Session 1
1.1 Opening Address
Professor Jim Litster
Vice-President and Head of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield
Jim was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2010, and was awarded the Thomas Barron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2012, and Pharmaceutical Section Award for contributions to Quality by Design by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is passionate about university education and educators. One of his most significant achievements is leading the design and implementation of a new Project Centered Curriculum across the whole Chemical Engineering Program at the University of Queensland between 1998 and 2005. This transformation was recognized as a world leading effort and received many awards, including the Australian Award for University Teaching in 2005, and one of six engineering change programs highlighted in the Royal Academy Of Engineering/MIT report on Achieving excellence in engineering: the ingredients of successful change (2012).
1.2 Hybrid Practical Work: by in-Campus Students for off-Campus Students
Daniel Orejon, James Farrell, Ignacio Tudela, Fraser Millar, Tim Stratford, Antonios Giannopoulos and Timothy D. Drysdale
University of Edinburgh
Limited access to campus and to teaching resources at universities worldwide have impacted the delivery of practical courses with hands-on components such as laboratory based courses the most. To provide an adequate remote experience to students off-campus, the School of Engineering Hybrid Practical Working Group at the University of Edinburgh formed by academics from all disciplines, has developed a set of digital tools (Blackmagic ATEM Mini + headmount GoPro HERO + Canon Legria HF R806 + RODE Wireless + Lavalier GO + Hollyland Mars 300 PRO) so that students in-campus or staff can communicate and provide a live experience to those students off-campus. The developed setup allows for the visualisation of the overall experiment via a fixed camera while the headmounted GoPro provides a real point-of-view angle increasing the students’ remote experience immersion. The Hollyland Mars 300 PRO transfers video (GoPro) and audio (RODE) Wireless without cabling, which could pose a tripping hazard in the lab. Although the setup was developed for the student-student interaction, due to the lockdown during Semester 2, such setup has been only utilised by academics or T&Ds to show the insitu working principle of the experimental and practical examples from the lab. The initiative has been highly appreciated by the students who find extremely useful to be able to see and understand the experiment live, in addition to the online material available, with the consequent enhanced immersion experience. The different digital tools and some of the points of view achievable with the developed setup can be found in Figure 1.
Figure 1 – Different digital tools and points of view possible during the delivery of Hybrid Practical Work to be used by in-campus students for off-campus students.
1.3 Lo-Fi(delity) Simulations for Hi-Fi(delity) Insights to Chaotic to Dynamical Systems
Aidan Lee, Kevin Nolan, Vikram Pakrashi
University College Dublin
Teaching nonlinear dynamics has been a significant challenge for engineering students. A particular difficulty in this regard is the ability to understand and visualise some key qualitative results. Experimentation is often an option, but even without a pandemic, this can be resource-intensive. Simulations can be an excellent way to demonstrate some of these visualisations. While high-fidelity simulations can be of particular relevance for research purposes, we show in this presentation,how low-fidelity simulations can also be quite relevant. To demonstrate our point, we illustrate a number of chaotic systems using the open-source Blender software, which is often used for editing movies. Bullet physics engine is used to simulate these low-fi experiments and checked for various physical phenomena. It is observed that a number of nonlinear and chaotic aspects can be demonstrated this way. On the other hand, we also demonstrate where such low-fi simulations do not work and our limitations of assumptions lead to incorrect interpretations or results, even in a qualitative sense. We expect the presentation to be relevant for postgraduate, as well as for undergraduate teaching. The demand for a several rapidly changing and emerging engineering sectors with modern demands has led to the need of engaging with nonlinearity from a relatively early stage or design or operation processes, including in-operation or lifetime performance. Under such circumstances, a deeper pedagogic understanding, tool-creation and implementation are required in this direction. Low-fidelity visualisation can partly address this need.
1.4 Embedding practical elements of Project and Business Management into an L6 module in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Esther Perea Borobio
Imperial College London
The module Managing Engineering Projects is part of the curriculum for L6 of a 4-year MEng in Electrical and Electronic (or Information) Engineering and introduces project development and management in an engineering context. The move online presented the opportunity to redefine both structure and delivery of the two-hour weekly sessions (10 weeks). The format moved from lectures and guest specialist lectures to a student-centred format with flipped classroom, group discussions, guest speakers and business pitches. Weekly sessions became a first hour of discussion of a management topic as a cohort in a flipped classroom format - students received necessary material ahead of time. The second hour comprised one of two options: a case study to be considered in random groups of 8 for 30 min, followed by a plenary session to present outcomes and general discussion. Or a guest industrial specialist illustrating the practical application of the topic covered in the first hour followed by Q&A. The assessment comprised the development of the prototype produced in the 2nd Year Group Project module by following a V Stage Gate process, from “Phase II: Conception” to the end of “Phase IV: Prototype”, focusing on project management rather than technical aspects. Deliverables were modified to include a video pitch demonstrating to potential investors they had planned the process to Gate IV by providing business and project plans. The pitch was supplemented by a report with detailed figures and plans. Anecdotal evidence has shown students welcomed the opportunity of taking an active role in their learning, particularly in the case studies and group assignment. Furthermore, industrial examples by guest speakers illustrated the practical application of project management in engineering professional practice.
1.5 HELP – Home Electronics Laboratory Platform
Martin Hill, Michael Murray, Tom O’Mahony, Annie Duffy
Munster Technological Univ.
The hands-on aspects of engineering courses have been severely constrained due to COVID 19 restrictions. In most institutes online lectures are well supported with learning management systems. Since September 2020, many of our students have undertaken their laboratory activities at home. The university has supplied students with prototype development kits for their work and supported this through online mentoring resources. The move to this home lab model of active learning is a key part of a long-term strategy to enable students to better manage their own learning and to maximise the analytical engagement with lecturers in face-to-face or remote tutoring sessions. Initial feedback from learners has been positive with the take-home kit offering freedom from time constraints. Relative to the on-site laboratories, the students report that the more independent nature of the learning is challenging and many have experienced a lack of focus. From our perspective, it is clear that take-home laboratories have a role to play in our future delivery and part of our challenge is to understand how best to use a blend of take-home and on-site sessions to enhance learning.This work will be further developed as part of the Erasmus+ HELP (Home Electronic Laboratory Platform) project.
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