scholarly journals Students Against the Odds: First-year Engineering Students' Strategies for Improving Academic Achievement

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Celis ◽  
Camila Aguirre
Author(s):  
Tripti Singh ◽  
Manish Kumar Verma ◽  
Rupali Singh

The purpose of this study is to see whether there is a relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement. The study respondents were B.Tech first year students from the Agra region. Sampling is stratified, making sure that gender, race, socioeconomic status, and abilities are appropriately represented. The respondents are given Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EII–MM), developed by S. K. Mangal and Shubhra Mangal. It consists of 100 items under four scales .The analysis suggests that there is a significant relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement. IQ alone is no more the measure for success; emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and luck also play a big role in a person's success. This study contributes in acknowledging the fact that even engineering students’ academic achievements are attached with Emotional intelligence. Thus, teaching emotional and social skills only at the school level is not sufficient; this can be taught in engineering studies, as well for accomplishing high academic achievements.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mervyn Skuy ◽  
Melissa Skuy

In previous studies significant differences in measured intelligence between African and non-African first year engineering students have been found. Intellectual ability was found to correlate with academic performance, and black studednts had higher dropout and failure rates and performed less well than did their non-African counterparts. Given the low magnitude (r = 0.3), albeit significant, of the correlation between intelligence and academic performance, the question arose of the role of non-intellective factors, relative to intelligence, in determining academic performance of engineering students at University. Accordingly, 93% (n=100) of the second year Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering class were assessed on two measures of intellectual ability, and on measures of self concept, motivation, study attitudes and strategies, anxiety, locus of control, and autonomy. Whereas the intelligence test scores of non-African students (n=36) were significantly higher than those of African students (n=64), this was not the case for any of the non-intellective measures, or for academic achievement. Moreover, although the intellectual measures did not yield significant correlations with academic achievement, certain of the non-intellective measures did, and were able to differentiate between high and low academic performers. This was particularly true for the African group, suggesting that non-intellective variables can contribute significantly to academic performance, particularly in mitigating the effects of lower IQ.


Author(s):  
Jeremiah Vanderlaan ◽  
Josh Richert ◽  
James Morrison ◽  
Thomas Doyle

We are a group of engineering students, in our first year of undergraduate study. We have been selected from one thousand first year students and have competed and won the PACE competition. All engineers share a common general first year, but we have been accepted into Civil and Mechanical engineering. This project was assigned as the final project in the Design and Graphics course. The project we are tasked with, called the Cornerstone Design Project, is to first dissect a product, discover how it works, dimension each part and create a fully assembled model using CAD software (Solid Edge V20 in our case). As part of discovering how it works we must benchmark it so the device can be compared with competing products. The goal of the project is to develop a full understanding of part modeling and assembly in Solid Edge, learn proper measurement techniques, and learn the process of reverse engineering and product dissection. All of these tasks were stepping stones to help us fully understand how the device, and all its components, work.


Author(s):  
Umar Iqbal ◽  
Deena Salem ◽  
David Strong

The objective of this paper is to document the experience of developing and implementing a second-year course in an engineering professional spine that was developed in a first-tier research university and relies on project-based core courses. The main objective of this spine is to develop the students’ cognitive and employability skills that will allow them to stand out from the crowd of other engineering graduates.The spine was developed and delivered for the first time in the academic year 2010-2011 for first-year general engineering students. In the year 2011-2012, those students joined different programs, and accordingly the second-year course was tailored to align with the different programs’ learning outcomes. This paper discusses the development and implementation of the course in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department.


Author(s):  
Sean Maw ◽  
Janice Miller Young ◽  
Alexis Morris

Most Canadian engineering students take a computing course in their first year that introduces them to digital computation. The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board does not specify the language(s) that can or should be used for instruction. As a result, a variety of languages are used across Canada. This study examines which languages are used in degree-granting institutions, currently and in the recent past. It also examines why institutions have chosen the languages that they currently use. In addition to the language used in instruction, the types and hours of instruction are also analyzed. Methods of instruction and evaluation are compared, as well as the pedagogical philosophies of the different programs with respect to introductory computing. Finally, a comparison of the expected value of this course to graduates is also presented. We found a more diverse landscape for introductory computing courses than anticipated, in most respects. The guiding ethos at most institutions is skill and knowledge development, especially around problem solving in an engineering context. The methods to achieve this are quite varied, and so are the languages employed in such courses. Most programs currently use C/C++, Matlab, VB and/or Python.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document