£136,210
Centre for Research in Engineering and Materials Education
Funded Research Projects
The following are current funded research projects taking place within the research centre:
Levelling Up Maths for Engineering ProgrammePrincipal Investigator: Rehan SHAH Co-investigator(s): Michael WOOLLEY Funding source: London Mathematical Society, Heilbronn Institute of Mathematical Research and Dr. Tony Hill Start: 04-02-2025 / End: 02-02-2026 Amount: £4,500 The new Levelling Up Maths for Engineering programme launched in SEMS, supported by the Institute of Mathematics and the Royal Academy of Engineering follows on from its parallel counterpart, the Levelling Up Mathematics programme (supported by the London Mathematical Society) which has already been running successfully for two years within the Queen Mary School of Mathematical Sciences. The programme aims at raising awareness of engineering as a viable STEM-based career, by improving the mathematics capabilities of those interested in engineering by helping them appreciate the relevance of mathematics in practical engineering situations. It particularly focuses on raising the aspirations of A-level mathematics pupils in years 12 and 13 from underrepresented backgrounds, particularly female students, aligning with the School of Engineering's EDI priorities, to study engineering, or a related STEM discipline, at university. This will be achieved through an integrated programme of dedicated tutoring support provided by QMUL SEMS undergraduate students over a 15-month period with up to 22 tutorial sessions. The undergraduate tutors provide direct support and encouragement to a small group of pupils, and with their university departments, show that mathematics and engineering can be studied in an inclusive and welcoming environment. This can then help such students with navigating the university application process, with the aim of matching increased aspirations with increased attainment and confidence.** |
Empowering Collaborative Learning: Breaking Barriers and Enhancing Equity in STEM EducationPrincipal Investigator: Folashade AKINMOLAYAN TAIWO Funding source: Cornell-QMUL Global Strategic Collaboration Award Start: 02-02-2025 / End: 30-01-2026 Amount: £8,000 Collaborative learning environments (CLE) are vital for aligning education with the demands of the modern world. In these settings, students work together in groups to achieve shared learning goals, fostering critical thinking, peer learning, and social skills. Yet, realizing the benefits of CLEs can be challenging due to numerous obstacles faced by students and instructors. Thus, there is a pressing need for a tool that can effectively support students and instructors. This project will investigate students’ experiences working in CLEs to identify barriers and develop targeted interventions that enhance student experience and graduate employability.** |
Inclusive Commonwealth Learning for Interdisciplinary Development and Education for Sustainability (INCLIDES)Principal Investigator: Rehan SHAH Co-investigator(s): Anne Preston (UCL), Praveen Kumar (TISS) and Neha Christie (TISS) Funding source: Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Start: 04-11-2024 / End: 31-10-2025 Amount: £2,500 This cross-institutional project featuring three ACU member universities aims to use inclusive pedagogy to enhance HE educators' understanding of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in interdisciplinary learning curricula. The project will develop a joint toolkit on practice-based research to evaluate the role and quality of SDGs in postgraduate education. The interdisciplinary approach will feature collaborations with academic staff across the fields of Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy (SHAPE) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in both countries. ESD is a priority in curriculum development in both India and the UK, with both countries having shared interests in innovating and integrating within interdisciplinary teaching, despite differences in how it is mandated. A common gap exists in understanding the role of SHAPE subjects and how they contribute to ESD, particularly in areas like ecology and climate change. While STEM subjects have curricula addressing climate action and sustainable cities, students often struggle with topics like gender equality and reduced inequalities. This project will employ inclusive pedagogical methodologies to design culturally responsive approaches, identifying and nurturing educators' cultural strengths to promote student learning through curriculum innovation. This co-creational effort (also featuring student researchers) aims to empower both educators and students to find personal connections to traditionally thought to be inaccessible areas within their disciplines.** |
Nonlinear mechanics of rods subject to surface constraintsPrincipal Investigator: Rehan SHAH Co-investigator(s): Gert van der Heijden (UCL) Funding source: Quaterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics Fund (QJMAM) Start: 16-10-2024 / End: 16-10-2025 Amount: £1,700 Slender, elastic rod-like structures on or inside constrained rigid surfaces are prevalent in a wide range of engineering (drill strings in borewells, pipelines under the seabed, ocean cables), medical (stents in angioplasty of arteries), biological (DNA toroidal condensates, bacterial flagella), electronic (carbon nanotubes) and robotic (soft robots for in-pipe inspection) applications. This project seeks to employ a comprehensive variational theory of elastic two-strand braids to investigate the post-buckling behaviour of elastic rods lying on rigid tubular surfaces. Methods comprising the calculus of variations and Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics are utilised to procure more general types of solutions to various nonlinear boundary value problems, using both analytical and numerical approaches. Journal Paper Publications: Shah R and van der Heijden GHM (2024). Buckling and lift-off of a heavy rod compressed into a cylinder. Journal of The Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Elsevier vol. 182, 105464-105464. Shah R and van der Heijden GHM (2023). Static friction models for a rod deforming on a cylinder. Journal of The Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Elsevier vol. 173, 105224-105224.** |
EduMark AI: AI-Driven Grading and Personalised Student Feedback to Save Educator TimePrincipal Investigator: Deepshikha DEEPSHIKHA Co-investigator(s): Li WANG, Xinru DENG, Giuseppe VIOLA and Mouna CHETEHOUNA Funding source: QMUL President and Principal's Fund for Educational Excellence Start: 01-08-2024 / End: 31-08-2025 This project addresses the pressing need for efficiency and consistency in grading and feedback processes at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), aligning with QMUL's Strategy 2030 for digital transformation and educational excellence. EduMark AI seeks to integrate artificial intelligence to streamline grading tasks and enhance the quality of feedback for students, aiming to reduce assessment time by 50%. Through collaboration with key QMUL stakeholders, the project will evaluate three AI systems (e.g., ChatGPT, Google AI Gemini, and Graide) on their effectiveness in grading and feedback quality. The project will assess AI's impact on educator workload and student satisfaction by conducting a controlled comparison with traditional grading methods. This initiative contributes to the broader QMUL goal of adaptive, personalised education. It aims to establish best practices for scalable AI integration across disciplines, benefiting faculty, students, and QMUL's academic community. |
SustainAbility in the QMUL curriculumPrincipal Investigator: Ishani Chandrasekara Co-investigator(s): Rehan SHAH, Sayed Elhoushy, Nurul Ahmed, Sally Faulkner , Patrick Healey, Anna Moore , Jonathan Otter, Jovani Palnoni , Zoe Sturgess , Stephanie Fuller and Chris Sutton Funding source: QMUL President and Principal's Fund for Educational Excellence Start: 01-08-2024 / End: 31-08-2025 Amount: £20,000 This project addresses sustainability, the most urgent global issue facing the world today, which is also a key strategic priority for Queen Mary’s 2030 Strategy. Its primary aim is to enhance the Queen Mary curriculum through establishing a platform for discussions and collaborative learning on sustainability. This space will enable Queen Mary staff, students, and the East London community to participate in and benefit from a non-credit sustainability course. The focus is on developing an innovative pedagogical approach to share existing knowledge and skills within the university in order to develop sustainability awareness, knowledge, and skills. The course, open to all staff and students, will be co-created with students and aligned with the development of Queen Mary Graduate Attributes and employability skills. Elements of the course would also be open to the local community.** |
Development of a Cross-National Mathematical Reasoning Skills Inventory for EngineersPrincipal Investigator: Rehan SHAH Co-investigator(s): Ilanthiraiyan Sivagnanamoorthy (SEMS undergraduate), Alexandra Werth (Cornell), Ann O'Shea (Maynooth University) and Sinead Breen (Dublin City University) Funding source: London Mathematical Society (LMS) Start: 19-03-2025 / End: 31-07-2025 Amount: £400 This project outlines the development of a mathematical skills inventory for engineers. In education literature, threshold concepts, are discipline-specific concepts that act as learning bottlenecks due to their troublesome and transformative nature. These concepts encompass sets of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that often seem unfamiliar, contradictory, or inconsistent, but once grasped, lead to a significant shift in the learner's perspective and understanding. Examples of such threshold concepts within mathematics include the notion of proofs, calculus, limits, and complex numbers. While these threshold concepts have been examined in the context of mathematics students, there is a noticeable gap in literature investigating how engineering students navigate threshold concepts within their curriculum. Where engineering education research does exist, it typically focuses on electrical and mechanical threshold concepts like frequency responses, equivalent circuits, and Newton's laws, often overlooking the foundational mathematical threshold concepts crucial for engineering education. This gap also extends to concept inventories assessing core mathematical threshold concepts. Existing tools, such as the Calculus Concept Inventory and Function Concept Inventory, are designed for students in mathematics degree programs, focusing on content knowledge rather than skills. These tools lack the engineering perspective and contextual relevance, making them less suitable for use with engineering students. This creates an opportunity to develop a more skills-based approach that better addresses the specific needs of engineering programs. Such an approach would offer more accurate evaluation of students' KSAs, capturing a deeper level cognitive understanding. In this project, we examine and contextualise the essential mathematical skills needed to master the threshold concepts of functions, drawing from core skills identified in prior literature and insights from teaching experience. This work lays the groundwork for developing a skills inventory—a competency-based mathematical instrument tailored to undergraduate engineering students. This inventory will aim to address the skills-based challenges encountered in the context of mathematics within first- and second-year engineering programs. This will also be supported through findings obtained from a one-day workshop organised featuring discussions and interactions between internal and external academics and colleagues from various UK universities on designing assessment questions around key mathematical proficiencies to inform the development of skills-based concept inventories in undergraduate STEM disciplines. Formulating assessment questions centred around critical mathematical proficiencies for specific concepts will enhance mathematics lecturers’ understanding of assessment design and provide them with a solid foundation to make effective use of existing concept inventories as well as develop new ones to address skill deficits and enhance their students’ conceptual understanding.** |
From Classroom to Community: ‘Engineering Meets History’ at The Brunel MuseumPrincipal Investigator: Rehan SHAH Co-investigator(s): Emily Boldry (The Brunel Museum) and Jack Hayes (The Brunel Museum) Funding source: QMUL Centre for Public Engagement Start: 28-02-2025 / End: 31-07-2025 Amount: £1,000 The Brunel Museum is an educational charity located in Rotherhithe in South London, dedicated to telling the story of the world’s first underwater tunnel and the lives of those who built and used it. Construction of the tunnel began in 1825 and took 18 years to complete. It was built using revolutionary engineering techniques developed by Marc Brunel, the father of the more famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel. These techniques are still used today in civil engineering and tunnel construction projects worldwide. The museum has a small, dedicated staff and a group of volunteers who engage the public, especially families and local communities, in STEM education and heritage. However, the museum’s team lacks the specific engineering expertise required to fully understand and communicate the complex and innovative engineering methods used in the Thames Tunnel project to its audiences. The proposed project, ‘Engineering Meets History’ at The Brunel Museum, aims to address this gap through engaging with current undergraduate engineering students from QMUL as part of a 6-week community internship programme. They will collaborate with the museum’s community curator Ms. Emily Boldry and conduct research into the museum’s archive of historic drawings, prints, and watercolors, and those related to the Thames Tunnel at the Institute of Civil Engineers. With the help of their technical knowledge and experience, students will reinterpret these historic sources through an engineering lens. They will then produce a short report and design engagement resources that explain the engineering methods used in the tunnel’s construction in a way that is accessible both to the museum team and its audiences. A final showcase event will be held at the end of the project for the students to share the knowledge gained and showcase their created resources to the museum’s staff and volunteers. ** |
Podcasting your TNE JourneyPrincipal Investigator: Faith NIGHTINGALE Co-investigator(s): Eleonora PITTA Funding source: International Centre for Teaching and Learning Start: 01-09-2024 / End: 01-07-2025 Amount: £2,000 The aim of this ICTL-funded project is to build a student community across the TNE programmes and London by developing the communication and professional skills of students through a podcasting format. Students across the TNE programmes have limited opportunities to build a community with each other, let alone with students in London, so by bringing together groups of students we hope to build a wider QMUL community where students can network and make friends. It is also important for students to communicate spontaneously and in everyday conversation as well as being able to use professional skills such as teamwork, project management and digital skills which are useful for the current and future academic journeys. The students from QMES and BUPT-Hainan will be recruited from all year groups and will be actively encouraged to form multi-year groups. The student ambassadors who visit QMES from London will also form a group and all groups will create monthly podcasts on topics such as student life, study life, subject specific talks. There will also be special podcasts on culturally significant events in China and the UK. Students will use Stream to record up to 15-minute podcasts and create a SharePoint page to share content with all TNE programmes and SEMS in London. Questionnaires will be given to participants and listeners of the podcast to assess the effectiveness of the podcast and viewing metrics will also be analysed. The project will culminate in a celebratory event next year to coincide with the ambassadors visit where we will showcase the podcast work and celebrate the coming together of friends and community.** |
CAISE Inclusive Curriculum Student Voices Co-Creation ProjectPrincipal Investigator: Marie-Luce Bourguet Co-investigator(s): Rehan SHAH, Hicham ADJALI, Tippu Sheriff, Atm Alam and Matthew Lewis Funding source: EECS Educational Scholarship Centre Working Groups Grant Start: 06-01-2025 / End: 30-04-2025 Amount: £950 The QMUL Centre for Academic Inclusion in Science & Engineering (CAISE) is committed to supporting academics from across the 5 Schools within the Faculty of Science and Engineering in integrating inclusive STEM teaching practices by raising awareness of inclusivity among its staff and students, championing QMUL's Principles of Inclusive Curriculum and promoting inclusivity scholarship in science and engineering. This project aims to amplify impact by prioritising student voices by empowering both staff and students to collaboratively co-create, design and implement informative resources that inform students about curriculum inclusivity, alongside feedback mechanisms to capture students' views on the inclusivity of their educational experiences. By engaging staff and students together through two structured workshops, this project will design and implement impactful resources (posters, leaflets, and a web page) that will promote inclusivity and provide mechanisms for gathering meaningful student feedback to help showcase the project's outputs across all five Schools in the Faculty. ** |
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