August 30, 2023
In a record-breaking year, three UGA graduate students working with EETI won Best Paper Awards as first authors at the 2023 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference!
Animesh Paul
Pictured: Animesh Paul (right) with his major professor, Dr. Racheida Lewis (left)
Animesh Paul, a first-year EETI Ph.D. student, won the Best DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Paper Award for the ASEE Division of Experimentation and Lab-Oriented Studies. His paper, “Exploring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Remote Laboratories”, discusses learners’ opinions about remote labs and how such labs support equity and inclusion in the laboratory environment. More specifically, the study highlights data on the perception of students who think remote labs serve equitably and fair to learners, irrespective of their prior background, race, ethnicity, or color. It also discusses remote labs’ contributions and contrasts with ABET’s proposed modifications and the implications of research findings for making remote labs inclusive, fair, and accessible to every learner. Animesh co-authored the paper alongside EETI faculty member alumnus Dr. Dominik May, in addition to two researchers from the University of Washington.
Link to paper: https://peer.asee.org/exploring-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-remote-laboratories
Deborah Moyaki
Pictured: Deborah Moyaki (middle-left) with co-authors Pravalika Irukulla (middle-right), Dr. Dominik May (left), and Dr. Nathaniel Hunsu (right)
Deborah Moyaki, another first-year EETI Ph.D. student, won the Best Overall Paper Award in the ASEE Biomedical Engineering Division. Her paper, “Introduction of a Virtual Reality Laboratory in a Tissue Engineering Course”, describes the integration and evaluation of a series of selected virtual lab modules into a Tissue Engineering course. The paper will reports initial educational research results based on students’ feedback on the VR labs to facilitate quality and authentic learning experiences. Ultimately, the research aims at exploring the use of VR laboratories in bio- and chemical engineering higher education and using those results as a proxy for workforce development efforts. She co-authored the paper alongside EETI faculty member Dr. Nathaniel Hunsu; EETI affiliate faculty member Dr. Cheryl Gomillion and her Ph.D. student, Pravalika Irukulla; and EETI faculty member alumnus Dr. Dominik May.
Link to paper: https://peer.asee.org/introduction-of-a-virtual-reality-laboratory-in-a-tissue-engineering-course
Andrew Rukangu
Pictured: Andrew Rukangu (center) with co-authors Dr. John Morelock (left) and Dr. Kyle Johnsen (right)
Andrew Rukangu, a fourth-year ECE student and Dean’s Engineering Education Fellow, won the Best Overall Paper Award in the ASEE Computers in Education Division. His paper, “Virtual Reality For Robot Control and Programming in Undergraduate Engineering Courses”, describes the implementation of an industrial robot in Augmented Reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) and how its use affects the motivation of first-year and second-year engineering students in introductory courses. This system allows students to work on a pick-and-place task using a UR10 industrial robot as often as they want and at their convenience outside of the classroom. This paper describes the system and the tasks used to test its effectiveness as a motivational factor in engineering education. He co-authored the paper alongside EETI faculty member Dr. John Morelock, and ECE faculty member (and EETI member) Dr. Kyle Johnsen.
Link to paper: https://peer.asee.org/virtual-reality-for-robot-control-and-programming-in-undergraduate-engineering-courses