This paper discusses the design of engineering mathematics assessment that encourages learning beyond algorithmic recall. Our approach is based on the MATH (mathematical assessment task hierarchy) taxonomy. We propose using mathematics as a tool to analyse relatable problems and produce clear engineering deliverables to ensure that academic knowledge is translated to real-life situations. Creating engineering scenarios was instrumental in fostering active engagement, enquiry, creativity and reducing opportunities for academic misconduct in our first-year engineering mathematics assessments. An example of an exam question covering the topics of calculus, linear algebra, and dimensional analysis is given to illustrate the concepts discussed. Qualitative feedback from 203 students on an assessment paper containing the question shown herein is also included. Our data shows that most students had little to no previous exposure to real-world questions and that most of their time engaging with the assessment was spent critically analysing the problems. In addition, student feedback showed that contextual assessment is perceived as more challenging and exciting than pure mathematics problems and that students believe contextual assessment adds value to their education.

Although programming has increasingly become an integral part of Mathematics education in universities, the closed book exam, which excludes programming, remains the preferred main assessment component. However, the switch towards open book online assessments necessitated by the Covid pandemic has seen programming content being included in end of year assessments. In this paper we look at how programming has been integrated into the end of year open book online assessments in Mathematics at two UK universities. Preliminary conclusions suggest that open book online assessments incorporating programming content can be a viable replacement for the traditional closed book exam.

The work reported in this paper is an exploratory study into the early career experiences of recent graduates from the UCL Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP). Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six research participants via the Zoom video conferencing platform. Findings from this study suggest that recent IEP graduates appreciate the depth of technical knowledge they acquired from their studies as well as the team-working and project management skills that they were exposed to. The study suggests that participants were able to use these skills to quickly establish themselves in their work roles. However, whilst participants stated that they had been exposed to most of the basic skills that would be required on the job, they indicated that they were often unprepared for the depth and level to which these skills were required. They were also unprepared for the need to invest further in self-directed informal learning.

This small qualitative study evaluates UCL Engineering students’ experiences and perceptions of online PBL during the 2020-21 academic year. Study findings suggest that although the transition to online learning was not smooth, most students ultimately became agile online PBL learners. The study suggests that PBL in the post-COVID-19 era is likely to be blended, with some aspects best delivered in-person and some aspects best delivered online.

An analysis of MATLAB®integration into mathematical modules at two UK universities is carried out. Both MATLAB integration projects appear to be successful, despite the fact that the two institutions in question are quite different, with one being a well-established research intensive institution and the other a teaching-oriented institution that gained university status in 1992. Despite these differences common themes emerge from the analysis that suggest the minimum requirements that have to be in place for CAS-assisted learning to be successfully introduced.

Pressure from industry, professional bodies and students for a reform to the curriculum and delivery style of engineering education has been mounting for a number of years. Although there have been many excellent individual initiatives, developments that span a whole school or faculty, encompassing a number of disciplines and departments are far rarer. This paper describes a curriculum development programme across the UCL faculty of engineering sciences in the UK. It describes the motivation for change and some of the approaches adopted.

We present a multimodal neural network model of child language acquisition at the one-word stage that is inspired by current views on brain processing which suggest that information in the brain is ultimately stored in a common amodal set of conceptual representations. Our model takes into account a child's perceived communicative intention and simulates both ostensive and non-ostensive utterances using the same unsupervised network. This is contrary to some models of child language acquisition, and in line with current psycholinguistic views on child language processing at the one-word stage. When trained on natural child language data, our model learns to categorise the speech utterances and to generalise to new utterances. In addition, our model exhibits a U-shaped learning trajectory as well as a vocabulary spurt, in agreement with observations made in studies of child language acquisition at the one-word stage.

We propose a gated multi-net system that simulates the transition of child language from the one-word stage to the two-word stage. In this system, a modified counterpropagation network simulates child language at the one-word stage, whilst an unsupervised temporal neural network simulates child language at the two-word stage. During simulation, inputs encoding the perceptual and conceptual features of events a child is likely to speak about are simultaneously applied to the two networks. Initially, the system is predisposed to outputting one-word utterances, but as the simulation proceeds, a gating mechanism predisposes the system to output two-word utterances. The system exhibits a gradual transition from one-word utterances to two-word utterances similar to that observed in children undergoing the same transitional phase.