Project-led-education experience as a partial strategy in first years of engineering courses

Recently, there has been a growing tendency to substitute or supplement teacher-centered strategies for others student-centered. These include problem-based learning or collaborative learning. In certain areas, such as engineering, project-led learning collects some of the benefits of problem-based learning and integrates others that are of interest to the formation of engineers. More recently, project-led education as an integral strategy has been demonstrated in several European universities with impressive results. Students have a lower dropout rate, a lower period of adaptation to professional practice and better soft skills. While this implementation requires a general model change, at least at the faculty level, partial strategies applied in specific courses could pick up some of the positive aspects of these methodologies. In this paper, obtained results in a second-year Unit Operations course (grade of bioengineering) by applying this type of partial strategies are discussed. The student’s acceptance was good, and both motivation and academic results improved significantly. It was observed a deeper and wider knowledge acquisition in the students. Teacher’s workload increased, although, as there was a maximum of 25 students, it was manageable. It was concluded that transition from traditional to project-led learning strategies can be done within a subject without an educational model change at faculty or university level.     

Web-Based Teaching of Open-Ended Multidisciplinary Engineering Design Problems

Teaching the engineering design competency is a challenging task in a classical face-to-face classroom environment, and an even greater challenge in a distance learning context. This study presents the activities of a North American Mobility Program (NAMP) project entitled Process Integration for Environmental Control in Engineering Curricula. Seventeen modules were developed using a tiered approach to web-based learning which in combination with classroom-based activities, aim at addressing design engineering know-how. The use of a web-based module employing the tiered-structure in a postgraduate course was evaluated, and it was found that the module enhanced communication amongst students as well as between the instructor and the students.     

Team-based learning for first year engineering students

Although it was originally developed for a business school environment to promote the benefits of small-group teaching in a large group setting, the method of the team-based learning (TBL) has recently been increasingly used within medical education. On the other hand, the reports on its implementation in engineering and science education are much scarcer. The aim of this work is to discuss the experience, evaluation and lessons learned from the implementation of the TBL within a Year 1 engineering module—Process Engineering Fundamentals, enrolling 115 students, and the TBL method was introduced for the first time.To evaluate the acquired knowledge and perception of TBL, a students’ performance analysis and questionnaire were completed on two occasions. It was observed that the TBL approach improved student learning, enhanced their integration and sharing of knowledge in class, supporting the implementation of this method in engineering disciplines.     

化工专业课程设计教学的改革与实践

针对化工专业设计课程——《化工原理课程设计》中存在综合训练效果不太理想、抄袭现象比较严重等问题,从扩大选择设计方案范围、多方式指导、改革成绩评定方法和强化计算机应用应用等方面进行教学改革探索和尝试,有效地提高了专业课程设计的教学质量。     

有机化学教学与创新能力培养

“创新是一个民族的灵魂,是一个国家的各项事业兴旺发达的不竭动力。”素质教育着眼于未来对人才的需求,是2l世纪学校教育的方向。素质教育要适应社会发展,必须以培养学生的创新能力为煮点,因此,开展创造教育是实施素质教育的核心。如何在化学教学中开展创造教育,发展学生的创造力,这是化学教育谣向现代化的重大课题。培养高素质的创新人才,是素质教育的重要目标。培养具有创新思维能力的大学生是高等学校最重要的任务。文章分析了传统教学在培养学生创新能力方面的不足,结合化学课程的教学体会,提出如何利甩化学教学培养出具有创新能力的人才的一些想法和做法。     

Design and assessment of a project-based learning in a laboratory for integrating knowledge and improving engineering design skills

Mechanical Design is a subject usually included in Chemical Engineering Degrees. In this work, we present the application of a project-based learning to the lab in two different engineering degrees, in of one the most time-consuming and difficult subjects of their programs. These two degrees, Mechanical and Chemical engineering degrees, were selected in order to compare the learning outcomes and satisfaction with the activity in the degree more related to mechanical concepts and the Chemical engineering degree. Moreover, to enhance students’ enthusiasm and motivation, these sessions included an innovative manufacturing technology, 3D printing, and digital image correlation (DIC). Before each practical session, the students are encouraged to watch an online video with the fundamental aspects. In order to assess the success of this methodology, after finishing the lab sessions, the students answered a non-formal quantitative survey. The results showed that the proposed project-based learning had the ability to help integrating the knowledge and improve the skills included in the main competences. Although these results are encouraging, there are still parts of the lab activity that should be improve in order to make the activity less time consuming and the most difficult part being easier for the students.     

Virtual reality in chemical and biochemical engineering education and training

With the advent of digitalization and industry 4.0, education in chemical and biochemical engineering has undergone significant revamping over the last two decades. However, undergraduate students sometimes do lack industrial exposure and are unable to visualise the complexity of actual process plants. Thereby, students might graduate without adequate professional hands-on experience. Similarly, in the process industry, operator training-simulators are widely used for the training of new and skilled operators. However, conventional training-simulators often fail to simulate reality and do not provide the user with the opportunity to experience unexpected and hazardous scenarios. In these regards, virtual reality appears to be a promising technology that can cater to the needs of both academia and industry. This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges for the incorporation of virtual reality into chemical and biochemical engineering education with an emphasis on the fundamental areas of technology, pedagogy and socio-economics. The paper emphasises the need for augmenting virtual reality interfaces with mathematical models to develop advanced immersive learning applications. Further, the paper stresses upon the need for novel educational impact assessment methodologies for the evaluation of virtual-reality-based learning. Finally, an ongoing case study application is presented to briefly discuss the social and economic implications, and to identify the bottlenecks involved in the adoption of virtual reality tools across chemical and biochemical engineering education.     

创造性学习在电子信息专业课教学中的研究

创造性学习是对传承性学习的飞跃。创造性学习对提高创造能力的作用是倍加了的传承性学习的作用。创造性学习是现代竞争的需要,是知识经济直接生产过程的需要、也是个人成长的需要。随着社会的发展,电子信息产业在各行各业中发挥越来越重要的作用,对电子信息产业来说,技术创新是产业保持持续发展的重要源泉,因此,电子信息专业课的教学应以培养创新精神、研究能力和实践能力为目标。创造性学习是一种以学生为主、主要培养学生创新性的新型教学模式,从学习目标、学习内容、学习策略、学习评价等四个方面,对电子信息专业课创造性学习加以设计和创新。     

化工原理课程设计教学改革与创新教育研究

化工原理课程设计是以化工单元操作为主的一次工程设计,是化工类学生进行的第一次化工设计的基本训练,它对于培养学生独立工作能力和创新能力、深化与升华学生所学的知识和检验学生综合素质与工程实践能力起着非常重要的作用。因此,如何提高化工原理课程设计质量,培养学生的工程意识和工程设计能力,对提高学生的实践能力和创新思维有着重要的意义。     

Making programme learning outcomes explicit for students of process and chemical engineering

There is a global shift in education from solely content-driven teaching to teaching that takes learning outcomes into account. This movement underpins much of the educational reform in the area of engineering education. Programme learning outcomes for degrees in engineering education are more commonplace as more and more professional accrediting bodies require fulfillment or compliance with prescribed learning outcomes. However, the students may not be presented with these learning outcomes as they are often “hidden” in documentation submitted by institutions for accreditation purposes and hence may not be divulged to students. Undergraduate students (2006–2008) taking the BE degree programme in Process & Chemical Engineering at UCC were first surveyed to assess their level of knowledge of the learning outcomes concept and of the degree programme learning outcomes. The contents of two documents used in applications for accreditation by professional accreditation bodies as well as professional Institution guidelines were reviewed to formulate the degree programme learning outcomes which were presented to the students. These students were then surveyed after the presentation. The results of the questionnaire completed by students demonstrated a major improvement in their knowledge of both the concept of learning outcomes and also of the degree programme learning outcomes. It also showed that the students found the session to be of overall beneficial value.     

Student perceptions and instructor experiences in implementing an online homework system in a large second-year engineering course

In a large course, grading assignments is a time-consuming process requiring considerable resources. Online homework software systems are therefore increasingly being utilized. In this article, we will detail our experiences implementing online homework assignments in our course CH E 243: Engineering Thermodynamics; a large, multi-section course with more than 600 students/year in 4 sections. In Year 1 we employed commercial software, and in Year 2 we developed our own online assignments. In both years, assignments had both online and written components. After each year we conducted a survey of the students to gage their perception regarding the implementation and benefits of the online and written assignments, and the contribution of these tools to the students’ ability to master the material. We found that most students were satisfied with the online system, and recommended using it again the following year. Students generally perceived written assignments to be more helpful in achieving mastery of the course material than the online ones. Students perceived our in-house developed system much more positively than the commercial software (as did we). Overall, we perceived that the class performance was better when our own online assignments were used, and the number of students who failed the course was reduced.     

高校艺术设计专业实践教学创新初探

艺术设计教育作为一门实践性很强的学科,由于在我国发展的时间很短,导致其实践特征和专业特色没有被突出,表现在教学中重技能训练轻创新创造、课程安排中实践教学环节薄弱、实习方式手段单一。因此,必须突出艺术设计创新教育的教学目标,革新教学内容,探索项目实践教学,完善实践教学的评价体系,从而探索一条中国特色的艺术设计实践教学体系。     

A practical development of engineering simulation-assisted educational AR environments

Engineering simulations have opened several gates for today’s chemical engineers. They are powerful tools to provide technical content as physics-based numerical solvers. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), on the other hand, are already underway to digitize environments in many fields. The combination of AR/VR environments and simulations in engineering education has been attracting widespread interest. Literature has demonstrated a massive amount of digital educational environments in several contexts as being complementary to conventional educational methods. Nevertheless, hosting technical content produced by engineering simulations with educational AR/VR is still challenging and requires expertise from multiple disciplines throughout the technical development. Present work provides a facile and agile methodology for low-cost hardware but content-wise rich AR software development. Inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic, a case study is developed to teach chemical-engineering concepts using a liquid-soap synthesis process. Accordingly, we assess and conclude the digital development process to guide inexperienced developers for the digitalization of teaching content. The present contribution serves as an example of the power of integrating AR/VR with traditional engineering simulations for educational purposes. The digital tool developed in this work is shared in the online version.     

NVH工程材料在轿车上优化设计的探讨

为了优化设计和降低噪声,从板件的声辐射特性开始,经声学灵敏度分析,测定车身各板件对噪声的贡献;选择NVH工程材料,形成设计方案,对设计方案进行测试验证。本文探讨了优化设计的过程和方法。     

Perspectives of quantum computing for chemical engineering

Quantum computing has been attracting public attention recently. This interest is driven by the advancements in hardware, software, and algorithms required for its successful usage and the promise that it entails the potential acceleration of computational tasks compared to classical computing. This perspective article presents a short review on quantum computing, how this computational approach solves problems, and three fields that quantum computing can potentially impact the most while relevant to chemical engineering: computational chemistry, optimization, and machine learning. Here, we present a series of chemical engineering applications, the developments, potential improvements with respect to classical computing, and challenges that quantum computing faces for each of these fields. This article intends to provide a clear picture of the challenges and potential advantages that quantum technology may yield for chemical engineering, together with an invitation for our colleagues to join us in the adoption and development of quantum computing.     

生物医学工程专业有机化学教学改革初探

针对有机化学的学科特点,在充分考虑生物医学工程专业实际和教学要求的基础上,从教学内容的组织、课堂教学等方面总结了有机化学教学中的一些实践和体会,有效提高了教学质量。     

建立生物化工专业多层次创新性实验体系的探索

加强创新性实践教学对学生创新意识和创新能力的培养具有重要意义。论述了建立生物化工创新性实验教学体系要从体系建立、课程设置、选题方法、教学方法,评价体系等方面进行创新,并阐述了如何实施创新性实验体系。     

在化工原理课程中结合工程案例和科研成果初探

化工原理是一门实践性和工程性很强的应用课程。因此,在教学过程中,结合实际工程案例和科研项目成果,讲述"三传"基本原理在化工过程方案优化设计和改造中的具体应用,提高学生的学习兴趣,激发探索精神,培养实践能力和创新意识,开阔科研视野,使其能够更好地掌握该课程的基本原理和典型设备。基于作者的教学实践,对引入工程案例和科研成果的教学方法进行了初步探讨。