LEGO® stop-motion animations were developed to engage first-year university students in the topics of matrices, vectors, linear geometry and linear transformations. LEGO® provided a versatile medium through which a wide range of concrete and abstract concepts could be physically demonstrated in both two and three dimensions. It was also familiar to most students, making the mathematics videos accessible and fun. When designed according to key principles around reducing cognitive load in multimedia learning, animations in education have been shown to increase learning compared to static images for concepts involving dynamic systems and processes. Multimodal approaches including video and narration have also been shown to be beneficial to students in terms of demonstrating mathematical problem solving. The videos created in this project were a mix of conceptual explanations and problem-solving examples, where the word problems were physically modelled before being converted to formal mathematical notation and then solved. Some animations were short clips that were integrated into online lecture recordings, others were stand-alone videos designed either as short introductions to topics or examples of common questions. This paper describes the theory underpinning the design of the animations.

A practice-based engineering degree, in which students worked on real-world, team-based projects from day one and throughout their course, was designed to address the need for employability skills in a rapidly changing world. Teaching mathematics in this way required a very different approach to the lecture-exam based model prevalent in most engineering degrees. In order to ensure all students developed the fundamental skills and knowledge required of engineers, a micro-credential based curriculum was developed where micro-credentials were mapped to projects and delivered "just-in-time". The curriculum contained forty-eight explicit mathematical micro-credentials in the areas of measurement and geometry, algebra, calculus, and statistics and probability as well as many more micro-credentials in other areas of curriculum that contain mathematical skills, from physics to project budgeting. Mathematical competencies were used as a framework in the design and analysis of the micro-credentials. This paper presents a description of, and reflection on the successes and challenges in implementing this model of teaching mathematics in engineering.

This article presents a case description of the design decisions, delivery methods, and assessment framework for an entrepreneurship micro-credential in a newly developed practice-based engineering degree, which was codesigned with industry partners who called for the integration of innovation, proactivity, and creativity (i.e., characteristics of entrepreneurship) into engineering education. Students undertake the micro-credential via online and face-to-face modules. Assessment is competency-based, requiring students to apply the theoretical knowledge provided in the micro-credential to an industry-based project. By participating in the micro-credential, it is expected that students will have a better understanding of how products and services can address customer needs, and how opportunities for product and service enhancement can create opportunities for growing the offerings of engineering. Several insights into the strengths, limitations, and design considerations for entrepreneurship micro-credentials in an engineering education context are outlined in addition to suggestions for improvement.

Problem-based learning (PBL) has a history of producing strong educational results in engineering; however, global society is challenged by highly complex environmental, socio-political and technical problems summarised in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This obliges us to explore educational approaches that address complexity. Yet, confronting complexity is sometimes constrained within PBL structures. This conceptual paper posits practice-based education (PBE) as a whole-of-education approach embracing complexity. We present a PBE framework with three elements: (1) the context of an authentic engineering practice, (2) supporting learners' agency in the process of becoming professionals, and (3) opportunities to work and learn simultaneously. We make the case for innovative engineering education through the implementation of PBE using the case of the Engineering Practice Academy at Swinburne University of Technology. We detail innovations in student experience as a process of becoming, curriculum and assessment, and provide advice on the application of PBE elsewhere.

Context: A transformational change in engineering education culture is required to address ongoing issues such as declining interest and a lack of diversity in the student cohorts and profession. This change must go beyond transforming educational pedagogies; organisational cultural change is necessary to shape perceptions about engineering and engineering in society. The creation of the Engineering Practice Academy at Swinburne University of Technology provides the opportunity to intentionally construct a culture guided by a set of espoused values that can be used to define and guide the emergent culture, and inform decisions made in the development of the Engineering Practice Academy. Purpose: This paper describes the development process of co-constructing espoused values within the Engineering Practice Academy. Approach: Espoused values were co-constructed by project stakeholders through a facilitated workshop. The workshops included individual tasks, reflections and sharing, and collective discussion used to facilitate the construction of the values. Results: The five espoused values co-constructed by project stakeholders were: collaboration with empathy, honesty through transparency, equity and diversity, sustainability through practice and, excellence - individually and collectively. The espoused values are being used in all aspects of the Academy's creation such as evaluating and selecting potential initiatives, generating an ethical partnership policy to guide the selection of external partners and creating a culture to attract and support a diverse staff and student cohort. Conclusion: Values-based decision making has been shown to empower individuals from all levels of an organisation to make decisions as well as being useful in the recruitment and retention of staff and students. Values present a novel resource for informing collaboration between Universities, industries, and community.

This study examines feedback from students about the use of Tablet PC technology in material science lectures to help us understand how students use available learning resources and to inform the creation of future materials. Students commented on their preferences for being given full notes or partial notes which were annotated during the lectures and also on how they used notes and recordings in their learning. Students presented conflicting views on which style of note-taking they preferred with a varied range of reasons for their preferences. Feedback indicated that students perceive that live lectures are important and that the distribution of complete notes and recordings were useful as revision aids and if missing a lecture was unavoidable. Suggestions were made that the technology could also be used to produce podcasts of key points and videos of demonstrations performed in lectures.

Background: This study investigates university students studying engineering, science and ICT degrees and their experiences volunteering in a school-based science/maths outreach program. The aims of the program are to increase enthusiasm in science and maths in the middle years of education and promote science as a career choice. The volunteers support these aims by providing specialist knowledge and assistance to the class teacher, interacting with the school pupils and being role models. They are placed in a class for a ten week period during which they build relationships with the pupils and are encouraged to answer questions not only on the topics being studied in class, but also on their own experiences studying and their pathways to higher education. The benefits of this program to school students have been studied but the outcomes sought and experienced by the university students are less well known. Purpose: To understand why students volunteer and what benefits they experience during their school placements. Design/Method: Volunteers were invited to take part in focus groups before and after their school placements. During the pre-placement focus group they were prompted to discuss their reasons for volunteering. In the post-placement session they were asked about why they had participated and asked to reflect on what they had gained from their experiences. The discussion was recorded and transcribed and the transcript coded to identify key themes. Results: Students volunteered for a variety of reasons with most students having more than one motivating factor. Reasons included altruism, enjoyment of science, a desire to develop confidence and public speaking skills, and to enhance their employability. Conclusions: Volunteers participated in this school-based mentoring program for the expected motivational reasons described in the literature. After placements volunteers had improved their communication skills and reinforced their subject knowledge. This paper concludes that participation in this outreach program is of value to university students in terms of knowledge, skills and confidence gained but that they are often unaware of many of the skills they have demonstrated and developed.

A method for sample characterization using energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction computed tomography (EDXRDCT) is presented. The procedures for extracting diffraction patterns from the data and the corrections applied are discussed. The procedures were applied to the characterization of breast tissue samples, 6mm in diameter. Comparison with histological sections of the samples confirmed the possibility of grouping the patterns into five families, corresponding to adipose tissue, fibrosis, poorly differentiated cancer, well differentiated cancer and benign tumour.

One way of smuggling drugs into a country is via the postal and courier services. Automated systems are necessary to scan incoming parcels and make quick decisions on whether they contain drugs or not. Few false positive and negative results are an important requirement for the end users of such a system, as neither parcels containing drugs should be lost nor parcels without drugs should stop the workflow. According to previous studies, x-ray diffraction has demonstrated the potential to meet this requirement, as it has shown high ability in identifying drugs, compared to other methods. This is mainly due to the crystalline pattern of the drugs and their unique diffraction signature. The same technique has also been applied in explosives and calculi identification in the past with great success. In this study, a simulation model was developed simulating energy dispersive x-ray diffraction from the powder diffraction profiles of several materials that could be found in a common parcel. A database containing thousands of such materials has been collected. The aim of this study was to test several possible infield systems for drug identification and decide on the optimum that will be developed in the lab. To this direction, several geometries (including distances, collimation, scattering angles etc.), x-ray spectrum energies and detector energy resolutions (HPGe, CZT, Si and NaI) were tested. A variety of parcel sizes and compositions were designed and simulated and the results were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis (MVA). Results showed that several geometries and detectors can lead to a system with high sensitivity and specificity. The next step of this study is the development of these systems in the lab.

Preliminary studies have shown the effectiveness of multivariate analysis (MVA) for drug identification from energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction patterns. A statistical model to predict drug content from the diffraction profile of a sample of mixed composition was developed by applying MVA to both experimental and simulated data. Separate data-sets were used for building and testing the models. Both experimental and simulated data were used and the MVA predictions compared. Experimental data included diffraction patterns from small (5 mm diameter) drug samples with various cutting agents, acquired with a HPGe detector; simulated data included diffraction patterns of samples including materials simulating drugs (i.e., materials featuring sharp diffraction peaks in the relevant momentum transfer range) and typical packaging materials. Both a HPGe detector (energy resolution 0.7 keV at 59.5 keV) and a CZT detector (energy resolution 4 keV at all energies) were simulated. MVA was used to predict the drug content. In all cases different statistics were applied to assess the detection limits of the models. Multivariate analysis has proved effective in both identifying the presence of a drug and its concentration. Due to the large contribution to peak broadening given by angular resolution, no significant decrease in accuracy has been found when using CZT with respect to HPGe data.

A system for drug detection using X-ray diffraction is currently being developed by the DILAX collaboration. A simulation program for modelling the response of an energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction system has been developed, with the two-fold aim of selecting possible configurations prior to experimental tests and of generating data for statistical models for prediction of drug content. Simulated data showed a good agreement with experimental results. The data showed that the main factor affecting the shape of the diffraction pattern is the thickness of the sample. Scatter angle and detector energy resolution have a smaller effect on the diffraction pattern. This suggests that cheaper, room-temperature detectors can be used for a drug detection system without any loss in sensitivity and specificity.

MI-3 is a consortium of 11 universities and research laboratories whose mission is to develop complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensors (APS) and to apply these sensors to a range of imaging challenges. A range of sensors has been developed: On-Pixel Intelligent CMOS (OPIC)—designed for in-pixel intelligence; FPN—designed to develop novel techniques for reducing fixed pattern noise; HDR—designed to develop novel techniques for increasing dynamic range; Vanilla/PEAPS—with digital and analogue modes and regions of interest, which has also been back-thinned; Large Area Sensor (LAS)—a novel, stitched LAS; and eLeNA—which develops a range of low noise pixels. Applications being developed include autoradiography, a gamma camera system, radiotherapy verification, tissue diffraction imaging, X-ray phase-contrast imaging, DNA sequencing and electron microscopy.

Illicit drugs are imported into countries in myriad ways, including via the postal system and courier services. An automated system is required to detect drugs in parcels for which X-ray diffraction is a suitable technique as it is non-destructive, material specific and uses X-rays of sufficiently high energy to penetrate parcels containing a range of attenuating materials. A database has been constructed containing the measured powder diffraction profiles of several thousand materials likely to be found in parcels. These include drugs, cutting agents, packaging and other innocuous materials. A software model has been developed using these data to predict the diffraction profiles which would be obtained by X-ray diffraction systems with a range of suggested detector (high purity germanium, CZT and scintillation), source and collimation options. The aim of the model was to identify the most promising system geometries, which was done with the aid of multivariate analysis (MVA). The most promising systems were constructed and tested. The diffraction profiles of a range of materials have been measured and used to both validate the model and to identify the presence of drugs in sample packages.

X-ray diffraction studies give material-specific information about biological tissue. Ideally, a large area, low noise, wide dynamic range digital x-ray detector is required for laboratory-based x-ray diffraction studies. The goal of this work is to introduce a novel imaging technology, the CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) that has the potential to fulfil all these requirements, and demonstrate its feasibility for coherent scatter imaging. A prototype CMOS APS has been included in an x-ray diffraction demonstration system. An industrial x-ray source with appropriate beam filtration is used to perform angle dispersive x-ray diffraction (ADXRD). Optimization of the experimental set-up is detailed including collimator options and detector operating parameters. Scatter signatures are measured for 11 different materials, covering three medical applications: breast cancer diagnosis, kidney stone identification and bone mineral density calculations. Scatter signatures are also recorded for three mixed samples of known composition. Results are verified using two independent models for predicting the APS scatter signature: (1) a linear systems model of the APS and (2) a linear superposition integral combining known monochromatic scatter signatures with the input polychromatic spectrum used in this case. Cross validation of experimental, modelled and literature results proves that APS are able to record biologically relevant scatter signatures. Coherent scatter signatures are sensitive to multiple materials present in a sample and provide a means to quantify composition. In the future, production of a bespoke APS imager for x-ray diffraction studies could enable simultaneous collection of the transmitted beam and scattered radiation in a laboratory-based coherent scatter system, making clinical transfer of the technique attainable.

This thesis presents the analysis of low angle X-ray scatter measurements taken with an energy dispersive system for substance identification, imaging and system control. Diffraction measurements were made on illicit drugs, which have pseudo- crystalline structures and thus produce diffraction patterns comprising a se ries of sharp peaks. Though the diffraction profiles of each drug are visually characteristic, automated detection systems require a substance identification algorithm, and multivariate analysis was selected as suitable. The software was trained with measured diffraction data from 60 samples covering 7 illicit drugs and 5 common cutting agents, collected with a range of statistical qual ities and used to predict the content of 7 unknown samples. In all cases the constituents were identified correctly and the contents predicted to within 15%. Soft tissues exhibit broad peaks in their diffraction patterns. Diffraction data were collected from formalin fixed breast tissue samples and used to gen erate images. Maximum contrast between healthy and suspicious regions was achieved using momentum transfer windows 1.04-1.10 and 1.84-1.90 nm_1. The resulting images had an average contrast of 24.6% and 38.9% compared to the corresponding transmission X-ray images (18.3%). The data was used to simulate the feedback for an adaptive imaging system and the ratio of the aforementioned momentum transfer regions found to be an excellent pa rameter. Investigation into the effects of formalin fixation on human breast tissue and animal tissue equivalents indicated that fixation in standard 10% buffered formalin does not alter the diffraction profiles of tissue in the mo mentum transfer regions examined, though 100% unbuffered formalin affects the profile of porcine muscle tissue (a substitute for glandular and tumourous tissue), though fat is unaffected.

I-ImaS (Intelligent Imaging Sensors) is a European project which has designed and developed a new adaptive X-ray imaging system using on-line exposure control, to create locally optimized images. The I-ImaS system allows for real-time image analysis during acquisition, thus enabling real-time exposure adjustment. This adaptive imaging system has the potential of creating images with optimal information within a given dose constraint and to acquire optimally exposed images of objects with variable density during one scan. In this paper we present the control system and results from initial tests on mammographic and encephalographic images. Furthermore, algorithms for visualization of the resulting images, consisting of unevenly exposed image regions, are developed and tested. The preliminary results show that the same image quality can be achieved at 30-70% lower dose using the I-ImaS system compared to conventional mammography systems.