Tyurina S.Yu.

Ivanovo State Power Engineering University, Russia

Teaching English to Master Degree Students in Technical University: interdisciplinary approach

Interdisciplinary approach is considered to be a method that is used to teach one subject through different disciplines. Interdisciplinary approach helps students to develop skills and knowledge, to be self-confident and motivate them to study. Integrated teaching promotes deep subject-specific knowledge and it is essential for specialization in such spheres as engineering.

For example, in technical high school English teachers may work together with professors of technical disciplines. As a result of the cooperation, students introduce the results of their scientific investigations in English.

This paper deals with description of the interdisciplinary project in Ivanovo State Power Engineering University. Students of Master Degree Program took part at the International Conference «SCIENCE DRIVE - 2014» in Yaroslavl in October 2014. They presented the results of the research in the spheres of electromechanics, information technologies, and nanotechnologies in English. All the presentations meet the following requirements:

1. Content Analysis (well-developed and competent analysis of the issue; relevant and insightful reasons, facts, examples and / or expert opinion; clarity of arguments or explanation).

2. Coherence and organization (well-organized speech; the topic is clearly stated; paragraphs division (introduction, body, conclusion) is clear; adequate time is devoted to each paragraph within 5-minute time limit; logical progression of ideas with effective use of transitions and a note of finality).

3. Lexical and grammatical accuracy (high lexical and grammatical accuracy and syntactic variety; absence of global errors and correct use of words and phrases).

4. Delivery (fluent and natural delivery; connected speech with appropriate pauses; clear articulation and pronunciation; variety of intonation patterns, gestures are motivated, eye contact is direct; appropriate use of audio-visual (computer) aids; managing audience).

5. Dealing with questions (active listening and responding even to difficult or irrelevant questions; complete and clear answers).

Let’s consider some of the presentations.

The winner of the conference among the professionals in IT sphere, Andrey Shechkov, presented his project about Android application “Ivanovo public transport”. A mobile application to provide ease and convenience of navigating in the city for people who use public transport was developed by the presenter. This application allows its users to

• check the timetable of public transport (city busses and trolley buses);

• get the routes of Ivanovo public transport;

• view a map of the city of Ivanovo and determine user’s location;

• choose the most convenient route from one point of the city to another.

The main purpose of the project is to provide information about public transport routes and its timetable. That is why it is important to choose the way the application would store this information. After analyzing all the available alternatives, SQLite database was chosen, as it is the most common database for Android applications, which functionality is well defined and works almost perfectly.

The second main task was the choice of the way of interaction with a city map. Since the majority of smartphone users regularly use mobile Internet services, on-line services for providing geolocation data were chosen. They are Google Maps and Yandex.Maps. Other analogs of these services, such as Bing Maps and the like, were found to be unsuitable for this application. The main reason is insufficient detailed elaboration of the maps on the territory of the Russian Federation in general (except for Moscow and the Moscow region), and the city of Ivanovo in particular.

Next report was presented by a team of students of Electromechanical department of Ivanovo State Power Engineering University. They introduced a description of software application to calculate electromagnetic fields in electromechanical converters of energy (ECE). Calculation of electromagnetic fields in ECE is rather difficult due to the saturation factor, the effect of current extrusion and non-linear dependences of parameters of ECEs.

Calculation of EF in the areas with non-linear parameters and mathematical description of the appropriate boundary conditions is the subject of complex mathematical computation. Now, due to wide use of electronic computing devices it is possible to implement numerical methods of calculation of physical fields. These methods have become very popular among the developers of electromechanical, electro technical and other devices.

Ansys Maxwell allows calculations that are quite difficult to carry out analytically. For example, it is possible to calculate ventilating, thermal, electric and magnetic fields of different devices.

Another team of students of the same department described a scanning probe microscope that recently appeared in Electro mechanical department of ISPU. Modern educational process demands that students of high school have not only excellent theoretical knowledge, but also have practical skills. Practical knowledge to work with any tools and instruments related to the natural sciences is very important. Especially these skills are essential in such a multidisciplinary field as nanotechnology.

Thanks to a scanning probe microscope, experiments with individual molecules and atoms recently seemed fantastic now become very real, even conventional, not only for fundamental research but also for applied research in nanotechnology.

With the help of a scanning probe microscope, students can measure the width, height, thickness, and electrical properties of the scanned material and create a visual image of the areas of interest in three-dimensional space. Integrated digital camcorder helps to select the desired portion of the sample, while controlling the state of the probe and the process of moving over the surface of the sample.

In conclusion, I’d like to point out that interdisciplinary approach has many benefits to enhance education process of Master Degree students in Technical High School.