Students are expected to have developed their engineering judgement throughout the course of their studies as part of their accreditation requirements (as stipulated by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology for example), and yet conceptually it is often ill-defined and therefore difficult to teach. This work was carried out in an…

Professional skills have long been perceived as lacking in junior engineers. Adopting a social realist theoretical framework of knowledge in practice, a hypothesis-based survey study of early career engineers' perceptions of engineering expertise was conducted. It investigated a professional skills readiness difference between initial career…

This study aims to gain insights into what students learn in engineering-oriented extracurricular student teams. With these insights we can further students' development of their professional identity and employability. The study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with twelve selected members of two student teams and analyzing the…

In this systematic review of the research literature on engineering employability, curricular and pedagogical arrangements that prepare graduates for work in the twenty-first century were identified. The research question guiding the review was: Which curricular and pedagogical arrangements promote engineering students' employability? The…

Leadership is vital in engineering for individual career advancement and innovation across the profession. Although engineering educators have a key role in developing students' leadership, it is unclear what leadership training and experience they have. This research explores the sources of knowledge, experiences, and roles that engineering…

Internationally, challenges were raised towards engineering education concerning the industry's widespread questioning of the lack of practical skills of engineering graduates. Scholars in engineering educational research have tried to better understand professional engineers' practices so as to inform engineering education. Concerning the lack of…

This study explores the mental health perceptions, expectations for mental healthcare, and use of existing mental health services among international engineering students at a Western Canadian university. Employing a phenomenological qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 international undergraduate engineering…

Employer complaints of engineering graduate inability to 'apply knowledge' call for a better understanding of the theory-practice relationship in technology-driven twenty-first century industries. A novel systems-based model was developed to analyse how mechatronics engineering practitioners apply mathematics, physics and logic-based knowledge to…

The professional formation of new graduates and their ability to perform well at the start of their career depends on the development of both technical skills and professional competencies. Whilst the latter aspects have become increasingly considered within engineering programs, they are often learnt within an academic context rather than a…

The different technology fields have increased in complexity, especially during the last two decades, giving place to the concept of Complex Technology. An example is Electronics also characterised as a horizontal technology being incorporated in many products and processes of other technological areas. Bloom's taxonomy of learning objectives and…

The interpretation and reuse of previous design solutions, or precedents, is central to design. This paper describes qualitative research conducted over three years at two institutions, aimed at investigating the role of design knowledge re-use in project-based mechanical design courses. Research data were collected through participant…

Recognising the broader role and impact of engineering in contemporary society makes it necessary to rethink engineering education to strengthen its purpose of service to humanity and to the common good. From this perspective, future engineers need a more comprehensive education that is not only bound to the technical area but also incorporates…

Relevant engineering applications, such as bioseparation of proteins and DNA, soil-cleaning, motion of colloidal particles in different media, electrical field-based cancer treatments, and the cleaning of surfaces and coating flows, belongs to the family of "Applied Field Sensitive Process Technologies" requiring an external field to…

Environmental awareness and ethical moral reasoning are important aspects of the engineering profession. Yet, engineering programmes have been struggling to teach these topics and measure the effectiveness of these educational interventions. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of two independent measures of environmental awareness and moral…

The research interest underpinning this paper concerns the type of mathematical knowledge engineering students may acquire during their specialised education in terms of the conceptual and procedural dimensions of doing and using mathematics. This study draws on interviews with 25 qualified engineers from South Africa and Sweden regarding their…