Factors Influencing the Self‐Efficacy Beliefs of First‐Year Engineering Students

A survey incorporating qualitative measures of student self‐efficacy beliefs was administered to 1,387 first‐year engineering students enrolled in ENGR 106, Engineering Problem‐Solving and Computer Tools, at Purdue University. The survey was designed to identify factors related to students' self‐efficacy beliefs, their beliefs about their capabilities to perform the tasks necessary to achieve a desired outcome. Open‐ended questions prompted students to list factors affecting their confidence in their ability to succeed in the course. Students were then asked to rank these factors based on the degree to which their self‐efficacy beliefs were influenced. Gender trends emerged in student responses to factors that affect confidence in success. These trends are discussed in light of the categories identified by efficacy theorists as sources of self‐efficacy beliefs. The results presented here provide a useful look at the first‐year engineering experiences that influence students' efficacy beliefs, an important consideration in explaining student achievement, persistence, and interest.     

Women Engineering Students and Self‐Efficacy: A Multi‐Year,Multi‐Institution Study of Women Engineering Student Self‐Efficacy

As our nation's need for engineering professionals grows, educators and industry leaders are increasingly becoming concerned with how to attract women to this traditionally male career path. Self‐efficacy has been shown to be related to positive outcomes in studying and pursuing careers in non‐traditional fields. This paper describes the results of two years of engineering self‐efficacy data collected from women engineering students at five institutions across the U.S. This study adds to the growing body of self‐efficacy literature via its multi‐year, multi‐institution design and helps to clarify the impact of the engineering curriculum on self‐efficacy. Results indicate that while women students show positive progress on some self‐efficacy and related subscales, they show a significant decrease on feelings of inclusion from the first to second measurement period and further suggest a relationship between ethnicity and feelings of inclusion. Additionally, correlations show that self‐efficacy is related to women students' plans to persist in this predominantly male discipline.     

Measuring Engineering Design Self‐Efficacy

Background Self‐concept can influence how an individual learns, but is often overlooked when assessing student learning in engineering. Purpose (Hypothesis ) To validate an instrument designed to measure individuals' self‐concepts toward engineering design tasks, three research questions were investigated: (a) how well the items in the instrument represent the engineering design process in eliciting the task‐specific self‐concepts of self‐efficacy, motivation, outcome expectancy, and anxiety, (b) how well the instrument predicts differences in the self‐efficacy held by individuals with a range of engineering experiences, and (c) how well the responses to the instrument align with the relationships conceptualized in self‐efficacy theory. Design /Method A 36‐item online instrument was developed and administered to 202 respondents. Three types of validity evidence were obtained for (a) representativeness of multi‐step engineering design processes in eliciting self‐efficacy, (b) the instrument's ability to differentiate groups of individuals with different levels of engineering experience, and (c) relationships between self‐efficacy, motivation, outcome expectancy, and anxiety as predicted by self‐efficacy theory. Results Results indicate that the instrument can reliably identify individuals' engineering design self‐efficacy (α = 0.967), motivation (α = 0.955), outcome expectancy (α = 0.967), and anxiety (α = 0.940). One‐way ANOVA identified statistical differences in self‐efficacy between high, intermediate, and low experience groups at the ρ < 0.05 level. Self‐efficacy was also shown to be correlated to motivation (0.779), outcome expectancy (0.919), and anxiety (—0.593) at the ρ < 0.01 level. Conclusions The study showed that the instrument was capable of identifying individuals' self‐concepts specific to the engineering design tasks.     

Self‐directed Learning Readiness Among Engineering Undergraduate Students

Two studies related to readiness for self‐directed learning of engineering students were performed using the Self‐directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS). A cross‐sectional study of students in the first through final years of study showed that their SDLRS scores are significantly correlated with academic year of study and with grade point average, but not with gender. However, neither academic year of study nor grade point average is a good predictor of SDLRS scores; together they account for less than 5 percent of the observed variance. A second study investigated the effect of a problem‐based learning experience on students' readiness for self‐directed learning. It showed that the average readiness for self‐directed learning increased significantly for students in the problem‐based learning courses. However, investigation of the changes for individual students revealed that only nine of eighteen students showed significant increases in their SDLRS scores, and two showed significant decreases. Potential underlying causes are explored.     

Writing,Self‐Healing,and Self‐Erasing on Conductive Pressure‐Sensitive Adhesives

A simple strategy for enabling conductive pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) to work as light‐responsive materials is reported. Direct laser‐writing of PSA substrates was achieved by means of a continuous‐wave He‐Ne laser focused through the objectives of an optical microscope. This approach takes advantage of cooperative interplay between viscoelastic properties of PSAs and enhanced thermal conductivity provided by an extra overlayer of gold. In particular, the thickness of the gold layer is a crucial parameter for tuning the substrate responsiveness. Self‐healing and self‐degradation processes can be exploited for controlling the lifetime of the written information, whereas additional protective coatings can be introduced to achieve permanent storage.     

Recent Progress on Bioinspired Self‐Propelled Micro/Nanomotors via Controlled Molecular Self‐Assembly

The combination of bottom‐up controllable self‐assembly technique with bioinspired design has opened new horizons in the development of self‐propelled synthetic micro/nanomotors. Over the past five years, a significant advances toward the construction of bioinspired self‐propelled micro/nanomotors has been witnessed based on the controlled self‐assembly technique. Such a strategy permits the realization of autonomously synthetic motors with engineering features, such as sizes, shapes, composition, propulsion mechanism, and function. The construction, propulsion mechanism, and movement control of synthetic micro/nanomotors in connection with controlled self‐assembly in recent research activities are summarized. These assembled nanomotors are expected to have a tremendous impact on current artificial nanomachines in future and hold potential promise for biomedical applications including drug targeted delivery, photothermal cancer therapy, biodetoxification, treatment of atherosclerosis, artificial insemination, crushing kidney stones, cleaning wounds, and removing blood clots and parasites.     

Independent Blue and Red Light Triggered Narcissistic Self‐Sorting Self‐Assembly of Colloidal Particles

The ability of living systems to self‐sort different cells into separate assemblies and the ability to independently regulate different structures are one ingredient that gives rise to their spatiotemporal complexity. Here, this self‐sorting behavior is replicated in a synthetic system with two types of colloidal particles; where each particle type independently self‐assembles either under blue or red light into distinct clusters, known as narcissistic self‐sorting. For this purpose, each particle type is functionalized either with the light‐switchable protein VVDHigh or Cph1, which homodimerize under blue and red light, respectively. The response to different wavelengths of light and the high specificity of the protein interactions allows for the independent self‐assembly of each particle type with blue or red light and narcissistic self‐sorting. Moreover, as both of the photoswitchable protein interactions are reversible in the dark; also, the self‐sorting is reversible and dynamic. Overall, the independent blue and red light controlled self‐sorting in a synthetic system opens new possibilities to assemble adaptable, smart, and advanced materials similar to the complexity observed in tissues.     

Cooperative Education Work Assignments: The Role of Organizational and Individual Factors in Enhancing ABET Competencies and Co‐op Workplace Well‐Being

In this study, we examine the role of individual differences and early employment experiences on learning outcomes and subjective well‐being for first‐term cooperative education students. By tracking students through their first semester work assignment, we were able to follow student adjustment and demonstrate the linkages to important ABET learning outcomes. Data were collected during pre‐employment, mid‐semester, and post‐employment surveys. The results suggest that there are some early warning signs of lack of adjustment that are related to both motivational anxiety and lack of initial social contacts during socialization. However, mid‐semester reports of proactive behavior by the student had a significant impact on both learning outcomes and well‐being.     

The Impact of Cooperative Education on Academic Performance and Compensation of Engineering Majors

Several engineering programs around the country either require or encourage a cooperative education experience as part of their curriculum. In this paper, we examine the effects of cooperative education on grade point average, length of time in school, and starting salary. Statistical analyses show that cooperative education programs have significant effects on all three dimensions. These results are useful not only to students deciding whether to participate in cooperative education programs, but also to administrators in determining the role of cooperative education in the engineering curriculum.     

Self‐Correction Strategy for Precise,Massive, and Parallel Macroscopic Supramolecular Assembly

Macroscopic supramolecular assembly (MSA) represents a new advancement in supramolecular chemistry involving building blocks with sizes beyond tens of micrometers associating through noncovalent interactions. MSA is established as a unique method to fabricate supramolecularly assembled materials by shortening the length scale between bulk materials and building blocks. However, improving the precise alignment during assembly to form orderly assembled structures remains a challenge. Although the pretreatment of building blocks can ameliorate order to a certain degree, defects or mismatching still exists, which limits the practical applications of MSA. Therefore, an iterative poststrategy is proposed, where self‐correction based on dynamic assembly/disassembly is applied to achieve precise, massive, and parallel assembly. The self‐correction process consists of two key steps: the identification of poorly ordered structures and the selective correction of these structures. This study develops a diffusion‐kinetics‐dependent disassembly to well identify the poorly aligned structures and correct these structures through iterations of disassembly/reassembly in a programmed fashion. Finally, a massive and parallel assembly of 100 precise dimers over eight iteration cycles is achieved, thus providing a powerful solution to the problem of processing insensitivity to errors in self‐assembly‐related methods.     

Tough and Water‐Insensitive Self‐Healing Elastomer for Robust Electronic Skin

An electronic (e‐) skin is expected to experience significant wear and tear over time. Therefore, self‐healing stretchable materials that are simultaneously soft and with high fracture energy, that is high tolerance of damage or small cracks without propagating, are essential requirements for the realization of robust e‐skin. However, previously reported elastomers and especially self‐healing polymers are mostly viscoelastic and lack high mechanical toughness. Here, a new class of polymeric material crosslinked through rationally designed multistrength hydrogen bonding interactions is reported. The resultant supramolecular network in polymer film realizes exceptional mechanical properties such as notch‐insensitive high stretchability (1200%), high toughness of 12 000 J m^?2, and autonomous self‐healing even in artificial sweat. The tough self‐healing materials enable the wafer‐scale fabrication of robust and stretchable self‐healing e‐skin devices, which will provide new directions for future soft robotics and skin prosthetics.