This study examines the trend of foreign doctorate recipients from U.S. higher education institutions who decided to stay in the United States after their degree completion, and it explores individual, institutional, and country factors predicting whether the foreign doctorate recipients stay in the United States or return home. Analyzing data…

This paper presents another effort in determining the difficulty of engineering students in terms of solving word problems. Students were presented with word problems in algebra. Then, they were asked to solve the word problems orally; that is, before they presented their written solutions, they were required to explain how they understood the…

The U.S. has experienced a large surge of foreign talent, as evidenced by the large number of international students enrolling each year in science and engineering fields (IIE, 2010). Among the foreign countries and economies, China ranks top in the number of doctorate degree recipients from U.S. institutions in science and engineering fields…

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an academic support program that aims at increasing student success in "difficult" courses (Hurley, Jacobs, & Gilbert, 2006). SI was developed at the University of Missouri in Kansas City in the early seventies and has since spread to over 1500 universities and university colleges in nearly 30…

This paper discusses the usefulness of employing LEGO as a teaching-learning aid in a post-graduate-level first course on the control of discrete-event systems (DESs). The final assignment of the course is presented, which asks students to design and implement a modular hierarchical discrete-event supervisor for the coordination layer of a…

Spatial abilities have been used as a predictor of success in several engineering and technology disciplines (Strong & Smith, 2001). In engineering graphics courses, scores on spatial tests have also been used to predict success (Adanez & Velasco, 2002; Leopold, Gorska, & Sorby, 2001). Other studies have shown that some type of…

In this paper, an optimal tuning tool is presented for control structures based on multivariable proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control, using genetic algorithms as an alternative to traditional optimization algorithms. From an educational point of view, this tool provides students with the necessary means to consolidate their knowledge on…

This paper describes an educational research experience that took place in the Electrical & Electronics Engineering Master's program offered at the Escuela Universitaria de Ingenieria Tecnica de Telecomunicacion, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. The focus is to provide details of the motivation behind and the design and…

The authors seek to establish the need for better education to develop procedures useful to evaluate the sustainability of a building. The analysis emphasises the need for education in the social dimension of sustainability assessment in the context of the life cycle of a building and how such education of building agents could increase…

A practical activity designed to introduce wavefront coding techniques as a method to extend the depth of field in optical systems is presented. The activity is suitable for advanced undergraduate students since it combines different topics in optical engineering such as optical system design, aberration theory, Fourier optics, and digital image…

In today's institution of higher learning, rating the effectiveness of the training of the future specialist is based on an individual's possession of professional, social, individual, and personal competencies, which include the ability to see the sociocultural context of his activity, to work on a team, to create a favorable social environment…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the engagement and response of students to the teaching of engineering ethics incorporating a macro ethical framework whereby sustainability is viewed as context to professional practice. This involves incorporating a broader conception of engineering than is typically applied in conventional…

The role of the mathematics textbook at tertiary level has received limited exposure in previous research although it is likely that students work individually and that some of this work depends on the use of the textbook. The aim of this study was to investigate the process of approaching the textbook from epistemological, cognitive, and…

This study aims to understand how engineering mathematics students form intentions in mathematics learning from a socio-psychological perspective. A grounded theory approach was adopted and 21 engineering students and six tutors participated in the study. The main findings in this study show that a student's intention in engineering mathematics…

A study of how Swedish students understand the concept of complex numbers was performed. A questionnaire was issued reflecting the student view of own perception. Obtained answers show a variety of concept images describing how students adopt the concept of complex numbers. These concept images are classified into four categories in order to…