• The 20 Engineering Schools That Award the Most Bachelor’s Degrees to Hispanics

• Toolset, Skillset, Mindset: A Global Perspective

• Gannon University Freshmen Design and Build a Food Dehydrator for Use in Developing Regions

• White House: Chinese Students Can Return to U.S. Campuses
  
• Proposed American Families Plan is Crammed with Student Benefits

• Portugal Builds Record-breaking Pedestrian Bridge

• ASEE Survey for Underserved Communities
  
• Annual Conference Early-bird Rate
• ASEE & NSF Present I-PERF
• ASEE Presents: Master Class on Effective Teaching
• DELTA New Faculty Institute

TOP 20 INSTITUTIONS AWARDING BACHELOR’S DEGREES TO HISPANICS

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Dr. Antonius Kontsos
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Drexel University, United States 

GANNON UNIVERSITY FRESHMEN DESIGN AND BUILD A FOOD DEHYDRATOR FOR USE IN DEVELOPING REGIONS

First-year engineering students at Pennsylvania’s Gannon University, in keeping with the school’s mission to prepare students as global citizens, are required to take an introductory seminar course that includes a service-learning project. Accordingly, in the 2017–18 school year, the school devised a project that aimed to have student teams demonstrate they could take on “Zero Hunger,” the second sustainable development goal identified by the United Nations Development Programme.

According to a paper presented last July at ASEE’s First-year Engineering Experience in East Lansing, Mich., students were tasked with designing and building a solar-powered food dehydrator that could be easily constructed in areas lacking in material resources and infrastructures, such as access. The project focused on parts of sub-Saharan Africa where daytime temperatures during the summer exceed 103ºF. The idea is that freshly grown food can be dehydrated and stored for consumption when food is scarcer.

In the 2017–18 academic year, students were told to design and build a dehydrator that wasn’t intended for field application. They employed simple construction techniques—for instance, using dowels instead of nails and screws. The resulting device, when tested on a hot, sunny day (temperature 91ºF), reached an internal air temperature that was 6 to 7 degrees below the minimum recommended temperature for dehydrating fruits and vegetables. In the 2018–19 school year, the next cohort of students applied basic thermodynamic properties to update the design, decreasing the chamber wall thickness by 29 percent to reduce its insulative effect, among other changes. Their redesigned dehydrator worked, achieving higher internal air temperatures than the minimum recommended level. The authors write that the project proved that freshman student teams demonstrated their capability in addressing a global issue. Read the full study.

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WHITE HOUSE: CHINESE STUDENTS CAN RETURN TO U.S. CAMPUSES

In March, the Biden administration eased restrictions on European students who want to study at U.S. colleges and universities. The White House has now expanded its national interest exemptions to cover students from China and other countries worldwide. In a recent statement, the administration says restrictions on students who want to travel to the U.S. this fall would be eased as of August 1, the Reuters news agency reports. The moves could help bolster enrollments at schools in the country, which suffered during the pandemic.

According to the International Education Exchange (IEE), Chinese students (372,000 in total) accounted for 35 percent of foreign students in the 2019–20 academic year. That’s the highest total from any country and more than double the number from second-place India. In January 2020, former President Donald Trump banned nearly all non-U.S. citizens in China from entering the country. The American Council of Education (ACE) lobbied the Biden administration to reverse this move. In a letter it issued in March, ACE said that lifting the bans would help make U.S. colleges destinations of choice again and fuel economic activity as the country recovers from the pandemic. According to ACE statistics, revenue generated by international students in 2019–20 was $39 billion, down $2 billion from the previous year. In the 2019 school year, IEE says, Chinese students added $16 billion to the U.S. economy.

Read “Double Jeopardy,” February 2021 Prism, for more on the effects of U.S. policies and the global pandemic on international students.

PROPOSED AMERICAN FAMILIES PLAN IS CRAMMED WITH STUDENT BENEFITS

President Biden’s proposed $1.8 trillion American Families Plan is loaded with goodies for college students. According to Inside Higher Ed, the bill includes $109 billion to provide students up to two years of community college for free. Another $80 billion would be used to shore up Pell Grants and increase the maximum grant by $1,400. Over the past 50 years, the value of the grants, used by nearly 7 million students, has drastically shrunk. The maximum amount once covered 80 percent of the cost of a four-year degree; it’s now less than 30 percent. The upshot, the administration says, is that millions of low-income students are forced to take on mountains of debt to finance their education.

The plan would also fund a new grant with $62 billion. It would make money available to proven completion and retention programs at institutions with large numbers of low-income students. The bill also includes $39 billion to provide two years of subsidized tuition for students from families earning less than $125,000 who are enrolled in a four-year Historically Black College or University, Tribal College or University, or Minority-Serving Institution. Finally, the plan would double scholarships for future teachers from $4,000 to $8,000, offer $400 million for teacher prep at minority-serving schools, and provide another $900 million for the professional development of special-education teachers.

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PORTUGAL BUILDS RECORD-BREAKING PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

A new bridge in Portugal is not only the world’s longest suspended pedestrian bridge, but also combines art with impressive engineering. Called the “516 Arouca” (referencing its metric length) and hung from steel cables strung between two V-shaped concrete towers, the bridge snakes for 1,693 feet over the fast-flowing Paiva River 574 feet below. It has a metal mesh walkway and metal side railings, so those intrepid enough to walk it will have nearly unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains, the river gorge below, and a nearby 10th-century monastery.

An area of UNESCO-listed natural beauty, Arouca is 186 miles north of Lisbon. Guinness World Records currently lists Japan’s Kokonoe Yume Bridge, which spans 1,280 feet, as the world’s longest pedestrian bridge. But the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge in the Swiss Alps, which opened in 2017, stretches longer at 1,621 feet—still 72 feet shorter than 516 Arouca. Read more.

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