ30 domains. Numerous significant correlations with good design were observed among clinicians, while engineers/physicists most closely correlated good design with prescriber approval and scientific/technical literature. The exploratory analysis demonstrated the potential utility of sociological frameworks to explore relationships in design thinking with potential utility to stimulate thriving conversation on team-based design thinking in bioengineering education and practice.

The Influence of Social Style in Evaluating Academic Presentations of Engineering Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortiz València, Héctor; García Carrillo, Águeda; González Benítez, Margarita

2012-01-01

An individual's social style is determined by behavioral patterns in the interactions with their peers. Some studies suggest that social style may influence the way in which an individual's performance is evaluated. We studied the effects that speakers' and evaluators' social styles have on the marks given for end-of-term presentations in a…

Using Memes and Memetic Processes to Explain Social and Conceptual Influences on Student Understanding about Complex Socio-Scientific Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Susan

2008-01-01

This study investigated seventh grade learners' decision making about genetic engineering concepts and applications. A social network analyses supported by technology tracked changes in student understanding with a focus on social and conceptual influences. Results indicated that several social and conceptual mechanisms potentially affected how…

Teaching Sustainable Entrepreneurship to Engineering Students: The Case of Delft University of Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonnet, Hans; Quist, Jaco; Hoogwater, Daan; Spaans, Johan; Wehrmann, Caroline

2006-01-01

Sustainability, enhancement of personal skills, social aspects of technology, management and entrepreneurship are of increasing concern for engineers and therefore for engineering education. In 1996 at Delft University of Technology this led to the introduction of a subject on sustainable entrepreneurship and technology in the course programmes of…

JPRS Report, Science & Technology, Europe & Latin America

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-04-06

courses and in polytechnics a growing number of undergraduate research theses [ tesi di laurea] are increasingly coming to resemble authentic feasibility...Information Science Eleven Priorities Research Priority Actions — Microbiological engineering —Enzyme engineering —Biotechnological engineering —Food...Foodstuffs Medicine Human and social sciences Technology, computer-integrated manufacturing Electronics, data processing Microbiological

"Managing by Not Managing": How Gay Engineering Students Manage Sexual Orientation Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Bryce E.

2017-01-01

From a social constructivist paradigm I explored the experiences of 7 openly gay engineering students to understand how, if at all, they made sense of the intersections between their engineering and sexual orientation identities. By eliciting stories through individual and focus group interviews, a narrative approach allowed me to capture the…

Foreign Science and Engineering Doctoral Attainment at American Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Robert V.

2010-01-01

This dissertation analyzes the nearly 100,000 foreign students who attained science and engineering (S&E) doctorates in the five fields of physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, and social and behavioral sciences at American universities from 1994 to 2005. Two models are presented. In the first model…

Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academies Press, 2016

2016-01-01

Ethical practice in engineering is critical for ensuring public trust in the field and in its practitioners, especially as engineers increasingly tackle international and socially complex problems that combine technical and ethical challenges. This report aims to raise awareness of the variety of exceptional programs and strategies for improving…

Empowering Marine Corps System Administrators: Taxonomy of Training

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-03-01

of Systems and Engineering Management Graduate School of Engineering and Management Air Force Institute of Technology Air University Air...Information Assurance ................................................................................ 16 2.8 Attacks, Social Engineering & Online Users... drawbridge , outer castle walls, inner castle walls and the keep. No single form of defense is foolproof, thus each layer compensates for deficiencies

Two Brief Interventions to Mitigate a "Chilly Climate" Transform Women's Experience, Relationships, and Achievement in Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walton, Gregory M.; Logel, Christine; Peach, Jennifer M.; Spencer, Steven J.; Zanna, Mark P.

2015-01-01

In a randomized-controlled trial, we tested 2 brief interventions designed to mitigate the effects of a "chilly climate" women may experience in engineering, especially in male-dominated fields. Participants were students entering a selective university engineering program. The "social-belonging intervention" aimed to protect…

Social media utilization in the cochlear implant community.

PubMed

Saxena, Rajeev C; Lehmann, Ashton E; Hight, A Ed; Darrow, Keith; Remenschneider, Aaron; Kozin, Elliott D; Lee, Daniel J

2015-02-01

More than 200,000 individuals worldwide have received a cochlear implant (CI). Social media Websites may provide a paramedical community for those who possess or are interested in a CI. The utilization patterns of social media by the CI community, however, have not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate participation of the CI community in social media Websites. We conducted a systematic survey of online CI-related social media sources. Using standard search engines, the search terms cochlear implant, auditory implant, forum, and blog identified relevant social media platforms and Websites. Social media participation was quantified by indices of membership and posts. Social media sources included Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and online forums. Each source was assigned one of six functional categories based on its description. No intervention was performed. We conducted all online searches in February 2014. Total counts of each CI-related social media source were summed, and descriptive statistics were calculated. More than 350 sources were identified, including 60 Facebook groups, 36 Facebook pages, 48 Twitter accounts, 121 YouTube videos, 13 forums, and 95 blogs. The most active online communities were Twitter accounts, which totaled 35,577 members, and Facebook groups, which totaled 17,971 members. CI users participated in Facebook groups primarily for general information/support (68%). Online forums were the next most active online communities by membership. The largest forum contained approximately 9,500 topics with roughly 127,000 posts. CI users primarily shared personal stories through blogs (92%), Twitter (71%), and YouTube (62%). The CI community engages in the use of a wide range of online social media sources. The CI community uses social media for support, advocacy, rehabilitation information, research endeavors, and sharing of personal experiences. Future studies are needed to investigate how social media Websites may be harnessed to improve patient-provider relationships and potentially used to augment patient education. American Academy of Audiology.

Social Media Utilization in the Cochlear Implant Community

PubMed Central

Saxena, Rajeev C.; Lehmann, Ashton E.; Hight, A. Ed; Darrow, Keith; Remenschneider, Aaron; Kozin, Elliott D.; Lee, Daniel J.

2015-01-01

Background More than 200,000 individuals worldwide have received a cochlear implant (CI). Social media Websites may provide a paramedical community for those who possess or are interested in a CI. The utilization patterns of social media by the CI community, however, have not been thoroughly investigated. Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate participation of the CI community in social media Websites. Research Design We conducted a systematic survey of online CI-related social media sources. Using standard search engines, the search terms cochlear implant, auditory implant, forum, and blog identified relevant social media platforms and Websites. Social media participation was quantified by indices of membership and posts. Study Sample Social media sources included Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and online forums. Each source was assigned one of six functional categories based on its description. Intervention No intervention was performed. Data Collection and Analysis We conducted all online searches in February 2014. Total counts of each CI-related social media source were summed, and descriptive statistics were calculated. Results More than 350 sources were identified, including 60 Facebook groups, 36 Facebook pages, 48 Twitter accounts, 121 YouTube videos, 13 forums, and 95 blogs. The most active online communities were Twitter accounts, which totaled 35,577 members, and Facebook groups, which totaled 17,971 members. CI users participated in Facebook groups primarily for general information/support (68%). Online forums were the next most active online communities by membership. The largest forum contained approximately 9,500 topics with roughly 127,000 posts. CI users primarily shared personal stories through blogs (92%), Twitter (71%), and YouTube (62%). Conclusions The CI community engages in the use of a wide range of online social media sources. The CI community uses social media for support, advocacy, rehabilitation information, research endeavors, and sharing of personal experiences. Future studies are needed to investigate how social media Websites may be harnessed to improve patient-provider relationships and potentially used to augment patient education. PMID:25690778

Adolescent girls' experiences and gender-related beliefs in relation to their motivation in math/science and english.

PubMed

Leaper, Campbell; Farkas, Timea; Brown, Christia Spears

2012-03-01

Although the gender gap has dramatically narrowed in recent decades, women remain underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This study examined social and personal factors in relation to adolescent girls' motivation in STEM (math/science) versus non-STEM (English) subjects. An ethnically diverse sample of 579 girls ages 13-18 years (M = 15) in the U.S. completed questionnaires measuring their academic achievement, ability beliefs, values, and experiences. Social and personal factors were hypothesized to predict motivation (expectancy-value) differently in math/science (M/S) and English. Social factors included perceived M/S and English support from parents and peers. Personal factors included facets of gender identity (felt conformity pressure, gender typicality, gender-role contentedness), gender-related attitudes, and exposure to feminism. In addition, grades, age, parents' education, and ethnicity were controlled. Girls' M/S motivation was positively associated with mother M/S support, peer M/S support, gender-egalitarian beliefs, and exposure to feminism; it was negatively related to peer English support. Girls' English motivation was positively associated with peer English support as well as felt pressure from parents; it was negatively related to peer M/S support and felt peer pressure. The findings suggest that social and personal factors may influence girls' motivation in domain-specific ways.

Where Are All the Women Engineers? An Insider's View of Socialization and Power in Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christman, Jeanne

2017-01-01

Despite more than thirty years of the underrepresentation of women in engineering being a persistent concern, research on the cause of the problem has not been successful in reversing the trend. A plethora of theories as to why females are not entering engineering exist, yet they only address issues on the surface and do not attend to a…

Reformulation of Engineering Education at Undergraduate Level in the Faculdad de Ingenieria y Ciencias Hidricas Universidad Nacional del Litoral--Water Resources and Engineering Degrees.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theiler, Julio; Isla, Miguel; Arrillaga, Hugo; Ceirano, Eduardo; Lozeco, Cristobal

This paper explains the educational changes in the Water Resources Engineering program offered by the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe, Argentina, for the last 20 years at the undergraduate level. The need for modernizing the engineering teaching program occurred due to changes in the social system in which the concepts of development…

The Historical Basis of Engineering Ethics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furuya, Keiichi

There are different objects and motives between scientists and engineers. Science is to create new knowledge (episteme), while technology (techne) is to create new utility. Both types of social responsibility are required for engineer, because modern technology is tightly connected with science. The relationship between ethics for scientists and engineers is discussed as an evolution of ethical objects. A short history of engineering societies in U.S.A. and Japan are introduced with their ethical perspectives. As a conclusion, respect for fundamental rights for existence of those who stand in, with, and around engineers and their societies is needed for better engineering ethics.

Survey of quality, readability, and social reach of websites on osteosarcoma in adolescents.

PubMed

Lam, Catherine G; Roter, Debra L; Cohen, Kenneth J

2013-01-01

Little is known about Internet resources for adolescent patients. This study assessed the quality, readability, and social reach of websites on an illustrative adolescent cancer diagnosis, osteosarcoma. The top 50 results from four queries in two search engines were screened. Quality and readability were determined using standard DISCERN tool, Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kinkaid Grade. Social reach was gauged by social networking links, global website traffic, and a pilot adolescent-specificity measure. Of 400 websites assessed, 56 (14%) met inclusion criteria. Websites' mean quality was fair (49.8 on 75-point scale; range 31.0-66.0, poor to excellent); 86% failed readability standards (Grade>8); 75% offered at least one social networking link; and 34% offered site-specific social media. More than 60% received over 50,000 visits in the past month. Only 12.5% included adolescent-specific content. Of the 10 websites ranked highest for quality, only one achieved both readability targets and adolescent-specific content. Although some patient-oriented websites on osteosarcoma are of acceptable quality, most failed readability targets, and few appeared to address adolescents. Better awareness of Internet health resources and social media for adolescents with cancer is needed to address gaps, promote health literacy and facilitate patient-provider communication. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quality of web-based information on social phobia: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Khazaal, Yasser; Fernandez, Sebastien; Cochand, Sophie; Reboh, Isabel; Zullino, Daniele

2008-01-01

The objective of the study is to evaluate the quality of web-based information on social phobia and to investigate particular quality indicators. Two keywords, "Social phobia" and "Social Anxiety Disorder", were entered into five popular World Wide Web search engines. Websites were assessed with a standardized proforma designed to rate sites on the basis of accountability, presentation, interactivity, readability, and content quality. "Health On the Net" (HON) quality label and DISCERN scale scores aiding people without content expertise to assess quality of written health publication were used to verify their efficiency as quality indicators. This study evaluates the quality of web-based information on social phobia. On the 200 identified links, 58 were included. On the basis of outcome measures, the overall quality of the sites turned out to be poor. DISCERN and HON label were indicators of good quality indicators. Accountability criteria were poor indicators of site quality. Although social phobia education Websites for patients are common, educational material highly varies in quality and content. There is a need for better evidence-based information about social phobia on the Web and a need to reconsider the role of accountability criteria as indicators of site quality. Clinicians should advise patients of the HON label and DISCERN as useful indicators of site quality. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Mentornet - E-Mentoring for Women Students in Engineering and Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Single, Peg Boyle; Muller, Carol B.; Cunningham, Christine M.; Single, Richard M.; Carlsen, William S.

MentorNet www.MentorNet.net;, the E-Mentoring Network for Diversity in Engineering and Science, addresses the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics "STEM". MentorNet offers a multiinstitutional, structured, electronic mentoring "e-mentoring" program that pairs undergraduate and graduate students, primarily women, with professionals and supports them through e-mentoring relationships of specified lengths. The program evaluations established that over 90% of the participants would recommend MentorNet to a friend or colleague. The e-mentoring program allowed participants to establish satisfactory and beneficial e-mentoring relationships based on investments of approximately 20 minutes per week - in between more serious exchanges, email exchanges that included light-hearted social interactions and jokes were an important aspect of sustaining e-mentoring relationships. Participation in MentorNet increased the students' self-confidence in their f elds - desire to obtain work in industry, national laboratories, or national agencies; and intent to pursue careers in their fields. Three years of evaluation results support the need for and efficacy of the program.

Asian and Pacific Islander women scientists and engineers: A narrative exploration of model minority, gender, and racial stereotypes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chinn, Pauline W. U.

2002-04-01

This qualitative study uses narrative methodology to understand what becoming a scientist or engineer entails for women stereotyped as model minorities. Interviews with four Chinese and Japanese women focused on the social contexts in which science is encountered in classrooms, families, and community. Interpretation was guided by theories that individuals construct personal narratives mediated by cultural symbolic systems to make meaning of experiences. Narratives revealed that Confucian cultural scripts shaped gender expectations even in families several generations in America. Regardless of parents' level of education, country of birth, and number of children, educational expectations, and resources were lower for daughters. Parents expected daughters to be compliant, feminine, and educated enough to be marriageable. Findings suggest K-12 gender equity science practices encouraged development of the women's interests and abilities but did not affect parental beliefs. The author's 1999 study of Hawaiians/Pacific Islander and Filipina female engineers is included in implications for teacher education programs sensitive to gender, culture, ethnicity, and language.

Improving epistemological beliefs and moral judgment through an STS-based science ethics education program.

PubMed

Han, Hyemin; Jeong, Changwoo

2014-03-01

This study develops a Science-Technology-Society (STS)-based science ethics education program for high school students majoring in or planning to major in science and engineering. Our education program includes the fields of philosophy, history, sociology and ethics of science and technology, and other STS-related theories. We expected our STS-based science ethics education program to promote students' epistemological beliefs and moral judgment development. These psychological constructs are needed to properly solve complicated moral and social dilemmas in the fields of science and engineering. We applied this program to a group of Korean high school science students gifted in science and engineering. To measure the effects of this program, we used an essay-based qualitative measurement. The results indicate that there was significant development in both epistemological beliefs and moral judgment. In closing, we briefly discuss the need to develop epistemological beliefs and moral judgment using an STS-based science ethics education program.

Engage key social concepts for sustainability

Treesearch

C. C. Hicks; A. Levine; A. Agrawal; X. Basurto; S. J. Breslow; C. Carothers; Susan Charnley; S. Coulthard; N. Dolsak; J. Donatuto; C. Garcia-Quijano; M. B. Mascia; K. Norman; M. R. Poe; T. Satterfield; K. St. Martin; P. S. Levin

2016-01-01

With humans altering climate processes, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functions (1), governments and societies confront the challenge of shaping a sustainable future for people and nature. Policies and practices to address these challenges must draw on social sciences, along with natural sciences and engineering (2). Although various social science approaches...

Beta Testing in Social Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Traube, Dorian E.; Begun, Stephanie; Petering, Robin; Flynn, Marilyn L.

2017-01-01

The field of social work does not currently have a widely adopted method for expediting innovations into micro- or macropractice. Although it is common in fields such as engineering and business to have formal processes for accelerating scientific advances into consumer markets, few comparable mechanisms exist in the social sciences or social…

Social Networking on the Semantic Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finin, Tim; Ding, Li; Zhou, Lina; Joshi, Anupam

2005-01-01

Purpose: Aims to investigate the way that the semantic web is being used to represent and process social network information. Design/methodology/approach: The Swoogle semantic web search engine was used to construct several large data sets of Resource Description Framework (RDF) documents with social network information that were encoded using the…

An Educational and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem to Actualize Technology-Based Social Ventures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mehta, Khanjan; Zappe, Sarah; Brannon, Mary Lynn; Zhao, Yu

2016-01-01

The Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program engages students and faculty across Penn State in the rigorous research, design, field-testing, and launch of technology-based social enterprises that address global development challenges. HESE ventures are embedded in a series of five courses that integrate learning,…

Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes.

PubMed

Rempel, Emily S; Wilson, Emma N; Durrant, Hannah; Barnett, Julie

2017-10-12

Our aim is to review, and qualitatively evaluate, the aims and measures of social referral programmes. Our first objective is to identify the aims of social referral initiatives. Our second objective is to identify the measures used to evaluate whether the aims of social referral were met. Literature review. Social referral programmes, also called social prescribing and emergency case referral, link primary and secondary healthcare with community services, often under the guise of decreasing health system costs. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we undertook a literature review to address that aim. We searched in five academic online databases and in one online non-academic search engine, including both academic and grey literature, for articles referring to 'social prescribing' or 'community referral'. We identified 41 relevant articles and reports. After extracting the aims, measures and type of study, we found that most social referral programmes aimed to address a wide variety of system and individual health problems. This included cost savings, resource reallocation and improved mental, physical and social well-being. Across the 41 studies and reports, there were 154 different kinds of measures or methods of evaluation identified. Of these, the most commonly used individual measure was the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, used in nine studies and reports. These inconsistencies in aims and measures used pose serious problems when social prescribing and other referral programmes are often advertised as a solution to health services-budgeting constraints, as well as a range of chronic mental and physical health conditions. We recommend researchers and local community organisers alike to critically evaluate for whom, where and why their social referral programmes 'work'. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Mission Engineering Competencies Technical Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-04-30

generate a mission capability. Note that foundational skills – e.g. math , natural or social sciences, general engineering skills - are not listed in...basic understanding of math , sciences, and the fundamentals of engineering are assumed, the foundational building block for mission...April 30, 2018 69 The Helix model focuses on 6 proficiency areas (Hutchison et al. 2018): 1. Math /Science/General

A Guideline of Using Case Method in Software Engineering Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zainal, Dzulaiha Aryanee Putri; Razali, Rozilawati; Shukur, Zarina

2014-01-01

Software Engineering (SE) education has been reported to fall short in producing high quality software engineers. In seeking alternative solutions, Case Method (CM) is regarded as having potential to solve the issue. CM is a teaching and learning (T&L) method that has been found to be effective in Social Science education. In principle,…

Success Factors for Using Case Method in Teaching and Learning Software Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razali, Rozilawati; Zainal, Dzulaiha Aryanee Putri

2013-01-01

The Case Method (CM) has long been used effectively in Social Science education. Its potential use in Applied Science such as Software Engineering (SE) however has yet to be further explored. SE is an engineering discipline that concerns the principles, methods and tools used throughout the software development lifecycle. In CM, subjects are…

Examining Entrepreneurial Competencies and their Relationship to Self-Employment Intentions among Engineering Students: A Case Study from India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumara, S. A. Vasantha; Kumar, Y. Vijaya

2010-01-01

The growth of technological institutions in India has been exponential and supply has exceeded demand in the job market. Against this background, it is a social responsibility of universities to provide alternative career options for engineering graduates. To encourage entrepreneurship careers among engineering graduates, the Visvesvarayya…

The Influence of Protege-Mentor Relationships and Social Networks on Women Doctoral Students' Academic Career Aspirations in Physical Sciences and Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gu, Yu

2012-01-01

Physical sciences and engineering doctoral programs serve as the most important conduit through which future academics are trained and prepared in these disciplines. This study examined women doctoral students' protege-mentor relationships in Physical sciences and engineering programs. Particularly, the study examined the influence of such…

Chemical Engineering in the Spectrum of Knowledge.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutija, Davor P.; Prausnitz, John M.

1990-01-01

Provides three classroom examples showing students how chemical engineering techniques can supply partial answers to social questions, such as environmental issues. Examples are depletion of the ozone layer, nuclear winter, and air pollution by chemical solvents. (YP)

Building a Narrative Based Requirements Engineering Mediation Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Nan; Hall, Tracy; Barker, Trevor

This paper presents a narrative-based Requirements Engineering (RE) mediation model to help RE practitioners to effectively identify, define, and resolve conflicts of interest, goals, and requirements. Within the SPI community, there is a common belief that social, human, and organizational issues significantly impact on the effectiveness of software process improvement in general and the requirements engineering process in particularl. Conflicts among different stakeholders are an important human and social issue that need more research attention in the SPI and RE community. By drawing on the conflict resolution literature and IS literature, we argue that conflict resolution in RE is a mediated process, in which a requirements engineer can act as a mediator among different stakeholders. To address socio-psychological aspects of conflict in RE and SPI, Winslade and Monk (2000)'s narrative mediation model is introduced, justified, and translated into the context of RE.

Chesapeake Bay Tidal Flooding Study. Appendix D. Social and Cultural Resources. Appendix E. Engineering Design and Cost Estimates. Appendix F. Economics.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-09-01

provided by private airline. Facilities and services include fuel, storage and outside tiedown, instruction, rental planes, unicorn radio and aircraft...project the population to grow between 41 and 44.5 percent from 1980 to 2030. The greatest increases in population are anticipated for Chesapeake and...VIRGINIA DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS Poquoson has been one of the fastest growing cities in Virginia over the past 20 years. While the surrounding

University degrees consistent with agricultural production in the European Union

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perdigones, Alicia; del Cerro, Jesus; Tarquis, Ana Maria; Benedicto, Susana; García, Jose Luis

2013-04-01

Degrees clearly oriented to rural and agricultural engineering are distinguished from the rest of the engineering areas by the need to involve the biological phenomena of engineering calculations. These degrees, which include subjects such as crop production, biotechnology and physics, among others, have evolved tremendously over the last ten years, implanting new curricula and introducing new specialties such as those dedicated to the environment or rural development, thereby adapting new social, economic and environmental aspects of each country. Currently being finalized to implement new titles in most Spanish universities, and in rest of Europe, following the guidelines set by Bologna. The process of elaboration of these degrees is complicated precisely because of the great variety of areas and subjects involved in these degrees. In this paper we study, for several countries of the European Union, the core subjects of the university degrees of agricultural engineering and the correlations between the core contents and the importance of the related uses of the soil in the different sectors of crop production (arable crops, horticulture, fruit growing, gardening, etc.) as well as other socio-economic criteria. The objective is to detect if the design of the core content is consistent in each country with the importance of the related socio-economic sector. Key-words: curriculum, crop production, agricultural engineer.

Engineering the path to higher-order thinking in elementary education: A problem-based learning approach for STEM integration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rehmat, Abeera Parvaiz

As we progress into the 21st century, higher-order thinking skills and achievement in science and math are essential to meet the educational requirement of STEM careers. Educators need to think of innovative ways to engage and prepare students for current and future challenges while cultivating an interest among students in STEM disciplines. An instructional pedagogy that can capture students' attention, support interdisciplinary STEM practices, and foster higher-order thinking skills is problem-based learning. Problem-based learning embedded in the social constructivist view of teaching and learning (Savery & Duffy, 1995) promotes self-regulated learning that is enhanced through exploration, cooperative social activity, and discourse (Fosnot, 1996). This quasi-experimental mixed methods study was conducted with 98 fourth grade students. The study utilized STEM content assessments, a standardized critical thinking test, STEM attitude survey, PBL questionnaire, and field notes from classroom observations to investigate the impact of problem-based learning on students' content knowledge, critical thinking, and their attitude towards STEM. Subsequently, it explored students' experiences of STEM integration in a PBL environment. The quantitative results revealed a significant difference between groups in regards to their content knowledge, critical thinking skills, and STEM attitude. From the qualitative results, three themes emerged: learning approaches, increased interaction, and design and engineering implementation. From the overall data set, students described the PBL environment to be highly interactive that prompted them to employ multiple approaches, including design and engineering to solve the problem.

The Study on Neuro-IE Management Software in Manufacturing Enterprises. -The Application of Video Analysis Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bian, Jun; Fu, Huijian; Shang, Qian; Zhou, Xiangyang; Ma, Qingguo

This paper analyzes the outstanding problems in current industrial production by reviewing the three stages of the Industrial Engineering Development. Based on investigations and interviews in enterprises, we propose the new idea of applying "computer video analysis technology" to new industrial engineering management software, and add "loose-coefficient" of the working station to this software in order to arrange scientific and humanistic production. Meanwhile, we suggest utilizing Biofeedback Technology to promote further research on "the rules of workers' physiological, psychological and emotional changes in production". This new kind of combination will push forward industrial engineering theories and benefit enterprises in progressing towards flexible social production, thus it will be of great theory innovation value, social significance and application value.

UNM in the Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quantum: Research & Scholarship, 1998

1998-01-01

Profiles 10 University of New Mexico community programs: University Art Museum, Rio Grande and Four Corners Writing Projects, Blacks in the Southwest (exhibit), New Mexico Engineering Research Institute's Environmental Finance Center, Adolescent Social Action Program, Minority Engineering Programs, Rural Community College Initiative, Valencia…

Space Settlements: A Design Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Richard D. (Editor); Holbrow, Charles (Editor)

1977-01-01

Nineteen professors of engineering, physical science, social science, and architecture, three volunteers, six students, a technical director, and two co-directors worked for ten weeks to construct a convincing picture of how people might permanently sustain life in space on a large scale, and to design a system for the colonization of space. Because the idea of colonizing space has awakened strong public interest, the document presented is written to be understood by the educated public and specialists in other fields. It also includes considerable background material. A table of units and conversion factors is included to aid the reader in interpreting the units of the metric system used in the report.

Space Operations Learning Center Facebook Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lui, Ben; Milner, Barbara; Binebrink, Dan; Kuok, Heng

2012-01-01

The proposed Space Operations Learning Center (SOLC) Facebook module, initially code-named Spaceville, is intended to be an educational online game utilizing the latest social networking technology to reach a broad audience base and inspire young audiences to be interested in math, science, and engineering. Spaceville will be a Facebook application/ game with the goal of combining learning with a fun game and social environment. The mission of the game is to build a scientific outpost on the Moon or Mars and expand the colony. Game activities include collecting resources, trading resources, completing simple science experiments, and building architectures such as laboratories, habitats, greenhouses, machine shops, etc. The player is awarded with points and achievement levels. The player s ability increases as his/her points and levels increase. A player can interact with other players using multiplayer Facebook functionality. As a result, a player can discover unexpected treasures through scientific missions, engineering, and working with others. The player creates his/her own avatar with his/her selection of its unique appearance, and names the character. The player controls the avatar to perform activities such as collecting oxygen molecules or building a habitat. From observations of other successful social online games such as Farmville and Restaurant City, a common element of these games is having eye-catching and cartoonish characters, and interesting animations for all activities. This will create a fun, educational, and rewarding environment. The player needs to accumulate points in order to be awarded special items needed for advancing to higher levels. Trophies will be awarded to the player when certain goals are reached or tasks are completed. In order to acquire some special items needed for advancement in the game, the player will need to visit his/her neighboring towns to discover the items. This is the social aspect of the game that requires the player to go out of his/her own establishment to explore what is in the neighborhood. Spaceville will take advantage of Facebook s successful architecture to inspire a new audience of scientists and engineers for the future.

Assessing Coupled Social Ecological Flood Vulnerability from Uttarakhand, India, to the State of New York with Google Earth Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tellman, B.; Schwarz, B.

2014-12-01

This talk describes the development of a web application to predict and communicate vulnerability to floods given publicly available data, disaster science, and geotech cloud capabilities. The proof of concept in Google Earth Engine API with initial testing on case studies in New York and Utterakhand India demonstrates the potential of highly parallelized cloud computing to model socio-ecological disaster vulnerability at high spatial and temporal resolution and in near real time. Cloud computing facilitates statistical modeling with variables derived from large public social and ecological data sets, including census data, nighttime lights (NTL), and World Pop to derive social parameters together with elevation, satellite imagery, rainfall, and observed flood data from Dartmouth Flood Observatory to derive biophysical parameters. While more traditional, physically based hydrological models that rely on flow algorithms and numerical methods are currently unavailable in parallelized computing platforms like Google Earth Engine, there is high potential to explore "data driven" modeling that trades physics for statistics in a parallelized environment. A data driven approach to flood modeling with geographically weighted logistic regression has been initially tested on Hurricane Irene in southeastern New York. Comparison of model results with observed flood data reveals a 97% accuracy of the model to predict flooded pixels. Testing on multiple storms is required to further validate this initial promising approach. A statistical social-ecological flood model that could produce rapid vulnerability assessments to predict who might require immediate evacuation and where could serve as an early warning. This type of early warning system would be especially relevant in data poor places lacking the computing power, high resolution data such as LiDar and stream gauges, or hydrologic expertise to run physically based models in real time. As the data-driven model presented relies on globally available data, the only real time data input required would be typical data from a weather service, e.g. precipitation or coarse resolution flood prediction. However, model uncertainty will vary locally depending upon the resolution and frequency of observed flood and socio-economic damage impact data.

Social cost impact assessment of pipeline infrastructure projects

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Matthews, John C., E-mail: matthewsj@battelle.org; Allouche, Erez N., E-mail: allouche@latech.edu; Sterling, Raymond L., E-mail: sterling@latech.edu

A key advantage of trenchless construction methods compared with traditional open-cut methods is their ability to install or rehabilitate underground utility systems with limited disruption to the surrounding built and natural environments. The equivalent monetary values of these disruptions are commonly called social costs. Social costs are often ignored by engineers or project managers during project planning and design phases, partially because they cannot be calculated using standard estimating methods. In recent years some approaches for estimating social costs were presented. Nevertheless, the cost data needed for validation of these estimating methods is lacking. Development of such social cost databasesmore » can be accomplished by compiling relevant information reported in various case histories. This paper identifies eight most important social cost categories, presents mathematical methods for calculating them, and summarizes the social cost impacts for two pipeline construction projects. The case histories are analyzed in order to identify trends for the various social cost categories. The effectiveness of the methods used to estimate these values is also discussed. These findings are valuable for pipeline infrastructure engineers making renewal technology selection decisions by providing a more accurate process for the assessment of social costs and impacts. - Highlights: • Identified the eight most important social cost factors for pipeline construction • Presented mathematical methods for calculating those social cost factors • Summarized social cost impacts for two pipeline construction projects • Analyzed those projects to identify trends for the social cost factors.« less

Relations with Faculty as Social Capital for College Students: Evidence from Puerto Rico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dika, Sandra L.

2012-01-01

In this study, a social capital framework was adopted to investigate the extent to which academically focused interactions with faculty and other institutional agents serve as social capital for college students, using National Survey of Student Engagement data from a large, science, technology, engineering and math-focused institution in Puerto…

Social Work Literature Searching: Current Issues with Databases and Online Search Engines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGinn, Tony; Taylor, Brian; McColgan, Mary; McQuilkan, Janice

2016-01-01

Objectives: To compare the performance of a range of search facilities; and to illustrate the execution of a comprehensive literature search for qualitative evidence in social work. Context: Developments in literature search methods and comparisons of search facilities help facilitate access to the best available evidence for social workers.…

Exploring Library 2.0 on the Social Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brantley, John S.

2010-01-01

Library 2.0 literature has described many of the possibilities Web 2.0 technologies offer to libraries. Case studies have assessed local use, but no studies have measured the Library 2.0 phenomenon by searching public social networking sites. This study used library-specific terms to search public social networking sites, blog search engines, and…

Systematically Identifying Relevant Research: Case Study on Child Protection Social Workers' Resilience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFadden, Paula; Taylor, Brian J.; Campbell, Anne; McQuilkin, Janice

2012-01-01

Context: The development of a consolidated knowledge base for social work requires rigorous approaches to identifying relevant research. Method: The quality of 10 databases and a web search engine were appraised by systematically searching for research articles on resilience and burnout in child protection social workers. Results: Applied Social…

The Role of Social Support in Students' Perceived Abilities and Attitudes toward Math and Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Lindsay; Barth, Joan M.; Guadagno, Rosanna E.; Smith, Gabrielle P. A.; McCallum, Debra M.

2013-01-01

Social cognitive models examining academic and career outcomes emphasize constructs such as attitude, interest, and self-efficacy as key factors affecting students' pursuit of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses and careers. The current research examines another under-researched component of social cognitive models: social…

Addressing social resistance in emerging security technologies

PubMed Central

Mitchener-Nissen, Timothy

2013-01-01

In their efforts to enhance the safety and security of citizens, governments and law enforcement agencies look to scientists and engineers to produce modern methods for preventing, detecting, and prosecuting criminal activities. Whole body scanners, lie detection technologies, biometrics, etc., are all being developed for incorporation into the criminal justice apparatus.1 Yet despite their purported security benefits these technologies often evoke social resistance. Concerns over privacy, ethics, and function-creep appear repeatedly in analyses of these technologies. It is argued here that scientists and engineers continue to pay insufficient attention to this resistance; acknowledging the presence of these social concerns yet failing to meaningfully address them. In so doing they place at risk the very technologies and techniques they are seeking to develop, for socially controversial security technologies face restrictions and in some cases outright banning. By identifying sources of potential social resistance early in the research and design process, scientists can both engage with the public in meaningful debate and modify their security technologies before deployment so as to minimize social resistance and enhance uptake. PMID:23970863

Engineering Social Justice into Traffic Control for Self-Driving Vehicles?

PubMed

Mladenovic, Milos N; McPherson, Tristram

2016-08-01

The convergence of computing, sensing, and communication technology will soon permit large-scale deployment of self-driving vehicles. This will in turn permit a radical transformation of traffic control technology. This paper makes a case for the importance of addressing questions of social justice in this transformation, and sketches a preliminary framework for doing so. We explain how new forms of traffic control technology have potential implications for several dimensions of social justice, including safety, sustainability, privacy, efficiency, and equal access. Our central focus is on efficiency and equal access as desiderata for traffic control design. We explain the limitations of conventional traffic control in meeting these desiderata, and sketch a preliminary vision for a next-generation traffic control tailored to address better the demands of social justice. One component of this vision is cooperative, hierarchically distributed self-organization among vehicles. Another component of this vision is a priority system enabling selection of priority levels by the user for each vehicle trip in the network, based on the supporting structure of non-monetary credits.

Using Biographies of Outstanding Women in Bioengineering to Dispel Biology Teachers' Misperceptions of Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoh, Yin Kiong

2009-01-01

The perception that engineers and scientists are intelligent Caucasian men who are socially inept and absent-minded people is prevalent among students of all levels, from elementary school to college. While the media may, by chance or choice, promote this image, the reality is that most engineers are men. These stereotypical images of engineers…

German politics of genetic engineering and its deconstruction.

PubMed

Gottweis, H

1995-05-01

Policy-making, as exemplified by biotechnology policy, can be understood as an attempt to manage a field of discursivity, to construct regularity in a dispersed multitude of combinable elements. Following this perspective of politics as a textual process, the paper interprets the politicization of genetic engineering in Germany as a defence of the political as a regime of heterogeneity, as a field of 'dissensus' rather than 'consensus', and a rejection of the idea that the framing of technological transformation is an autonomous process. From its beginning in the early 1970s, genetic engineering was symbolically entrenched as a key technology of the future, and as an integral element of the German politics of modernization. Attempts by new social movements and the Green Party to displace the egalitarian imaginary of democratic discourse into the politics of genetic engineering were construed by the political élites as an attack on the political order of post-World War II Germany. The 1990 Genetic Engineering Law attempted a closure of this controversy. But it is precisely the homogenizing idiom of this 'settlement' which continues to nourish the social movements and their radical challenge to the definitions and codings of the politics of genetic engineering.

Culturally responsive engineering education: A case study of a pre-college introductory engineering course at Tibetan Children's Village School of Selakui

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santiago, Marisol Mercado

Culturally responsive teaching has been argued to be effective in the education of Indigenous youth. This approach emphasizes the legitimacy of a group's cultural heritage, helps to associate abstract academic knowledge with the group's sociocultural context, seeks to incorporate a variety of strategies to engage students who have different learning styles, and strives to integrate multicultural information in the educational contents, among other considerations. In this work, I explore the outcomes of a culturally responsive introductory engineering short course that I developed and taught to Tibetan students at Tibetan Children's Village of Selakui (in Uttarakhand, India). Based on my ethnographic research in Tibetan communities in northern India, I examine two research questions: (a) What are the processes to develop and implement a pre-college culturally responsive introductory engineering course? and (b) How do Tibetan culture and Buddhism influence the engineering design and teamwork of the pre-college Tibetan students who took the course? I designed then taught the course that featured elementary lectures on sustainability, introductory engineering design, energy alternatives, and manufacturing engineering. The course also included a pre-college engineering design project through which Tibetan high school students investigated a problem at the school and designed a possible solution to it. Drawing from postcolonial studies, engineering studies, engineering and social justice, Buddhist studies, and Tibetan studies, I provide an analysis of my findings. Based on my findings, I conclude that my culturally responsive approach of teaching was an effective method to help students feel that their cultural background was respected and included in a pre-college engineering course; however, some students felt resistance toward the teaching approach. In addition, the culturally relevant content that connected with their ways of living in their school, Tibetan communities, and surroundings helped the students to relate to abstract concepts in familiar settings. Lastly, they appreciated that I brought to the course relevant information about technology and society in India (their host country), engineers' work in industry, technologies used in other contexts as well, and projects that show how engineers can help to alleviate poverty. The findings of my research can inform (a) educators who are interested in integrating culturally responsive activities in their teaching methods, (b) researchers or teachers in ethnic minority schools abroad, (c) educators interested in developing engineering activities or courses for underrepresented ethnic minorities, ethnic diasporas or refugee youth in the United States, and (d) facilitators at multicultural engineering summer camps in the United States.

7 CFR 600.2 - National headquarters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

..., conservation education, and public affairs activities. (g) Strategic Natural Resource Issues. The Strategic... social sciences, conservation engineering, and ecological sciences. This deputy chief also is responsible... plant data) and five national institutes (grazing lands technology, social sciences, watershed science...

7 CFR 600.2 - National headquarters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

..., conservation education, and public affairs activities. (g) Strategic Natural Resource Issues. The Strategic... social sciences, conservation engineering, and ecological sciences. This deputy chief also is responsible... plant data) and five national institutes (grazing lands technology, social sciences, watershed science...

7 CFR 600.2 - National headquarters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

..., conservation education, and public affairs activities. (g) Strategic Natural Resource Issues. The Strategic... social sciences, conservation engineering, and ecological sciences. This deputy chief also is responsible... plant data) and five national institutes (grazing lands technology, social sciences, watershed science...

7 CFR 600.2 - National headquarters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

..., conservation education, and public affairs activities. (g) Strategic Natural Resource Issues. The Strategic... social sciences, conservation engineering, and ecological sciences. This deputy chief also is responsible... plant data) and five national institutes (grazing lands technology, social sciences, watershed science...

Water and Social Justice in Bangladesh: A Transdisciplinary and Intercultural Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilligan, J. M.; Ackerly, B.; Ahmed, K.; Benneyworth, L.; Goodbred, S. L.; Hall, M.; Jacobi, J. H.; Mondal, D. R.; Pickering, J.; Rogers, K. G.; Roy, K.; Wallace Auerbach, L.

2013-12-01

Effectively addressing environmental problems---at local, national, and global scales---requires actively crossing disciplinary boundaries between natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and policymaking. The best technical solution is useless if it cannot win political support from the people it is intended to help. Enacted policies are too often hindered either by misunderstanding or ignorance of scientific and technical aspects of the problem or by misunderstanding the behavior of the population they address. Environmental problems at the international scale also require understanding of cultural and social differences across national boundaries. To prepare graduate students to be professionally effective at addressing major environmental problems, Vanderbilt University has created a transdisciplinary, intercultural course that brings students from the US and Bangladesh together, both through online connections such as blogs and Skype sessions, and in person in a week-long joint field trip in which students and faculty from universities in both countries, and representing many disciplines work side-by-side to study water as both a natural resource and a natural hazard. Activities included studying sources of drinking water, observing areas affected by flooding from cyclone storm surges, cataloging physical infrastructure, and conducting interviews with residents of vulnerable areas. Few if any students can simultaneously master the social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering skills necessary to comprehensively address major environmental problems, but students can learn to work and communicate effectively with peers in other disciplines, working together to understand the complex interactions between different aspects of their problem. We will report on the structure of the course; our experiences as faculty and student participants; and connections between this class, graduate curricula in environmental sciences, and international transdisciplinary research projects.

Burning Down the Silos: Integrating new perspectives from the social sciences into human behavior in fire research.

PubMed

Kuligowski, Erica

2017-01-01

The traditional social science disciplines can provide many benefits to the field of human behavior in fire (HBiF). First, the social sciences delve further into insights only marginally examined by HBiF researchers, in turn, expanding the depth of HBiF research. In this paper, I present examples of studies from the fields of social psychology and sociology that would expand HBiF research into non-engineering or "unobservable" aspects of behavior during a fire event. Second, the social sciences can provide insight into new areas of research; in turn, expanding the scope of HBiF research. In this section, I introduce pre- and post-fire studies and explore potential research questions that fall outside of the response period of a fire, the phase upon which most focus is currently placed. Third, the social sciences elucidate the value of research methods available to study human behavior. Qualitative research methods are specifically highlighted. These three benefits will allow HBiF researchers to collect a wider range of data, further develop and expand current behavioral knowledge, and increase the impact of this research for both social and engineering applications. Finally, I end with a discussion on possible ways to better integrate the social sciences within human behavior in fire.

Consumer Sleep Technologies: A Review of the Landscape.

PubMed

Ko, Ping-Ru T; Kientz, Julie A; Choe, Eun Kyoung; Kay, Matthew; Landis, Carol A; Watson, Nathaniel F

2015-12-15

To review sleep related consumer technologies, including mobile electronic device "apps," wearable devices, and other technologies. Validation and methodological transparency, the effect on clinical sleep medicine, and various social, legal, and ethical issues are discussed. We reviewed publications from the digital libraries of the Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and PubMed; publications from consumer technology websites; and mobile device app marketplaces. Search terms included "sleep technology," "sleep app," and "sleep monitoring." Consumer sleep technologies are categorized by delivery platform including mobile device apps (integrated with a mobile operating system and utilizing mobile device functions such as the camera or microphone), wearable devices (on the body or attached to clothing), embedded devices (integrated into furniture or other fixtures in the native sleep environment), accessory appliances, and conventional desktop/website resources. Their primary goals include facilitation of sleep induction or wakening, self-guided sleep assessment, entertainment, social connection, information sharing, and sleep education. Consumer sleep technologies are changing the landscape of sleep health and clinical sleep medicine. These technologies have the potential to both improve and impair collective and individual sleep health depending on method of implementation. © 2015 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

23 CFR 650.809 - Movable span bridges.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS BRIDGES... shall be selected wherever practicable. If there are social, economic, environmental or engineering reasons which favor the selection of a movable bridge, a cost benefit analysis to support the need for the...

23 CFR 650.809 - Movable span bridges.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS BRIDGES... shall be selected wherever practicable. If there are social, economic, environmental or engineering reasons which favor the selection of a movable bridge, a cost benefit analysis to support the need for the...

23 CFR 650.809 - Movable span bridges.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS BRIDGES... shall be selected wherever practicable. If there are social, economic, environmental or engineering reasons which favor the selection of a movable bridge, a cost benefit analysis to support the need for the...

Aeronautical Engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 185

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

This bibliography lists 462 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in February 1985. Aerodynamics, aeronautical engineering, aircraft design, aircraft stability and control, geophysics, social sciences, and space sciences are some of the areas covered.

GeoEngineering Distinguished Lecture Series | PEER Center

Science.gov Websites

Social and Dinner to thank our speakers, celebrate our community - and to welcome its newest members at the close of this academic year. Please join us for an exceptional set of lectures, a wonderful social Lecture Series will be held in the Sibley Auditorium, while the Social and Dinner will be held at the

OSIRIS-REx NASA Social

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-09-07

Tim Linn, chief system engineer with Lockheed Martin, discusses the unique design of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during a NASA Social with social media followers in the Operations Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The presentation took place before launch of the agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

Beyond Traditional Measures of STEM Success: Long-Term Predictors of Social Agency and Conducting Research for Social Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garibay, Juan C.

2018-01-01

Despite the importance of preparing socially responsible graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to address the current state of poverty and inequality, very few studies in higher education have examined the development of STEM students' outcomes critical to promoting a more equitable society, typically focusing on…

Gender Bias and Caste Exclusion in Engineering Admission: Inferences from the Engineering Entrance Examination in Kerala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rajasenan, D.

2014-01-01

The major problem of the engineering entrance examination is the exclusion of certain sections of the society in social, economic, regional and gender dimensions. This has seldom been taken for analysis towards policy correction. To lessen this problem a minor policy shift was prepared in the year 2011 with a 50-50 proportion in academic marks and…

An underexamined inequality: cultural and psychological barriers to men's engagement with communal roles.

PubMed

Croft, Alyssa; Schmader, Toni; Block, Katharina

2015-11-01

Social psychological research has sought to understand and mitigate the psychological barriers that block women's interest, performance, and advancement in male-dominated, agentic roles (e.g., science, technology, engineering, and math). Research has not, however, correspondingly examined men's underrepresentation in communal roles, traditionally occupied by women (e.g., careers in health care, early childhood education, and domestic roles including child care). In this article, we seek to provide a roadmap for research on this underexamined inequality by (a) outlining the benefits of increasing men's representation in communal roles; (b) reviewing cultural, evolutionary, and historical perspectives on the asymmetry in status assigned to men's and women's roles; and (c) articulating the role of gender stereotypes in creating social and psychological barriers to men's interest and inclusion in communal roles. We argue that promoting equal opportunities for both women and men requires a better understanding of the psychological barriers to men's involvement in communal roles. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Leveling the Playing Field: Teacher Perception of Integrated STEM, Engineering, and Engineering Practices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fincher, Bridgette Ann

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions and approaches of 14 third-through-fifth grade Arkansan elementary teachers towards integrative engineering and engineering practices during 80 hours of integrated STEM professional development training in the summer and fall of 2014. This training was known as Project Flight. The purpose of the professional development was to learn integrated STEM content related to aviation and to write grade level curriculum units using Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design curriculum framework. The current study builds upon on the original research. Using a mixed method exploratory, embedded QUAL[quan] case study design and a non-experimental convenience sample derived from original 20 participants of Project Flight, this research sought to answer the following question: Does professional development influence elementary teachers' perceptions of the curriculum and instruction of integrated STEM engineering and engineering practices in a 3-to-5 grade level setting? A series of six qualitative and one quantitative sub-questions informed the research of the mixed method question. Hermeneutic content analysis was applied to archival and current qualitative data sets while descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and repeated measures ANOVA tests were performed on the quantitative data. Broad themes in the teachers' perceptions and understanding of the nature of integrated engineering and engineering practices emerged through triangulation. After the professional development and the teaching of the integrated STEM units, all 14 teachers sustained higher perceptions of personal self-efficacy in their understanding of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The teachers gained understanding of engineering and engineering practices, excluding engineering habits of mind, throughout the professional development training and unit teaching. The research resulted in four major findings specific to elementary engineering, which included engineering as student social agency and empowerment and the emergence of the engineering design loop as a new heuristic, and three more general non-engineering specific findings. All seven, however, have implications for future elementary engineering professional development as teachers in adopting states start to transition into using the NGSS standards.

76 FR 5650 - Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Scientific Merit Review Board; Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-01

... Engineering and Prosthetics/Orthotics Regenerative Medicine. February 23-24--Aging & Neurodegenerative Disease... Rehabilitation. March 1--Rehabilitation Engineering and Prosthetics/Orthotics. March 1-2--Psychological Health and Social Reintegration; Sensory Systems/Communication; Spinal Cord Injury; and Career Development...

Re-Engineering Graduate Skills--A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nair, Chenicheri Sid; Patil, Arun; Mertova, Patricie

2009-01-01

Research on student-learning outcomes indicates that university graduates do not possess important skills required by employers, such as communication, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership, emotional intelligence, social ethics skills as well as the ability to work with people of different backgrounds. Today, engineering graduates are…

Social and ethical dimensions of nanoscale science and engineering research.

PubMed

Sweeney, Aldrin E

2006-07-01

Continuing advances in human ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular levels (i.e. nanoscale science and engineering) offer many previously unimagined possibilities for scientific discovery and technological development. Paralleling these advances in the various science and engineering sub-disciplines is the increasing realization that a number of associated social, ethical, environmental, economic and legal dimensions also need to be explored. An important component of such exploration entails the identification and analysis of the ways in which current and prospective researchers in these fields conceptualize these dimensions of their work. Within the context of a National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in nanomaterials processing and characterization at the University of Central Florida (2002-2004), here I present for discussion (i) details of a "nanotechnology ethics" seminar series developed specifically for students participating in the program, and (ii) an analysis of students' and participating research faculty's perspectives concerning social and ethical issues associated with nanotechnology research. I conclude with a brief discussion of implications presented by these issues for general scientific literacy and public science education policy.

Student-driven courses on the social and ecological responsibilities of engineers : commentary on "student-inspired activities for the teaching and learning of engineering ethics".

PubMed

Baier, André

2013-12-01

A group of engineering students at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, designed a course on engineering ethics. The core element of the developed Blue Engineering course are self-contained teaching-units, "building blocks". These building blocks typically cover one complex topic and make use of various teaching methods using moderators who lead discussions, rather than experts who lecture. Consequently, the students themselves started to offer the credited course to their fellow students who take an active role in further developing the course themselves.

Social-ecological resilience and geomorphic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaffin, Brian C.; Scown, Murray

2018-03-01

Governance of coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) and the underlying geomorphic processes that structure and alter Earth's surface is a key challenge for global sustainability amid the increasing uncertainty and change that defines the Anthropocene. Social-ecological resilience as a concept of scientific inquiry has contributed to new understandings of the dynamics of change in SESs, increasing our ability to contextualize and implement governance in these systems. Often, however, the importance of geomorphic change and geomorphological knowledge is somewhat missing from processes employed to inform SES governance. In this contribution, we argue that geomorphology and social-ecological resilience research should be integrated to improve governance toward sustainability. We first provide definitions of engineering, ecological, community, and social-ecological resilience and then explore the use of these concepts within and alongside geomorphology in the literature. While ecological studies often consider geomorphology as an important factor influencing the resilience of ecosystems and geomorphological studies often consider the engineering resilience of geomorphic systems of interest, very few studies define and employ a social-ecological resilience framing and explicitly link the concept to geomorphic systems. We present five key concepts-scale, feedbacks, state or regime, thresholds and regime shifts, and humans as part of the system-which we believe can help explicitly link important aspects of social-ecological resilience inquiry and geomorphological inquiry in order to strengthen the impact of both lines of research. Finally, we discuss how these five concepts might be used to integrate social-ecological resilience and geomorphology to better understand change in, and inform governance of, SESs. To compound these dynamics of resilience, complex systems are nested and cross-scale interactions from smaller and larger scales relative to the system of interest can play formative roles during periods of collapse and reorganization. Large- and small-scale disturbances as well as large-scale system memory/capacity and small-scale innovation can have significant impacts on the trajectory of a reorganizing system (Gunderson and Holling, 2002; Chaffin and Gunderson, 2016). Attempts to measure the property of ecological resilience across complex systems amounts to attempts to measure the persistence of system-controlling variables, including processes, parameters, and important feedbacks, when the system is exposed to varying degrees of disturbance (Folke, 2016).

Women in Science and Engineering Building Community Online

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kleinman, Sharon S.

This article explores the constructs of online community and online social support and discusses a naturalistic case study of a public, unmoderated, online discussion group dedicated to issues of interest to women in science and engineering. The benefits of affiliation with OURNET (a pseudonym) were explored through participant observation over a 4-year period, telephone interviews with 21 subscribers, and content analysis of e-mail messages posted to the discussion group during a 125-day period. The case study findings indicated that through affiliation with the online discussion group, women in traditionally male-dominated fields expanded their professional networks, increased their knowledge, constituted and validated positive social identities, bolstered their self-confidence, obtained social support and information from people with a wide range of experiences and areas of expertise, and, most significantly, found community.

Transportation Beyond 2000: Technologies Needed for Engineering Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huebner, Lawrence D. (Compiler); Asbury, Scott C. (Compiler); Lamar, John E. (Compiler); McKinley, Robert E., Jr. (Compiler); Scott, Robert C. (Compiler); Small, William J. (Compiler); Torres, Abel O. (Compiler)

1996-01-01

The purpose of the workshop was to acquaint the staff of the NASA Langley Research Center with the broad spectrum of transportation challenges and concepts foreseen within the next 20 years. The hope is that material presented at the workshop and contained in this document will stimulate innovative high-payoff research directed towards the efficiency of future transportation systems. The workshop included five sessions designed to stress the factors that will lead to a revolution in the way we will travel in the 21st century. The first session provides the historical background and a general perspective for future transportation, including emerging transportation alternatives such as working at a distance. Personal travel is the subject of Session Two. The third session looks at mass transportation, including advanced rail vehicles, advanced commuter aircraft, and advanced transport aircraft. The fourth session addresses some of the technologies required for the above revolutionary transportation systems to evolve. The workshop concluded with a wrap-up panel discussion, Session Five. The topics presented herein all have viable technical components and are at a stage in their development that, with sufficient engineering research, one or more of these could make a significant impact on transportation and our social structure.

Transportation Beyond 2000: Technologies Needed for Engineering Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huebner, Lawrence D. (Compiler); Asbury, Scott C. (Compiler); Lamar, John E. (Compiler); McKinley, Robert E., Jr. (Compiler); Scott, Robert C. (Compiler); Small, William J. (Compiler); Torres, Abel O. (Compiler)

1996-01-01

The purpose of the workshop was to acquaint the staff of the NASA Langley Research Center with the broad spectrum of transportation challenges and concepts foreseen within the next 20 years. The hope is that the material presented at the workshop and contained in this document will stimulate innovative high-payoff research directed towards the efficiency of future transportation systems. The workshop included five sessions designed to stress the factors that will lead to a revolution in the way we will travel in the 21st century. The first session provides the historical background and a general perspective for future transportation, including emerging transportation alternatives such as working at a distance. Personal travel is the subject of Session Two. The third session looks at mass transportation, including advanced rail vehicles, advanced commuter aircraft, and advanced transport aircraft. The fourth session addresses some of the technologies required for the above revolutionary transportation systems to evolve. The workshop concluded with a wrap-up panel discussion, Session Five. The topics presented herein all have viable technical components and are at a stage in their development that, with sufficient engineering research, one or more of these could make a significant impact on transportation and our social structure.

Importance of Engineering History Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arakawa, Fumio

It is needless to cite the importance of education for succeed of engineering. IEEJ called for the establishment of ICEE in 1994, where the education is thought highly of, though its discussion has not been well working. Generally speaking, education has been one of the most important national strategies particularly at a time of its political and economical development. The science and technology education is, of course, not the exemption. But in these days around 2000 it seems that the public pays little attention on the science and technology, as they are quite day to day matters. As the results, for instance, such engineering as power systems and electric heavy machines are referred to as “endangered”. So fur, many engineers have tried not to be involved in social issues. But currently they can not help facing with risks of social issues like patent rights, troubles and accidents due to application of high technology, information security in the use of computers and engineering ethics. One of the most appropriate ways for the risk management is to learn lessons in the past, that is, history, so that the idea suggested in it could be made full use for the risk management. The author cited the global importance of education, particularly of engineering history education for engineering ethics, in the ICEE 2010 held in Bussan, Korea, as the 16th anniversary.

Homophily and the speed of social mobilization: the effect of acquired and ascribed traits.

PubMed

Alstott, Jeff; Madnick, Stuart; Velu, Chander

2014-01-01

Large-scale mobilization of individuals across social networks is becoming increasingly prevalent in society. However, little is known about what affects the speed of social mobilization. Here we use a framed field experiment to identify and measure properties of individuals and their relationships that predict mobilization speed. We ran a global social mobilization contest and recorded personal traits of the participants and those they recruited. We studied the effects of ascribed traits (gender, age) and acquired traits (geography, and information source) on the speed of mobilization. We found that homophily, a preference for interacting with other individuals with similar traits, had a mixed role in social mobilization. Homophily was present for acquired traits, in which mobilization speed was faster when the recuiter and recruit had the same trait compared to different traits. In contrast, we did not find support for homophily for the ascribed traits. Instead, those traits had other, non-homophily effects: Females mobilized other females faster than males mobilized other males. Younger recruiters mobilized others faster, and older recruits mobilized slower. Recruits also mobilized faster when they first heard about the contest directly from the contest organization, and decreased in speed when hearing from less personal source types (e.g. family vs. media). These findings show that social mobilization includes dynamics that are unlike other, more passive forms of social activity propagation. These findings suggest relevant factors for engineering social mobilization tasks for increased speed.

The sharing of radiological images by professional mixed martial arts fighters on social media.

PubMed

Rahmani, George; Joyce, Cormac W; McCarthy, Peter

2017-06-01

Mixed martial arts is a sport that has recently enjoyed a significant increase in popularity. This rise in popularity has catapulted many of these "cage fighters" into stardom and many regularly use social media to reach out to their fans. An interesting result of this interaction on social media is that athletes are sharing images of their radiological examinations when they sustain an injury. To review instances where mixed martial arts fighters shared images of their radiological examinations on social media and in what context they were shared. An Internet search was performed using the Google search engine. Search terms included "MMA," "mixed martial arts," "injury," "scan," "X-ray," "fracture," and "break." Articles which discussed injuries to MMA fighters were examined and those in which the fighter themselves shared a radiological image of their injury on social media were identified. During our search, we identified 20 MMA fighters that had shared radiological images of their injuries on social media. There were 15 different types of injury, with a fracture of the mid-shaft of the ulna being the most common. The most popular social media platform was Twitter. The most common imaging modality X-ray (71%). The majority of injuries were sustained during competition (81%) and 35% of these fights resulted in a win for the fighter. Professional mixed martial artists are sharing radiological images of their injuries on social media. This may be in an attempt to connect with fans and raise their profile among other fighters.

Jennifer Pruitt, explains ECLSS to media representatives

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-02-02

JENNIFER PRUITT, LEAD DESIGN ENGINEER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION URINE PROCESSING ASSEMBLY AT MARSHALL, BRIEFS A GROUP OF MORE THAN 20 SOCIAL AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT HER WORK TO IMPROVE THE RECYCLING OF WATER FOR ASTRONAUTS. THE TOUR OF MARSHALL WORK SUPPORTING NASA'S JOURNEY TO MARS WAS PART OF AGENCY-WIDE "STATE OF NASA" EVENTS FEB. 2. THE TOUR ALSO INCLUDED A LOOK AT OXYGEN RECYCLING EFFORTS, A SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM CORE STAGE SIMULATOR AND A CHANCE TO TALK WITH MARSHALL DIRECTOR PATRICK SCHEUERMANN AND DEPUTY DIRECTOR TERESA VANHOOSER.

San Francisco floating STOLport study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

The operational, economic, environmental, social and engineering feasibility of utilizing deactivated maritime vessels as a waterfront quiet short takeoff and landing facility to be located near the central business district of San Francisco was investigated. Criteria were developed to evaluate each site, and minimum standards were established for each criterion. Predicted conditions at the two sites were compared to the requirements for each of the 11 criteria as a means of evaluating site performance. Criteria include land use, community structure, economic impact, access, visual character, noise, air pollution, natural environment, weather, air traffic, and terminal design.

System Engineering of Aerospace and Advanced Technology Programs at AN Astronautics Company

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kennedy, Mike O.

The purpose of this Record of Study is to document an internship with the Martin Marietta Astronautics Group in Denver, Colorado that was performed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Engineering degree at Texas A&M University, and to demonstrate that the internship objectives have been met. The internship included assignments with two Martin Marietta companies, on three different programs and in four areas of engineering. The Record of Study takes a first-hand look at system engineering, SDI and advanced program management, and the way Martin Marietta conducts business. The five internship objectives were related to assignments in system modeling, system integration, engineering analysis and technical management. In support of the first objective, the effects of thermally and mechanically induced mirror surface distortions upon the wavefront intensity field of a high energy laser beam passing through the optical train of a space-based laser system were modeled. To satisfy the second objective, the restrictive as opposed to the broad interpretation of the 1972 ABM Treaty, and the capability of the Strategic Defense Initiative Zenith Star Program to comply with the Treaty were evaluated. For the third objective, the capability of Martin Marietta to develop an automated analysis system to integrate and analyze Superconducting Super Collider detector designs was investigated. For the fourth objective, the thermal models that were developed in support of the Small Intercontinental Ballistic Missile flight tests were described. And in response to the fifth objective, the technical management role of the Product Integrity Engineer assigned to the Zenith Star spacecraft's Beam Control and Transfer Subsystem was discussed. This Record of Study explores the relationships between the engineering, business, security and social concerns associated with the practice of engineering and the management of programs by a major defense contractor.

Community and Institutional Adaptation to Riverbank Erosion along the Jamuna River, Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, F. M. M.

2009-04-01

The paper examines adaptation to the river erosion hazard in Bangladesh through its most exacting river, the braided Jamuna. The Jamuna River has destroyed and continues to threaten significant areas of settlements, farmed land and infrastructure. Local communities experience a social disintegration and pauperisation which lasts for generations. Although advanced for several decades, the public engineering effort to mitigate the erosion is piecemeal and has had limited success to date. The research takes an interdisciplinary approach to the hazard, in both content and method. Using Remote Sensing data to distinguish regions of dormant, explosive, minimal and constant erosion, the physical morphology of the river is linked to the community adaptation through the creation of PPGIS mapping depicting historical institutional displacement. This spatial information is linked to the qualitative investigation focusing on the expression of values in adaptation by examining social structures and investigating technological development. Drawing on Bourdieu's ideas of fields, capital and habitus, interview data is gathered from: displacees; local elites; the engineering-science community; and the political-administrative structure. The analysis is conducted along four themes; the spatial history of community displacement; social values; institutional operation; and learning in practice. Findings show the marked persistence of displaced local institutions. Dormant erosion zones host the most displaced institutions, acting as refuges once the risk is lowered through engineering or serendipity. The non-material values deeply impacted by the hazard underpin the strong local aspiration for engineering intervention. However, political discontinuity, associated institutional instability and spatial biasing of construction hinders the success of erosion mitigation and the development of appropriate national technological expertise. The small national economic resource base, shortsighted negotiations with international lenders and reduced public confidence in water sector engineering are also confounding factors. Evidence suggests that social and technological progress occurs when values, institutional results and political commitment align.

A sociocultural analysis of Latino high school students' funds of knowledge and implications for culturally responsive engineering education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mejia, Joel Alejandro

Previous studies have suggested that, when funds of knowledge are incorporated into science and mathematics curricula, students are more engaged and often develop richer understandings of scientific concepts. While there has been a growing body of research addressing how teachers may integrate students' linguistic, social, and cultural practices with science and mathematics instruction, very little research has been conducted on how the same can be accomplished with Latino and Latina students in engineering. The purpose of this study was to address this gap in the literature by investigating how fourteen Latino and Latina high school adolescents used their funds of knowledge to address engineering design challenges. This project was intended to enhance the educational experience of underrepresented minorities whose social and cultural practices have been traditionally undervalued in schools. This ethnographic study investigated the funds of knowledge of fourteen Latino and Latina high school adolescents and how they used these funds of knowledge in engineering design. Participant observation, bi-monthly group discussion, retrospective and concurrent protocols, and monthly one-on-one interviews were conducted during the study. A constant comparative analysis suggested that Latino and Latina adolescents, although profoundly underrepresented in engineering, bring a wealth of knowledge and experiences that are relevant to engineering design thinking and practice.

Using Inquiry-Based Instructional Strategies to Increase Student Achievement in 3rd Grade Social Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McRae-Jones, Wanda Joycelyn

2017-01-01

21st Century skills such as critical-thinking and problem-solving skills are very important when it comes to Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics or STEM. But those same skills should be integrated in social studies. The impact of students' learning in social studies as a result of implementing inquiry-based instructional strategies was…

The Conundrum of Social Class: Disparities in Publishing among STEM Students in Undergraduate Research Programs at a Hispanic Majority Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grineski, Sara; Daniels, Heather; Collins, Timothy; Morales, Danielle X.; Frederick, Angela; Garcia, Marilyn

2018-01-01

Research on the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) student development pipeline has largely ignored social class and instead examined inequalities based on gender and race. We investigate the role of social class in undergraduate student research publications. Data come from a sample of 213 undergraduate research participants…

Social scientist's viewpoint on conflict management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ertel, Madge O.

1990-01-01

Social scientists can bring to the conflict-management process objective, reliable information needed to resolve increasingly complex issues. Engineers need basic training in the principles of the social sciences and in strategies for public involvement. All scientists need to be sure that that the information they provide is unbiased by their own value judgments and that fair standards and open procedures govern its use.

Attracting and Maintaining Demographic Diversity in Energy: Lessons from Petroleum Engineering.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plaksina, Tatyana

2017-11-01

Diversity is important for any organization, its development and growth. However, frequently we observe that, if left to their own devices, many social and professional communities become self-selective, less susceptible to change, and, thus, less diverse. For example, this phenomenon can be readily observed in the academia when a professor forms a research group that is mostly comprised of people from certain origin or personal qualities. While on an individual level, this situation can be quite convenient and even beneficial, on the large scale the lack of diversity creates severe distortions and discourages many talented individuals from joining the group, organization, or industry in general. Diversity that includes ethnic, age, and gender aspects is a serious concern in overall energy industry and academia. One of the most prominent field impacted by diversity problems is petroleum engineering which can be used as a learning opportunity for other branches of energy industry. Using petroleum engineering community, we can understand what processes have led it to become self-selective, what measures have been applied to changes the situation and introduce more diversity.

Dealing with complex and ill-structured problems: results of a Plan-Do-Check-Act experiment in a business engineering semester

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riis, Jens Ove; Achenbach, Marlies; Israelsen, Poul; Kyvsgaard Hansen, Poul; Johansen, John; Deuse, Jochen

2017-07-01

Challenged by increased globalisation and fast technological development, we carried out an experiment in the third semester of a global business engineering programme aimed at identifying conditions for training student in dealing with complex and ill-structured problems of forming a new business. As this includes a fuzzy front end, learning cannot be measured in traditional, quantitative terms; therefore, we have explored the use of reflection to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. The experiment adopted a Plan-Do-Check-Act approach and concluded with developing a plan for new learning initiatives in the subsequent year's semester. The findings conclude that (1) problem-based learning develops more competencies than ordinarily measured at the examination, especially, the social/communication and personal competencies are developed; (2) students are capable of dealing with a complex and ambiguous problem, if properly guided. Four conditions were identified; (3) most students are not conscious of their learning, but are able to reflect if properly encouraged; and (4) improving engineering education should be considered as an organisational learning process.

76 FR 42167 - Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Scientific Merit Review Board; Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-18

... subcommittees of the Board will meet to evaluate merit review applications: August 9--Rehabilitation Engineering... Rehabilitation. August 16--Rehabilitation Engineering and Prosthetics/Orthotics. August 16-17--Psychological Health and Social Reintegration; Sensory Systems/Communication; Spinal Cord Injury; and Career...

The identification of Gender Bias in the U.S. Military

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-03-01

Opinion Form SSA Social Security Administration STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math U.S. United States USN United States Navy xvi THIS...in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related fields, with lifestyle choice being cited by some as the reasoning for this disparity

The Development of STEAM Educational Policy to Promote Student Creativity and Social Empowerment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allina, Babette

2018-01-01

The Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) movement argues that broad-based education that promotes creativity recognizes student learning diversity, increases student engagement and can potentially enhance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning by embracing cross-cutting translational skills…

Motivations of Women Participating in a Technology-Based Social Entrepreneurship Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dzombak, Rachel; Mouakkad, Sally; Mehta, Khanjan

2016-01-01

Academic programs focused on engineering entrepreneurship are growing in number and popularity at American universities. However, the fields of engineering, entrepreneurship and technology-based entrepreneurship struggle to recruit and retain female students: a historic and endemic failure at obtaining gender-balanced participation. Understanding…

From Petroleum to Penicillin. The First Hundred Years of Modern Chemical Engineering: 1859-1959.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burnett, J. N.

1986-01-01

Presents a description of the course "From Petroleum to Penicillin" which examines chemical engineering and the chemical industry from a scientific, social and symbolic view. Explains the goals, organization, and requirements of the course. Lists case study and lecture topics. (ML)

Web search queries can predict stock market volumes.

PubMed

Bordino, Ilaria; Battiston, Stefano; Caldarelli, Guido; Cristelli, Matthieu; Ukkonen, Antti; Weber, Ingmar

2012-01-01

We live in a computerized and networked society where many of our actions leave a digital trace and affect other people's actions. This has lead to the emergence of a new data-driven research field: mathematical methods of computer science, statistical physics and sociometry provide insights on a wide range of disciplines ranging from social science to human mobility. A recent important discovery is that search engine traffic (i.e., the number of requests submitted by users to search engines on the www) can be used to track and, in some cases, to anticipate the dynamics of social phenomena. Successful examples include unemployment levels, car and home sales, and epidemics spreading. Few recent works applied this approach to stock prices and market sentiment. However, it remains unclear if trends in financial markets can be anticipated by the collective wisdom of on-line users on the web. Here we show that daily trading volumes of stocks traded in NASDAQ-100 are correlated with daily volumes of queries related to the same stocks. In particular, query volumes anticipate in many cases peaks of trading by one day or more. Our analysis is carried out on a unique dataset of queries, submitted to an important web search engine, which enable us to investigate also the user behavior. We show that the query volume dynamics emerges from the collective but seemingly uncoordinated activity of many users. These findings contribute to the debate on the identification of early warnings of financial systemic risk, based on the activity of users of the www.

Investigating students' view on STEM in learning about electrical current through STS approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tupsai, Jiraporn; Yuenyong, Chokchai

2018-01-01

This study aims to investigate Grade 11 students' views on Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) with the integration of learning about electrical current based on Science Technology Society (STS) approach [8]. The participants were 60 Grade 11 students in Demonstration Secondary School, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. The methodology is in the respect of interpretive paradigm. The teaching and learning about Electrical Current through STS approach carried out over 6 weeks. The Electrical Current unit through STS approach was developed based on framework[8] that consists of five stages including (1) identification of social issues, (2) identification of potential solutions, (3) need for knowledge, (4) decision making, and (5) socialization stage. To start with, the question "what if this world is lack of electricity" was challenged in the class in order to move students to find the problem of how to design Electricity Generation from Clean Energy. Students were expected to apply scientific and other knowledge to design of Electricity Generation. Students' views on STEM were collected during their learning by participant' observation and students' tasks. Their views on STEM were categorized when they applied their knowledge for designing the Electricity Generation. The findings indicated that students cooperatively work to solve the problem when applying knowledge about the content of Science and Mathematics and processing skill of Technology and Engineering. It showed that students held the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to design their possible solutions in learning about Electrical Current. The paper also discusses implications for science teaching and learning through STS in Thailand.

Web Search Queries Can Predict Stock Market Volumes

PubMed Central

Bordino, Ilaria; Battiston, Stefano; Caldarelli, Guido; Cristelli, Matthieu; Ukkonen, Antti; Weber, Ingmar

2012-01-01

We live in a computerized and networked society where many of our actions leave a digital trace and affect other people’s actions. This has lead to the emergence of a new data-driven research field: mathematical methods of computer science, statistical physics and sociometry provide insights on a wide range of disciplines ranging from social science to human mobility. A recent important discovery is that search engine traffic (i.e., the number of requests submitted by users to search engines on the www) can be used to track and, in some cases, to anticipate the dynamics of social phenomena. Successful examples include unemployment levels, car and home sales, and epidemics spreading. Few recent works applied this approach to stock prices and market sentiment. However, it remains unclear if trends in financial markets can be anticipated by the collective wisdom of on-line users on the web. Here we show that daily trading volumes of stocks traded in NASDAQ-100 are correlated with daily volumes of queries related to the same stocks. In particular, query volumes anticipate in many cases peaks of trading by one day or more. Our analysis is carried out on a unique dataset of queries, submitted to an important web search engine, which enable us to investigate also the user behavior. We show that the query volume dynamics emerges from the collective but seemingly uncoordinated activity of many users. These findings contribute to the debate on the identification of early warnings of financial systemic risk, based on the activity of users of the www. PMID:22829871

Storying energy consumption: Collective video storytelling in energy efficiency social marketing.

PubMed

Gordon, Ross; Waitt, Gordon; Cooper, Paul; Butler, Katherine

2018-05-01

Despite calls for more socio-technical research on energy, there is little practical advice to how narratives collected through qualitative research may be melded with technical knowledge from the physical sciences such as engineering and then applied in energy efficiency social action strategies. This is despite established knowledge in the environmental management literature about domestic energy use regarding the utility of social practice theory and narrative framings that socialise everyday consumption. Storytelling is positioned in this paper both as a focus for socio-technical energy research, and as one potential practical tool that can arguably enhance energy efficiency interventions. We draw upon the literature on everyday social practices, and storytelling, to present our framework called 'collective video storytelling' that combines scientific and lay knowledge about domestic energy use to offer a practical tool for energy efficiency management. Collective video storytelling is discussed in the context of Energy+Illawarra, a 3-year cross-disciplinary collaboration between social marketers, human geographers, and engineers to target energy behavioural change within older low-income households in regional NSW, Australia. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

KSC-2011-7934

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-25

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Betina Pavri, systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), speaks to a group of Tweetup participants at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Press Site in Florida during prelaunch activities for the agency’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) launch as Allen Chen, also a systems engineer at JPL, looks on, at left. Following a series of briefings, participants will tour the center and get a close-up view of Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The tweeters will share their experiences with followers through the social networking site Twitter. MSL's components include a car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for signs of life, including methane, and help determine if the gas is from a biological or geological source. Liftoff of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from pad 41 is planned during a launch window which extends from 10:02 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EST on Nov. 26. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Environmental engineering: A profession in transition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mackay, D.

1996-11-01

This 50th Industrial Waste Conference at Purdue gives one an opportunity and excuse to reflect on progress in Environmental Engineering and speculate on future changes. The author suggests that during this 50-year period Environmental Engineering has emerged as a discrete and creditable body of knowledge, practice, and academic study. In this review he presents a personal view of the evolution of Environmental Engineering and its present status. He also suggests some future directions and principles which may prove useful, especially in the academic world. The paper discusses the sphere of the environmental engineer, the social incentive, the academic curriculum, environmentalmore » engineers and society, the chlorine controversy, research, and the electronic revolution.« less

Incidence of online health information search: a useful proxy for public health risk perception.

PubMed

Liang, Bo; Scammon, Debra L

2013-06-17

Internet users use search engines to look for information online, including health information. Researchers in medical informatics have found a high correlation of the occurrence of certain search queries and the incidence of certain diseases. Consumers' search for information about diseases is related to current health status with regard to a disease and to the social environments that shape the public's attitudes and behaviors. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which public health risk perception as demonstrated by online information searches related to a health risk can be explained by the incidence of the health risk and social components of a specific population's environment. Using an ecological perspective, we suggest that a population's general concern for a health risk is formed by the incidence of the risk and social (eg, media attention) factors related with the risk. We constructed a dataset that included state-level data from 32 states on the incidence of the flu; a number of social factors, such as media attention to the flu; private resources, such as education and health insurance coverage; public resources, such as hospital beds and primary physicians; and utilization of these resources, including inpatient days and outpatient visits. We then explored whether online information searches about the flu (seasonal and pandemic flu) can be predicted using these variables. We used factor analysis to construct indexes for sets of social factors (private resources, public resources). We then applied panel data multiple regression analysis to exploit both time-series and cross-sectional variation in the data over a 7-year period. Overall, the results provide evidence that the main effects of independent variables-the incidence of the flu (P<.001); social factors, including media attention (P<.001); private resources, including life quality (P<.001) and health lifestyles (P=.009); and public resources, such as hospital care utilization (P=.008) and public health funds (P=.02)-have significant effects on Web searches for queries related to the flu. After controlling for the number of reported disease cases and Internet access rate by state, we estimate the contribution of social factors to the public health risk perception levels by state (R(2)=23.37%). The interaction effects between flu incidence and social factors for our search terms did not add to the explanatory power of our regression models (R(2)<1%). Our study suggests a practical way to measure the public's health risk perception for certain diseases using online information search volume by state. The social environment influences public risk perception regardless of disease incidence. Thus, monitoring the social variables can be very helpful in being ready to respond to the public's behavior in dealing with public health threats.

Creativity on the Teaching Agenda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Timothy Michael

2004-01-01

In the rapidly changing modern world there is a special need for engineers to be responsive to the differing demands of their physical, technical, social and economic environments. To do this effectively, they need to be able to think and act creatively. The typical engineering student is characteristically not particularly creative. This makes it…

Engineering potential for lunar missions after Apollo.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burke, J. D.

1972-01-01

The need for continuing post-Apollo lunar research is defined by outlining problems in stellar, planetary, biological, and social evolution which require specific studies of the moon. Engineering capabilities existing immediately after the Apollo program are described in the areas of launch vehicles and spacecraft, lunar surface mobility, instrumentation, and communications.

Questioning Power: Deframing the STEM Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weinstein, Matthew; Blades, David; Gleason, Shannon C.

2016-01-01

Internationally, STEM has become a slogan for organizing new discourses and practices in science education. In the form of a three-act play, we argue that STEM as social engineering orients and organizes school science education curriculum development in directions of scientific innovation and engineering that reinforce and legitimize a neoliberal…

CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 24, Number 1, Jan/Feb 2011

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-01

Social Networks: A variety of websites connect users in- terested in specific subjects. Examples are YouTube, Wikipedia, Blogger , Facebook, and...the artist, engineers see beauty in their creations, however our muse is not aesthetic but functional. We prefer client awe and satisfaction to

Improving Collaborative Learning in Online Software Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neill, Colin J.; DeFranco, Joanna F.; Sangwan, Raghvinder S.

2017-01-01

Team projects are commonplace in software engineering education. They address a key educational objective, provide students critical experience relevant to their future careers, allow instructors to set problems of greater scale and complexity than could be tackled individually, and are a vehicle for socially constructed learning. While all…

Can Man Control His Biological Evolution? A Symposium on Genetic Engineering. Artificial Synthesis of New Life Forms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danielli, James F.

1972-01-01

Research in manipulation of genetic inheritance opens new vistas. Biologically-styled industrial synthesis is better in many respects than chemical engineering practices now in use. An approach for improving hereditary characters in living organisms without considering social implications is unwise. (PS)

Authority in Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephan, Karl D.

2012-01-01

Authority as a philosophical concept is defined both in general and as it applies to engineering education. Authority is shown to be a good and necessary part of social structures, in contrast to some cultural trends that regard it as an unnecessary and outmoded evil. Technical, educational, and organizational authority in their normal functions…

Peer Mentoring among Doctoral Students of Science and Engineering in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Yii-nii; Hsu, Angela Yi-ping

2012-01-01

This study describes the peer mentoring experience from doctoral student mentors' point of view. Twelve science and engineering doctoral students participated in this phenomenology study. The findings suggest doctoral peer mentors served instrumental, psychosocial, buffering, and liaison roles; they passed on their social, professional, and…

Sustainable and responsible design from a Christian worldview.

PubMed

Eisenbarth, Steven R; Van Treuren, Kenneth W

2004-04-01

Many aspects of design require engineers to make choices based on non-quantifiable personal perspectives. These decisions touch issues in aesthetics, ethics, social impact, and responsibility and sustainability. Part of Baylor University's mission is to provide a learning community in which Christian life values and worldviews might be integrated into academic disciplines. In view of this institutional commitment, members of the Engineering faculty are investigating how Christian worldviews might interact with elements of engineering design in such a way as to produce uniquely Christian insights and inform the non-quantifiable aspects of the engineering process.

STEM Vocational Socialization and Career Development in Middle Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kendall, Katherine A.

2017-01-01

Economic forecasts predict an unprecedented shortage of STEM workers in the United States. This study examined the vocational anticipatory socialization factors and classroom stratagems influencing middle school students' science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career development. Student attitudes towards STEM content areas and…

29 CFR 1910.1051 - 1,3-Butadiene.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

..., duration, and results of samples taken; (E) Type of protective devices worn, if any; and (F) Name, social... social security number of the employee; (B) Physician's or other licensed health care professional's...: Good industrial hygiene practices recommend that engineering and work practice controls be used to...

KSC-2015-1222

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-28

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – From left, John Bellardo, co-principal investigator Cubesat at California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, David Rider, GRIFEX principal investigator at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and Dave Klumpar, Firebird-II principal investigator and director of the Space Science and Engineering Laboratory at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, discuss three Educational Launch of Nanosatellites ELaNa CubeSat that are being flown as auxiliary payloads on NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, with the audience of a NASA Social held for at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This NASA Social brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries to participate in launch activities and communicate their experience with social media followers. The SMAP mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg on Jan. 29. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://www.nasa.gov/smap. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Review and application of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine bullying or cyberbullying recommendations for screening and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.

PubMed

Gillespie, Gordon Lee; Willis, Danny G; Amar, Angela F

2018-03-08

Bullying has been long seen as a natural part of childhood and adolescence. However, a growing body of evidence suggests bullying and now cyberbullying may inflict harm or distress on targeted youth including physical, psychological, social, or educational harm. The purpose of this paper is to endorse the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine statement, summarize the report, and apply the recommendations to two focus areas: screening and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth as they relate to bullying and cyberbullying. Screening for bullying against youth; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth as a high-risk group for bullying victimization; and implications to address bullying against youth are exemplified. Nurses need to promote policies that foster inclusive, supportive, safe, and healthy schools and environments for youth. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Suicidal Ideation, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, And Life Satisfaction Of Medical, Engineering, And Social Sciences Students.

PubMed

Naseem, Sabahat; Munaf, Seema

2017-01-01

Pursuing higher education is not an easy task as it requires hard work, dedication, and motivation. Although there are many rewards involved in growing up academically, nevertheless, it contains a few hazards too. For instance, suicidal ideation is associated with presence of depression, anxiety, and stress with low level of satisfaction with life in students finding difficulty in handling educational demands of higher education. Therefore, the present study focused on the query that whether there is any difference or not among medical, engineering, and social sciences students of city of Karachi, Pakistan in the level of suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, stress, and life satisfaction. Using comparative group design, total 300 students (150 males and 150 females) with age range of 19-26 were selected from faculties of medical, engineering, and social sciences of different universities of Karachi, Pakistan, through purposive sampling. Respondent Profile Form, The Suicide Behaviours Questionnaire-Revised, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, and Satisfaction with Life Scale were administered to assess suicidal ideation; depression, anxiety, stress; and life satisfaction, respectively, of the students. Scores were analysed through ANOVA and Post Hoc (Tukey's HSD) test using SPSS. Social sciences and engineering students were significantly higher on depression, anxiety, and stress than medical students [F (2, 297) =8.701, p=.000] whereas insignificant differences in the level of suicidal ideation [F (2, 297) =1.914, p=.149] and life satisfaction [F (2, 297) = .726, p = .485] among these students were found. With the help of these findings, it would be easier to counsel students of different disciplines in time on the lines of suggested preventive measures.

Design of Smart Educational Robot as a Tool For Teaching Media Based on Contextual Teaching and Learning to Improve the Skill of Electrical Engineering Student

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuhrie, M. S.; Basuki, I.; Asto, B. I. G. P.; Anifah, L.

2018-04-01

The development of robotics in Indonesia has been very encouraging. The barometer is the success of the Indonesian Robot Contest. The focus of research is a teaching module manufacturing, planning mechanical design, control system through microprocessor technology and maneuverability of the robot. Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) strategy is the concept of learning where the teacher brings the real world into the classroom and encourage students to make connections between knowledge possessed by its application in everyday life. This research the development model used is the 4-D model. This Model consists of four stages: Define Stage, Design Stage, Develop Stage, and Disseminate Stage. This research was conducted by applying the research design development with the aim to produce a tool of learning in the form of smart educational robot modules and kit based on Contextual Teaching and Learning at the Department of Electrical Engineering to improve the skills of the Electrical Engineering student. Socialization questionnaires showed that levels of the student majoring in electrical engineering competencies image currently only limited to conventional machines. The average assessment is 3.34 validator included in either category. Modules developed can give hope to the future are able to produce Intelligent Robot Tool for Teaching.

Tacit Knowledge Capture and the Brain-Drain at Electrical Utilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perjanik, Nicholas Steven

As a consequence of an aging workforce, electric utilities are at risk of losing their most experienced and knowledgeable electrical engineers. In this research, the problem was a lack of understanding of what electric utilities were doing to capture the tacit knowledge or know-how of these engineers. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the tacit knowledge capture strategies currently used in the industry by conducting a case study of 7 U.S. electrical utilities that have demonstrated an industry commitment to improving operational standards. The research question addressed the implemented strategies to capture the tacit knowledge of retiring electrical engineers and technical personnel. The research methodology involved a qualitative embedded case study. The theories used in this study included knowledge creation theory, resource-based theory, and organizational learning theory. Data were collected through one time interviews of a senior electrical engineer or technician within each utility and a workforce planning or training professional within 2 of the 7 utilities. The analysis included the use of triangulation and content analysis strategies. Ten tacit knowledge capture strategies were identified: (a) formal and informal on-boarding mentorship and apprenticeship programs, (b) formal and informal off-boarding mentorship programs, (c) formal and informal training programs, (d) using lessons learned during training sessions, (e) communities of practice, (f) technology enabled tools, (g) storytelling, (h) exit interviews, (i) rehiring of retirees as consultants, and (j) knowledge risk assessments. This research contributes to social change by offering strategies to capture the know-how needed to ensure operational continuity in the delivery of safe, reliable, and sustainable power.

Engine having multiple pumps driven by a single shaft

DOEpatents

Blass, James R.

2001-01-01

An engine comprises an engine housing. A first engine fluid sub-system that includes a first pump and the engine housing defining a first fluid passage is also included in the engine. The engine also includes at least one additional engine fluid sub-system that includes a second pump and the engine housing defining a second fluid passage. A rotating shaft is at least partially positioned in the engine housing, the first pump and the second pump.

Social insects inspire human design

PubMed Central

Holbrook, C. Tate; Clark, Rebecca M.; Moore, Dani; Overson, Rick P.; Penick, Clint A.; Smith, Adrian A.

2010-01-01

The international conference ‘Social Biomimicry: Insect Societies and Human Design’, hosted by Arizona State University, USA, 18–20 February 2010, explored how the collective behaviour and nest architecture of social insects can inspire innovative and effective solutions to human design challenges. It brought together biologists, designers, engineers, computer scientists, architects and businesspeople, with the dual aims of enriching biology and advancing biomimetic design. PMID:20392721

A case study of teaching social responsibility to doctoral students in the climate sciences.

PubMed

Børsen, Tom; Antia, Avan N; Glessmer, Mirjam Sophia

2013-12-01

The need to make young scientists aware of their social responsibilities is widely acknowledged, although the question of how to actually do it has so far gained limited attention. A 2-day workshop entitled "Prepared for social responsibility?" attended by doctoral students from multiple disciplines in climate science, was targeted at the perceived needs of the participants and employed a format that took them through three stages of ethics education: sensitization, information and empowerment. The workshop aimed at preparing doctoral students to manage ethical dilemmas that emerge when climate science meets the public sphere (e.g., to identify and balance legitimate perspectives on particular types of geo-engineering), and is an example of how to include social responsibility in doctoral education. The paper describes the workshop from the three different perspectives of the authors: the course teacher, the head of the graduate school, and a graduate student. The elements that contributed to the success of the workshop, and thus make it an example to follow, are (1) the involvement of participating students, (2) the introduction of external expertise and role models in climate science, and (3) a workshop design that focused on ethical analyses of examples from the climate sciences.

Sexological deliberation and social engineering: Albert Moll and the sterilisation debate in late imperial and Weimar Germany.

PubMed

Bryant, Thomas

2012-04-01

The physician and sexologist Albert Moll, from Berlin, was one of the main protagonists within the German discourse on the opportunities and dangers of social engineering, by eugenic interventions into human life in general, as well as into reproductive hygiene and healthcare policy in particular. One of the main sexological topics that were discussed intensively during the late-Wilhelminian German Reich and the Weimar Republic was the question of the legalisation of voluntary and compulsory sterilisations on the basis of medical, social, eugenic, economic or criminological indications. As is clear from Moll's conservative principles of medical ethics, and his conviction that the genetic knowledge required for eugenically indicated sterilisations was not yet sufficiently elaborated, he had doubts and worries about colleagues who were exceedingly zealous about these surgical sterilisations--especially Gustav Boeters from Saxony.

Researching Undergraduate Social Science Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rand, Jane

2016-01-01

The experience(s) of undergraduate research students in the social sciences is under-represented in the literature in comparison to the natural sciences or science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). The strength of STEM undergraduate research learning environments is understood to be related to an apprenticeship-mode of learning supported…

The Perfect Storm--Genetic Engineering, Science, and Ethics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rollin, Bernard E.

2014-01-01

Uncertainty about ethics has been a major factor in societal rejection of biotechnology. Six factors help create a societal "perfect storm" regarding ethics and biotechnology: Social demand for ethical discussion; societal scientific illiteracy; poor social understanding of ethics; a "Gresham's Law for Ethics;" Scientific…

Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Opinion Dynamics in Small Social Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-01

Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2013 96 M. Gabbay described. Section 4 illustrates the application of the methodology...group of cyber terrorists has already gained access to multiple computers. The attack will attempt to disrupt and destroy a large oil refinery; at

An integrative review of ethnic and cultural variation in socialization and children's self-regulation.

PubMed

LeCuyer, Elizabeth A; Zhang, Yi

2015-04-01

To examine the evidence for cross-cultural variation in socialization and children's normative self-regulation, based on a contextual-developmental perspective. Nurses and healthcare workers in multi-cultural societies must understand diversity in socializing influences (including parenting) and in children's behaviour. A contextual-developmental perspective implies that normative cultural and ethnic values will influence socializing processes and behaviour, which in turn will influence children's self-regulation. Integrative review. Studies were located using five major search engines from 1990-2011. Domains of a contextual-developmental perspective and a comprehensive definition of self-regulation assisted the generation of search terms. Selected studies compared at least two ethnic or cultural groups and addressed contextual-developmental domains: (1) culturally specific social values, beliefs, or attitudes; (2) socializing behaviours; and (3) children's normative self-regulation. Eleven studies about children's self-regulation were found to have data consistent with a contextual-developmental perspective. Studies used descriptive correlational or comparative designs with primarily convenience sampling; eight confirmed stated hypotheses, three were exploratory. Findings across studies evidenced coherent patterns of sociocultural influence on children's attention, compliance, delay of gratification, effortful control and executive function. A contextual-developmental perspective provided a useful perspective to examine normative differences in values, socializing behaviours and children's self-regulation. This perspective and these findings are expected to guide future research, to assist nurses and healthcare providers to understand diversity in parenting and children's behaviour. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Exploring the experiences of female students in introductory project-based engineering courses at two- and four-year institutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swan, Amy K.

2011-12-01

This qualitative study explored the experiential and contextual factors that shaped female students' pathways into introductory project-based engineering classes at two community colleges and one four-year institution, as well as female students' experiences within and outside of these classes. The study was framed by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1996) and Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory. Findings were based on analyses of data gathered through multiple methods: observations; individual interviews with female students; focus group interviews with project teams; and document collection. The findings of this study revealed that while positive experiences with math or science were a likely pre-cursor to engineering interest, experiential learning appeared to be a more powerful force in fostering students' engineering interest. Specifically, participants developed an interest in engineering through academic, professional, and extracurricular engineering- and design-related activities that familiarized them with the tasks and skills involved in engineering work and helped them develop a sense of selfefficacy with regard to this work. Interest and self-efficacy, in turn, played a role in students' postsecondary educational decision-making processes, as did contextual factors including families and finances. This study's findings also showed that participants' project teams were a critically important microsystem within participants' ecological environments. Within this sometimes "chilly" microsystem, female students negotiated intrateam processes, which were in some cases affected by gender norms. Intrateam processes that influenced female students' project-based learning experiences included: interpersonal dynamics; leadership; and division of labor. This study also identified several ways in which the lived experiences of participants at the community colleges were different from, or similar to, those of participants at the four-year institution. In the classroom, similarities and differences were related to projects, learning outcomes, language and time, while outside of the classroom they were primarily linked to time and peer support. This study's findings suggest a need for expanded access to experiential learning opportunities and ongoing attention to the role of community colleges in engineering education. Study findings also point toward ways that engineering educators might attend to the intrateam processes identified, and better accommodate the needs of all students in project-based introductory courses.

On a New Approach to Education about Ethics for Engineers at Meijou University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukaya, Minoru; Morimoto, Tsukasa; Kimura, Noritsugu

We propose a new approach to education of so called “engineering ethics”. This approach has two important elements in its teaching system. One is “problem-solving learning”, and the other is “discussion ability”. So far, engineering ethics started at the ethical standpoint. But we put the viewpoint of problem-solving learning at the educational base of engineering ethics. Because many problems have complicated structures, so if we want to solve them, we should discuss each other. Problem-solving ability and discussion ability, they help engineers to solve the complex problems in their social everyday life. Therefore, Meijo University names engineering ethics “ethics for engineers”. At Meijou University about 1300 students take classes in both ethics for engineers and environmental ethics for one year.

SOLE: Applying Semantics and Social Web to Support Technology Enhanced Learning in Software Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colomo-Palacios, Ricardo; Jiménez-López, Diego; García-Crespo, Ángel; Blanco-Iglesias, Borja

eLearning educative processes are a challenge for educative institutions and education professionals. In an environment in which learning resources are being produced, catalogued and stored using innovative ways, SOLE provides a platform in which exam questions can be produced supported by Web 2.0 tools, catalogued and labeled via semantic web and stored and distributed using eLearning standards. This paper presents, SOLE, a social network of exam questions sharing particularized for Software Engineering domain, based on semantics and built using semantic web and eLearning standards, such as IMS Question and Test Interoperability specification 2.1.

Increasing Scalability of Researcher Network Extraction from the Web

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asada, Yohei; Matsuo, Yutaka; Ishizuka, Mitsuru

Social networks, which describe relations among people or organizations as a network, have recently attracted attention. With the help of a social network, we can analyze the structure of a community and thereby promote efficient communications within it. We investigate the problem of extracting a network of researchers from the Web, to assist efficient cooperation among researchers. Our method uses a search engine to get the cooccurences of names of two researchers and calculates the streangth of the relation between them. Then we label the relation by analyzing the Web pages in which these two names cooccur. Research on social network extraction using search engines as ours, is attracting attention in Japan as well as abroad. However, the former approaches issue too many queries to search engines to extract a large-scale network. In this paper, we propose a method to filter superfluous queries and facilitates the extraction of large-scale networks. By this method we are able to extract a network of around 3000-nodes. Our experimental results show that the proposed method reduces the number of queries significantly while preserving the quality of the network as compared to former methods.

Influence of social cognitive and ethnic variables on academic goals of underrepresented students in science and engineering: a multiple-groups analysis.

PubMed

Byars-Winston, Angela; Estrada, Yannine; Howard, Christina; Davis, Dalelia; Zalapa, Juan

2010-04-01

This study investigated the academic interests and goals of 223 African American, Latino/a, Southeast Asian, and Native American undergraduate students in two groups: biological science and engineering (S/E) majors. Using social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), we examined the relationships of social cognitive variables (math/science academic self-efficacy, math/science outcome expectations), along with the influence of ethnic variables (ethnic identity, other-group orientation) and perceptions of campus climate to their math/science interests and goal commitment to earn an S/E degree. Path analysis revealed that the hypothesized model provided good overall fit to the data, revealing significant relationships from outcome expectations to interests and to goals. Paths from academic self-efficacy to S/E goals and from interests to S/E goals varied for students in engineering and biological science. For both groups, other-group orientation was positively related to self-efficacy and support was found for an efficacy-mediated relationship between perceived campus climate and goals. Theoretical and practical implications of the study's findings are considered as well as future research directions.

Influence of Social Cognitive and Ethnic Variables on Academic Goals of Underrepresented Students in Science and Engineering: A Multiple-Groups Analysis

PubMed Central

Byars-Winston, Angela; Estrada, Yannine; Howard, Christina; Davis, Dalelia; Zalapa, Juan

2010-01-01

This study investigated the academic interests and goals of 223 African American, Latino/a, Southeast Asian, and Native American undergraduate students in two groups: biological science and engineering (S/E) majors. Using social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), we examined the relationships of social cognitive variables (math/science academic self-efficacy, math/science outcome expectations), along with the influence of ethnic variables (ethnic identity, other-group orientation) and perceptions of campus climate to their math/science interests and goal commitment to earn an S/E degree. Path analysis revealed that the hypothesized model provided good overall fit to the data, revealing significant relationships from outcome expectations to interests and to goals. Paths from academic self-efficacy to S/E goals and from interests to S/E goals varied for students in engineering and biological science. For both groups, other-group orientation was positively related to self-efficacy and support was found for an efficacy-mediated relationship between perceived campus climate and goals. Theoretical and practical implications of the study’s findings are considered as well as future research directions. PMID:20495610

The Four Phases of Russian Engineering Education in the Era of Social Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Churlyaeva, Natalya

2013-01-01

We consider some peculiarities in the evolution of Russian engineering education as it underwent two radical paradigmal transformations during the past century, especially from the viewpoint of restrictions that inhibited access to higher education (HE). The driving forces of this evolution are revealed and some negative results are shown. While…

Scenario Based E-Learning in Electrical Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tambunan, Hamonangan; Dalimunte, Amirhud; Silitonga, Marsangkap

2017-01-01

The scenario based e-learning in Electrical Engineering Education Learning (EEEL) was developed by covering the scope and characteristics of all subjects and the competence unit of graduates in the field of pedagogy, professional, social and personality, with url addresed http://jpte-ft-unimed.edu20.org. The scenario incorporates the concept of…

"Setting up for the Next Big Thing": Undergraduate Women Engineering Students' Postbaccalaureate Career Decisions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Kathleen N.; Gayles, Joy Gaston

2017-01-01

Using social cognitive career theory and the cognitive information processing model as frameworks, in this constructivist case study we examined the career-related experiences and decisions of 10 women engineering undergraduate seniors who accepted full-time positions. From the data analysis 3 major themes emerged: critical undergraduate…

Reasons and Motivations for the Option of an Engineering Career in Portugal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dias, Diana

2011-01-01

Towards the end of their secondary education, students face significant pressures in their decision about their career plan. These pressures are internal and external, personal and social, individual and from the reference group. This paper aims at understanding the reasons driving engineering students' choices, their perceived needs and…

Professional Role Confidence and Gendered Persistence in Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cech, Erin; Rubineau, Brian; Silbey, Susan; Seron, Caroll

2011-01-01

Social psychological research on gendered persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions is dominated by two explanations: women leave because they perceive their family plans to be at odds with demands of STEM careers, and women leave due to low self-assessment of their skills in STEM's intellectual tasks, net…

Development of a special topics course on civil engineering project finance for the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering of Texas A&M University.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-05-01

Experts predict that the highway trust fund will deteriorate rapidly over the course of the next several : years. This situation has led many state agencies to seek alternative financing methods that can meet both : social and economic needs. One pos...

Science and Engineering Degree Completion by Gender. Snapshot™ Report, Spring 2017

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Student Clearinghouse, 2017

2017-01-01

From 2006 to 2016, degree completion in the so-called "hard sciences" increased in prevalence for both genders. Excluding social sciences and psychology, the percentage of bachelor's degrees accounted for by science and engineering disciplines increased five percentage points for men, and two percentage points for women. This brief…

Using Social Media to Facilitate Knowledge Transfer in Complex Engineering Environments: A Primer for Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Glen; Salomone, Sonia

2013-01-01

While highly cohesive groups are potentially advantageous they are also often correlated with the emergence of knowledge and information silos based around those same functional or occupational clusters. Consequently, an essential challenge for engineering organisations wishing to overcome informational silos is to implement mechanisms that…

Careers | Argonne National Laboratory

Science.gov Websites

YouTube Google+ More Social Media » Jason Carter Mechanical Engineer Read more » Look at the world differently. At Argonne, we view the world from a different perspective. Our scientists and engineers conduct world-class research in clean energy, the environment, technology, national security and more. We're

Bringing Back the Social Affordances of the Paper Memo to Aerospace Systems Engineering Work

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidoff, Scott; Holloway, Alexandra

2014-01-01

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is a relatively new field that brings together the interdisciplinary study of technological components of a project (systems engineering) with a model-based ontology to express the hierarchical and behavioral relationships between the components (computational modeling). Despite the compelling promises of the benefits of MBSE, such as improved communication and productivity due to an underlying language and data model, we observed hesitation to its adoption at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To investigate, we conducted a six-month ethnographic field investigation and needs validation with 19 systems engineers. This paper contributes our observations of a generational shift in one of JPL's core technologies. We report on a cultural misunderstanding between communities of practice that bolsters the existing technology drag. Given the high cost of failure, we springboard our observations into a design hypothesis - an intervention that blends the social affordances of the narrative-based work flow with the rich technological advantages of explicit data references and relationships of the model-based approach. We provide a design rationale, and the results of our evaluation.

University Experiences and Women Engineering Student Persistence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ayers, LoAnn Debra Gienger

Riverside University (a pseudonym), like many universities, has not significantly increased the number of women who graduate with bachelor's degrees in engineering. The purpose of the study is to understand how the university experiences of women students influence the decision to persist in an undergraduate engineering degree and to understand the role of self-perception in how the students perceive experiences as supporting or hindering their persistence in the major. Archival data, documents and artifacts, observations, individual interviews, and a focus group with women engineering students provide insights into students' perceived barriers and supports of student success. Analysis of the data results in two major themes. First, students' self-confidence and self-efficacy influence how women assimilate university experiences as either supportive or diminishing of academic success. Second, university policies and practices shape the campus environment within which student experiences are formed and influence a student's level of institutional, academic, and social integration. The results of the study indicate opportunities for university leadership to enhance strategies that positively shape students' institutional, academic and social integration as precursors toward increasing the number of women students who successfully complete undergraduate engineering degrees at Riverside University. Future research is indicated to better understand how gender and gender identity intersects with other demographic factors, such as socio-economic status, immigration status, and life stage (e.g., traditional versus non-traditional students), to support or deter the persistence of engineering students to degree completion.

Social Group Membership Increases STEM Engagement among Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Master, Allison; Cheryan, Sapna; Meltzoff, Andrew N.

2017-01-01

The American educational system currently yields disappointing levels of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) engagement and achievement among students. One way to remedy this may be to increase children's motivation in STEM from an early age. This study examined whether a social cue--being part of an experimental "minimal…

Professional Competence and Higher Education: The ASSET Programme.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winter, Richard; Maisch, Maire

This book describes the ASSET (Accreditation for Social Services Experience and Training) Program, a British program which addresses the need for effective education and development of social workers and a model variant of ASSET used to train engineers. The work draws on three different traditions: the principles of National Vocational…

A Model of Factors Contributing to STEM Learning and Career Orientation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nugent, Gwen; Barker, Bradley; Welch, Greg; Grandgenett, Neal; Wu, ChaoRong; Nelson, Carl

2015-01-01

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a model of factors contributing to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and career orientation, examining the complex paths and relationships among social, motivational, and instructional factors underlying these outcomes for middle school youth. Social cognitive…

Water: Social Issues and Contemporary Art Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cornelius, Angela; Sherow, Ernie; Carpenter, B. Stephen, II

2010-01-01

This Instructional Resource is based on the authors' current efforts as part of an interdisciplinary project where artists, community members, engineers, social activists, and educators are working together to make positive change in people's lives. Water, as a subject, symbol, and life-sustaining substance, is the focus of their work and the…

The Roles of Social Influences on Student Competence, Relatedness, Achievement, and Retention in STEM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilts, Alexis; Part, Rachel; Bernacki, Matthew L.

2018-01-01

Students' perceptions of competence and relatedness are known to influence learning processes and achievement, and may have particular import for underrepresented science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learners. Sources of social support that contribute to undergraduate life science learners' perceived competence and relatedness…

Aequilibrium prudentis: on the necessity for ethics and policy studies in the scientific and technological education of medical professionals.

PubMed

Anderson, Misti Ault; Giordano, James

2013-04-23

The importance of strong science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education continues to grow as society, medicine, and the economy become increasingly focused and dependent upon bioscientific and technological innovation. New advances in frontier sciences (e.g., genetics, neuroscience, bio-engineering, nanoscience, cyberscience) generate ethical issues and questions regarding the use of novel technologies in medicine and public life. In light of current emphasis upon science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (at the pre-collegiate, undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels), the pace and extent of advancements in science and biotechnology, the increasingly technological orientation and capabilities of medicine, and the ways that medicine - as profession and practice - can engage such scientific and technological power upon the multi-cultural world-stage to affect the human predicament, human condition, and perhaps nature of the human being, we argue that it is critical that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education go beyond technical understanding and directly address ethical, legal, social, and public policy implications of new innovations. Toward this end, we propose a paradigm of integrative science, technology, ethics, and policy studies that meets these needs through early and continued educational exposure that expands extant curricula of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs from the high school through collegiate, graduate, medical, and post-graduate medical education. We posit a synthetic approach that elucidates the historical, current, and potential interaction of scientific and biotechnological development in addition to the ethico-legal and social issues that are important to educate and sustain the next generation of medical and biomedical professionals who can appreciate, articulate, and address the realities of scientific and biotechnological progress given the shifting architectonics of the global social milieu. We assert that current trends in science, technology, medicine, and global politics dictate that these skills will be necessary to responsibly guide ethically sound employment of science, technology, and engineering advancements in medicine so as to enable more competent and humanitarian practice within an increasingly pluralistic world culture.

Evaluating Palliative Care Resources Available to the Public Using the Internet and Social Media.

PubMed

Claudio, Celeste H; Dizon, Zoelle B; October, Tessie W

2018-01-01

Accessible information about palliative care available to the public on the Internet is growing. We do not know whether this information is consistent with the current accepted definition of palliative care. To identify resources on the Internet and social media regarding palliative care and evaluate the information conveyed. A cross-sectional study of "palliative care" search results. Top 10 Google websites, top 10 most viewed YouTube videos, and social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, were searched. The most popular Google websites were mostly from national organizations promoting palliative care, whose definitions of palliative care consistently mention "quality of life" and "relief from symptoms and stress." None of the websites mentioned children, and 77% cited palliative care as treatment for cancer with less focus on other diseases. No personal stories were included in Google websites, while 60% of YouTube videos included personal stories. Five main themes were generated from 266 YouTube video comments analyzed. The most common theme was emotionality, of which 91% were positive statements. Facebook and Twitter were mostly used by health-care professionals and not the public. Palliative care resources are mostly positive and consistent with the current definition of palliative care. Major Internet search engines such as Google and YouTube provide valuable insight into information the public receives about palliative care. Future development of Internet resources on palliative care should consider including children and emphasizing palliative care for all life-limiting illnesses.

Factors Influencing Postsecondary STEM Students' Views of the Public Communication of an Emergent Technology: a Cross-National Study from Five Universities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gardner, Grant E.; Jones, M. Gail; Albe, Virginie; Blonder, Ron; Laherto, Antti; Macher, Daniel; Paechter, Manuela

2017-10-01

Recent efforts in the science education community have highlighted the need to integrate research and theory from science communication research into more general science education scholarship. These synthesized research perspectives are relatively novel but serve an important need to better understand the impacts that the advent of rapidly emerging technologies will have on a new generation of scientists and engineers including their formal communication with engaged citizenry. This cross-national study examined postsecondary science and engineering students' ( n = 254 from five countries: Austria, Finland, France, Israel, and USA) perspectives on the role of science communication in their own formal science and engineering education. More broadly, we examined participants' understanding of their perceived responsibilities of communicating science and engineering to the general public when an issue contains complex social and ethical implications (SEI). The study is contextualized in the emergent technology of nanotechnology for which SEI are of particular concern and for which the general public often perceives conflicting risks and benefits. Findings indicate that student participants' hold similar views on the need for their own training in communication as future scientists and engineers. When asked about the role that ethics and risk perception plays in research, development, and public communication of nanotechnology, participants demonstrate similar trajectories of perspectives that are, however, often anchored in very different levels of beginning concern. Results are discussed in the context of considerations for science communication training within formal science education curricula globally.

Asilomar moments: formative framings in recombinant DNA and solar climate engineering research.

PubMed

Schäfer, Stefan; Low, Sean

2014-12-28

We examine the claim that in governance for solar climate engineering research, and especially field tests, there is no need for external governance beyond existing mechanisms such as peer review and environmental impact assessments that aim to assess technically defined risks to the physical environment. By drawing on the historical debate on recombinant DNA research, we show that defining risks is not a technical question but a complex process of narrative formation. Governance emerges from within, and as a response to, narratives of what is at stake in a debate. In applying this finding to the case of climate engineering, we find that the emerging narrative differs starkly from the narrative that gave meaning to rDNA technology during its formative period, with important implications for governance. While the narrative of rDNA technology was closed down to narrowly focus on technical risks, that of climate engineering continues to open up and includes social, political and ethical issues. This suggests that, in order to be legitimate, governance must take into account this broad perception of what constitutes the relevant issues and risks of climate engineering, requiring governance that goes beyond existing mechanisms that focus on technical risks. Even small-scale field tests with negligible impacts on the physical environment warrant additional governance as they raise broader concerns that go beyond the immediate impacts of individual experiments. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

The need and potential for building a integrated knowledge-base of the Earth-Human system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobs, Clifford

2011-03-01

The pursuit of scientific understanding is increasingly based on interdisciplinary research. To understand more deeply the planet and its interactions requires a progressively more holistic approach, exploring knowledge coming from all scientific and engineering disciplines including but not limited to, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, geosciences, material sciences, mathematics, physics, cyberinfrastucture, and social sciences. Nowhere is such an approach more critical than in the study of global climate change in which one of the major challenges is the development of next-generation Earth System Models that include coupled and interactive representations of ecosystems, agricultural working lands and forests, urban environments, biogeochemistry, atmospheric chemistry, ocean and atmospheric currents, the water cycle, land ice, and human activities.

Education and Communication for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reiff, Patricia H.; Cline, Troy D.

2016-03-01

The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) proposed a balanced portfolio of education and communication activities and products, including broadly distributed materials for the general public, special programs and materials for teachers, targeted activities and materials for underserved groups, and intensive experiences for future scientists and engineers. Our plan includes creation and dissemination of educational software, podcasts and vodcasts, planetarium shows, teacher and student activities, 3D models, social media and smartphone apps. We have surveyed users of NASA data to determine which modes of learning were effective in their youth and which are the most effective now, and use those results to inform our education and communication plans. All materials will be reviewed and placed in NASA online educational archives for broad dissemination.

Final Research Performance Progress Report: Geothermal Resource Development with Zero Mass Withdrawal, Engineered Convection, and Wellbore Energy Conversion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hughes, Richard; Tyagi, Mayank; Radonjic, Mileva

This project is intended to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility, and environmental and social attractiveness of a novel method of heat extraction from geothermal reservoirs. The emphasis is on assessing the potential for a heat extraction method that couples forced and free convection to maximize extraction efficiency. The heat extraction concept is enhanced by considering wellbore energy conversion, which may include only a boiler for a working fluid, or perhaps a complete boiler, turbine, and condenser cycle within the wellbore. The feasibility of this system depends on maintaining mechanical and hydraulic integrity of the wellbore, so the material propertiesmore » of the casing-cement system are examined both experimentally and with well design calculations. The attractiveness depends on mitigation of seismic and subsidence risks, economic performance, environmental impact, and social impact – all of which are assessed as components of this study.« less

Polya's bees: A model of decentralized decision-making.

PubMed

Golman, Russell; Hagmann, David; Miller, John H

2015-09-01

How do social systems make decisions with no single individual in control? We observe that a variety of natural systems, including colonies of ants and bees and perhaps even neurons in the human brain, make decentralized decisions using common processes involving information search with positive feedback and consensus choice through quorum sensing. We model this process with an urn scheme that runs until hitting a threshold, and we characterize an inherent tradeoff between the speed and the accuracy of a decision. The proposed common mechanism provides a robust and effective means by which a decentralized system can navigate the speed-accuracy tradeoff and make reasonably good, quick decisions in a variety of environments. Additionally, consensus choice exhibits systemic risk aversion even while individuals are idiosyncratically risk-neutral. This too is adaptive. The model illustrates how natural systems make decentralized decisions, illuminating a mechanism that engineers of social and artificial systems could imitate.

Nordic contributions to disability policies.

PubMed

Kebbon, L

1997-04-01

The most spectacular contribution from the nordic countries to intellectual disability policy is probably the idea of normalization, but it is not the simplistic notion that can be inferred from international debate. Its major significance may have been to act as an inspiring catchword for the important trend away from institutions into integrated living. However, it is more fully understood when seen in the concrete context where it has successively developed, and been critically analysed and tested in operation. Scandinavian sociologists and psychologists--as well as politicians--were also among the first to use the concept of quality of life for analysis of social policy, including intellectual disability. The primary medium for implementation has been legislation, where the dominant difficulty is to find a balance between security and freedom, protection and self-determination. Through this process, the role of social engineering in the welfare state, based on humanistic ideas of solidarity, can be followed into today's emphasis on individual influence and participation.

Solar power satellites - Technical, social and political implications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knelman, F. H.

Solar power satellite systems (SPS) are examined, together with their environmental and social impacts and the energy policies necessary for their construction. The energy source, the sun, is acceptable to advocates of decentralized technologies, while the conversion system is fitted to large institutions. However, large-scale power plants are subject to persistent malfunctions, and the approximately 50 sq km SPS solar array is projected to suffer from at least recurring cell contact failures. The power could also be generated by heat engines for transmission by either laser or microwaves. Numerous feasibility and cost-benefit studies are still required, including defining the transmission beam's effects on the atmosphere, ionosphere, and human health. Furthermore, the resource allocations, capital costs, insurance, and institutional problems still need clarification, as do the design, logistics, and development of an entire new, much larger launch system based on Shuttle technology. Finally, the military defensibility of the SPS power station is questioned.

Polya’s bees: A model of decentralized decision-making

PubMed Central

Golman, Russell; Hagmann, David; Miller, John H.

2015-01-01

How do social systems make decisions with no single individual in control? We observe that a variety of natural systems, including colonies of ants and bees and perhaps even neurons in the human brain, make decentralized decisions using common processes involving information search with positive feedback and consensus choice through quorum sensing. We model this process with an urn scheme that runs until hitting a threshold, and we characterize an inherent tradeoff between the speed and the accuracy of a decision. The proposed common mechanism provides a robust and effective means by which a decentralized system can navigate the speed-accuracy tradeoff and make reasonably good, quick decisions in a variety of environments. Additionally, consensus choice exhibits systemic risk aversion even while individuals are idiosyncratically risk-neutral. This too is adaptive. The model illustrates how natural systems make decentralized decisions, illuminating a mechanism that engineers of social and artificial systems could imitate. PMID:26601255

KSC-2015-1206

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-28

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Jason Townsend, NASA's deputy social media manager, addresses the audience of a NASA Social held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This NASA Social brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries to participate in launch activities and communicate their experience with social media followers. The SMAP mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg on Jan. 29. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://www.nasa.gov/smap. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Sexological Deliberation and Social Engineering: Albert Moll and the Sterilisation Debate in Late Imperial and Weimar Germany

PubMed Central

Bryant, Thomas

2012-01-01

The physician and sexologist Albert Moll, from Berlin, was one of the main protagonists within the German discourse on the opportunities and dangers of social engineering, by eugenic interventions into human life in general, as well as into reproductive hygiene and healthcare policy in particular. One of the main sexological topics that were discussed intensively during the late-Wilhelminian German Reich and the Weimar Republic was the question of the legalisation of voluntary and compulsory sterilisations on the basis of medical, social, eugenic, economic or criminological indications. As is clear from Moll’s conservative principles of medical ethics, and his conviction that the genetic knowledge required for eugenically indicated sterilisations was not yet sufficiently elaborated, he had doubts and worries about colleagues who were exceedingly zealous about these surgical sterilisations – especially Gustav Boeters from Saxony. PMID:23002295

Training users to counteract phishing.

PubMed

Mayhorn, Christopher B; Nyeste, Patrick G

2012-01-01

Phishing is an increasingly more prevalent form of online, social engineered scams that escalate costs and risks to society year to year. This study demonstrates an association between anti-phishing training techniques used in previous research and individual differences which could affect phishing susceptibility. Results indicated that anti-phishing training in both a simple comic and more complex video game form is helpful in decreasing phishing susceptibility as measured by Miss rates for all individuals including college aged and computer savvy participants. Based on the results of the present study, implications for future efforts to combat phishing are discussed.

Social Significance of Fundamental Science Common to all Mankind

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zel'Dovich, Ya. B.

It is a challenge of science to play a great role in solution of the problem of meeting material and spiritual human demands. The argument is known that science has become a productive force. When characterizing economy of one or another country or region, it is a practice to speak about science-intensive works, i.e., those where production and competitiveness are directly related to a science level. The science-intensive works include, for example, production of microelectronic circuits and their application in computer and information science or production of pharmaceutical preparations using gene engineering. This list could be continued indefinitely…

A methodology for long range prediction of air transportation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ayati, M. B.; English, J. M.

1980-01-01

The paper describes the methodology for long-time projection of aircraft fuel requirements. A new concept of social and economic factors for future aviation industry which provides an estimate of predicted fuel usage is presented; it includes air traffic forecasts and lead times for producing new engines and aircraft types. An air transportation model is then developed in terms of an abstracted set of variables which represent the entire aircraft industry on a macroscale. This model was evaluated by testing the required output variables from a model based on historical data over the past decades.

Small-World Network Spectra in Mean-Field Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grabow, Carsten; Grosskinsky, Stefan; Timme, Marc

2012-05-01

Collective dynamics on small-world networks emerge in a broad range of systems with their spectra characterizing fundamental asymptotic features. Here we derive analytic mean-field predictions for the spectra of small-world models that systematically interpolate between regular and random topologies by varying their randomness. These theoretical predictions agree well with the actual spectra (obtained by numerical diagonalization) for undirected and directed networks and from fully regular to strongly random topologies. These results may provide analytical insights to empirically found features of dynamics on small-world networks from various research fields, including biology, physics, engineering, and social science.

NGSS, disposability, and the ambivalence of science in/under neoliberalism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weinstein, Matthew

2017-12-01

This paper explores the ambivalence of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and its Framework towards neoliberal governance. The paper examines the ways that the NGSS serves as a mechanism within neoliberal governance: in its production of disposable populations through testing and through the infusion of engineering throughout the NGSS to resolve social problems through technical fixes. However, the NGSS, like earlier standards, is reactionary to forces diminishing the power of institutional science (e.g., the AAAS) including neoliberal prioritizing market value over evidence. The NGSS explicitly takes on neoliberal junk science such as the anti-global-warming Heartland Institute.

NASA/OAI Collaborative Aerospace Internship and Fellowship Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

The NASA/OAI Collaborative Aerospace Internship and Fellowship Program is a collaborative undertaking by the Office of Educational Programs at the NASA Lewis Research Center and the Department of Workforce Enhancement at the Ohio Aerospace Institute. This program provides 12 or 14 week internships for undergraduate and graduate students of science and engineering, and for secondary school teachers. Each item is assigned a NASA mentor who facilitates a research assignment. An important aspect of the program is that it includes students with diverse social, cultural and economic backgrounds. The purpose of this report is to document the program accomplishments for 1996.

Social network extraction based on Web: 3. the integrated superficial method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasution, M. K. M.; Sitompul, O. S.; Noah, S. A.

2018-03-01

The Web as a source of information has become part of the social behavior information. Although, by involving only the limitation of information disclosed by search engines in the form of: hit counts, snippets, and URL addresses of web pages, the integrated extraction method produces a social network not only trusted but enriched. Unintegrated extraction methods may produce social networks without explanation, resulting in poor supplemental information, or resulting in a social network of durmise laden, consequently unrepresentative social structures. The integrated superficial method in addition to generating the core social network, also generates an expanded network so as to reach the scope of relation clues, or number of edges computationally almost similar to n(n - 1)/2 for n social actors.

Engineering Online and In-person Social Networks for Physical Activity: A Randomized Trial

PubMed Central

Rovniak, Liza S.; Kong, Lan; Hovell, Melbourne F.; Ding, Ding; Sallis, James F.; Ray, Chester A.; Kraschnewski, Jennifer L.; Matthews, Stephen A.; Kiser, Elizabeth; Chinchilli, Vernon M.; George, Daniel R.; Sciamanna, Christopher N.

2016-01-01

Background Social networks can influence physical activity, but little is known about how best to engineer online and in-person social networks to increase activity. Purpose To conduct a randomized trial based on the Social Networks for Activity Promotion model to assess the incremental contributions of different procedures for building social networks on objectively-measured outcomes. Methods Physically inactive adults (n = 308, age, 50.3 (SD = 8.3) years, 38.3% male, 83.4% overweight/obese) were randomized to 1 of 3 groups. The Promotion group evaluated the effects of weekly emailed tips emphasizing social network interactions for walking (e.g., encouragement, informational support); the Activity group evaluated the incremental effect of adding an evidence-based online fitness walking intervention to the weekly tips; and the Social Networks group evaluated the additional incremental effect of providing access to an online networking site for walking, and prompting walking/activity across diverse settings. The primary outcome was mean change in accelerometer-measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), assessed at 3 and 9 months from baseline. Results Participants increased their MVPA by 21.0 mins/week, 95% CI [5.9, 36.1], p = .005, at 3 months, and this change was sustained at 9 months, with no between-group differences. Conclusions Although the structure of procedures for targeting social networks varied across intervention groups, the functional effect of these procedures on physical activity was similar. Future research should evaluate if more powerful reinforcers improve the effects of social network interventions. Trial Registration Number NCT01142804 PMID:27405724

Visions for a sustainable world: A conference on science, technology and social responsibility. Conference report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

This report summarizes the organization, activities, and outcomes of Student Pugwash USA`s 1992 International Conference, Visions for a Sustainable World: A Conference on Science, Technology and Social Responsibility. The conference was held June 14--20, 1992 at Emory University, and brought together 94 students and over 65 experts from industry, academe, and government. The conference addressed issues ranging from global environmental cooperation to the social impacts of the Human Genome Project to minority concerns in the sciences. It provided a valuable forum for talented students and professionals to engage in critical dialogue on many interdisciplinary issues at the juncture of science,more » technology and society. The conference challenged students -- the world`s future scientists, engineers, and political leaders -- to think broadly about global problems and to devise policy options that are viable and innovative. The success of the conference in stimulating interest, understanding, and enthusiasm about interdisciplinary global issues is clearly evident from both the participants` feedback and their continued involvement in Student Pugwash USA programs. Six working groups met each morning. The working group themes included: environmental challenges for developing countries; energy options: their social and environmental impact; health care in developing countries; changing dynamics of peace and global security; educating for the socially responsible use of technology; ethics and the use of genetic information. The conference was specifically designed to include mechanisms for ensuring its long-term impact. Participants were encouraged to focus on their individual role in helping resolve global issues. This was achieved through each participant`s development of a Personal Plan of Action, a plan which mapped out activities the student could undertake after the conference to continue the dialogue and work towards the resolution of global and local problems.« less

Culture, social networks, and information sharing: An exploratory study of Japanese aerospace engineers' information-seeking processes and habits in light of cultural factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sato, Yuko

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of culture and language on Japanese aerospace engineers' information-seeking processes by both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The Japanese sample consisted of 162 members of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences (JSASS). U.S. aerospace engineers served as a reference point, consisting of 213 members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The survey method was utilized in gathering data using self-administered mail questionnaires in order to explore the following eight areas: (1) the content and use of information resources; (2) production and use of information products; (3) methods of accessing information service providers; (4) foreign language skills; (5) studying/researching/collaborating abroad as a tool in expanding information resources; (6) scientific and technical societies as networking tools; (7) alumni associations (school/class reunions) as networking tools; and (8) social, corporate, civic and health/fitness clubs as networking tools. Nine Japanese cultural factors expressed as statements about Japanese society are as follows: (1) information is neither autonomous, objective, nor independent of the subject of cognition; (2) information and knowledge are not readily accessible to the public; (3) emphasis on groups is reinforced in a hierarchical society; (4) social networks thrive as information-sharing vehicles; (5) high context is a predominant form of communication in which most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, transmitted part of the message; (6) obligations based on mutual trust dictate social behaviors instead of contractual agreements; (7) a surface message is what is presented while a bottom-line message is true feeling privately held; (8) various religious beliefs uphold a work ethic based on harmony; (9) ideas from outside are readily assimilated into its own society. The result of the investigation showed that culture and language affect Japanese aerospace engineers' information-seeking processes. The awareness and the knowledge of such effects will lead to improvement in global information services in aerospace engineering by incorporating various information resource providing organizations.

Engineering Research Teams: The Role of Social Networks in the Formation of Research Skills for Postgraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sampson, Kaylene; Comer, Keith

2011-01-01

This study explores learner experiences regarding skills acquisition of a cohort of engineering doctoral students enrolled in a New Zealand university. Employing a qualitative methodology, we interviewed 28 PhD students about the range of experiences and exchanges that comprised their pathways to skill acquisition. Students reported that research…

Case Study Analysis of the Effect of Contextual Supports and Barriers on African American Students' Persistence in Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery, Lisa

2009-01-01

Using case study methodology (Stake, 2006), this research examined the environmental influences, or contextual supports and barriers, that were most influential in contributing to African American students' persistence in an engineering major. Social cognitive career theory provides the framework for understanding the role of contextual supports…

The Power of Peer Mentoring in Enabling a Diverse and Inclusive Environment in a Chemical Engineering Graduate Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bôas Fávero, Cláudio Vilas; Moran, Shannon; Eniola-Adefeso, Omolola

2018-01-01

The Chemical Engineering graduate program at the University of Michigan implemented a peer mentoring program for PhD students, with the goal of fostering department inclusivity and improved academic outcomes through facilitated social and academic activities in diverse, small groups. In this article, we detail the peer mentoring program…

Does Personality Matter? Applying Holland's Typology to Analyze Students' Self-Selection into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Majors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, P. Daniel; Simpson, Patricia A.

2015-01-01

This study utilized John Holland's personality typology and the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to examine the factors that may affect students' self-selection into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Results indicated that gender, race/ethnicity, high school achievement, and personality type were statistically…

Teacher Social Capital and Student Achievement: Impact of a Cyber-Enabled Teacher Professional Development Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Wei

2012-01-01

This is an evaluative research study of a NSF-funded, DRK-12 cyber-enabled teacher professional development program in elementary engineering education. The finding shows the significant impact of the program on students' science and engineering knowledge in the second year of the program's implementation. However, student learning gain…

The Role of Program Climate and Socialization in the Retention of Engineering Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ureksoy, Heather

2011-01-01

Increasing women's participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) can promote a healthy economy by ensuring a diverse and well-qualified STEM workforce, not only in the quantity of females in the workforce, but diversity in thinking and creativity. It will also send a positive message to young women about…