With the rapid growth in the manufacturing industry and increased urbanization, higher amounts of composite material waste are being produced, causing severe threats to the environment. These environmental concerns, coupled with the fact that undergraduate students typically have minimal experience in research, have initiated the need at the UAE…

Cooperative learning, using small groups to complete a common goal, has a positive effect on student achievement and potential in foundational engineering mechanics courses. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine the effects of cooperative learning on student performance, if these effects are concept-specific, and perceptions of…

It is well established that drawing upon students' Funds of Knowledge (FoK) supports powerful learning outcomes, especially for youth whose life experiences are not always valued in dominant classroom spaces. Yet, teachers can struggle to find ways to do so (Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti 2005). In this article, the authors introduce an…

A significant amount of energy in the form of heat is lost in industrial processes once it is used in specific processes. Among different technologies, high-temperature heat pumps (HTHP) are a valuable method of recovering low-temperature waste heat in the industry in a very efficient way that can be activated using clean electricity. As a…

Learning spaces, the practices in which people engage, and the representations they use are ideological. Ideologies are coherent constellations of values, beliefs, and practices that impose order on how disciplines like engineering operate. Historically, engineering spaces have been dominated by a relatively technocratic, rationalistic, and…

Early warning systems (EWSs) have proven to be useful in identifying students at risk of failing both online and conventional courses. Although some general systems have reported acceptable ability to work in modules with different characteristics, those designed from a course-specific perspective have recently provided better outcomes. Hence, the…

Reflective practice is becoming a more necessary skill across all disciplines and industry sectors. This study describes the reflective processes capstone engineering students engaged with as part of modelling-based learning assignments over the entire course of a semester. Students answered multiple reflection questions asking them about…

Instructional physics labs offer students unique opportunities to develop an understanding of experimentation. By transforming labs to be more open ended and experimentation focused, instructors can better support student agency and choice. In this study, we examine students' overall sense of and perceptions about agency in two…

Background: There is a well-known gender disparity in the engineering field. Three of the most important factors related to the participation of women in engineering are differences in perceived societal relevance, technical self-efficacy, and tinkering self-efficacy. Purpose/Hypothesis: Soft robotics is a relatively new engineering application…

The current study examined the neural correlates of spatial rotation in eight engineering undergraduates. Mastering engineering graphics requires students to mentally visualize in 3D and mentally rotate parts when developing 2D drawings. Students' spatial rotation skills play a significant role in learning and mastering engineering graphics.…

Formally describing and assessing the difficulty of learning and teaching material is important for quality assurance in university teaching, for aligning teaching and learning activities, and for easing communications among stakeholders such as teachers and students. This paper proposes a novel taxonomy to describe and quantify the difficulty…

Although knowledge about effective teaching and learning exists, and theories of change strategies are considered, the lack of the understanding of the behavior of engineering faculty during curricular change remains a major contributor against robust efforts for change. In this work, faculty adaptability is conceptualized as self-regulation…

Black men experience numerous systemic challenges in pursuit of their education, yet they also possess strength to achieve academic goals. The purpose of this autoethnographic study is to describe the meaning of my experiences at an undergraduate engineering program at a historically White institution to increase awareness of the ways that Black…

A shortage of science and engineering professionals has led to an effort to engage and retain higher education students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors in the United States. School reformers call on faculty members to shift their teaching practices towards evidence-based instructional strategies that involve…

This thesis contains two areas of research. The first part contributes to the field of engineering mechanics. This research investigates the thermomechanical shape memory behavior of shape memory alloy (SMA) springs. As SMA springs undergo stress- and/or temperature-induced phase transformation, they experience varying combinations of axial,…