Chris Swan | Tufts University (original) (raw)

Papers by Chris Swan

Geotechnical Frontiers 2017, 2017

Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 2006

Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 2006

2004 Annual Conference Proceedings

Over the last 20 years, recycling programs have developed throughout the United States and intern... more Over the last 20 years, recycling programs have developed throughout the United States and internationally. However, once the "recycled" material is placed at the curbside or brought to the recycling center, what happens next? Researching and describing recycling was the project aimed at providing first-year engineering students a "window on research". The students were tasked to develop a poster document and presentation to use to inform community policy makers and citizens on the recycling behavior in Massachusetts. Project objectives were to introduce students to the technical and nontechnical aspects of recycling and/or reusing waste materials as well as to introduce students to the "process" of research. This paper describes the "Windows on Research" advising program used at Tufts University and the specific case of a research project on recycling in Massachusetts used in the program. Research process and results are presented, and the show that simple relationships between community and recycling characteristics may not adequately explain recycling behavior. This paper also discusses issues involved in using aspects of community-service to increase student interest in participating in research at this early stage in their academic careers.

GeoFlorida 2010, 2010

This paper introduces a new preparation technique, termed volume control (VC), which attempts to ... more This paper introduces a new preparation technique, termed volume control (VC), which attempts to achieve a pre-determined, preshear relative density (D rc ) for granular soil samples used in triaxial tests. This technique provides more controllable density conditions on the samples in triaxial tests than conventional methods that apply a target preshear effective confining stress. Thus, the VC technique allows for a clearer examination of a granular soil's behavior by allowing the user to control the effects of preshear relative density on the results. In contrast, conventional preparation methods which set a predetermined confining stress cannot control the relative density prior to shearing. The new volume control technique was used to investigate the undrained behavior of a sand prepared at a given preshear relative density (D rc ), to study the stress-strain, pore pressure, and strength behavior. A series of monotonic undrained compression triaxial tests were performed on a sand obtained from a Cape Cod beach in Massachusetts (CCS). The VC technique was used to control the D rc to 40, 70 or 95% with the final confining effective stresses for these samples ranging from 214 to 656 kPa. For validation and comparison, samples prepared by a stress control (SC) technique, the conventional method of performing triaxial tests on granular soils, was performed on samples with initial relative densities (D ri ), after the saturation phase of a triaxial test, in the range of 2.96 to 82.9%. These samples were consolidated isotropically to targeted effective confining stresses of 173, 345, and 690 kPa yielding D rc in the range of 43 to 111%. Study results show that both sample preparation techniques are valid, however, the bulk moduli and measured friction angle results from VC technique tests were more consistent than those prepared under the SC technique.

Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 1995

The stress–strain behavior of frozen Manchester fine sand has been measured in a high-pressure lo... more The stress–strain behavior of frozen Manchester fine sand has been measured in a high-pressure low-temperature triaxial compression testing system developed for this purpose. This system incorporates DC servomotor technology, lubricated end platens, and on-specimen axial strain devices. A parametric study has investigated the effects of changes in strain rate, confining pressure, sand density, and temperature on behavior for very small strains (0.001%) to very large (> 20%) axial strains. This paper presents constitutive behavior for strain levels up to 1%. On-specimen axial strain measurements enabled the identification of a distinct upper yield stress (knee on the stress–strain curve) and a study of the behavior in this region with a degree of precision not previously reported in the literature. The Young's modulus is independent of strain rate and temperature, increases slightly with sand density in a manner consistent with Counto's model for composite materials, and d...

This paper reports on a study utilizing Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA) during prototype construct... more This paper reports on a study utilizing Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA) during prototype construction to investigate student's understanding of the engineering design process. Students were asked to think aloud during the design and construction of a prototype jar opener for physically challenged individuals. The results show that the inclusion of a hands-on component helped not only the researchers gauge student's understanding, but also helped the students in designing possible solutions.

Proceedings of the …, 2010

Bioremediation is one of the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods to remediat... more Bioremediation is one of the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods to remediate many different types of waste materials widely used by many private and public entities. Although the parameters that affect the rate of bioremediation differ for each project, some parameters can be more easily controlled in the field than others. For example, effective microbial action is crucial to the success of bioremediation. However, microbes can be detrimentally affected by an initial contaminant concentration that is too high. In addition, the type of bulking agent or aggregate used affects the ability of the mixture to retain moisture, the amount of drainage, aeration and ultimately the length of time for biodegradation. A two-month field study was conducted in Trinidad and Tobago on crude oil contaminated waste. This paper will look at the effect of two parameters, initial concentration and type of bulking agent, on the rate of biodegradation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) in the oily waste being treated in this tropical environment. A nutrientsupplying bioremediation agent was used to enhance the bioremediation process. The results of this study can assist in the design of effective bioremediation projects in tropical environments.

2005 Annual Conference Proceedings

There has been tremendous growth in the use of service learning in environmental engineering, esp... more There has been tremendous growth in the use of service learning in environmental engineering, especially in experiences beyond the U.S. This growth has been fostered by groups such as Global Village Engineers and Engineers Without Borders who seek to help communities in developing nations have a "better way" of life. Tufts University, long recognized for providing service to its host communities in Massachusetts, has also seen an increase in studentdriven initiatives that are beyond U.S. borders. Over the last year, students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University have engaged in a number of projects in communities in Nicaragua and Ghana. This paper describes these projects, in terms of the engineering aspects, but also discusses the value these projects have in the education of the involved students. It is concluded that service learning projects, in general, provide a valuable pedagogical tool for educating future engineers.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Direc... more Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Director for the Engineering Plus program. She has served as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education in the CEAE Department, as well as the ABET assessment coordinator. Professor Bielefeldt was also the faculty director of the Sustainable By Design Residential Academic Program, a living-learning community where students learned about and practice sustainability. Bielefeldt is also a licensed P.E. Professor Bielefeldt's research interests in engineering education include service-learning, sustainable engineering, social responsibility, ethics, and diversity.

This paper explores how sustainability issues have been integrated into the education of engineer... more This paper explores how sustainability issues have been integrated into the education of engineering and computing students, as one among many important macroethical issues. Based on surveys of educators focused primarily in the U.S., other Anglo countries, and Western Europe, 673 individuals reported teaching sustainability in their courses. These responses were examined for trends in teaching and assessment methods for ethics and societal impacts (ESI), and compared to those who teach ESI but not including sustainability. Follow-up interviews provided six more detailed examples of teaching practices specific to sustainability in courses where sustainability was a primary focus for integration. The results illustrate sustainability practices that include a macroethics lens, and could inspire educators to increase the integration of sustainability into their teaching.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Feb 10, 2014

Introduction There has been a recent surge in community engagement (CE) efforts in engineering ed... more Introduction There has been a recent surge in community engagement (CE) efforts in engineering education. These efforts have involved a spectrum of academic avenues – from curricular to co-curricular to extracurricular – that cover community-based projects in local to global settings. For example, many CE experiences can be embedded within courses in the traditional pedagogical form of service-learning, although in many cases CE activities are implemented and/or facilitated by nonacademic organizations, such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB). These activities continue to undergo increasing levels of design, management, and assessment, the latter driven, in part, by the outcomes assessment requirements for ABET engineering program accreditation in the United States, but also because of apparent positive impacts to student participants. Previous studies indicate that the knowledge and skills gained by the students are at least on par with gains from traditional education models (e.g., see Bielefeldt, Paterson, & Swan, 2010). Additional attention also is being focused increasingly on the potential impacts of CE on student attitudes and identity (Paterson, Swan, & Guzak, 2012) as well as long-term impacts on students as they enter the professional ranks (Canney & Bielefeldt, 2012). It is in these areas that differences in the influence of CE may appear more profound, yet small numbers of student participants in various programs and a lack of coordinated assessment efforts provide limited evidence that such results exist. This chapter highlights the development of CE in engineering education and possible research endeavors that can be taken to shed new light on its potential impact.

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Sep 10, 2020

His current engineering education research interests focus on learning through service-based proj... more His current engineering education research interests focus on learning through service-based projects and using an entrepreneurial mindset to further engineering education innovations. He also researches the development of reuse strategies for waste materials.

The last twenty years has witnessed a surge in the growth of community engagement programs for en... more The last twenty years has witnessed a surge in the growth of community engagement programs for engineering students in the United States. Coupled to the enthusiasm of the Millennial Generation, many of these efforts have an international community development focus where engineering teams work with community members on small-scale infrastructure. One expressed motivation for such programs is the transformative experience and mindset-shift many participants report upon return from their time abroad. Industry has been quick to endorse such opportunities as necessary in creating the "global engineer", a professional adept and effective in a dynamic interconnected work world. This paper explores these perceptions through an objective measure of intercultural awareness, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). The IDI is a cross-culturally valid and reliable method to assess intercultural competence development, and is suggestive of a learner's proficiency at working with others who view the world differently. This paper will report the results of two large engineering student cohorts: 149 students at a mid-sized technical university in the US, and a 120 student sample from five different institutions across the US. The former group is a mix of singular sampling, but all students were involved in one or more optional sustainable development programs. The five institution group was tested annually for three years, and had a range of service experiences (from none to many). The technical university cohort averaged an IDI developmental orientation score of 90.7, a Minimization mindset (identifies commonalities between cultures); whereas the five institution group averaged an 81.9 which is in the transition from a Polarization mindset (identifies that one culture is superior, often through an "us versus them" perspective). The latter dataset had no statistically significant differences among institutional IDI averages, although one institution showed significant decreases in IDI amongst their students. A majority of engineering students report increased levels of engagement with time in their studies. However, an examination of the longitudinal dataset reveals slightly more than half the participants had decreasing IDI scores over three years of engineering education; engineering community engagement experiences (and engineering education in general) seem to have little impact on the intercultural mindsets of engineering students on average, although about 20% of individuals experienced substantial shifts of more than 10%/yr. This study suggests considerable attention to the design and implementation of service experiences will be needed to yield the intercultural engineer.

Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Apr 1, 2018

AbstractThis research explores the ethics education of engineering and computing students, report... more AbstractThis research explores the ethics education of engineering and computing students, reported by faculty, in light of diversity issues. A national online survey with approximately 1,400 respo...

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Sep 4, 2020

Dr. Swan has also served as chair of Tufts CEE department (2002-2007) and as an officer in the En... more Dr. Swan has also served as chair of Tufts CEE department (2002-2007) and as an officer in the Environmental Engineering division of ASEE (2001-2005). Dr. Swan's current interests lie in the areas of waste reuse, and service-based educational efforts in the engineering curriculum. Specific efforts involving engineering education concern project-based learning and service-based pedagogies their potential impacts on student learning and how these impacts may be evaluated and assessed.

Over the last few years, concerns have escalated among many national organizations over whether t... more Over the last few years, concerns have escalated among many national organizations over whether today's engineering students are being adequately prepared for future challenges; globalization, sustainability, complexity, and adaptability. To address this situation, the National Association of Engineers (NAE), the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) have all generated reports aimed at reforming the existing engineering curriculum. As a result, the NAE's Engineer of 2020 1 , ABET's Engineering Criterion 3 (EC 2000) 2 , and ASCE's Body of Knowledge (BOK) 3 all aim at shifting the existing paradigm of engineering curriculum towards a more well-rounded education. The commonality among these three documents is improving students' problem solving techniques. The future will inevitably bring unanticipated crises; engineers will need to identify the problems and collaboratively formulate innovative, feasible solutions. This research hypothesizes that service-learning can serve as a mechanism that will allow students to develop the necessary problem solving skills. To investigate this hypothesis, an education assessment instrument is employed to examine whether students who have participated in service-learning projects have stronger analytical, practical, and creative abilities than students who have only been exposed to the conventional "classroom" education.

This research explored faculty perspectives on the ethics and societal impacts (ESI) education of... more This research explored faculty perspectives on the ethics and societal impacts (ESI) education of electrical engineering (EE) students, in comparison to other engineering disciplines. An Input-Environment-Output model underpins the work, focusing on environmental factors (courses and co-curricular settings) that could influence students’ ESI knowledge. EE participation in the survey of engineering educators was lower than other disciplines (civil, mechanical, chemical), raising concerns about the culture around ESI education in EE. Instructors believed that the most common settings for ESI education of undergraduate EE students were senior capstone design and first-year introductory courses. Compared to other disciplines, fewer faculty believed that EE undergraduates were taught about ESI in sophomore/junior engineering/engineering science courses. The most common ESI topics taught to EE students were: professional practice issues, safety, and the societal impacts of technology. Fewer EE faculty taught sustainability and environmental protection issues compared to other disciplines. Within EE courses where faculty integrated ESI, the most common ESI teaching methods were engineering design, case studies, and examples of professional scenarios. Co-Curricular activities such as IEEE, honor societies and research may also contribute to the ESI education of EE students. Faculty are encouraged to integrate ESI issues into all of their courses and activities.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Jul 26, 2021

She completed her B.S. in environmental engineering, M.S. in civil engineering, and Ph.D. in civi... more She completed her B.S. in environmental engineering, M.S. in civil engineering, and Ph.D. in civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on bridging technical and nontechnical competencies to support the professional preparation and ethical responsibility of engineering students.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Jul 26, 2021

Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Direc... more Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Director for the Engineering Plus program. She has served as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education in the CEAE Department, as well as the ABET assessment coordinator. Professor Bielefeldt was also the faculty director of the Sustainable By Design Residential Academic Program, a living-learning community where students learned about and practice sustainability. Bielefeldt is also a licensed P.E. Professor Bielefeldt's research interests in engineering education include service-learning, sustainable engineering, social responsibility, ethics, and diversity. Mr. Jake Walker Lewis, University of Colorado Boulder Graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder holding a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering and a master's degree in civil engineering. Presented undergraduate research findings on ethics in co-curricular university environments in the form of a poster at the 2018 Zone IV ASEE Conference. Defended and published master's thesis examining ethics introduction in K12 STEM education in November 2019. Second co-author of the paper "Educating Civil Engineering Students about Ethics and Societal Impacts via Cocurricular Activities", published in the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice and recognized as an Editor's Choice. Currently involved with research regarding ethics in engineering education with Dr. Angela Bielefeldt. Preparing to submit three papers regarding ethics in education for the 2020 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

Geotechnical Frontiers 2017, 2017

Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 2006

Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 2006

2004 Annual Conference Proceedings

Over the last 20 years, recycling programs have developed throughout the United States and intern... more Over the last 20 years, recycling programs have developed throughout the United States and internationally. However, once the "recycled" material is placed at the curbside or brought to the recycling center, what happens next? Researching and describing recycling was the project aimed at providing first-year engineering students a "window on research". The students were tasked to develop a poster document and presentation to use to inform community policy makers and citizens on the recycling behavior in Massachusetts. Project objectives were to introduce students to the technical and nontechnical aspects of recycling and/or reusing waste materials as well as to introduce students to the "process" of research. This paper describes the "Windows on Research" advising program used at Tufts University and the specific case of a research project on recycling in Massachusetts used in the program. Research process and results are presented, and the show that simple relationships between community and recycling characteristics may not adequately explain recycling behavior. This paper also discusses issues involved in using aspects of community-service to increase student interest in participating in research at this early stage in their academic careers.

GeoFlorida 2010, 2010

This paper introduces a new preparation technique, termed volume control (VC), which attempts to ... more This paper introduces a new preparation technique, termed volume control (VC), which attempts to achieve a pre-determined, preshear relative density (D rc ) for granular soil samples used in triaxial tests. This technique provides more controllable density conditions on the samples in triaxial tests than conventional methods that apply a target preshear effective confining stress. Thus, the VC technique allows for a clearer examination of a granular soil's behavior by allowing the user to control the effects of preshear relative density on the results. In contrast, conventional preparation methods which set a predetermined confining stress cannot control the relative density prior to shearing. The new volume control technique was used to investigate the undrained behavior of a sand prepared at a given preshear relative density (D rc ), to study the stress-strain, pore pressure, and strength behavior. A series of monotonic undrained compression triaxial tests were performed on a sand obtained from a Cape Cod beach in Massachusetts (CCS). The VC technique was used to control the D rc to 40, 70 or 95% with the final confining effective stresses for these samples ranging from 214 to 656 kPa. For validation and comparison, samples prepared by a stress control (SC) technique, the conventional method of performing triaxial tests on granular soils, was performed on samples with initial relative densities (D ri ), after the saturation phase of a triaxial test, in the range of 2.96 to 82.9%. These samples were consolidated isotropically to targeted effective confining stresses of 173, 345, and 690 kPa yielding D rc in the range of 43 to 111%. Study results show that both sample preparation techniques are valid, however, the bulk moduli and measured friction angle results from VC technique tests were more consistent than those prepared under the SC technique.

Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 1995

The stress–strain behavior of frozen Manchester fine sand has been measured in a high-pressure lo... more The stress–strain behavior of frozen Manchester fine sand has been measured in a high-pressure low-temperature triaxial compression testing system developed for this purpose. This system incorporates DC servomotor technology, lubricated end platens, and on-specimen axial strain devices. A parametric study has investigated the effects of changes in strain rate, confining pressure, sand density, and temperature on behavior for very small strains (0.001%) to very large (> 20%) axial strains. This paper presents constitutive behavior for strain levels up to 1%. On-specimen axial strain measurements enabled the identification of a distinct upper yield stress (knee on the stress–strain curve) and a study of the behavior in this region with a degree of precision not previously reported in the literature. The Young's modulus is independent of strain rate and temperature, increases slightly with sand density in a manner consistent with Counto's model for composite materials, and d...

This paper reports on a study utilizing Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA) during prototype construct... more This paper reports on a study utilizing Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA) during prototype construction to investigate student's understanding of the engineering design process. Students were asked to think aloud during the design and construction of a prototype jar opener for physically challenged individuals. The results show that the inclusion of a hands-on component helped not only the researchers gauge student's understanding, but also helped the students in designing possible solutions.

Proceedings of the …, 2010

Bioremediation is one of the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods to remediat... more Bioremediation is one of the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods to remediate many different types of waste materials widely used by many private and public entities. Although the parameters that affect the rate of bioremediation differ for each project, some parameters can be more easily controlled in the field than others. For example, effective microbial action is crucial to the success of bioremediation. However, microbes can be detrimentally affected by an initial contaminant concentration that is too high. In addition, the type of bulking agent or aggregate used affects the ability of the mixture to retain moisture, the amount of drainage, aeration and ultimately the length of time for biodegradation. A two-month field study was conducted in Trinidad and Tobago on crude oil contaminated waste. This paper will look at the effect of two parameters, initial concentration and type of bulking agent, on the rate of biodegradation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) in the oily waste being treated in this tropical environment. A nutrientsupplying bioremediation agent was used to enhance the bioremediation process. The results of this study can assist in the design of effective bioremediation projects in tropical environments.

2005 Annual Conference Proceedings

There has been tremendous growth in the use of service learning in environmental engineering, esp... more There has been tremendous growth in the use of service learning in environmental engineering, especially in experiences beyond the U.S. This growth has been fostered by groups such as Global Village Engineers and Engineers Without Borders who seek to help communities in developing nations have a "better way" of life. Tufts University, long recognized for providing service to its host communities in Massachusetts, has also seen an increase in studentdriven initiatives that are beyond U.S. borders. Over the last year, students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University have engaged in a number of projects in communities in Nicaragua and Ghana. This paper describes these projects, in terms of the engineering aspects, but also discusses the value these projects have in the education of the involved students. It is concluded that service learning projects, in general, provide a valuable pedagogical tool for educating future engineers.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Direc... more Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Director for the Engineering Plus program. She has served as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education in the CEAE Department, as well as the ABET assessment coordinator. Professor Bielefeldt was also the faculty director of the Sustainable By Design Residential Academic Program, a living-learning community where students learned about and practice sustainability. Bielefeldt is also a licensed P.E. Professor Bielefeldt's research interests in engineering education include service-learning, sustainable engineering, social responsibility, ethics, and diversity.

This paper explores how sustainability issues have been integrated into the education of engineer... more This paper explores how sustainability issues have been integrated into the education of engineering and computing students, as one among many important macroethical issues. Based on surveys of educators focused primarily in the U.S., other Anglo countries, and Western Europe, 673 individuals reported teaching sustainability in their courses. These responses were examined for trends in teaching and assessment methods for ethics and societal impacts (ESI), and compared to those who teach ESI but not including sustainability. Follow-up interviews provided six more detailed examples of teaching practices specific to sustainability in courses where sustainability was a primary focus for integration. The results illustrate sustainability practices that include a macroethics lens, and could inspire educators to increase the integration of sustainability into their teaching.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Feb 10, 2014

Introduction There has been a recent surge in community engagement (CE) efforts in engineering ed... more Introduction There has been a recent surge in community engagement (CE) efforts in engineering education. These efforts have involved a spectrum of academic avenues – from curricular to co-curricular to extracurricular – that cover community-based projects in local to global settings. For example, many CE experiences can be embedded within courses in the traditional pedagogical form of service-learning, although in many cases CE activities are implemented and/or facilitated by nonacademic organizations, such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB). These activities continue to undergo increasing levels of design, management, and assessment, the latter driven, in part, by the outcomes assessment requirements for ABET engineering program accreditation in the United States, but also because of apparent positive impacts to student participants. Previous studies indicate that the knowledge and skills gained by the students are at least on par with gains from traditional education models (e.g., see Bielefeldt, Paterson, & Swan, 2010). Additional attention also is being focused increasingly on the potential impacts of CE on student attitudes and identity (Paterson, Swan, & Guzak, 2012) as well as long-term impacts on students as they enter the professional ranks (Canney & Bielefeldt, 2012). It is in these areas that differences in the influence of CE may appear more profound, yet small numbers of student participants in various programs and a lack of coordinated assessment efforts provide limited evidence that such results exist. This chapter highlights the development of CE in engineering education and possible research endeavors that can be taken to shed new light on its potential impact.

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Sep 10, 2020

His current engineering education research interests focus on learning through service-based proj... more His current engineering education research interests focus on learning through service-based projects and using an entrepreneurial mindset to further engineering education innovations. He also researches the development of reuse strategies for waste materials.

The last twenty years has witnessed a surge in the growth of community engagement programs for en... more The last twenty years has witnessed a surge in the growth of community engagement programs for engineering students in the United States. Coupled to the enthusiasm of the Millennial Generation, many of these efforts have an international community development focus where engineering teams work with community members on small-scale infrastructure. One expressed motivation for such programs is the transformative experience and mindset-shift many participants report upon return from their time abroad. Industry has been quick to endorse such opportunities as necessary in creating the "global engineer", a professional adept and effective in a dynamic interconnected work world. This paper explores these perceptions through an objective measure of intercultural awareness, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). The IDI is a cross-culturally valid and reliable method to assess intercultural competence development, and is suggestive of a learner's proficiency at working with others who view the world differently. This paper will report the results of two large engineering student cohorts: 149 students at a mid-sized technical university in the US, and a 120 student sample from five different institutions across the US. The former group is a mix of singular sampling, but all students were involved in one or more optional sustainable development programs. The five institution group was tested annually for three years, and had a range of service experiences (from none to many). The technical university cohort averaged an IDI developmental orientation score of 90.7, a Minimization mindset (identifies commonalities between cultures); whereas the five institution group averaged an 81.9 which is in the transition from a Polarization mindset (identifies that one culture is superior, often through an "us versus them" perspective). The latter dataset had no statistically significant differences among institutional IDI averages, although one institution showed significant decreases in IDI amongst their students. A majority of engineering students report increased levels of engagement with time in their studies. However, an examination of the longitudinal dataset reveals slightly more than half the participants had decreasing IDI scores over three years of engineering education; engineering community engagement experiences (and engineering education in general) seem to have little impact on the intercultural mindsets of engineering students on average, although about 20% of individuals experienced substantial shifts of more than 10%/yr. This study suggests considerable attention to the design and implementation of service experiences will be needed to yield the intercultural engineer.

Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Apr 1, 2018

AbstractThis research explores the ethics education of engineering and computing students, report... more AbstractThis research explores the ethics education of engineering and computing students, reported by faculty, in light of diversity issues. A national online survey with approximately 1,400 respo...

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Sep 4, 2020

Dr. Swan has also served as chair of Tufts CEE department (2002-2007) and as an officer in the En... more Dr. Swan has also served as chair of Tufts CEE department (2002-2007) and as an officer in the Environmental Engineering division of ASEE (2001-2005). Dr. Swan's current interests lie in the areas of waste reuse, and service-based educational efforts in the engineering curriculum. Specific efforts involving engineering education concern project-based learning and service-based pedagogies their potential impacts on student learning and how these impacts may be evaluated and assessed.

Over the last few years, concerns have escalated among many national organizations over whether t... more Over the last few years, concerns have escalated among many national organizations over whether today's engineering students are being adequately prepared for future challenges; globalization, sustainability, complexity, and adaptability. To address this situation, the National Association of Engineers (NAE), the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) have all generated reports aimed at reforming the existing engineering curriculum. As a result, the NAE's Engineer of 2020 1 , ABET's Engineering Criterion 3 (EC 2000) 2 , and ASCE's Body of Knowledge (BOK) 3 all aim at shifting the existing paradigm of engineering curriculum towards a more well-rounded education. The commonality among these three documents is improving students' problem solving techniques. The future will inevitably bring unanticipated crises; engineers will need to identify the problems and collaboratively formulate innovative, feasible solutions. This research hypothesizes that service-learning can serve as a mechanism that will allow students to develop the necessary problem solving skills. To investigate this hypothesis, an education assessment instrument is employed to examine whether students who have participated in service-learning projects have stronger analytical, practical, and creative abilities than students who have only been exposed to the conventional "classroom" education.

This research explored faculty perspectives on the ethics and societal impacts (ESI) education of... more This research explored faculty perspectives on the ethics and societal impacts (ESI) education of electrical engineering (EE) students, in comparison to other engineering disciplines. An Input-Environment-Output model underpins the work, focusing on environmental factors (courses and co-curricular settings) that could influence students’ ESI knowledge. EE participation in the survey of engineering educators was lower than other disciplines (civil, mechanical, chemical), raising concerns about the culture around ESI education in EE. Instructors believed that the most common settings for ESI education of undergraduate EE students were senior capstone design and first-year introductory courses. Compared to other disciplines, fewer faculty believed that EE undergraduates were taught about ESI in sophomore/junior engineering/engineering science courses. The most common ESI topics taught to EE students were: professional practice issues, safety, and the societal impacts of technology. Fewer EE faculty taught sustainability and environmental protection issues compared to other disciplines. Within EE courses where faculty integrated ESI, the most common ESI teaching methods were engineering design, case studies, and examples of professional scenarios. Co-Curricular activities such as IEEE, honor societies and research may also contribute to the ESI education of EE students. Faculty are encouraged to integrate ESI issues into all of their courses and activities.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Jul 26, 2021

She completed her B.S. in environmental engineering, M.S. in civil engineering, and Ph.D. in civi... more She completed her B.S. in environmental engineering, M.S. in civil engineering, and Ph.D. in civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on bridging technical and nontechnical competencies to support the professional preparation and ethical responsibility of engineering students.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Jul 26, 2021

Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Direc... more Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Director for the Engineering Plus program. She has served as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education in the CEAE Department, as well as the ABET assessment coordinator. Professor Bielefeldt was also the faculty director of the Sustainable By Design Residential Academic Program, a living-learning community where students learned about and practice sustainability. Bielefeldt is also a licensed P.E. Professor Bielefeldt's research interests in engineering education include service-learning, sustainable engineering, social responsibility, ethics, and diversity. Mr. Jake Walker Lewis, University of Colorado Boulder Graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder holding a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering and a master's degree in civil engineering. Presented undergraduate research findings on ethics in co-curricular university environments in the form of a poster at the 2018 Zone IV ASEE Conference. Defended and published master's thesis examining ethics introduction in K12 STEM education in November 2019. Second co-author of the paper "Educating Civil Engineering Students about Ethics and Societal Impacts via Cocurricular Activities", published in the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice and recognized as an Editor's Choice. Currently involved with research regarding ethics in engineering education with Dr. Angela Bielefeldt. Preparing to submit three papers regarding ethics in education for the 2020 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.