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Delivering Contextual Knowledge and Critical Skills of Disruptive Technologies through Problem-based Learning in a Research Experiences for Undergraduates Setting

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

NSF Grantees: REU 1

Tagged Topics

Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

17

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34377

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/34377

Download Count

375

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Paper Authors

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Gurcan Comert Benedict College Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2373-5013

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Associate Professor of Engineering at Benedict College, has interest in teaching and researching intelligent transportation systems and development of applications of statistical and computational models. He is currently serving as associate director at the Tier 1 University Transportation Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility. Supported by different NSF and DOT funded projects, he has been working with undergraduate research students.

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Charles E. Pierce University of South Carolina

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Dr. Pierce is the Director for Diversity and Inclusion and Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Carolina. He is a Bell South Teaching Fellow in the College of Engineering and Computing and ASEE Campus Representative.

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Zulfikar Berk University of South Carolina

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Dr. Zulfikar Berk’s research interests include constructivist learning approaches, global education, experiential learning, and problem-based learning. He is enthusiastic about the contribution of innovative pedagogical approaches by working on various teaching and learning models in advancing engineering education practices.

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Nathan N. Huynh

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Dr. Nathan Huynh’s current research interests include (1) supply chain and logistics, (2) intermodal network design, (3) freight transportation systems, (4) civil infrastructure systems, and (5) health care systems. He is particularly interested in using technologies to capture data to enable more sophisticated modeling of infrastructure and health care systems. He is also interested in improving students' critical thinking skills through innovative pedagogical practices.

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Robert Petrulis EPRE Consulting LLC

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Dr. Petrulis is an independent consultant specializing in education-related project evaluation and research. He is based in Columbia, South Carolina.

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Majbah Uddin Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Majbah Uddin is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Energy and Transportation Science Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He obtained his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of South Carolina (UofSC). Prior to that, he obtained a master’s degree in Applied Statistics as well as an M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the UofSC. His research interests include freight transportation systems, intermodal network design, supply chain and logistics, and transportation safety.

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Abstract

The recent development in transportation, such as energy-efficient and autonomous vehicles, defines a condition for the students in transportation engineering. Students in the field of transportation engineering should be ready upon their graduation with new knowledge and skills that are compatible with the need of the industry and sustainable engineering practices. During summers of2018 and 2019, we developed and implemented an eight-week program to increase the knowledge and skills of students coming from multidisciplinary fields related to autonomous vehicles. Problem of “How much will platooning reduce fuel consumption and emissions per vehicle mile traveled?” was instrumentalized in subsequent activities to introduce the comprehensive knowledge structure of autonomous vehicles. The engineering concept of reducing the cost and sustainability was embedded in the leading research question that helped us to develop and implement activities on an overall knowledge structure in autonomous vehicles. The goal of using problem-based learning activities was not to encourage the students to focus on reaching the solution merely. We aimed to introduce the multidisciplinary knowledge and critical skills aspects of learning about disruptive technologies. In this paper, we will discuss how a multidisciplinary research approach was incorporated into a problem-based learning activity. The students were introduced the subjects related to math, physics, computer science, and biology as the integration of the knowledge structure of autonomous vehicles. We will also present the results on students’ use of critical skills such as machine learning and computer programming.

Comert, G., & Pierce, C. E., & Berk, Z., & Huynh, N. N., & Petrulis, R., & Uddin, M. (2020, June), Delivering Contextual Knowledge and Critical Skills of Disruptive Technologies through Problem-based Learning in a Research Experiences for Undergraduates Setting Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34377

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