No abstract

Integrating game-like elements into the classroom is becoming more common given the increasing popularity of video games. Early research shows that educational gamificationimplementing game-like elements into an activity-can increase students' motivation and engagement. The key objectives of this research are: a) investigating student perceptions about gamification within the demography of the authors' institution, and b) understanding if/how the students' overall learning of the course materials improve via gamification. Five engineering courses, all of which are either in the core or are elective classes of the electrical and computer engineering curricula or , were tested with game-like elements over the span of two semesters. The gamified contents were implemented in Moodle using recently available plugins that enabled activities such as badges, experience points tracking with levels, leaderboards, and quizzes with automated feedback. The results were derived from gathering students' views about gamification and course activities from an online survey that each student in the course had the option of completing.A brief summary of the results show that students identified a lack of time and poor timemanagement as key barriers to their learning. Furthermore, students viewed that immediate feedback, and having repeated attempts of similar but different questions (akin to gamified learning through trial and error) were very helpful in their learning. However, students also indicated that the game-like elements, on average, were minimally helpful towards their motivation. This is likely due, in part, to the limited amount of gamification that was incorporated into the courses at this time. The results also show that the combination of gaining experience points and "leveling up" (nor the two individually) is not a strong motivator. Instead, students recommended that activities be tied to extra credit such that they influence the course grade. Survey results also indicated that the groups' of students often played games to win. As such, creating more meaningful goals/challenges for the students to complete may also help with motivation.

The formation of conical silicon tips with nanoscale sharpness as a result of single-pulse localized laser irradiation is presented in this work. A Q-switched neodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet nanosecond-pulse laser, emitting at its fourth harmonic of 266 nm, and a mask projection technique were used to generate circular laser spots, several microns in diameter. The irradiation of silicon-on-insulator films was performed in ambient, vacuum, or argon atmospheres, with the resulting structures and underlying substrate examined via atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The laser fluence range within which tip formation occurs is strongly dependent on the irradiated spot size. Within this range, the height of the resulting tip increases with the fluence level, while nearly preserving the aspect ratio. The formation mechanism of these structures is briefly discussed in view of these results and other, related published work.

No abstract

Focused ion beam induced structural modifications in thin magnetic films J. Appl. Phys. 112, 033901 (2012); 10.1063/1.4739302Single-pulse excimer laser nanostructuring of silicon: A heat transfer problem and surface morphology Single pulse excimer laser nanostructuring of thin silicon films: Nanosharp cones formation and a heat transfer problem Cross-sections of laser fabricated nanosharp tips and microbumps on silicon and metal thin films are produced and examined in this work. These structures are formed with a Q-switched neodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet nanosecond-pulse laser, emitting at its fourth harmonic of 266 nm, using a mask projection technique to generate circular laser spots, several microns in diameter. Cross-section of selected structures were produced using a focused ion beam and were characterized via electron microscopy. The diffraction patterns of the silicon samples indicate that the laser formed tip maintains the same single crystal structure as the original silicon film. Examinations of the laser formed structures in metal films confirm that the microbumps are hollow, while revealing that the vertical protrusions are solid.