evaluation of Engineering and Science EducationProgram

This Impact Report identifies and summarises the diverse impacts, resulting from the £500m of UK funding of Science and Technology in 2013, using numerous quantitative metrics and short case study extracts.  It shows how the varied impacts of a national science and technology organization and its many funded programmes can be annually identified, captured, tracked, and summarised in a public document.

The report was produced for, and by, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) -  the UK Research Council responsible for funding: (1) all UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics research, (2) related UK science and technology facilities (e.g. as Harwell and Daresbury), (3) the UK contribution to international science (e.g. CERN, international telescopes and space missions), (4) innovation and business spin-off programmes, and (5) UK public engagement activities.

The Report was co-researched and co-authored by the STFC Impact Team, including myself while Impact Evaluation Manager in 2013, with Dr. Claire Dougan-McCallie (lead author/Head of Impact) and Jenny Beard, with additional input from senior managers, and many data and case study contributions from other key managers across STFC.

Varied key impacts are identified and reported including:

• Research amongst the best (by citation impact) in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics.
• Supported research of 226 Principal Investigators in 70 universities, led to 1,100 peer-reviewed papers in 2012.
• Facilities (the Diamond Light Source, ISIS and CLF) were used in 2012/13 by over 4,200 unique users , in over 2,400 experiments, producing over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

• Technology from CERN benefited the UK economy by over £100 billion every year.
• Funding the development of the UK’s space, internet and computer animation industries, returned over £500 billion to the UK economy per annum.
• Funded Innovation Campuses hosted over 230 enterprises and supported over 5,000 jobs.
• UK industry won £43 million in contracts from the international subscriptions funded, and had accumulated a total of £150 million since 2005.

• Funded research inspired future generations to study STEM subjects, attracting 90% of UK undergraduates to study physics, funded 782 PhD students  and 16,800 student training days.
• Between 2009 to 2012 public engagement programmes engaged people on 58 million occasions, with 2 million people engaged in face-to-face activities in 2013 alone.

This research was funded by, and implemented within, a UK national research organisation, while the author was the KE and Impact Evaluation Manager responsible for assessing impact on a £15m UK government-funded research programme.

This work was also submitted as the authors MBA dissertation which was accepted and awarded in 2009.

ABSTRACT: A methodology and methods ‘toolbox’ is proposed for conducting impact research and assessment from within research programmes. The emphasis is upon how to clarify and assess the wider impacts from the early stages onwards.

The approach explicitly acknowledges, and attempts to address, the known issues and challenges of impact assessment while drawing upon the resources and opportunities available to research managers and researchers within such programmes.

The study has two triangulating foundations. Firstly, it examines the academic literature to help identify and design the pilot methodology and methods. Secondly it trials these in a real programme to both test and improve them.

The study was conducted over one year within one leading UK research organisation, where two research programmes (and around 60 research projects of £15m total value) were being assessed for their impacts. The study draws upon actual impact management experience and reflection, prospective (ex ante) and retrospective (ex post) assessments, participatory contributions from leading researchers undergoing assessment, and consultation with external users. The findings of this study outline the pilot and its first iteration. Recommendations are made for improvement to the methodology and methods.

A subsequent follow-on bid to UK government incorporating the impacts identified from implementing this methodology, successfully led to a further £15m of government funding.

It is expected the pilot methodology and methods will be applicable to other organisations, conducting and funding such research programmes, required to research and assess the wider research impacts.

Although primary focus of implemetation trials was upon research in physical sciences, technology, high-tech engineering, computing/IT, and environment, the wider literature study, the methodology design and justification, the methods proposed and used, and the resulting general recommendations and lessons are expected to apply more broadly to many other research areas, where the impact is to be found more widely in the society, economy, government or public sector or within organizations, policies, professions or the public.

Interest in this work is expected from research programme managers, impact managers and assessors, management consultants advising in this area, and government funding managers, all seeking to embed a developing approach to understand, capture, and enhance wider impact.

The mechanical engineering department of Majmaah University was being upgraded for ABET accreditation from 2017 to 2019. The quality appraisal by an autonomous agency is the requirement for the accreditation of the university. Accreditation can be obtained either for the entire institution or for individual programs within an institution. Universities request accreditation agencies to assess their programs, faculty, and students’ achievement, whether they comply with the criteria set for higher educational institutions. The organization is regularly reassessed and accredited to ensure compliance with standards. Therefore, the study aims to identify the effectiveness and efficiency of two accreditation systems. Majmaah University had been upgrading it’s academic as well as non-academic infrastructure for both regional (National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment-NCAAA) and international (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology-ABET) accreditation; afterward, the ME program was recognized by international (ABET) accreditation two years ago. The study showed that criteria and standards for academic assessment and accreditation were determined by establishing NCAAA in Saudi Arabia. The management and quality of educational institutions under the highest international standards were ensured by focusing on higher studies institutions’ quality assurance procedures. However, the study results revealed a lack of awareness of professional and ethical responsibility because of the absence of any ethical course in the curriculum of ME, as noticed by Mechanical Engineering program mapping.

Students’ learning outcomes show that graduates from university courses are lacking in important skills, such as
communication, decision-making, problem solving, leadership, emotional intelligence, and social ethics as well
as the ability to work with people from different backgrounds. Engineering graduates today need to work within
multicultural and multinational workplace environments with adequate professional attributes or competencies.
The missing links between engineering graduate attributes and employers’ expectations are elaborated in the
paper. This paper discusses the position of Moi University graduates vis-à-vis the expected at the industry. The
paper outlines what the consumers i.e. employers of graduates of engineering often complain of being given half
baked products. It sought to establish the lacking skills in this graduates taking a case study of Rivatex factory
and graduates of Moi University. What are the competences the industry require and to what extend the
graduates posses them. It gives analysis of attributes as seen by the employer and draws conclusion and
suggestions on requirements to be considered while training an engineer. The paper is significant as it seeks to
establish the skills lacking in engineering graduates from the employer’s point of view. The findings of the
study will contribute to a deeper understanding of the issue and possible avenues for their address

Η εξάπλωση του covid-19 ανάγκασε τις περισσότερες χώρες να επιβάλουν υποχρεωτικά προσωρινό κλείσιμο των ιδρυμάτων τριτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης, με τη διαδικτυακή εκπαίδευση να προτείνεται ως λύση ανάγκης για τη συνέχεια της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, ο στόχος αυτής της έρευνας είναι να διερευνήσει την εφαρμογή της διαδικτυακής εκπαίδευσης στη Σχολή Μηχανικών στη Μηχανιώνα Θεσσαλονίκης κατά τη διάρκεια της πανδημίας covid-19, μέσω των στάσεων και απόψεων των σπουδαστών της. Η έρευνα διεξήχθη προς το τέλος του εαρινού εξαμήνου 2020 με ερωτηματολόγια σε 597 σπουδαστές και για τον έλεγχο των υποθέσεων χρησιμοποιήθηκε περιγραφική στατιστική και έλεγχος x2. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν ότι η προσαρμογή των σπουδαστών στο νέο τρόπο διδασκαλίας εξαρτάται από το εξάμηνο στο οποίο βρίσκονται και από τα τεχνικά προβλήματα που πιθανόν αντιμετώπισαν. Επίσης εντοπίστηκε ένα ενδιαφέρον φαινόμενο, ότι οι σπουδαστές που είχαν ικανοποιητική επικοινωνία με τους καθηγητές και τις καθηγήτριές τους είναι λιγότερο επιφυλακτικοί στο να καθιερωθεί η τηλεκπαίδευση ως τρόπος διδασκαλίας. Τέλος, παρόλο που συμφώνησαν ότι η διαδικτυακή μάθηση ήταν η σωστή λύση κατά τη διάρκεια της πανδημίας, τη βρήκαν πιο κουραστική από την παραδοσιακή εκπαίδευση και οι περισσότεροι σπουδαστές δεν είναι αρκετά ευχαριστημένοι από την εφαρμογή της.

Sales engineering or technical sales programs bridge engineering and business to educate engineering students in sales specific to their discipline. Students develop business awareness through such programs, providing the sales workforce with technically knowledgeable salespeople. The following study analyzed cohorts of students enrolled in a technical sales for engineers course to assess the changing perceptions and attitudes of engineering students toward technical sales. Students reported statistically significant changes in perceptions regarding interest, need, and rank of current ability toward technical sales and social skills after completing the course. Student perceptions of sales skills being innate and ingrained decreased. Group analysis – enrollment in the sales minor or previous sales experience – revealed expected differences including higher ranked prior ability and initial interest in sales. A separate analysis of 20 technical sales skills at the end of the course was used to highlight the level students perceived they had achieved each skill.

The current push to educate highly qualified and productive Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professionals typically culminates in collegiate capstone projects. These group projects attempt to prepare STEM professionals for entry into the real world as they exemplify early career group dynamics and expose the reality that communication and other soft-skills are often just as important as technical skills. Since attitudes of STEM students and early career professions are established throughout the entire K-20 curriculum, this article also provides some feedback to educators. The research presented utilized, a free cloud based collaboration tool to observe the communication habits of three senior capstone teams (n= 13 participants) and was able to predict communication success and failures through straight-forward analysis of several key parameters, including: discussion frequency, number of responses and the distribution of work over time.

In the context of engineering education, excellence is that quality which gives a special value and worth to a particular program. Excellence in engineering education (EEEdu) means different things to different people, but in this paper, EEEdu is considered to be a quality that is achievable through geniune commitment to teacher and student development, program development, teaching innovations, and community service. Using the broad definition of EEEdu, certain perceptions and perspectives of EEEdu from the points of view of: (1) the teacher; (2) the student; (3) the community; (4) the employers; and (5) professional engineering organizations were assessed using a survey designed for this purpose. The results support the idea that engineering programs need to be developed and delivered in view of the various opinions on what makes a program distinct, rather than relying solely on the professional and academic views. The results of the survey and study suggest that excellence, in its wider definition, must be pursued as a higher goal and that sustaining excellence requires developing a culture of excellence at the organization level.

In the knowledge-based global economy, engineering graduates should possess the needed outstanding abilities to solve complex and real-life programs of the fast-growing global economy. A sizable percentage of graduates are found to be lacking industry-specific skills, competencies, and rendered jobless. Ministry of Education (MoE), the Government of India is offering a large number of faculty development courses through various schemes. SWOT Analysis suggests the need for continuous quality improvement programs for all cadres. The need for industry-focused development programs for all faculty has been identified based on the qualitative research done. It is found that there is an urgent need for faculty members to prepare portfolios and plan to acquire desired skills through short-courses, long-term programs, and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Self-planned faculty development programs are considered to be very effective in assessing them. The National Education Policy 2020 also suggests training programs for all cadres through short-term, long-term, and MOOCs. The Boards of Governors of Educational Institutions must ensure high-quality curriculum, trained and accomplished faculty members, industry-specific curricula, modernized labs, and workshops to create  needed human and knowledge capital to facilitate national competitiveness

Engineering education plays a very important role in the social and economic development of a nation as well as its standing in the world.  During the 19th and 20th centuries, engineering “disintegrated” into specific disciplines.  The 21st century will instead be a time of integration, as the various sub-disciplines of the sciences and engineering converge. Moreover, the emergence of the world economy has led to a real need to develop a global awareness in the minds of today’s engineering students. They need to recognize that being bright and technically sound and motivated is not enough.  They must also have skills to defend and sell technical ideas as well as excellent oral and written communication skills for a successful career.  Universities must provide guidance and a curriculum making the achievement of this goal possible for all students.  They must also have to continuously develop innovative approaches to education delivery and training as well as offer knowledge in a motivating way and insure retention.  The actual paper reviews some aspects of the traditional system of engineering education particularly in the North African countries as well as in some European countries (France and Germany).  It also presents the emerging trends in engineering education and discusses the key characteristics of the 21st century engineer.  Instructional methods and quality assessment and certification are also reviewed.