scholarly journals Engineering Students and Professionals Report Different Levels of Information Literacy Needs and Challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 238-241
Author(s):  
Kimberly MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering

A Review of: Phillips, M., Fosmire, M., Turner, L., Petersheim, K., & Lu, J. (2019). Comparing the information needs and experiences of undergraduate students and practicing engineers. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(1), 39-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2018.12.004 Abstract Objective – To compare the levels of information literacy, needs, and challenges of undergraduate engineering students with those of practising engineers. Design – Electronic survey. Setting – Large land grant university in the Midwestern United States and multiple locations of a global construction machinery manufacturing company (locations in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America). Subjects – Engineering undergraduates and full-time engineers. Methods – Two voluntary online surveys distributed to (a) students in two undergraduate engineering technology classes and one mechanical engineering class; and (b) to engineers in an online newsletter. None of the questions on the survey were mandatory. Because the call for practising engineers generated a low response rate, direct invitations were sent in batches of 100 to randomly selected engineers from a list provided by the human resources department of the company participating in the study. The surveys were similar but not identical and included multiple choice, Likert scale, and short answer questions. Data analysis included two-sided unpaired sample t-tests (quantitative data) and deductive and inductive content analysis (qualitative data). Main Results – There were 63 students and 134 professional engineers among the respondents. Survey response rates were relatively low (24.3% for students; approximately 4.5% for employees). Students rated themselves higher overall and significantly higher than did engineers on the questions “know where to look for information” (students M = 5.3; engineers M = 4.2) and “identifying the most needed information” (students M = 5.5; engineers M = 4.8) (mean values reported on a 7-point scale). Neither group rated themselves highly on “reflecting on how to improve their performance next time” or “having a highly effective structure for organizing information,” though engineers in North America rated themselves significantly higher than those in Asia Pacific on organizing information, knowing where to look for information, and using information to make decisions. Both students and engineers reported often using Google to find information. The library was mentioned by one-half of engineers and one-third of students. Engineers reported consulting with peers for information and making more use of propriety information from within their companies, while students reported using YouTube videos and online forums, as well as news and social media. More than half of students (57%) reported having enough access to information resources, while 67% of engineers felt that they lacked sufficient access. The most common frustration for both groups was locating the information (45% of student responses; 71% of engineer responses). Students reported more frustration with evaluating information (17%) compared to engineers (9%). Conclusion – Engineering students and professional engineers report differences in their levels of confidence in finding information and differences in the complexity of the information landscape. Engineering librarians at the university level can incorporate this knowledge into information literacy courses to help prepare undergraduates for industry. Corporate librarians can use this information to improve methods to support the needs of engineers at all levels of employment.

The 1st International Project Competition for Structural Health Monitoring (IPC-SHM, 2020): A summary and benchmark problem

2021 ◽  
pp. 147592172110064
Author(s):  
Yuequan Bao ◽  
Jian Li ◽  
Tomonori Nagayama ◽  
Yang Xu ◽  
Billie F Spencer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Health Monitoring ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Fatigue Cracks ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
International Project ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Structural Health ◽  
Institute Of Technology

To promote the development of structural health monitoring around the world, the 1st International Project Competition for Structural Health Monitoring (IPC-SHM, 2020) was initiated and organized in 2020 by the Asia-Pacific Network of Centers for Research in Smart Structures Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and four leading companies in the application of structural health monitoring technology. The goal of this competition was to attract more young scholars to engage in the study of structural health monitoring, encouraging them to provide creative and effective solutions for full-scale applications. Recognizing the recent advent and importance of artificial intelligence in structural health monitoring, three competition projects were set up with the data from full-scale bridges: (1) image-based identification of fatigue cracks in bridge girders, (2) data anomaly detection for structural health monitoring, and (3) condition assessment of stay cables using cable tension data. Three corresponding data sets were released at http://www.schm.org.cn and http://sstl.cee.illinois.edu/ipc-shm2020 . Participants were required to be full-time undergraduate students, M.S. students, Ph.D. students, or young scholars within 3 years after obtaining their Ph.D. Both individual and teams (each team had no more than five individuals) could compete. Submissions for the competition included a 10- to 15-page technical paper, a 10-min presentation video with PowerPoint slides, and commented code. The organizing committee then conducted the validation, review, and evaluation. A total of 330 participants in 112 teams from 70 universities and institutions in 12 countries registered for the competition, resulting in 75 papers from 56 teams from 57 different affiliations finally being submitted. Of those submitted, 31, 30, and 14 papers were for Projects 1, 2, and 3, respectively. After completion of the review by the organization committee and awards committee, the top 10, 10, and 5 teams were selected as the prize winners for the three competition projects.

scholarly journals The Daily Image Information Needs and Seeking Behavior of Chinese Undergraduate Students

2013 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Huang ◽  
Diane Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Image Search ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Current Image ◽  
Image Information ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Normal University

A survey was conducted at Beijing Normal University to explore subjects’ motives for image seeking; the image types they need; how and where they seek images; and the difficulties they encounter. The survey also explored subjects’ attitudes toward current image services and their perceptions of how university libraries might provide assistance. Based on the findings, this article summarizes the features of Chinese undergraduate students’ daily image needs and their information behavior related to images. The findings reveal the need to improve the image services offered by academic libraries and strengthen undergraduates’ information literacy with respect to image search and use.

Effective NEMS Education and Training in an Undergraduate Course

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nael Barakat ◽  
Heidi Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Engineering Level ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Manufacturing Techniques ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Micro Systems

Increasing demand on workforce for nanotechnology implementation has resulted in an exponential increase of demand on educational material and methods to qualify this workforce. However, nanotechnology is a field that integrates many areas of science and engineering requiring a significant amount of background knowledge in both theory and application to build upon. This challenge is significantly magnified when trying to teach nanotechnology concepts and applications at the undergraduate engineering level. A considerable amount of time is needed for an undergraduate engineering student to be able to design and build a useful device applying nanotechnology concepts, within one course time. This paper presents an actual experience in teaching hands-on applications in nanotechnology to undergraduate engineering students through an optimized model, within a normal course time. The model significantly reduces the time needed by undergraduate students to learn the necessary manufacturing techniques and apply them to produce useful products at the micro and nano levels, by ensuring that infrastructure and legwork related to the educational process are partially completed and verified, before the course starts. The model also provides improved outcomes as all its pre-course work is also tested with students working under different arrangements of professors’ supervision. The result is an optimized infrastructure setup for micro and nanotechnology design and manufacturing education, built with students in mind, to be completed within the frame of one semester course. The model was implemented at GVSU-SOE as the core hands-on part of a senior undergraduate course titled (EGR 457 nano/micro systems engineering). Students in the course were able to go through the design and build steps of different MEMS and NEMS products, while learning and utilizing cleanroom equipment and procedures. This was based on infrastructural arrangements by students preceding this class by a semester and working closely with the professors. Assessment was conducted on both sides of the model and results were collected for evaluation and improvement of the model.

Problem Solving Techniques Taught Through Validation of an Instantaneous Rigid Force Model

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Mindek ◽  
Joseph M. Guerrera
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Cutting Forces ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Force Model ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Laboratory Courses ◽  
Milling Operations ◽  
Cutting Model

Educating engineering students in the appropriate methods for analyzing and problem solving fundamental manufacturing processes is a challenge in undergraduate engineering education, given the increasingly limited room in the curriculum as well as the limited time and resources. Although junior and senior level laboratory courses have traditionally been used as a pedagogical platform for conveying this type of knowledge to undergraduate students, the broad range of manufacturing topics that can be covered along with the limited time within a laboratory course structure has sometimes limited the effectiveness of this approach. At the same time, some undergraduate students require a much deeper knowledge of certain manufacturing topics, practices or research techniques, especially those who may already be working in a manufacturing environment as part of a summer internship or part-time employment. The current work shows how modeling, actual machining tests and problem solving techniques were recently used to analyze a manufacturing process within a senior design project course. Specifically, an Instantaneous Rigid Force Model, originally put forward by Tlusty (1,2) was validated and used to assess cutting forces and the ability to detect tool defects during milling operations. Results from the tests showed that the model accurately predicts cutting forces during milling, but have some variation due to cutter vibration and deflection, which were not considered in the model. It was also confirmed that a defect as small as 0.050 inches by 0.025 inches was consistently detectable at multiple test conditions for a 0.5-inch diameter, 4-flute helical end mill. Based on the results, it is suggested that a force cutting model that includes the effect of cutter vibration be used in future work. The results presented demonstrate a level of knowledge in milling operations analysis beyond what can typically be taught in most undergraduate engineering laboratory courses.

Introducing “Advanced” Tuned Vibration Absorbers in an Undergraduate Vibrations Course

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeong-Hoi Koo ◽  
Fernando Goncalves ◽  
Hong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Smart Materials ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Vibration Absorbers ◽  
Active Materials ◽  
New Class ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Tuned Vibration Absorbers ◽  
Real World Problems

The primary objective of this paper is to bridge the theory of tuned vibration absorbers (TVA) with the practice of implementing TVAs in systems. Often, the practice of implementing TVAs in systems is a far departure from the theory expressed in many textbooks. These departures are often required in practice to account for the less than ideal conditions that the TVAs will be operating under. Many retrofitted TVAs use “smart” or active materials along with various control techniques to improve the performance of the traditional TVA proposed in textbooks. The intent of the current paper is to demonstrate several of these modern methods of implementing retrofitted TVAs to undergraduate students. The first author introduced the methods in a junior level vibrations course, and is developing a laboratory experiment. Teaching these advanced TVAs to undergraduate engineering students will help them understand how theories learned in class are used in real world problems, and motivate them to explore new fields of research. After introducing a “textbook” vibration absorber theory, this paper describes principles and operations of a new class of vibration absorbers. In reviewing conventional TVAs, students are introduced to many of the engineering challenges encountered in the implementation of TVAs. One such challenge is inevitable off-tuning caused by system parameter changes with time. After identifying many of the challenges associated with the implementation of TVAs, the students are introduced to many modern solutions to these problems. Many of these solutions involve the use of smart materials, such as piezoceramics, magnetorheological fluids, magnetorheological elastomers, shape memory alloys, etc. Through this experience, students are introduced to many smart materials and have the opportunity to see how these smart materials can provide solutions to many engineering challenges and improve existing technologies.

scholarly journals Communicating the relevance of the library in the age of Google: Improving undergraduate research skills and information literacy though new models of library instruction

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Rempel ◽  
Danielle M. Cossarini
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Information Access ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Library Instruction ◽  
Research Skills

Most academic librarians have long been aware that the ascent of the Internet has posed a challenge to the primacy of the library as information hub. Recent studies have shown that the majority of undergraduate students do not begin their research in the library, but with Google and Wikipedia - and many students end their research here as well (Connaway, Dickey, & Radford, 2011). This trend would seem to bode ill for the quality of the research skills and the level of information literacy among current undergraduates, as many students privilege convenient access to information over quality of content (Colón-Aguirre & Fleming-May, 2012; Connaway, et al., 2011). But how do we prepare undergraduate students for the rigours of academic research given this circumstance? The library instruction session has been the path to information literacy traditionally taken by colleges and universities, but increasingly, librarians have begun questioning the value of these sessions. Many undergraduates do not find library instruction sessions relevant to their practical information needs and to changing modes of information access, and many students do not come away from library information sessions feeling fully prepared - or even fully willing - to move beyond Google and into the library in order to carry out quality information searches (Colón-Aguirre & Fleming-May, 2012). Indeed, many librarians also now feel that the classic model of library instruction no longer fully meets the information needs of undergraduates nor anticipates their Internet-focused research habits, and that library instruction needs to change dramatically in order to do so (Colón-Aguirre & Fleming-May, 2012; Farkas, 2012). Such means of improving library instruction include: breaking away from the single-session model and moving toward a multiple-session model (Farkas, 2012); incorporating discussion of Internet-based and electronic resources more fully into instruction sessions (Colón-Aguirre & Fleming-May, 2012); tailoring library instruction to course curricula and assignments (Smith, et al., 2012); and incorporating active, student-centred learning into library instruction sessions (Abate, Gomes, & Linton, 2011). The successful implementation of these measures is ultimately dependent upon communication and collaboration among library staff, faculty, and students. Implementing major changes to library instruction can be challenging for all stakeholders; such challenges will be explored in a discussion of the implementation of a prototype library instruction model developed at Selkirk College, a small undergraduate-focused institution in British Columbia, Canada.

scholarly journals Humanitarian Aspirations of Engineering Students: Differences between Disciplines and Institutions

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela R. Bielefeldt ◽  
Nathan E. Canney
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Helping Others ◽  
The World ◽  
Environmental Materials ◽  
Institutional Differences ◽  
Humanitarian Engineering ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
Attraction And Retention

This study explored the aspirations of undergraduate engineering students in regard to helping others, examining potential differences between disciplines and institutions. Over 1900 undergraduate students from 17 U.S. universities responded to a survey in spring 2014. In open-ended responses, 15.5% of the students included some form of helping people and/or the world as one of the factors that motivated them to select their engineering major; for 6.7% of the students this was the primary or only motivating factor listed. Helping as a motivation was not equally prevalent among different engineering disciplines, being much more common among students majoring in biomedical, environmental, materials, and civil and less common in computer and aerospace. Different disciplines also varied in the priority for helping people relative to other future job factors - highest in chemical/biological, moderate in civil and related majors, and lowest among electrical/computer and mechanical. Institutional differences were found in the extent to which students indicated an importance that their career would help people and the extent to which an ability to help others was a central message in their major. The results indicate the percentages of engineering students who are most likely to embrace humanitarian engineering; fostering these aspirations in students could help with attraction and retention.

scholarly journals Supporting medical innovation and entrepreneurship through curriculum-integrated information literacy instruction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander James Carroll ◽  
Shelby Hallman
Keyword(s):  
Training Program ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Medical Innovation ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Literacy Training ◽  
Innovation And Entrepreneurship

This presentation will share the results of a longitudinal cohort study of undergraduate students matriculating through the UNC & NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. Over the last few years, students in this program have participated in an experimental, specialized information literacy training program aimed at preparing them to navigate the labyrinth of business hurdles associated with medical innovation and entrepreneurship. This longitudinal study, led by two librarians, sought to determine whether an intensive, specialized information literacy training program could introduce undergraduate biomedical engineering students to the complex environment surrounding innovative design in healthcare and medical entrepreneurship in order to improve their design projects. In addition to discussing our study’s results, we will share our lessons learned from conducting this study and some possible implications for professional practice. We will close with a discussion of the challenges involved in partnering with an academic department to conduct formal assessments of student learning, and by sharing practical strategies that other librarians can use to identify opportunities to build similar partnerships at their local institutions.Originally presented at the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) Annual Meeting 2018 in Durham, NC on August 20, 2018.

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