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October 2020
IN THIS ISSUE

I. DATABYTES

  • Five-year Growth in Engineering Technology Disciplines

Sponsored Content: NYU

  • Data and Democracy: Why Responsible & Equitable AI is Key

II. INNOVATIONS

  • Caltech Engineer Develops Graphene Sensor That Produces COVID-19 Test Results Within Minutes
  • Meet Miriam, a Communications System That Allows Humans and Autonomous Robots to Chat

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Sponsored Content: Liaison

  • The Future Has Spoken: Listening to the Data to Drive Forward-Looking Strategies

III. ENGINEERING EDUCATION TRENDS

  • Study to Investigate Why Freshman Engineering Students Rarely Seek Help for Mental-Health Woes

Sponsored Content: Keysight

  • Prevent and Solve Common Test & Measurement Issues

IV. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS

V. COMING ATTRACTIONS

  • What’s On Tap in the November 2020 Issue of Prism?

VI. COMMUNITY ACTIVITES

  • New ASEE Prism Magazine Online
  • Conference Report on Increasing Participation of Minority-Serving Institutions in the NSF’s CISE Core Programs
  • Three-Minute Survey: ASEE Webinars
  • Upcoming Webinar
  • Workshop: Replacing Implicit Bias: Recognize, Reconsider, and Repurpose

VII. SOUND OFF

FIVE-YEAR GROWTH IN ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY DISCIPLINES

By Charles M. Stuppard

According to data submitted to the ASEE Survey of Engineering & Engineering Technology Colleges, the number of engineering technology bachelor’s degrees increased 97 percent from 2015 to 2019. Figure 1 displays the change of each engineering technology discipline over five years. The yearly breakdown of the number of engineering technology bachelor’s degrees is shown in Figure 2 and Table 1. Of the 10 reported engineering technology disciplines, four—architectural engineering technology, engineering technology (general), industrial/manufacturing engineering technology, and other engineering technology disciplines—exhibited growth of over 200 percent. Additionally, these four disciplines shared a similar pattern of growth over the five-year period, gradually increasing from 2015 to 2017 with sharper increases following 2018 and 2019. Only two disciplines—aerospace engineering technology and electrical/electronics engineering technology—
experienced a decline in bachelor’s degrees awarded this five-year period. The remaining four disciplines—civil engineering technology (+145 percent), computer engineering technology (+39 percent), construction engineering technology (+18 percent), and mechanical engineering technology (+88 percent)—exhibited similar yearly changes, in addition to overall growth, such that there was an increase of engineering technology bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2018 followed by a decrease in 2019.

 

 

 

Table 1

Sponsored Content

Data and Democracy: Why Responsible & Equitable AI is Key

One of the hard lessons of the COVID-19 crisis has been that data-driven, artificially intelligent systems sometimes act in unforeseen ways. In the early days of the pandemic, officials in many states based their decisions about who would get a scarce coronavirus test and where to set up testing facilities on the demographics of the first groups of patients — those with access to healthcare and the means to pay for it. That approach may have been driven by hard data, but it largely left less financially advantaged people and people of color out of the equation.

Julia Stoyanovich, an assistant professor at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and the founding director of NYU’s Center for Responsible AI, explains that because AI systems are dependent on the quality and the representativeness of the data being input, if a system neglects to consider entire groups, it is not likely to perform accurately for those groups. At the Center, Stoyanovich is applying her research to build open-source tools such as Ranking Facts, a platform that gives users of AI systems easy-to-interpret information on their fairness, stability, and transparency. She and her colleagues are also developing courses on responsible data science and other educational materials (even a comic series — Data, Responsibly — whose first volume is titled “Mirror, Mirror”), so that a new generation of technologists is ready to help build a more just world.

Additionally, in collaboration with the entrepreneurial network of the NYU Tandon Future Labs, the Center is to establish an AI for Good startup program, aimed at companies applying artificial intelligence to societal problems. It’s a multi-pronged approach to building a future in which responsible AI is the only kind accepted by society. 

Learn more about the Center, the use of data to support our Democracy, and the strides NYU Tandon is making.

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Image Courtesy of Caltech

CALTECH ENGINEER DEVELOPS GRAPHENE SENSOR THAT PRODUCES COVID-10 TEST RESULTS WITHIN MINUTES

Researchers are continuing to find new ways to use graphene, the amazing, one-atom-thick material first isolated 16 years ago. Super-strong and super-conductive, as well as super-thin, graphene has been applied to a wide range of applications, from solar cells to electric circuits to running shoes. Now a researcher at Caltech has invented a way to use graphene as a sensor to make an inexpensive home test for COVID-19 that can provide results in just 10 minutes. One of the hurdles in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has been the length of time test results can take—a critical issue because many of those infected remain asymptomatic and can infect others. According to Fast Company, the device created by Wei Gao, an assistant professor of medical engineering, is a sheet of plastic embedded with an etched pattern of graphene. A user then places a drop of blood or saliva on the sensor, and the graphene immobilizes it and any antigens and antibodies in the sample. Next, the user adds a drop of a special biochemical treatment to the sample, wipes it off a minute later and then adds a second solution. The two virus biomarkers bind to the graphene, which allows them to be detected electronically. The device can not only determine an active COVID-19 infection, but also ascertain if a user is immune because of a past infection. The results are sent to a smartphone by Bluetooth. The sensor, called the SARS-CoV-2 RapidPlex, correctly detected the virus in lab tests using samples from 19 actively infected patients. Gao, who wants to commercialize and license the technology, next plans to validate it in a clinical trial ahead of seeking regulatory approval. He tells the magazine that “if we really push it,” it may be on the market in about a year’s time.

Image Courtesy of ORCA

MEET MIRIAM, A COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS HUMANS AND AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS TO CHAT

As industry becomes more reliant on autonomous robots, researchers realize that it’s imperative for human supervisors to have strong understanding of what each robot is doing and why. Toward that end, a consortium of five British colleges led by Scotland’s Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh universities have developed a new method of communication that allows humans and thinking machines to talk to each other in the same language and understand one another’s actions in real time. Supervisors can use MIRIAM (Multimodal Intelligent inteRaction for Autonomous systeMs) to ask autonomous robots questions to understand their actions. MIRIAM uses natural language, so humans can speak orally to the robot or text it, then get back clear explanations of the machine’s behavior. The consortium, called the Offshore Robotics for the Certification of Assets (ORCA) Hub, is now working with Phusion, a software engineering firm, and data-science company Merkle Aquila to trial MIRIAM by tracking robots deployed at the Shetland Gas Plant, an offshore facility operated by global energy giant Total.

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Sponsored Content

The Future Has Spoken: Listening to the Data to Drive Forward-Looking Strategies

According to a recent EDUCAUSE report, 69% of leaders in higher education place a priority on data analytics, however the vast majority of these institutions are only using this information for credentialing and reporting. In order to make better and more strategic decisions, graduate engineering programs need to take advantage of new technologies and practices that can translate this valuable data into insightful reports. 

As engineering programs look to rebound from diminishing international applications and widespread economic uncertainty, the ability to recognize trends in real time and make strategic decisions has never been more urgent. Engineering education leaders recently spoke to these challenges in the webinar, “The Future Has Spoken: Listening to the Data to Drive Forward-Looking Strategies” (available now on-demand). Panelists included Dr. Norman Fortenberry, Executive Director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and Tandilyn Morrel, Director of Graduate Programs at the Texas A&M University College of Engineering. 

Presenters explored the issues shaping the future of engineering education, connecting these larger trends to data they’ve collected at their institutions. They discussed new strategies for leveraging national and institutional data to inform forward-looking decisions around targeting the right applicants, improving yield and increasing diversity. 

This webinar was presented in partnership between ASEE and EngineeringCAS™, the first and only Centralized Application Service (CAS™) for graduate engineering programs. Learn more the benefits of joining the EngineeringCAS Community at EngineeringCAS.org.

Most of the information you need to recruit and enroll your next engineering class already exists and is waiting to be put to good use. When you’re ready to take your analytics strategy to the next level, watch “The Future Has Spoken: Listening to the Data to Drive Forward-Looking Strategies.”

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STUDY TO INVESTIGATE WHY FRESHMAN ENGINEERING STUDENTS RARELY SEEK HELP FOR MENTAL-HEALTH WOES

One in three college students grapple with a mental-health disorder, including anxiety and depression, during their freshman year, according to the American Psychological Association. The good news for engineering students is that they’re no more likely to suffer from emotional issues than their peers, though that finding is based on limited data. The bad news, however, is that they’re significantly less likely to seek help and counseling than non-engineering majors. In an effort to fix that problem, Sarah Wilson, a lecturer in chemical engineering at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded a $199,000 National Science Foundation grant to investigate why engineering students are reluctant to seek help for mental-health problems. Wilson will collaborate with two colleagues: Ellen Usher and Joseph Hammer, a professor and an associate professor, respectively, from Kentucky’s Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology. The three plan to design a study that focuses entirely on mental-health issues among the undergraduate engineering student population. Wilson says the research methods will be a learning curve for her, but “the problem-solving strategy will be just like problem-solving for any engineering problem,” once they identify the problem. To do that, the trio will interview a diverse group of students to understand their attitudes toward seeking help. The end goal, Wilson says, is to develop a tool that would measure the beliefs engineering students have about mental health and counseling. That would allow them to then develop interventions that challenge mistaken beliefs and encourage more students to seek help, when necessary.

 

Sponsored Content

Prevent and Solve Common Test & Measurement Issues

With distance learning, students may not have a Professor nearby to help them setup and perform their labs. This leaves the student, the instruments and the device under test at risk. Share this troubleshooting flyer with your EE students to navigate some common issues.

Download now.

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Job-hunting? Here are a few current openings:

1. Dean - 1 opportunity

2. Mechanical Engineering - 5 opportunities

Visit here for details:
http://www.asee.org/sales-and-marketing/advertising/classified-advertising/job-postings

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HERE’S THE LINEUP FOR NEXT EDITION OF PRISM MAGAZINE:

COVER: EWASTE—Engineers are designing novel recycling methods to rescue communities worldwide from drowning in a tsunami of discarded electronics.

FEATURE: WINDOW ON THE WORLD—Seven windows specially engineered for the International Space Station (ISS) have forever changed the way astronauts in space and we on Earth view, and think about, our planet.

FEATURE: RADICAL INCLUSION—A bold experiment at the University of Connecticut aims to engineer a new learning environment by welcoming and cultivating the innovative potential of neurodiverse students with attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, or other learning differences.

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NEW ASEE PRISM MAGAZINE ONLINE

Our cover story, "A Virtual Reality," examines how engineering educators find creative substitutes for in-person labs and other hands-on learning experiences. This story and more, at the Prism online site. 

 

CONFERENCE REPORT ON INCREASING PARTICIPATION OF MINORITY-SERVING INSTITUTIONS IN THE NSF'S CISE CORE PROGRAMS

This new meeting report details outcomes from an event that assembled 90 MSI faculty to learn about increasing the number and competitiveness of their proposals to NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Core Programs.

THREE-MINUTE SURVEY: ASEE WEBINARS

Have three minutes to spare? Help ASEE improve our member services by providing feedback about valuable online content! 

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Supporting Engineering Graduate Students in the Time of COVID-19
Thursday, November 5, 1–2 P.M., ET
This webinar explores how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting engineering graduate students and how faculty and administrators can better support these students, sharing preliminary insights and lessons learned from three NSF RAPID grants. Register now! 

WORKSHOP: REPLACING IMPLICIT BIAS: RECOGNIZE, RECONSIDER, AND REPURPOSE

November 18, 11 A.M.–2 P.M., ET
This workshop moves beyond merely noticing and acknowledging biases; it emphasizes the use of conscientious attitudes and practices that help to diminish problematic beliefs and reactions in academic settings. By the end of this workshop, you will be able to (a) describe the role that biases play; (b) recognize common expressions of bias that occur; and (c) apply strategies to mitigate and interrupt bias when perpetrated or witnessed. Register now!.

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Do you have a comment or suggestion for Connections?

Please let us know. Email us at:connections@asee.org. Thanks!

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