12th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (On Demand Recording available now)
Full Papers
Session Full-01
Track 1 — Full Papers I
Conference
11:30 AM
—
12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 8:30 AM
—
9:30 AM PDT
An interdisciplinary approach to high school curriculum development: Swarming Powered by Neuroscience
Elise Buckley (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA); Joseph Monaco (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA); Kechen Zhang (Johns Hopkins University, USA); Kevin Schultz (JHU/APL, USA); Robert Chalmers and Armin Hadzic (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA); Grace M Hwang (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory & National Science Foundation, USA); M. Dwight Carr (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA)
0
This article discusses how to create an interactive virtual training program at the intersection of neuroscience, robotics, and computer science for high school students with equity of access. A four-day microseminar, titled Swarming Powered by Neuroscience (SPN), was conducted virtually through a combination of presentations and interactive computer game simulations. The SPN microseminar was delivered by subject matter experts in neuroscience, mathematics, multi-agent swarm robotics, and education. The objective of this research was to determine if taking an interdisciplinary approach to high school education would enhance the students learning experiences in fields such as neuroscience, robotics, or computer science. This study found an improvement in student engagement for neuroscience by 16.6%, while interest in robotics and computer science improved respectively by 2.7% and 1.8%. The majority of students (64%) strongly agreed that they enjoyed learning from an interdisciplinary team of experts and 70% strongly agreed that the microseminar emphasized the need to have instruction teams with diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The curriculum materials, developed for the SPN microseminar, can be used by high school teachers to further evaluate interdisciplinary instructions across life and physical sciences and computer science.
Extracurricular Student-Centered Projects to Learn Computer Programming
Wei Yu, William Haynes and Diane DiMassa (Massachusetts Maritime Academy, USA)
0
Out-of-class learning environments, such as student clubs, workshops, camps, etc, provide students unique opportunities to grow their potential interests, enrich their knowledge and strengthen their self-efficacy. It is demonstrated in STEM fields that out-of-class interdisciplinary activities allow students to build relationships of multiple subjects, blend them properly and apply them to solve practical problems. Encouraged by the outcomes of out-of-class activities and the growing interest of computer programming at our university, two extracurricular projects on developing a graphical user interface (GUI) for double girders and writing a script to batch-process images were conducted recently in a student club. The projects were assigned to the students to enhance their learning interests, improve their computer programming abilities, and build their confidence in software development. The extracurricular projects were designed by considering students' curriculum courses of interest and previous co-op training experience. The students dug into various computer programming skills and implemented them appropriately to address the project requirements. They were also challenged to consider both fundamental programming techniques as well as software system structure. It was observed that the extracurricular projects had triggered the students' learning curiosities, increased their programming proficiency, and deepened their understanding of the computer programming field. The feedback from the students suggests that the project experience was more than satisfactory and contributed to their future career preparations.
Design and Development of a Smart Cities General Education Online Course for Undergraduates
Mohammad U. Mahfuz (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA)
1
In this paper, a design and development of a Smart Cities general education (Gen Ed) online course for undergraduates have been presented. In this design, a detailed description of course contents, course modality, access to materials, and a typical assessment scheme have been presented, So far, this ENGR 202 (An Introduction to Smart Cities) course has been taught successfully to the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Green Bay, USA, students for the last two years every January and summer terms respectively with 3 weeks and 4 weeks in duration. Thus far, the course has been very successful in providing the students with an introduction to the smart cities and their functionalities. Experience learnt from teaching this course has been presented in this paper. The detailed design of this Gen Ed course has been presented in such a way that the same or a similar course could also be designed and taught at another academic institution as a Gen Ed course. Finally, this course also stands as an example that an engineering course can successfully contribute to the Gen Ed course pool of an institution reducing the historical gap between engineering and Gen Ed curricula moving forward.
Design and Development i-AVEN|GER as High-Tech Virtual Remote Teaching and Learning Platform with Experienced Based Learning and Self-regulated Learning Approaches in facilitating STEAM Education
Ken Nee Chee (Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia); Noraffandy Yahaya (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia); Mohd Hishamuddin Abdul Rahman (Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia); Rafiza Abdul Razak (University Of Malaya, Malaysia); Nor Hasniza Ibrahim (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia)
1
With centuries-old lecture-based teaching methods, ingrained institutional biases, and obsolete classrooms, the slow pace of change in global education and academic institutions is lamentable. COVID-19, on the other hand, has acted as a catalyst for educational institutions worldwide to seek out novel solutions within a short or long timeframe. It is critical for countries to address the situation in such a way that the crisis fosters innovation and inclusion rather than exacerbating learning disparities. Schools are utilising distance learning programmes, educational apps, and platforms such as radio and the internet to reach students who live in remote areas. However, closing the so-called "digital divide" - the divide between those with access to computers and the internet and those with limited or no access - is a difficult task. We propose in this paper the Interactive Accessible Virtual Education Network - Grand Educational Repository (i-AVEN|GER), the world's first comprehensive futuristic hi-tech, comprehensive, and inclusive online structured learning platform with all types of interactivity, namely, educational app and portal. We've discussed the architecture and all of the associated functionalities thus far. This proposed app and portal will be enhanced to ensure inclusivity for all people without regard for prejudice, as well as the incorporation of cutting-edge technology such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Additionally, it will be capable of operating in an offline mode, allowing learners to download educational materials to their mobile devices or computers and watch them later. Numerous parties from around the world will collaborate to develop a comprehensive whitelisted educational app and portal to help close the "digital divide."
Automated Car applying Artificial Intelligence
Satyam Mishra (Vietnam National University - International School, Vietnam)
1
This paper discusses researching a vehicle model using artificial intelligence; training its neural network using the AlexNet model, using YOLO for object detection phase, and for practical deduction and judging component we have used Open Neural Network Exchange format. Our Car model is agile and cost-efficient. It detects objects efficiently in front of it and movement of it is smooth. It moves through sensors in motors which makes it different than other models in the world. We created and managed to deploy a deep learning system using real-world visual input for everyday objects. We used a novel deep learning-based obstacle avoidance perspective for practical object detection training. Special data gleaned via the use of technologies and various sensors in this part could alter skill demand and achieve security levels. We built it from scratch and trained this model to avoid collision and follow a given path by using deep neural network-based training.
Session Chair
Mithun Mukherjee
Session Full-02
Track 2 — Full Papers II
Conference
11:30 AM
—
12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 8:30 AM
—
9:30 AM PDT
A Personality Types Research Study Based on Personal Values in an Ethics Course for the Engineering and Computer Sc. Undergraduates
Atma Sahu (Coppin State University, USA)
1
This research study explicitly unfolds differences among the various personality types of School of Engineering undergraduate students (N=75) and these students have taken a full-semester ethics course titled "Human Values and Professional Ethics". As improving the ethical thinking and analysis of university students' personality styles is becoming an essential goal of modern curricula and program designers in various disciplines, this timely study addresses issues of ethics and personal values teaching and learning of engineering students. The findings of this research should provide underpinnings for advanced engineering education novelties in designing ethics courses. This study addresses uniquely how students relate with Myers-Briggs Test Inventory preferences types, as surfaced in the study when personal values are factored in the statistical analysis, and how students communicate across MBTI preferential characteristics. Additionally, in the context of the subject's personality type and personal values across several research variables such as age, gender, religion, and professional ethics, the computer educators and ethics researchers will gain a deeper insight as to how the research results of this study on learning and teaching have been applied to create or design engineering ethics course.
Motivating Potential of the ESP Course Themes at Russian University of Transport
Natalya V Matveeva (Russian University of Transport & Serpukhov College, Russia); Elena Fedotkina (Russian University of Transport, Russia)
0
New learning paradigm in higher education means new approaches and teaching methods are used in vocational training, these include new specialities introducing, interdisciplinary educational projects within the multidisciplinary students teams developing, flipped learning, digitalization of education, and other learning methods implementation. This also means that the role of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as an educational subject at the university changes significantly. For sure, students majoring in engineering specialities should study English for Specific Purposes (ESP) within the course of English as a Foreign Language in order to read papers, magazines and manuscripts in their subject area, as well as to communicate with the peers on professionally oriented topics being ready to work over international projects related to railway transport such as new units of rolling stock development, international freight and passenger transportation, international transport corridors, international logistics, ecological issues of international value, and in the international teams. This paper discusses the Russian University of Transport expertise in the ESP within the EFL course for students majoring in railroad specialities creation in the context of the University Strategic Development Program. The research includes a thorough examination of the freshmen common reference level, the students and stakeholders' interests and needs in professionally oriented communication within the new learning paradigm, selection of the discourse themes to be included into the syllabus, and the ESP online course relevance in the context of future experts and leaders of transformations in the transport sector vocational training. The selected themes were examined from the point of view of their motivating potential using the Computer Aided Quality Data-Analysis Software NVivo. The results obtained proved the students' ability to study ESP and discovered the most motivating for them railway discourse themes.
Immersive-Experiential Business-Technology in Simulated Business Cases
Stephen Andriole (Villanova University, USA)
0
Business school learning strategies have remained traditional for decades even as enrollments fell and calls for change increased. Even today, "sage on a stage" delivery remains dominant in most US colleges and universities. Immersive/experiential learning (EIL) represents a new way to educate business technology students. This paper describes EIL progress at the Villanova University School of Business and describes an approach to EIL that integrates cases, scenarios and technology into the undergraduate and graduate (STEM-approved)
Management Information Systems (MIS) program. Some of the technologies include AI and machine learning, the Internet of Things (IOT), augmented and virtual reality, robotics, 3D modeling and manufacturing, edge and fog computing, blockchain, cryptocurrency and
quantum computing, among others. A technology adoption scenario - which ends with demonstrations of high impact technologies - guides students through an immersive-experiential due diligence process via a simulated business technology adoption case complete with roles, deliverables and outcomes. The adoption of emerging technology is a goal for most - if not all - corporations as they maneuver through The Fourth Industrial Revolution. At Villanova, we've delivered a course on Emerging Business Technologies for several years. But the course was delivered "traditionally" to undergraduates and graduate students. The course has been converted to an immersive-experiential course where students are expected to solve technology adoption problems through role-playing: they are immersed in the case and experience a range of digital technologies. These cases simulate how CIOs, CTOs and other technology leaders must decide how and where to invest in existing (and mostly) emerging business technologies.
Management Information Systems (MIS) program. Some of the technologies include AI and machine learning, the Internet of Things (IOT), augmented and virtual reality, robotics, 3D modeling and manufacturing, edge and fog computing, blockchain, cryptocurrency and
quantum computing, among others. A technology adoption scenario - which ends with demonstrations of high impact technologies - guides students through an immersive-experiential due diligence process via a simulated business technology adoption case complete with roles, deliverables and outcomes. The adoption of emerging technology is a goal for most - if not all - corporations as they maneuver through The Fourth Industrial Revolution. At Villanova, we've delivered a course on Emerging Business Technologies for several years. But the course was delivered "traditionally" to undergraduates and graduate students. The course has been converted to an immersive-experiential course where students are expected to solve technology adoption problems through role-playing: they are immersed in the case and experience a range of digital technologies. These cases simulate how CIOs, CTOs and other technology leaders must decide how and where to invest in existing (and mostly) emerging business technologies.
Pandemic and Natural Disasters Driving the Need for AI Driven NEXTGen Medical Services
John Lamb (Pace University, USA); David Marimekala (Farmington High School, CT, USA)
5
Our pre-pandemic Medical services were primarily focused on providing health services in person and less on using the virtual methods. The pandemic has changed the landscape of medical services, as a greater number of patients are using alternate methods for medical services such as telemedicine, Virtual Assistance and video conferencing to communicate with the physicians and healthcare providers. As a result, there is a shift in the paradigm on how these services are being catered to different age groups. IT has played a vital role in keeping up with the increasing demands during the pandemic and natural disaster. There has been a constant effort from the business, healthcare providers and IT industry to provide simplicity and ease in usage of alternative methods so that all age groups can communicate to physicians, healthcare workers and healthcare providers easily. This change has brought in new ways of providing services to patients of all age groups. During the pandemic there was little hope of finding the vaccination for Covid-19. Medical researchers and Scientists were constantly working on finding breakthroughs. In this period the IT services, Artificial intelligence, Hybrid Cloud, Security and Compliance, automation and cognitive analysis paved a way for researchers and scientists to reach a breakthrough in finding a vaccine. In this paper we study the importance of Medicine, Technology and Energy for mankind.
Assurance of Learning in Technology Management by Curriculum Alignment to A Professional Body of Knowledge
Andres Fortino and Ming Cai (NYU, USA)
1
We created an assessment instrument and evaluated its effectiveness in improving management knowledge, skills, and competencies of students in a technology management graduate program. Our study shows that the program being assessed had many deficiencies in educating them on management-related topics. We also discovered that the assessment instrument is a useful tool to help students to gauge their learning outcomes and progress. The assessment can also assist faculty and program administrators in modifying and improving the curriculum.
Higher education institutions prepare students with skills that better prepare them for a highly competitive labor market. Aligning the learning outcomes of a program to industry specified knowledge and skills is highly desirable. The recently developed American Management Association Certified Professional in Management (CPM) certification is an important source of industry-based knowledge for incumbent and aspiring managers. We based our assessment instrument on the AMA CPM Body of Knowledge for our assessment.
We researched several questions for this project. 1) do students of management-related majors graduating from a technology management graduate program have adequate management competencies and skills? 2) can an assessment instrument based on an industry derived standard be a useful tool to assist students in having a better understanding of their learning outcomes and progress, and thereby improve their learning? 3) how can such an assessment instrument assist faculty and administrators modify and improve their curriculum?
The curriculum was reviewed, and an assessment instrument created with topical course coverage pertinent to the AMA CPM BOK. The assessment was administered to capstone students, and results were analyzed.
Using the existing curriculum, we found that most students could not pass the assessment and identified many deficiencies in the knowledge domains. The assessment results were sufficiently granular to help faculty modify the curriculum and course content and improve students' acquisition of the required knowledge.
Higher education institutions prepare students with skills that better prepare them for a highly competitive labor market. Aligning the learning outcomes of a program to industry specified knowledge and skills is highly desirable. The recently developed American Management Association Certified Professional in Management (CPM) certification is an important source of industry-based knowledge for incumbent and aspiring managers. We based our assessment instrument on the AMA CPM Body of Knowledge for our assessment.
We researched several questions for this project. 1) do students of management-related majors graduating from a technology management graduate program have adequate management competencies and skills? 2) can an assessment instrument based on an industry derived standard be a useful tool to assist students in having a better understanding of their learning outcomes and progress, and thereby improve their learning? 3) how can such an assessment instrument assist faculty and administrators modify and improve their curriculum?
The curriculum was reviewed, and an assessment instrument created with topical course coverage pertinent to the AMA CPM BOK. The assessment was administered to capstone students, and results were analyzed.
Using the existing curriculum, we found that most students could not pass the assessment and identified many deficiencies in the knowledge domains. The assessment results were sufficiently granular to help faculty modify the curriculum and course content and improve students' acquisition of the required knowledge.
Session Chair
Mithun Mukherjee
Session Full-03
Track 3 — Full Papers III
Conference
11:30 AM
—
12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 8:30 AM
—
9:30 AM PDT
An Integrated Approach to Sustainability-focused Instruction in Undergraduate Engineering Curricula
Mohammad U. Mahfuz (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA)
1
In this paper, an integrated approach to sustainability-focused instruction in undergraduate engineering curricula has been presented. Teaching sustainability-focused contents currently stands as a demand for the present world. Therefore, the field of engineering education needs to address this for the betterment of future generations of humankind. Several sustainability-focused instruction models that could potentially be incorporated within engineering curricula have been discussed in this paper. Case studies from the current undergraduate engineering curricula, particularly in the general education (Gen Ed), electrical engineering (EE) and electrical engineering technology (EET) programs at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Green Bay, USA, have been presented. The paper also includes an overview of opportunities and challenges of including sustainability-focused instruction in undergraduate engineering curricula. While it is acknowledged that the concept of sustainability is quite broad, interdisciplinary, and, therefore, may have discipline-specific scenarios and requirements, it is strongly believed that the instructional approaches presented in this paper should be helpful in designing similar sustainability-focused learning materials at other academic institutions within and beyond undergraduate engineering curricula.
Acknowledging Perceptions, Behaviors, and Beliefs: Exploring What Faculty Need to Integrate Technology into Instruction in Qatar
Ibrahim M Karkouti (The American University in Cairo, Egypt)
1
This study explored faculty members' views regarding the factors that facilitate the integration of technology into their instruction. The study was conducted in Qatar and comprised 14 participants from different schools and departments at a public midsized postsecondary institution. Davis's technology acceptance model guided this study and served as a lens through which data were collected and analyzed. Data were collected using in-person, semi-structured interviews. The interview guide was researcher-developed and designed to align with TAM's (Davis, 1986) constructs. In order to elicit a broad range of responses, the interview questions were informed by the research questions. Salient findings that were derived from this study including sufficient Arabic content and technological resources, adequate technology skills, and self-confidence could be of primary importance to faculty trying to use technology for teaching and learning purposes. A noteworthy finding was that cultural restrictions have the potential to enhance the use of technology for teaching purposes. These findings could be of primary importance to Qatari policymakers, educational leaders, and postsecondary faculty members.
Reading in the Dark - Radar Imaging Demonstrator for STEM Outreach of Autonomous Systems
Michael A Saville, Ryan Ball, Garrett Harris and Sarah Willenbrink-Sahin (Wright State University, USA)
1
A radar-based artificial intelligence (AI) demonstrator is developed for STEM outreach to K-12+. A team of faculty and students of different engineering disciplines developed the radar-AI system to collect radar images of model airplanes for sponsored research of AI algorithms. However, the lab also drew attention of administrators, prospective students and their families and evolved into the STEM demonstrator presented in this work. Radar images are similar to grayscale optical images but require advanced signal processing and have different characteristics. Human interpretation of the scene viewed by the radar sensor is straightforward but requires advanced training and considerable time usually unavailable to the application. AI offers an autonomous system solution and is an ongoing area of research.
The demo is portable and permits hands-on participation for workshop events. Participants create a radar target of their choosing using a set of custom-made reflectors. Primary school students typically create smiley faces and such and watch near real-time imaging much like a medical image. Older students and parents are encouraged to form alpha-numeric characters with the reflectors but to simulate a dark room by laying a shroud over the target. In addition to watching their character appear in the image, the visitor also witnesses the computer AI read the character. The system is described with examples of how the demo uses its different stages to support STEM outreach to a wide variety of students. Lastly, future developments to make the system read words and learn more complicated shapes are discussed.
The demo is portable and permits hands-on participation for workshop events. Participants create a radar target of their choosing using a set of custom-made reflectors. Primary school students typically create smiley faces and such and watch near real-time imaging much like a medical image. Older students and parents are encouraged to form alpha-numeric characters with the reflectors but to simulate a dark room by laying a shroud over the target. In addition to watching their character appear in the image, the visitor also witnesses the computer AI read the character. The system is described with examples of how the demo uses its different stages to support STEM outreach to a wide variety of students. Lastly, future developments to make the system read words and learn more complicated shapes are discussed.
A New System for designing a 'Student Aide' Application
Ira Nath (JIS College of Engineering, India)
0
Due to the current scenario across the continents, the premises of all the schools and colleges have been shut down to stop any kind of mass gatherings and, thus, avoid any unnecessary issues. To compensate this loss classes have been taking place online via various platforms. Students and guides check different online platforms in order to carry out various tasks, making the system a bit uneasy to work with. The main reason is to systematize the whole process enabled us to produce a computer-based application. The computer applications can be used to study contents, solve questions based on those contents and attend to or start online classes via a web browser. These are achieved by the use of JAVA Swing, which is a JAVA feature to produce desktop applications by using various GUI components, and NetBeans, an application tool, which provides the environment to work with these components. The main objective of the work is to provide a basic interface for a student at home to attend classes and get the required study help needed.
Project-Based Exploration of Cluster Computing and Parallelization Using Raspberry Pis
Taylor R Powell, Ayman Elmesalami and Soad Ibrahim (Old Dominion University, USA)
2
This paper introduces an affordable, scalable, and hands-on series of projects for teaching parallel computing and networking concepts to undergraduate STEM students. A cluster computer composed of Raspberry Pis is presented along with a proposed design concept and basic instructions for configuring the cluster. Use cases are presented for exploring the performance of the Pi cluster and examining the consequences of unbalanced task distribution across the cluster. The performance of the cluster is tested using both simple numerical integration and adaptive integration methods. In the case of simple integration, results show that the cluster provides speedup in accordance with expectations due to the equal time-complexity of individual computations. Adaptive integration serves as an educational point about the importance of equitable task management across the cluster since the tasks assigned to individual threads may be of different time-complexities. This project is suitable for advanced undergraduate STEM majors and can be tailored to the preferences and goals of the course or instructor.
Session Chair
Mithun Mukherjee
Session Full-04
Track 4 — Full Papers IV
Conference
1:30 PM
—
3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 10:30 AM
—
12:00 PM PDT
A Semantic Text Processing System for Free-Write English Papers
Ryan DePascale and Stefan Robila (Montclair State University, USA)
2
We present the development and evaluation of a semantic text processing system that evaluates student essays. The system can process n-many documents and provide a letter grade, identify papers that may need additional teacher action based on component/composite scores, allow optional teacher input on features to generate to generate the grade. The system was developed in Python using open-source libraries and is also available as open source. Using a human-in-the-loop approach, expert teachers were interviewed as part of the design process. Assessing the documents on token, sentence, readability, dependency distance, and part of speech with user guided feature selection the system generated automated results where the true letter grade and machine letter grade corresponded exactly in ~46% of papers and in a ±1 letter grade interval in ~86% of papers. The program can be further extended to flag grades for potential human review based on user defined criteria with example code provided for papers marked as written above the high school level.
Building Student Engagement in Mathematics with Interdisciplinary Study of Voting Systems
Teresa Piliouras (TCR, Inc., USA); Aaron Kershenbam (University of Pennsylvania, USA); Robert Schiaffino (Iona College, USA); Steffi Crasto (TCR, Inc., USA)
1
Many students perceive mathematics as an unpleasant, abstract discipline with little relevance to other studies, or practical use in the real world. This perception, though pervasive, does not reflect reality. What can educators do to encourage students to explore ways math plays a significant role in their lives? Seymour Sarason, a noted child psychologist, wrote extensively about the need for creating contexts of productive learning to foster students' curiosity and interest in challenging subject matter, and mathematics in particular. A productive learning environment is active and hands-on, and encourages students to ask questions and express opinions freely. With this in mind, this paper presents suggestions for interactive, interdisciplinary classroom learning activities by exploring voting systems. The goals are to: i) Increase student knowledge of voting systems and their respective pros and cons; ii) Encourage students to consider how solutions to seemingly non-mathematical problems may be aided by mathematical thinking, iii) Introduce concepts of algorithms, decision-making, model-building, testing, and validation as applied to real-word problems, iv) Prepare students to use basic math concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways, by incorporating historical precedents, traditions, cultural mores, conflicting goals, and varied perspectives into model formulations and solution choices, v) Foster students' appreciation of math literacy and their role in a democratic society.
Impact of Student Research in Engineering: Case Study of a Non-Doctoral University in the Arab World
Sawsan Samir El-Zahr (Lebanese American University, Lebanon)
1
Student collaboration in research work is often done at the graduate and mostly postgraduate level. Universities with doctoral programs have a higher number of students involved in research projects and hence have a higher research output. On the other hand, non-doctoral universities suffer from a limited number of masters programs and graduate students but rely on faculty members to conduct research
projects with the collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students. In this work, we investigate in the field of Engineering, the current status of student research and their impact on the quantity and quality of research in non-doctoral universities in the Arab world. Results show that publications with student collaboration are mostly high-quality journal articles or conference proceedings. Moreover, departments with higher student contribution have higher amount of research output. Finally, the h-index of faculty members is found to be positively correlated with the number of students involved in research.
projects with the collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students. In this work, we investigate in the field of Engineering, the current status of student research and their impact on the quantity and quality of research in non-doctoral universities in the Arab world. Results show that publications with student collaboration are mostly high-quality journal articles or conference proceedings. Moreover, departments with higher student contribution have higher amount of research output. Finally, the h-index of faculty members is found to be positively correlated with the number of students involved in research.
Quality, Quantity and Impact in Engineering Research: Case Study of a Non-Doctoral University in the Arab World
Sawsan Samir El-Zahr (Lebanese American University, Lebanon)
1
Academics aim to increase their impact in their field by increasing the quantity and quality of their publications. However, the researchers' productivity may be affected by the ranking and the location of the research institution they are
involved in. The case of universities in the Arab world is not studied previously especially for non-doctoral institutions. Universities in developing countries have limited funding and hence a relatively low research output. This work investigates the associations between quality, quantity and impact of research in the field of Engineering for faculty members in a non-doctoral university in the Arab world. Results show that the Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is more correlated with quality than quantity of publications while the h-index is more correlated with quantity than quality. Also, a positive correlation is reported between the quantity and quality of publications for the Engineering field. Finally, faculty members with a higher credit-load have relatively lower quality of publications.
involved in. The case of universities in the Arab world is not studied previously especially for non-doctoral institutions. Universities in developing countries have limited funding and hence a relatively low research output. This work investigates the associations between quality, quantity and impact of research in the field of Engineering for faculty members in a non-doctoral university in the Arab world. Results show that the Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is more correlated with quality than quantity of publications while the h-index is more correlated with quantity than quality. Also, a positive correlation is reported between the quantity and quality of publications for the Engineering field. Finally, faculty members with a higher credit-load have relatively lower quality of publications.
Synchronous Online Army Educational Research Program for High School Students
Anitha Sarah Subburaj (West Texas A&M Univerisity, USA); Ilham Osman (Design Release Engineer, Electrification Power Conversion Release, General Motors, Michigan, USA); Gail Alleyne Bayne and Stephen Bayne (Texas Tech University, USA)
0
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought chaos on education systems worldwide, affecting several billion students all over the world. This has had far-reaching consequences in every part of our life. Traditional educational techniques have been considerably disrupted because of social alienation and restricting mobility policies. Innovation, implementation of alternative educational systems and evaluation methodologies are in demand. The COVID-19 outbreak has given us a chance to lay the groundwork for digital learning. Army Educational Research Program (AEOP) is a summer internship program that allows students to do research in a real laboratory environment with the help of a professional STEM mentor and researcher. For the past 12 years, this program has been delivered as an in-person apprenticeship at Texas Tech University (TTU). Face-to-face apprenticeships were canceled and shifted online because of the pandemic, resulting in the emergence of online learning, which has allowed learners to complete their study. Students, instructors, administrators, and education leaders have faced several issues because of the abrupt shift from face-to-face to online learning. This article aims to provide a comprehensive assessment on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transition of the AEOP program from face-to-face to an online teaching mode at TTU.
Session Chair
Mithun Mukherjee
Session Full-05
Track 5 — Full Papers V
Conference
1:30 PM
—
3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 10:30 AM
—
12:00 PM PDT
Identifying Students' Progress and Mobility Patterns in Higher Education Through Open-Source Visualization
Ali Oran (Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA); Andrew Martin, Michael Klymkowsky and Robert Stubbs (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA)
0
For ensuring students' continuous achievement of academic excellence, higher education institutions commonly engage in periodic and critical revision of its
academic programs. Depending on the goals and the resources of the institution, these revisions can focus only on an analysis of retention-graduation rates of different entry cohorts over the years, or survey results measuring
students level of satisfaction in their programs. They can also be more comprehensive requiring an analysis of the content, scope, and alignment of a program's curricula, for improving academic excellence. The revisions require
the academic units to collaborate with university's data experts, commonly the Institutional Research Office, to gather the needed information. The information should be highly informative yet easily interpretable, so that the review committee can quickly notice areas of improvement and take actions afterwards. In this study, we discuss the development and practical use of a visual
that was developed with these key points in mind. The visuals, referred by us as "Students' Progress Visuals", are based on the Sankey diagram and provide
information on students' progress and mobility patterns in an academic unit over time in an easily understandable format. They were developed using open
source software, and recently began to be used by several departments of our research intensive higher-ed institution for academic units' review processes. Our discussion includes questions these visuals can address in Higher-Ed, other relevant studies, the data requirements for their development, comparisons with other reporting methods, and how they were used in actual practice with actual case studies.
academic programs. Depending on the goals and the resources of the institution, these revisions can focus only on an analysis of retention-graduation rates of different entry cohorts over the years, or survey results measuring
students level of satisfaction in their programs. They can also be more comprehensive requiring an analysis of the content, scope, and alignment of a program's curricula, for improving academic excellence. The revisions require
the academic units to collaborate with university's data experts, commonly the Institutional Research Office, to gather the needed information. The information should be highly informative yet easily interpretable, so that the review committee can quickly notice areas of improvement and take actions afterwards. In this study, we discuss the development and practical use of a visual
that was developed with these key points in mind. The visuals, referred by us as "Students' Progress Visuals", are based on the Sankey diagram and provide
information on students' progress and mobility patterns in an academic unit over time in an easily understandable format. They were developed using open
source software, and recently began to be used by several departments of our research intensive higher-ed institution for academic units' review processes. Our discussion includes questions these visuals can address in Higher-Ed, other relevant studies, the data requirements for their development, comparisons with other reporting methods, and how they were used in actual practice with actual case studies.
Blockchain-based Electronic Voting System for Modern Democracy: A Review
Dylan Weiss and Jacob Wolmer (Tenafly High School, USA); Avimanyou K Vatsa (Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA)
0
Electoral integrity is not only imperative for countries that are ruled by democracy, but it is also influential in enhancing public voters' confidence and accountability. Also, security, integrity and, trust are three essential pillars of fair and modern democracy. The use of blockchain technology leverages the expected level of protection. Also, it provides cheaper, faster, and immutable service to the liquid democracy where voters can review their casted votes at any instant. Thus, there is a need to use blockchain-based electronic voting systems. E-voting systems can be defended easily and efficiently using the blockchain principles of universal ownership, transaction format, and storage in a chain. Another wall between freedom and the fall of democracy is that to change results; one would need approval from everyone who voted and to go back through each block in the chain to get to a specific transaction. Using Smart Contracts erase the middleman of current systems and are digital documentation of the transaction and proof for certification of votes. Also, this system fulfills the essential requirements of e-voting systems which includes: no coerce to voters, no traceability of voters' identity, the assurance and proof of vote, no one could change the casted votes, the counting of votes and election result must be decentralized, security and integrity of ballot to cast individual votes. There are many proposed frameworks are available in the literature. Therefore, this paper reviewed those existing frameworks and found the essential requirements and possible solutions to implement in the e-voting system.
Understanding Natural Disasters Through Participatory Simulations: A Pilot Study
Patricia M. Davies (Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia)
1
There is growing interest in climate change by young people across the globe. Even though STEM courses typically discuss issues relating to the long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns, there is a need for students to develop more contextual understandings of natural events taking place away from their surroundings. For example, students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia need to understand the havoc caused by earthquakes and hurricanes happening in other countries. Likewise, students in the United Kingdom should be able to comprehend what living through a sandstorm feels like. This paper reports on the first of several studies involving the use of participatory simulations to understand natural events relating to climate change. The 487 participants are students at a private university in Saudi Arabia. The study examines their experiences of using participatory simulations of two types of natural disasters-earthquakes and hurricanes. The aim is to gather perspectives on how their comprehension of these events develops, through the use of the simulations, beyond what they would see in a TV or online news report. The participatory simulations are designed to provide a contextual experience by setting the natural events within the locale of the user; in this case a university campus. The findings show that the simulations increased participants' comprehension of natural disasters not typically occurring in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and heightened their awareness of the dangers of climate change.
Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles: An Open-source Hands-on Robotics Course at MIT
Luca Carlone (MIT, USA); Kasra Khosoussi (CSIRO, Australia); Vasileios Tzoumas (University of Michigan, USA); Golnaz Habibi (University of Oklahoma, USA); Markus Ryll (Technical University of Munich, Germany); Rajat Talak, Jingnan Shi and Pasquale Antonante (MIT, USA)
0
This paper reports on the development, execution, and open-sourcing of a new robotics course at MIT. The course is a modern take on "Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles" (VNAV) and targets first-year graduate students and senior undergraduates with prior exposure to robotics. VNAV has the goal of preparing the students to perform research in robotics and vision-based navigation, with an emphasis on drones and self-driving cars. The course spans the entire autonomous navigation pipeline; as such, it covers a broad set of topics, including geometric control and trajectory optimization, 2D and 3D computer vision, visual and visual-inertial odometry, place recognition, simultaneous localization and mapping, and geometric deep learning for perception. VNAV has three key features. First, it bridges traditional computer vision and robotics courses by exposing the challenges that are specific to embodied intelligence, e.g., limited computation and need for just-in-time and robust perception to close the loop over control and decision making. Second, it strikes a balance between depth and breadth by combining rigorous technical notes (including topics that are less explored in typical robotics courses, e.g., on-manifold optimization) with slides and videos showcasing the latest research results. Third, it provides a compelling approach to hands-on robotics education by leveraging a physical drone platform (mostly suitable for small residential courses) and a photo-realistic Unity-based simulator (open-source and scalable to large online courses). VNAV has been offered at MIT in the Falls of 2018-2021 and is now publicly available on MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) and at vnav.mit.edu/.
Educating educators on social engineering: Experiences developing and implementing a social engineering workshop for all education levels
Katorah N. Williams, Rachel Bleiman and Aunshul Rege (Temple University, USA)
0
There has been a noticeable increase in social engineering (SE) attack across the world, especially those that use phishing, vishing, and smshing. Despite the prevalence of cyberattacks that rely on these tactics and techniques, education about SE and how to defend against it is lacking. Instead, the focus of cybersecurity education has been heavily concentrated on technical skills. Recognizing that gap, this paper describes a case study of an attempt to improve SE education by hosting workshops for educators from diverse backgrounds. The workshop that was developed included education on the basics of SE and the psychology behind these attacks, the ethics around SE, and methods for implementing SE exercises in the classroom. Details are also provided on the experiences of those who attended the workshop. Lastly, challenges related to the implementation of the workshop are discussed as well as rationale for the continued use of workshops of this kind.
Session Chair
Eman Hammad
Session Full-06
Track 6 — Full Papers VI
Conference
1:30 PM
—
3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 10:30 AM
—
12:00 PM PDT
Identification of Important Factors in Digital Citizenship Learning Curriculum
Alex Budiyanto (University of Indonesia & Indonesia Cloud Computing Association, Indonesia)
0
The risk of cybercrime is essential knowledge to the public. However, not many people in Indonesia understand this essential concept in practice. In addition to cybercrime, ethics in cyberspace needs special attention. There have been many curricula and literature discussing this in various countries. However, it is deemed unsuitable to adopt all the various curricula offered. For this reason, a literature review is needed to map the development of the current digital citizenship curriculum and find out what factors are essential and dominant. Our results show there are three main domains in the curriculum of Digital Citizenship. The three domains are in line with the maturity phase in using and utilizing technology. The maturity phase in the use of technology requires much knowledge in digital technology. This is what underlies the importance of digital citizenship knowledge. The more knowledge about how to be a good digital citizen, the more the value of the benefits obtained from digital technology will increase. The results of this literature review are expected to be a reference for preparing digital citizenship curriculum materials in Indonesia. In addition, this literature review can be used as a reference for future studies.
Challenges and good practices in STEM: a systematic review and implications for higher education institutions
Eirini Christou (CUT, Cyprus); Antigoni Parmaxi (Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus); Anastasios A. Economides and Maria Perifanou (University of Macedonia, Greece); Maryna Manchenko and Jelena Mazaj (CESIE, Italy)
1
This study maps the challenges and good practices applied in the real life of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). We conducted a systematic review selecting published manuscripts published between January 2018 and January 2021. The search strategy included a systematic search in two well-known online research databases which are related to STEM, ProQuest and Scopus, using the same protocol. After the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 35 papers were included in the corpus. The review demonstrated the challenges and good practices in STEM careers which include personal challenges and good practices for STEM professionals; challenges and good practices encountered at the workplace; and challenges and good practices at social and public space in general. Findings demonstrate that there are still challenges encountered by professionals, especially women and minorities, in STEM fields but there are also some good practices that when applied can reduce the barriers and help overcome those challenges. The paper concludes with implications for educators, policy and decision makers, retention officers as well as suggestions for future research.
Understanding Obstacles in the STEM Career Pipeline through System Dynamics Modeling
Daniel C Appel (US Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, NM & AEgis Technologies Group Inc., USA); Carla Winsor (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA); Ralph Tillinghast (US Army & CCDC Armaments Center, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, USA); Mo Mansouri (Stevens Institute of Technology & University of South-Eastern Norway, USA)
1
The importance of student achievement in STEM fields remains a key aspect of academic and career success affecting society. Understanding the obstacles and setbacks which affect students is a key aspect to minimizing attrition losses observed in STEM career pathways for underrepresented student demographics. Through developing a system dynamics modeling and simulation framework and evaluating survey responses specifically related to offsetting events in the careerization pipeline, insights can be gained into mitigation strategies. Analysis of system dynamics modeling outputs demonstrates the detrimental effects of obstacles to student achievement; however, elucidating mechanisms present in counterexamples suggests that bolstering student resilience is achievable. Implementing active learning and project-based learning strategies with the specific goal of enabling failure and student development to overcome initial failures can foster development of key individual student traits and behaviors. This approach can be combined with events such as family STEM nights, focus on gateway curriculum that enables student self-efficacy, and implementing near-peer mentoring strategies. The modeling and simulation framework results show that promising improvements can be achieved with resources available across the education and outreach ecosystem, providing substantial benefits to all students with STEM aspirations and to society as a whole.
Adapting a STEM Robotics Program to the Covid-19 Pandemic - a validation of the proposal presented at ISEC in 2021
Neville E. Jacobs (IEEE Baltimore Section, USA); Eric V Sudano (Eric V. Sudano System Solutions LLC, USA)
0
In late 2020 the hosts of the IEEE Robot Challenge, a STEaM project requiring close teamwork among high school and middle school students, realized that it would not be able to comply with the COVID-19 restrictions that would likely be in place in early 2021. The project, originally developed by the IEEE Baltimore Section for the Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI) as part of their Maryland Engineering Challenges program (MEC), would need to be modified significantly, yet it had to maintain a high level of teamwork (now likely to be on-line), and a comparable level of "challenge" to the earlier in-person version generally held at the BMI. The 3 phases of the Challenge event as well as the robots themselves, would need to be re-designed, and there would be little time for mistakes or rework, as all details of the project would need to perform correctly the first (and possibly only) time they would be used. With the assistance of a group of Systems Engineers, all steps were analyzed and evaluated for their effectiveness and reliability, and on May 25, 2021, the Challenge was held using Zoom as the controlling system. The methodology that we planned to employ was outlined in a paper with this name that was presented at the 2021 ISEC conference [1]. The purpose of this 2022 paper is to measure and evaluate the success of the systems engineering studies and how they could be applied to other projects. Unexpectedly, Covid 19 is still with us, so the Virtual Challenge will again be offered for the April 23, 2022 event, though an "in-person" Challenge will also be available on another day.
Developing surveillance applications with Raspberry Pi, Django, and cloud services
Ravi Rao (Fairleigh Dickinson University)
0
The Raspberry Pi has become a popular platform for teaching students about embedded systems. There are many potential applications including environmental sensing, process control, and security. At the same time, there has been significant growth in the software ecosystem for utilizing embedded systems in practical applications. We select a specific use case based on deploying cameras for the surveillance of physical spaces.
Though there are multiple tools available, we chose an all-Python-based workflow for the sake of simplicity. We describe the use of Django, a Python-based open-source web framework. We created a surveillance application where a camera attached to a Raspberry Pi collects images and transmits them to a cloud-based service. We used the Google Cloud Platform for its cost and simplicity.
Educational institutions and students will benefit from the design and implementation of our system. Though we describe the process for image data, any sensory stream can be used in a similar manner. Our framework can also be used for any remote monitoring application.
Though there are multiple tools available, we chose an all-Python-based workflow for the sake of simplicity. We describe the use of Django, a Python-based open-source web framework. We created a surveillance application where a camera attached to a Raspberry Pi collects images and transmits them to a cloud-based service. We used the Google Cloud Platform for its cost and simplicity.
Educational institutions and students will benefit from the design and implementation of our system. Though we describe the process for image data, any sensory stream can be used in a similar manner. Our framework can also be used for any remote monitoring application.
Session Chair
Eman Hammad
Session Full-07
Track 7 — Full Papers VII
Conference
3:00 PM
—
4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 12:00 PM
—
1:45 PM PDT
Integrating Theory and Practice in Undergraduate Education through the Design and Implementation of Pin-Based Multi-Robot Manipulators
Kyle Pichney, Andrew Romero and Yancy Diaz-Mercado (University of Maryland, USA)
1
Undergraduate students within STEM fields are typically exposed to concepts within their major from a largely theoretical perspective - emphasizing procedure, equations, and the development of fundamental skillsets. When included, course projects attempt to emulate a more realistic workforce experience in which students reinforce prior knowledge and establish connections between subject matters, oftentimes leading to improvements in mastery. While these projects provide value to the educational experience, they remain constrained by the bounds of a classroom environment. These limitations are less pronounced in internships and research experiences for undergraduates (REU). Through the presentation of the REU project discussed herein, this paper demonstrates how an interdisciplinary REU project in fields such as robotics can help students integrate theory and practice. Furthermore, REU can also lead to discovery of new techniques or approaches within the field of study of interest to the scientific community. In this paper, undergraduate students address object manipulation by a multi-robot system with non-traditional manipulators. We draw inspiration from the simple yet highly configurable pin-art toys to design, develop, and implement a novel solution. The prototype offers the potential to afford multi-robot systems with a flexible, modular, and low-cost actuation system that would be better suited to collaborative applications.
Role of Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration in Engineering Design Curriculum
Olivia Hall and Deeksha Seth (Villanova University, USA)
0
As technical industries become increasingly interconnected with non-technical ones, engineers must propose and communicate interdisciplinary design solutions to engineering and non-engineering audiences. While recent graduates are expected to successfully navigate this terrain, there is no preeminent curricular model for interdisciplinary design in engineering curriculum. Course case studies have been conducted, but they lack the narrative feedback critical to the establishment of pedagogical procedures. The objective of this research is to investigate the current state of interdisciplinarity in engineering design curriculum and to determine the role of interdisciplinary collaborations in design projects. To meet this objective, seven undergraduate-faculty members participated in semi-structured interviews centering on their experience with integrating disciplines in their design courses. All interview responses were transcribed, and the data was coded using priori and emergent coding methods. All participants shared existence or desire for interdisciplinary or intradisciplinary projects in their courses ranging from integration of various disciplines through projects to formation of multidisciplinary teams. Student involvement in integrated work ranged from student-led interdisciplinary design to instructor-generated project concepts. Collaboration was very popular in courses featuring integration of various disciplines. The collaborators' role was primarily to provide their respective content-specific expertise. Collaborations both internal and external to participant's universities were explored. Several skills to facilitate such collaboration were cited (e.g. clear establishment of class objectives). Primary challenges and strategies for successful integrations were summarized. These findings, in conjunction with previously obtained student data, will be translated into a comprehensive conceptual model for interdisciplinary engineering design education in near future.
A survey of student motivations for enrolling in engineering and technology undergraduate programs
Ravi Rao (Datavani, USA)
0
Despite many efforts to attract and retain students in STEM programs in U.S. universities, it has proven to be a significant challenge. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has added to the struggles of students and educational institutions. At the same time, there is significant interest among funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation and philanthropic organizations to encourage enrollment in minority populations. This requires that we need to better understand the student population. Many national surveys and data sources including the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) provide a macro-level view across the entire country. This is insufficient for producing classroom-level changes.
We need detailed information at the micro-level such as student surveys across multiple institutions to probe student motivations and ensure that their expectations are met and nurtured. We present the results of conducting a survey among 32 STEMs students enrolled in an introductory engineering course at Fairleigh Dickinson University. This is the first semester after the pandemic that courses were taught in person.
We found significant differences along gender and racial lines. For the male students, 38% chose their STEM major due to parental or social influence, whereas for females it was 12.5%. For whites, parental/social influence accounted for 28% of STEM choices, whereas for African Americans, it was 0%. Across all students, 50% chose a STEM major due to an early interest in the field, or due to self-realization that they were good at STEM-related activities such as problem-solving.
Our results indicate the importance of hands-on STEM exposure to students at the K-12 level and the role of mentors. Due to the recency of the data collected, we expect our findings to be valuable to the STEM education community.
We need detailed information at the micro-level such as student surveys across multiple institutions to probe student motivations and ensure that their expectations are met and nurtured. We present the results of conducting a survey among 32 STEMs students enrolled in an introductory engineering course at Fairleigh Dickinson University. This is the first semester after the pandemic that courses were taught in person.
We found significant differences along gender and racial lines. For the male students, 38% chose their STEM major due to parental or social influence, whereas for females it was 12.5%. For whites, parental/social influence accounted for 28% of STEM choices, whereas for African Americans, it was 0%. Across all students, 50% chose a STEM major due to an early interest in the field, or due to self-realization that they were good at STEM-related activities such as problem-solving.
Our results indicate the importance of hands-on STEM exposure to students at the K-12 level and the role of mentors. Due to the recency of the data collected, we expect our findings to be valuable to the STEM education community.
Closed Loop Digitally Controlled Power Supply Analysis and Design with Register Level Coding Emphasis
John Tsinetakes (Drexel University & Lockheed Martin, USA)
0
There are several different knowledge skills involved in completing a working digitally controlled power supply. The skills involved are power supply converter design, average power supply modeling, loop compensation techniques, frequency response analysis and stability criteria checks. These skills are covered in most Power Electronics and Linear Control courses. Insertion of digital control requires additional skills: the conversion of the analog control loop to a digital control loop through Z transforms and modeling of the analog power supply with the digital compensation in the feedback loop. Actual implementation of the power supply with digital control in hardware requires learning microcontroller programming.
Analysis and Design of the digital closed loop control using a microcontroller is the focus of the course presented in the paper. Many digital control and microcontroller programming courses are not giving the student the tools to program the digital control from scratch. Previous courses use code generating tools or pre-made libraries to handle a lot of the programming functions. This teaching method is fine for an overall example, but it leaves the student with the skill to only repeat the course example and not develop a digital control program on their own. The student is left with a steep learning curve to use a microcontroller to control different power supplies or use the digital control in another application. This course will teach microcontroller register level programming integrated with the design of a digital control loop for a power supply.
Analysis and Design of the digital closed loop control using a microcontroller is the focus of the course presented in the paper. Many digital control and microcontroller programming courses are not giving the student the tools to program the digital control from scratch. Previous courses use code generating tools or pre-made libraries to handle a lot of the programming functions. This teaching method is fine for an overall example, but it leaves the student with the skill to only repeat the course example and not develop a digital control program on their own. The student is left with a steep learning curve to use a microcontroller to control different power supplies or use the digital control in another application. This course will teach microcontroller register level programming integrated with the design of a digital control loop for a power supply.
Undergraduate research: Cyclostationary plot classification using machine learning
Sanish Rai (West Virginia University Institute of Engineering, USA)
0
Undergraduate students at WVUTech collaborated with Greenbank Observatory, WV to develop models to automatically identify the astronomical data containing radio frequency inference and noise. Normally the identification of noise would be done manually by observing the images built from the data and would take a lot of manual time for processing. A machine learning model could automate the process and save a lot of time in such identification as well as the model can be used in real-time identification. The project was done over the course of two semesters with students from Computer Science majors. Students developed a convolutional neural network model that can run on GPU and obtain an accuracy of more than 90% after training on the available data. This paper discusses in detail the research work done and the results obtained by the students. Students used concepts of image processing and machine learning to develop the model.
Session Chair
Eman Hammad
Session Full-08
Track 8 — Full Papers VIII
Conference
3:00 PM
—
4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 12:00 PM
—
1:45 PM PDT
Integrating Animation and Game-making in Teaching JavaScript
Shuting Xu, Shuhua Lai and Lissa Pollacia (Georgia Gwinnett College, USA)
1
Web development is a fast-growing field and there is a high demand on job market for web developers. Web programming using JavaScript is one of the most important skills for web developers. However, like other programming languages, students feel JavaScript difficult to learn because it is hard for them to setup a mental model, and they lack the encouragement, motivation, and the mode of study in learning. To meet these challenges, we integrate animation and game-making in teaching JavaScript. In this paper, we report some examples of the developed animation and game-making teaching materials, and hope they will benefit the educators in web development area. Unlike the common approach of developing a software or tool to create animations or games for teaching, we teach the basic constructs of programming while making the animations or games. The survey results show that the teaching materials can help students better understand JavaScript. Students feel that the teaching materials are exciting but yet challenging, and they are motivated to learn more JavaScript in the future.
Influence of GFP GAN on Melanoma Classification
Ayushi Kumar (Monroe Township High School, Monroe Township, NJ, USA); Avimanyou K Vatsa (Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA)
0
Imaging is widely used to detect and diagnose Melanoma skin cancer early. The ISIC facilitates public reposit to collect, label, and categorize malignant and benign images. It also provides relevant metadata for these images from dermatologists, radiologists, or researchers. The ever-growing uses of dermoscopy and the complexity of the imaging process make it difficult to find the correct pattern in images of Melanoma skin cancer. Thus, while evaluation of performance metrics of classification methods continues to be inappropriate or not as per our expectations, many artifacts and noise such as hair, veins, and water residue make images very complex.
Consequently, inspired and motivated by our previous study outcome when applying classification methods (CNN, RNN, and XG-Boost) on Melanomas' images dataset, we found that the border detection and feature extraction for classification methods was challenging. Therefore, we applied Generative Facial Prior (GFP) Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) method to preprocess the Melanoma images. We also changed a few architectures and optimization methods for these classification algorithms. Finally, an extensive evaluation of the validation dataset is conducted. After that, it is compared with the values of performance metrics with previous results. This outcome impacts the dermatologist, scientific, and medical community. As a result, it is an excellent service to humanity to cure the deadliest form of skin cancer - Melanoma.
Consequently, inspired and motivated by our previous study outcome when applying classification methods (CNN, RNN, and XG-Boost) on Melanomas' images dataset, we found that the border detection and feature extraction for classification methods was challenging. Therefore, we applied Generative Facial Prior (GFP) Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) method to preprocess the Melanoma images. We also changed a few architectures and optimization methods for these classification algorithms. Finally, an extensive evaluation of the validation dataset is conducted. After that, it is compared with the values of performance metrics with previous results. This outcome impacts the dermatologist, scientific, and medical community. As a result, it is an excellent service to humanity to cure the deadliest form of skin cancer - Melanoma.
One Degree of Freedom Copter Design and Control using Smart and Simple PID Controller
Zeyad A. Karam, Zaid Shafeeq Bakr, and Elaf Saeed (Al-Nahrain University, Iraq)
2
A one-degree-of-freedom (1-Dof) copter is designed, implemented, and controlled by an electronically programmed PID controller. The control of (1-DOF) copter leads to rising of the required vision for controlling stability in the designing of (2-Dof's) quadcopter; were copters are used in many fields. Nowadays, the Covid-19 pandemic causes many challenges in health sectors, especially in patient's isolation centers, which forces the health team to take a lot of precautions when dealing with the patient, by using an optimally controlled quadcopter for dealing patients, one can prevent them from infection. The required dealing involves pharmaceutical submission and temperature monitoring which can be handled by these copters with specific sensors and vision. So, there is a need for high stability and accuracy in the movement with a high speed of balancing. This work is testing one axis of these copters by designing, implementing, and controlling a one-axis copter with a simple PID controller, the controller is implemented by using an Arduino controller, with a satisfaction measure for the required balancing of 97% accuracy.
Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) Applications Necessity in Real Time Healthcare
Reza Khalilian (Islamic Azad University of Majlesi, Iran & Dr Vita Company, Iran); Abdalhossein Rezai (University of Science and Culture, Iran)
1
The opening of global markets to electronic products and the entry into new fields such as the manufacture of medical equipment and medical care, the electronics industry has become stronger day by day. So, it goes without saying that today more than half of the best world's ten companies are electronic companies. It is worth mentioning that the growing use of wireless sensor networks, evolution in Nano biosensors and micro medical equipment, remote health monitoring, and treatment are affecting. Since people have tended to ubiquitous health and real time of the medical healthcare systems will have great significance. It is crystal clear that offering a new design of WBAN in real time healthcare's system. To pave the way for the discussion, I would like to pay your attention to the previous studies which they have improved energy efficiency and security WBAN. To pave the way for further discussion now, we would like to review the third aspect of WBAN maximum efficiency and performance, with the approaching security and optimal energy consumption in the real time healthcare system applications. Also, monitoring the patient's vital signs and bio signals; next control them remotely. In a word, in this paper urgency of using WBAN for real time healthcare in long distance are to be discussed.
Keywords
Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), Real Time Healthcare, Health Monitoring, Healthy Advancement, World Health Organization (WHO), Health and Hygienic Networks, Applications
Keywords
Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), Real Time Healthcare, Health Monitoring, Healthy Advancement, World Health Organization (WHO), Health and Hygienic Networks, Applications
Noise Removal of ECG Signal Using Multi-Techniques
Heyam A. Marzog (Al-Furat Al-Awsat University, Iraq); Aws Zuheer Yonis (Ninevah University, Iraq)
0
Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are heavily influenced by a wide range of noise sources. The signal can be denoised by removing unwanted components from the representation. The research paper present the new method, demonstrate how it works with signals, and discuss its properties. Power line interference (PLW), baseline noise, electrode motion artifact noise, and Electromyography (EMG) noise are the most commonly influenced noise on ECG signals. Denoising ECG signals is a critical step in obtaining pure signal features that can be extracted for accurate diagnosis. This research focuses on the various sources of common noise in ECG signals, as well as signal processing techniques for removing the noise. The discrete wavelet transform can be used to remove baseline noise from an ECG signal (DWT). Powerline noise can be removed it by Notch filter. Adaptive filtering is thought to be a good way to get rid of EMG noise, and we can solve the problem with a new algorithm. Least mean square (LMS) adaptive filters and recursive least square (RLS) filters are used to remove Electrode Motion artifact noise. The MIT-BIH arrhythmia dataset are utilizing for ECG analysis with Matlab2019b program
Session Chair
Eman Hammad
Session Full-09
Track 9 — Full Papers IX
Conference
3:00 PM
—
4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 12:00 PM
—
1:45 PM PDT
Training-Free Lane Tracking for 1/10th Scale Autonomous Vehicle Using Inverse Perspective Mapping and Probabilistic Hough Transforms
Mihir Rao (Chatham High School, USA); Laura Paulino (Montclair State University, USA); Victor I Robila (Hunter College High School, USA); Iris Li (Milburn High School, USA); Michelle M. Zhu and Weitian Wang (Montclair State University, USA)
1
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) present a promising alternative to traditional driver-controlled vehicles with potential improvements in speed, energy, and safety domains. Pipelined approaches to AV development isolate individual facets of driving and produce autonomous systems focused on a specific task rather than developing an end-to-end framework for driving. This paper focuses on the design and development of lane tracking for a 1/10th scale autonomous vehicle. The developed lane tracking system implements inverse perspective mapping to autonomously adjust the perception of the vehicle's camera feed and then applies probabilistic Hough transforms to identify the edge lines of a scaled-down lane. The computed Hough lines are utilized to evaluate the necessary steering adjustment angle in real time for the vehicle. The results of our steering adjustment stability experiments demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed lane tracking system and algorithms. This work provides both a successful approach to lane tracking that does not require computing intensive model training on potentially location biased annotated data and an approach for vehicle vision feed annotation.
Tracking Technology Trends using Text Data Mining
Andres Fortino and Yiying You (NYU, USA)
1
We present a technology trend analyzer that displays the frequency of demand for information technologies based on text data mining of job descriptions. It analyzes the term frequency of the leading technologies required of applicants in job descriptions scraped from a prominent job board. The tool is programmed in the R programming language with a Shiny interface and deployed on a Shiny server. It produces a bar graph of the technology frequency grouped by standard technologies from O'Reilly's taxonomy, a prominent technology information publisher. We based our job search on a list of the most frequently occurring technology job titles from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics O*NET occupation database filtered for STEM IT occupations. We also provide analysis to support our selection of the R development environment (versus Python or Java) given the constraints of the project of the allocated time, the experience level of the analyst, and the expected quality of the final product. The tool supports the download of the technology frequency tables as a CSV file. This tool has applications for students to determine which technology skills are in the highest demand in the job marketplace. Likewise, faculty may use this tool to determine which technology skills the marketplace is seeking in shaping their curricula. Most importantly, it may be used by technology adopters to gauge the readiness for adoption of contemplated technologies in order to minimize adoption risk.
FedNet: Federated Implementation of CNNs for Facial Expression Recognition
Md. Saiful Bari Siddiqui (BRAC University & Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh); Sanjida Ali Shusmita and Shareea Sabreen (BRAC University, Bangladesh)
0
A clever means of connecting deep learning models to the disjointed data located in edge devices is Federated Learning (FL). This paper introduces FedNet, a novel Neural Network architecture inspired by federated aggregation and averaging from FL. FedNet proposes dividing training data into multiple shards and training each data shard individually using the same neural network, followed by aggregating and averaging of the parameters of each model after every few epochs. To conduct this study, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) were implemented using the Extended Cohn Kanade (CK+) and the FER-2013 dataset. Our federated averaging based implementation of CNNs achieved 99.1% accuracy and 100% accuracy for 8 and 7 emotion classifications respectively on CK+, beating the benchmarks for this dataset. It also achieved 65.6% accuracy on FER-2013 without using any transfer learning or data augmentation. Our model shows significantly better resistance against overfitting, resulting in better generalization performances compared to the otherwise similar models except the aggregation and averaging part.
Segmentation Techniques in Iris Recognition Systems
Ruaa Waleed and Mayada Faris Ghanim (University of Mosul, Iraq)
0
Iris is the most attentive technology in today's delicate world among the various biometric technologies, for authentication. The exact segmentation of Iris from its surrounding sounds, including the pupils and the sclera, is one of the major milestones of the Iris Detection System. So the method is pre-processing the first input image using bilateral filtering. The contour-based characteristics of color, texture, and brightness are extracted after pre-processing. To demonstrate greater results than the existing methods of the new segmentation process. The segmenting technique is a crucial move towards ensure adequate pupil and iris identification device selection. The useful knowledge on patterns of iris can be precisely segmented and the precision method of iris description can be improved. This paper is to review the main techniques in iris segmentation and findi the problem analysis and the comparison of the related issues in the segmentation methods of iris are included. There is also the limitation of each method
Quantitative Study on the Anxiety Level of High School Students in Pandemic Life
Mofei Shen (USA)
1
The COVID-19 has impacted life of high school students worldwide. As distant learning became prevalent in the pandemic, the form of social anxiety has been taken from contingent and non-contingent interaction to a new degree of internet interaction, which will be divided into traits of loneliness, self-doubt, and internet reliance. This paper presented a survey resulting from a range of 235 students either distant or in-person learning examining their anxiety level in the three degrees. In addition, results were separated in grade and gender to test a deeper understanding of various factors that affect the level of social anxiety. Two factorial MANOVA analyses were executed with the result indicating no interaction significance between gender*class grade*class but significance difference among the gender level under the three anxiety variables. This contradicts the concept of what we define pandemic and online learning as greatly depressing. As distant learning became prevalent, one cannot conclude this mode had influenced students to become more anxious compared to the in-person learning ones, but the result of the study supported the idea that a higher anxiety level was reached in the general high-school students.
Session Chair
Nagi Naganathan (Northrop Grumman)
Session Full-10
Track 10 — Full Papers X
Conference
3:00 PM
—
4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 12:00 PM
—
1:45 PM PDT
Transmission Line Fault Detection Using Wavelet Transform & ANN Approach
Jivitesh Nitin Chavan and Atul Kale (A C Patil College of Engineering, Khargar, Navi Mumbai, India); S Deore (University of Mumbai, India)
0
The protection system for the technique of relay has been developed in the past. The protection for the distance in the transmission line with the help of artificial neural network has been developed in the past years. It has been observed that the differentiation in the faulty zone to be considered for the detachment of the faulty line while the estimation in the case of the type of the fault is also important. The determination of the fault zone can be possible with the help of the frequencies in case of double bands. The mother wavelet Haar is extremely helpful for the selection of the faulty phase. In the present work the artificial neural network and the wavelet transform is used for the detection purposes of the fault in the transmission line. ANN was used for the classification of the faults in the transmission line and then the fault zone identification process is also carried out using ANN.
Performance Analysis of Kalman Filter as an Equalizer in a non-Gaussian environment
Ly Vu (International University, Vietnam)
1
This paper analyzed the MSE and BER performances of communication systems which used Kalman Filtering as a channel equalizer in non-Gaussian noise environment. In telecommunication systems, fading and additive noise are two critical factors that significantly impacts on the system performance. Most of existing receiver have been designed to well-handle the AWGN noise, thus, such systems may suffer several performance losses when other noise types as impulsive noises present. The proposed algorithm applies the Kalman filter-based equalizer to overcome the impact of non-Gaussian noise. Multiple non-Gaussian noise models have been developed, among them, Middleton's Class A noise is chosen in the scope of this paper. A Rayleigh flat-fading channel is simulated using autoregressive model approach which makes Kalman filtering being usable. The BER and MSE performances of Kalman equalizer under subjected non-Gaussian noise is analyzed for various SNR and parameters scenarios. Simulation results show that the performance of Kalman equalizer is impacted by the overlapped index and the ratio of Gaussian noise power over Impulsive noise power under class A noise. In the high SNR region, BER performance is significantly impacted by impulsive component and in the low SNR region, the performance is mainly impacted by Gaussian component.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a computerized decision aid for selection of candidates in higher education
Ravi Kumar V v (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India & Symbiosis International, Deemed University, Pune, India); Ramakrishnan Raman (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune & Symbiosis International University India, India)
1
This paper studies the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a computerized decision aid in the field of higher education for the selection of candidates to an MBA program of a Business School from a large pool of candidates. The paper brings out as to how AI as a decision aid tool can improve the speed and quality of the selection of candidates for a postgraduate program in Business Management by simplifying the processes. Usage of AI in the admission process to a Business School has been a pioneering effort and this paper captures this process and its benefits uniquely since there is no research available to capture the usage of AI in candidate selection. The paper compares the admission process of two years - in the year 2020 using the traditional approach and in the year 2021 using AI as a computerized decision-making aid. The results of this comparative study clearly demonstrate the superiority of AI as a computerized tool assisting in decision making for the selection of the candidates thereby leading to process improvement.
Student Perceptions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education
Ravi Kumar V v (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India & Symbiosis International, Deemed University, Pune, India); Ramakrishnan Raman (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune & Symbiosis International University India, India)
1
This purpose of this study was to understand the student perceptions on the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education. AI could form part of higher education in multiple ways whether it be in the Teaching Learning process, Admission process, the Placement process or the Administrative process. The paper brings out the student perceptions on AI usage in business schools from those enrolled in full time program in business management. Online questioner was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative response. Data was collected from 682 student and statistical analysis have been used for arriving at conclusions. Ordination regression and correlation have been used for analysis of the data collect. The qualitative response was helpful to get the views that students have. The results indicate that student have a perception that AI can be effectively used in teaching - learning process, academic administration processes, and should not be used in a few processes related to admission, examination and placements.
Network Communication Intrusion Detection and Classification Security Techniques
Aws Zuheer Yonis (Ninevah University, Iraq)
1
Towards next generation wireless networks and information technology are a patent of apparatus for transmitting electrical energy was given after developing next generation wireless principles. Recently the demands of utilizing energy and climate has been increased, the renewable energy became very necessary for every country. When renewable energy is linked to wireless power transfer, then the applications that depend on this energy will increase because the development of battery-powered devices faces unprecedented challenges. Advanced research in next generation networks (5G) and information technology applications can be used for many applications (military, and civil). The important concept of parameters of next generation wireless networks is the power can be transmitted wirelessly between different entities. In this research paper discussed the concept of network intrusion detection and classification based on-hybrid intelligence techniques. The best solutions which are result from training process will use to test the efficiency of misuse detection with KDD99 testing data.
Session Chair
Nagi Naganathan (Northrop Grumman)
Session Full-11
Track 11 — Full Papers XI
Conference
3:00 PM
—
4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 12:00 PM
—
1:45 PM PDT
Using Statistical Decision Making for a University Examination Scenario
Vijayakumar Bharathi. S (Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology (SCIT) & Symbiosis International University, India); Dhanya Pramod (Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology, India); Ramakrishnan Raman (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune & Symbiosis International University India, India)
1
This study aims to show case the power of statistical decision making in crisis scenario. A scenario where one group of students arrived late for a competitive examination were allowed to take the examination and were made to join another group who started the exam on time at a specific exam center. Also, all students at the exam center were given extra time to complete the exam. This created a hue and cry by several thousand as the who took the exam at several other centers across the country. The paper analysis about several real time decision making that could have led to cost and time delays and shows the power of statistical making model for this real time scenario. The use of statistics and its relevance in real time decision making for University is evident in the paper.Statistical tools were used to take a decision which resolved the crisis and was accepted by all the students.
Competitive study on public and private key usage in Voice over Internet Protocol
Aws Naser Jaber Al-Zarqawee (Pilestredet 35, Norway & Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), Norway)
1
The Internet was once a small world. At present, an innumerable number of nodes are connected to personal computers and their servers. However, when Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services have become widespread, homogeneous VoIP topology and VoIP infrastructure have become vulnerable to attackers who attempt to gain access to VoIP servers. Attacking VoIP servers is no small issue to turn your eyes off. Cryptography has been used for thousands of years to secure messages during war, but today we face cybercrime and hackers attempting to crack public or private keys using a wide range of tools and mathematical clues. It aims to break down all the cryptographic algorisms that are applied to VoIP servers to get three things in one: free calls, user client privileges, and credit card information that is used for topping up VoIP servers. Thus, previous research is insufficient to address the increasing number of attackers. Thus, modern research on VoIP security aims to secure packet telephony and media represented by RTP by using cryptography to increase the confidentiality and enhancing the mathematical approach to reduce the cost of high encryption techniques. This paper intensively studied cryptographic usage, especially with public and private keys. Public keys are more commonly used in VoIP than private keys. Thus, this paper presents a basis for further research on VoIP encryption.
Session Chair
Nagi Naganathan (Northrop Grumman)
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