Elsevier Opens Registration for Global Engineering Academic Challenge to Support Active Learning

NEW YORK, October 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Five-week, Game-based Learning Challenge Open to all Engineering Graduates and Under-graduates Around the World 

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced it has opened registration for the Engineering Academic Challege (EAC) 2016 - which officially begins on 10th October 2016. The annual five-week challenge gives engineering professors, instructors and librarians around the world the chance to integrate real-world engineering and science problem-solving into their STEM education communities, by immersing students in a practical problem-solving environment. Cross-disciplinary questions based on National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges cover themes that include Future of Energy, Future of Making, and Future of Medicine, and have been drafted by a team of engineering students at Drexel University in Pennsylvania. Participants will compete to solve questions for five consecutive weeks, with prizes awarded to top performing students.

Now in its 11th year, the Engineering Academic Challenge, previously known as the Knovel Academic Challenge, expands benefits to participants by providing the option to not only access Knovel's engineering information and tools as they solve challenges, but also access to Engineering Village's flagship database, Ei Compendex. Another key enhancement is a new challenge platform that enables participants to more seamlessly register and set up their profiles with avatars, track competition globally between individuals and other universities, and share results over a variety of social media channels.

A survey from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) found only 23% of employers believe graduates are skilled at applying knowledge to real-world problems. The challenge is aimed at promoting active learning based on practical examples of inter-disciplinary scenarios, helping to prepare students for future careers in academia and industry.

The prizes for this year's Engineering Academic Challenge include:

Weekly winners with the highest points receive a $100 Amazon gift card:

• The 1st Place Grand Prize winner with the highest accumulation of points at the end of the challenge will receive an Apple iPad.
• The 2nd Place Grand Prize winner with the second highest accumulated score at the end of the challenge will receive a SONOS speaker.

"Today, students are digital natives - by the time they are 21, the average person has played 10,000 hours of games," commented Ann-Marie Roche, Director of Customer Engagement at Elsevier. "The Engineering Academic Challenge has been designed to reflect this, and to make learning as interactive and effective as possible. We are committed to developing students' skills to make sure that they are ready for the workplace. The challenge will help support engineering professors and educators to create interactive learning experiences and improve student outcomes by working on real-world problems."

Dr. Antonios Kontsos, director of Drexel's Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Group and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, commented, "Gaming is the closest analogy to how students learn today. The traditional model of teaching, where we require students to sit in a chair for two or three hours at a time, bears no resemblance to what students do in daily life, so game-based learning - such as Elsevier's Engineering Academic Challenge - helps to best prepare students for the workforce."

All participants can view the following EAC webinar to quickly learn how to use both databases when solving the weekly questions. The webinar provides an overview of how to use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice.

Engineering Village is the home of Ei Compendex, the broadest and most complete engineering literature database available to engineers. Ei Compendex comprises over 18 million records from thousands of publications published worldwide, spanning 190 engineering disciplines, 1970-present. Content is indexed specifically for engineers using the Ei Thesaurus, enabling precise search and discovery of relevant engineering research. Knovel is an engineering decision-support solution enabling engineers to confidently answer technical questions drawing upon trusted data from more than 120 providers through a cloud-based platform with powerful search and interactive analytical tools.

Engineering and science students from academic institutions across the globe who wish to participate in this year's challenge, can register at: eac.elsevier.com.

About Elsevier: 

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make ground-breaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 35,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. www.elsevier.com

Media contact
Christopher Capot
Director, Corporate Relations, Elsevier
+1 917-704-5174
c.capot@elsevier.com