Loading...
4 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
- Sustainable product design education: engineering students’ perceptions and attitudesPublication . João, Isabel; Silva, JoãoMoving towards sustainable development is a global challenge requiring efforts from all the society, but governments and other stakeholders as well as researchers and academics have a central role to aid put in practice the knowledge and tools to enforce the vital changes. This work was developed to better understand the topic of sustainable product design among engineering students given the deficit of such kind of studies in the master courses of our engineering department. Survey data were collected from engineering students enrolled in master courses that have in its syllabus the product design curricular unit. The main objective of the work was to understand the students’ perceptions and attitudes in relation to sustainable product design to envisage actions to continually improve the course with the goal of developing students’ further knowledge and competencies with the focus on cradle to cradle design strategies.
- Exploring students entrepreneurial mindset. Insights to foster entrepreneurship in engineering educationPublication . João, Isabel; Silva, JoãoHigher education graduates have a huge potential forinnovative processes and sustainable economic development. The higher education institutions must play an important role in engaging students for entrepreneurial careers, enhancing their skills in entrepreneurship. Students capable of identifying opportunities and turning ideas into business, who have good communication and leadership skills as well as strong technical competencies are likely to be highly valued in the marketplace. This paper presents the results of a survey to investigate students’ entrepreneurial mindset. The main concern is to understand the interest of the students in entrepreneurship and reasons to start or not start a business, the engineering students’ perceptions of their entrepreneurial related abilities, as well as their perception about the extent by which entrepreneurship is addressed in their engineering programs. The students were selected among two engineering master courses in a Portuguese Engineering School of a Polytechnic Institute. The curricular unit of entrepreneurship is part of the curriculum in one of the master course, while in the other course the students do not have such subject in their study program. The data were collected to investigate differences within and across engineering students who are and who are not participating in entrepreneurship courses as well as diferences concerning some demographic characteristics.
- Developing an entrepreneurial mindset among engineering students: encouraging entrepreneurship into engineering educationPublication . João, Isabel; Silva, JoãoIt is unquestionable the role of entrepreneurship as a driver of innovation and economic development. The world is dynamically changing and intensively interconnected carrying new challenges and opportunities to the new generation of engineers working in a world where innovation will continue to evolve very quickly. This paper addresses the need to train engineering students to be entrepreneurial engineers considering the global challenges and the role that higher education institutions should play in developing an entrepreneurial mindset among engineering students. The paper presents and discusses the results of a survey carried out in a Portuguese engineering school with the goal of investigate students' entrepreneurial mindsets. The main objective is to understand the extent by which entrepreneurship is addressed in students' engineering programs as well as students' perceptions of their entrepreneurial related skills and the reasons that would lead the students to start or not start a business as well as their perception of the ability to immediately start a business. The results of the study are critically analysed in light of the challenges and opportunities facing future engineers. The work, although limited to a specific context is a valuable starting point for additional research and for the implementation of faculty strategies to improve entrepreneurship education.
- Do demographic factors affect academic outcomes? A master engineering course analysisPublication . João, Isabel; Silva, João MThe main objective of this study is to address the demographic characteristics of the engineering students enrolled in a master course to explore their effect in the academic outcomes. Variables such as gender, age, nationality and type of previous academic graduation were studied to predict their potential impact upon academic outcomes. The total number of enrolled students in the first four years of the recent master course was retrospectivelly examined. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the collected data. The chi-square test was applied to evaluate the statistical significance of the demographic variables on response variables related to academic outputs such as average grades of the completed curricular units in the master course, number of ECTS achieved and grade of the master final work. The results of the study are meaningful as they contribute to understanding the impact of demographic diversity in the academic outcomes of a study program for an engineering master's degree course and can assist the coordination team to outline actions to develop in the future taking into account the analysis carried out.