Conference Session

Embedded Computing

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Pamela Beavis; Mahbub Sardar; Lewis Sircin; George Janack; Daniel Pack; Austin Griffith; Steven Barrett

system. In this paper, we present a low-cost, motivational (fun) roboticsplatform that can significantly enhance the laboratory instruction of advanced real timeembedded systems concepts. The robot was co-developed by a team consisting of facultymembers, graduate students, undergraduate students, and laboratory technicians for asenior/graduate level electrical and computer engineering course. In this course each two-student laboratory team is issued a mobile robot for use throughout the course. The studentsmust program basic tasks such as robot movement and maze wall-detection. The complexity ofrequired programming tasks escalates as the semester progresses. Students are required toprogram the operating system for the robot that must

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Elizabeth A. Stephan; Matthew Ohland

education experiments, describing the ongoing challenge of implementing anexperimental protocol in a classroom environment, the expansion of the experimental protocol toinclude other test sites, and how formative assessment shaped the educational experiment.IntroductionThe goals and methods of Clemson’s EXPerimental Engineering in Real-Time project have beendescribed in detail in our earlier work.1,2,3 We seek to use real-time sensors in the classroom toprovide quicker feedback to students during hands-on laboratory modules. To establish theefficacy of using the real-time sensors to improve student learning, an educational experimentwas carefully designed to evaluate the laboratories in actual classroom situations, when used byvarious instructors

Conference Session

Inservice Teacher Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kathleen Crowe; Kris Wood; Richard Crawford; Daniel Jensen

classrooms.2. Assessment PlanAssessment was accomplished using surveys given at the end of each day. This daily survey had Page 10.165.1two parts. The first part asked the K-12 teachers to identify, in writing, the best and worst things 1from that day’s activities. The second part asked for quantitative responses to six questions. Thefirst three questions covered instructional content and the last three covered laboratory content.Figure 1 below shows the 6 quantitative questions along with the numerical scale used in therating. Circle the

Conference Session

Thermal Systems

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Andrew Smith; Ralph Volino

evaluations.BackgroundIn recent years, the U.S. Naval Academy has invested in a number of pieces of “self-contained”educational laboratory equipment. This type of educational laboratory equipment iscommercially available and generally comes completely instrumented. The individual units tendto demonstrate a single concept, and different units are available for a number of subjectsincluding thermal conductivity; free and forced convection; transient heat conduction; boilingand condensation heat transfer, heat exchangers, internal combustion engines, air conditioningsystems and many other topics. This type of equipment can and has been used effectively.Shawn Kim [1] presents an interesting article on getting students involved in thermal design byimproving existing

Conference Session

A Renaissance in NRE Programs

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

G. Maldonado; Christenson John; Eugene Rutz

in these two programs, to provide a statusreport on their ongoing progress, and to highlight a few of the mechanisms that have led to the successof these graduate school “feeder” programs. Also, this article highlights some details within theseprograms that directly address one or more of the specific areas of interest to this special session andits audience, such as: • Use of distance learning in nuclear engineering, • Utilizing laboratory experiences to facilitate student learning, and • University nuclear engineering program interactions with industry and national laboratories. Page 10.37.1 “Proceedings of

Conference Session

Controls, Mechatronics

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Hugh Jack

A Modeling and Controls Course using Microcontrollers Hugh Jack, Associate Professor School of Engineering, Grand Valley State UniversityAbstractMicrocontrollers are being used to support the laboratory and project components of a junior levelmechanical/manufacturing engineering course in system modeling and control. Previously thecourse primarily used Labview and Data AcQuisition (DAQ) cards with Personal Computers.However, upon completion of the course students were not able to design and implement practicalcontrol systems. Recently the course has been evolving towards low cost commodity hardwarefound in mass produced consumer products. This past year the course used

Conference Session

Computer-Based Data Acquisition Systems

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Parten

Session 2068 Instrumentation and Control of an Ecological Life Support System in a Laboratory Project Micheal Parten Electrical and Computer Engineering Texas Tech University1. Project Laboratories The laboratory structure in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) atTexas Tech University is somewhat different than most university laboratories.1-10 There are 5, threehour credit required laboratory classes. Although all of the laboratories have pre-requisites, they arenot

Conference Session

ERM Potpourri

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Holt; Keith Williamson; Paul Kauffmann; Tarek Abdel-Salam

andexploration of research issues related to writing proficiency of DE students in engineering andtechnology. DE writing proficiency is evaluated based on two sets of data: i) Results of a university exit-writing exam for undergraduates. ii) Results of a junior level fluid mechanics laboratory taught as a traditional and as a distance education course.Exit writing examination overviewThe exit writing examination data was gathered at Old Dominion University (ODU), acomprehensive, state – supported institution with over 18,000 students. The university is locatedin the Tidewater region of eastern Virginia, a metropolitan area with a population ofapproximately 1.5 million. ODU is among the early pioneers in distance learning through asatellite

Conference Session

Capstone/Design Projects: Electr-Mech ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott Danielson; Jerry Gintz

dealing with manufacturing automation (asidentified by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers). The six courses composing theautomation concentration of ASU’s Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technologydegree are briefly described. A more detailed description of the MET 451, Introduction toAutomation, course is also provided. The course’s content and the accompanying laboratoryequipment are described. Due to the industrial partners’ donations, the laboratory is based onfull-scale, standard industry components.IntroductionAs the U.S. manufacturing industry continues its quest for increasing efficiencies and reducingoperating costs in this global marketplace, it is turning to automation as the means to that end.Industrial automation

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

William Loendorf

curriculum.A recruiting and retention plan is also being developed as part of the new curriculum design. Thedevelopment of this plan is considered to be a crucial and fundamental component of the overallEE program. One of the biggest concerns is the recruitment and retention of underrepresentedgroups in the engineering field.This paper describes the planning and development of the new Electrical Engineering program atEWU including the significance, infrastructure, goals, objectives, laboratory needs, programrequirements, and curriculum.IntroductionThe EE program was conceived on the basis of three factors: industrial demand within the regionand state, the small number of qualified graduates available to enter the workforce, and theincreasing pool of

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Braun

A Senior Level Polymer Electronics Course: Unique Instruction or Just Low Cost? David Braun, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoAbstractAfter progressing from research laboratories to factories to the market, semiconducting polymersnow appear in commercial products and offer educational opportunities. Semiconductingpolymers are excellent materials with which to teach semiconductor device fabricationprinciples, device testing, optical and electronic properties, polymer synthesis, polymer filmpreparation, and structure-property relationships. Previous publications have emphasizedmultidisciplinary course modules based on semiconducting polymers.1 This work

Conference Session

Innovation in ChE Teaching

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Silverstein

Paducah, Kentucky. Six chemical engineering oriented laboratory experiments inprocess control are integrated into the course to enable students to make observations,draw conclusions, and establish relationships for specific cases. During subsequentlecture periods students develop the observations they make into general relationships,many of which they later test in the laboratory.Assessment conducted on student learning indicates that laboratory exercises were mostvaluable when they preceded classroom discussion (in an inductive structure), providedthat the instructions for the experiments and their analysis were very detailed. Non-inductive exercises were preferred for difficult material to aid in developing practicalunderstanding of theoretical

Conference Session

Industrial Collaborations

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Frank Miceli; Chip Ferguson; Aaron Ball

product. A call for proposalsaddressing the transfer of energy conservation and efficiency technologies into a workableprototype was issued by the Department of Energy. The ultimate goal is to stimulate regionaleconomical development and promote job growth. Resulting from an awarded contract, a uniquepartnership was formed among Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Western Carolina University,Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and American Carolina StampingCompany to develop a marketable energy efficient hybrid water heating and dehumidifyingproduct. This partnership was made possible by securing funding from the Department ofEnergy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy through a competitive request forproposals. Benefits

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Weber; Nathan VanderHorn; Rashmi Bahuguna; Arun K. Somani; Mani Mina

High Speed Systems Engineering: A New Trent in Electrical and Computer Engineering Mani Mina, Robert Weber, Arun K Somani, Nathan VanderHorn, Rashmi Bahuguna High Speed Systems Engineering Laboratory Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Iowa State UniversityThis paper introduces the main ideas and program objectives for High Speed SystemsEngineering (HSSE). HSSE (funded by NSF CISE-EAI)1 has been proposed by our team as anew and viable platform for integrating engineering education, research and development. Thisapproach identifies and integrates the common

Conference Session

Engineers & Mathematicians Communicating

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter Avitabile; Tracy Van Zandt

foundation courses can too easily become a “blur” to the students—nothing more than a “bunch of words” intermingled with sines, cosines, integrals, Taylor seriesexpansion, etc., with no particular reason or intent.In the UMASS Lowell Mechanical Engineering curriculum, an effort is being made to try torectify this by interweaving some of the fundamental STEM material between multiple coursesso that students obtain a deeper understanding of important concepts. In particular, it is helpfulto integrate the well-defined, theoretical material of foundation classes with the hands-onenvironment of later laboratory classes. Laboratory can be effectively used to reinforce lecturematerial that is presented in related courses [2]. It can also be the perfect

Conference Session

A Renaissance in NRE Programs

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

John Ford

offered on a regular basis. Meanwhile the Physics/Geophysics Department at TAMUK has developed a laboratory-based course in nuclear physics. This is the first upper division laboratory course offered atTAMUK in over a decade. The faculty members in the Department of Nuclear Engineering atTAMU are assisting TAMUK to ensure that the lab equipment is tailored to enhance the successof the students in their preparation for graduate studies. The courses provided at TAMUK andvia the TTVN network allow the students entering the graduate program at TAMU to follow thesame plan of study as students from TAMU or comparable nuclear/health physics programs

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Khaled Mansy

is needed.This paper reports on the ongoing effort to build an Artificial Sky Dome for the School ofArchitecture at Oklahoma State University. The paper discusses the technical challenges facedby the team in charge of designing the Artificial Sky Dome. Challenges that relate to thestructure of the dome, uniform distribution of light sources, avoiding the star effect, effect ofinternal reflections, models of different sky conditions, control of sky luminance, and the needfor a post-construction calibration of the lighting control system. The construction of theArtificial Sky Dome is expected to be completed by the end of summer 2005. This laboratory isfunded by the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education, (CCLI)Course

Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Manufacturing ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kenneth Stier

A Competency Gaps Study for a Manufacturing Sequence Curriculum Kenneth W. Stier Department of Technology Illinois State UniversityAbstract This study was built on prior competency gap research conducted by the Society forManufacturing Engineers to provide a foundation for the development of the Department ofTechnology’s new Integrated Manufacturing Systems (IMS) laboratory at Illinois StateUniversity (ISU). The objectives of the study were to: a) investigate to what extent small andmid-sized Illinois manufacturing companies feel it is important for newly hired manufacturingengineering or technology graduates to

Conference Session

NSF Funding for Educational Scholarship

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Jeff Jackson

Developing STEM Educational Grant Proposals: Best Practices David Jeff Jackson Electrical and Computer Engineering The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0286AbstractMany programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other funding agencies, have agoal of the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)education. Funding opportunities exist for laboratory development and curricula reform insupport of improvement in student learning and STEM educational pedagogy. Understanding allfacets of the grant proposal process, from inception through proposal review and, ideally, togrant awarding is critical in

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Edward Jackson; Mani Mina

electricalengineering class at Iowa State University. Discussion of classroom, laboratory, and out-of-classlearning is included, along with some of our results.IntroductionThe increasingly rapid growth of the various fields of engineering has led to great challenges ineducation, and many proposals have been made regarding changes in curriculum1-3. The needsof first-year university students have especially changed; quickly changing and evolvingtechnology demands more than ever that students continue to learn efficiently throughout theirprofessional career. To this end, a first year course must provide the student with a number ofobjectives:• Identify the scope of the particular field which he or she has chosen to study;• Begin to learn the process of

Conference Session

New Endeavors

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Ollis

current,most modern device; the content explains the operation and principles underlying thedevice’s performance, and the laboratory forces confrontation of device utilization anddissection with device explanation. Devices visited, one per week, in the correspondingweekly laboratory period are bar code scanner, compact disc player and burner, FAXmachine, electric and acoustic guitar, electric drill, bicycle, internal combustion engine,optical fibers, photocopy and scanner, digital and video cameras, cell phones, and(model) airplanes.Introduction The author created, in 1992, a device dissection laboratory for incoming first yearengineering students. As “It seemed desirable to base a new lab on some modern andemerging technologies”1,2, the

Conference Session

A Renaissance in NRE Programs

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

John Bennion; Jay Kunze; Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar; Michael Lineberry

The Idaho Universities’ Role with the New Idaho National Laboratory Jay F. Kunze, John S. Bennion, Michael J. Lineberry, and Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar Idaho State UniversityPURPOSE and GOALS:The goal set by the U.S. Department of Energy is that the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is tobecome the preeminent, internationally recognized nuclear research, development anddemonstration laboratory for nuclear energy. It is the intent of the Idaho Universities to partnerwith the INL so as to assist in achieving this mission, for the benefit of nuclear energy to the nation and the world, and for the benefit of the local

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Ollis

contextprovides indication of the historical and intellectual developments prior to the current,most modern device; the content explains the operation and principles underlying thedevice’s performance, and the laboratory forces confrontation of device utilization anddissection with device explanation. Devices visited, one per week, in the correspondingweekly laboratory period are bar code scanner, compact disc player and burner, FAXmachine, electric and acoustic guitar, electric drill, bicycle, internal combustion engine,optical fibers, photocopy and scanner, digital and video cameras, cell phones, and(model) airplanes.Introduction The author created, in 1992, a device dissection laboratory for incoming first yearengineering students. As “It seemed

Conference Session

Innovative Teaching Techniques

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Tadeusz Majewski; Hector Cervantes; K. V. Sudhakar

analysis are introduced. The directbenefits of experimental exercises in fracture mechanics to materials science/mechanicalengineering education have been discussed. The basic/primary objective of these experiments isto give students the hands-on experience. Furthermore, more emphasis is given for improvingstudents’ learning skills and creative thinking by having small group discussions and frequentquizzes on laboratory exercises.Keywords: Fracture mechanics course; Teaching methods; Laboratory methods; Fracturetoughness testing and microstructure analysis.1. IntroductionA new elective course on fracture mechanics is proposed to be introduced for the undergraduatestudents in mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering undergraduates typically

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Joe Stanley; Daryl Beetner; Donald Wunsch; Rohit Dua

),memory elements, and sequential logic design. Students’ grades are determined by theirperformance on homework assignments, quizzes, and in-class examinations. A laboratory course(optional for all but EE and CpE majors) supplements the lecture by providing experiments thatinclude analysis and design using Mentor Graphics and FPGAs. While the laboratory is a veryuseful supplement to the lecture, almost half the students taking the lecture are not required totake the laboratory and there is not sufficient time in the laboratory schedule to introducesignificant design elements. In Fall 2004, hands-on group projects, for all students, wereintroduced to the lecture course. The goal was for students to develop a more practicalunderstanding and

Conference Session

Computer-Based Data Acquisition Systems

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Kessler

Air Rocket Thrust Experiment Involving Computerized Data Acquisition, Calibration, and Uncertainty Analysis Michael R. Kessler Department of Mech. Eng., The University of TulsaAbstractThe development and modification of a laboratory experiment to determine the thrustcharacteristics of an air propelled rocket is described. The experiment is used in the junior levelInstrumentations and Measurements course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at theUniversity of Tulsa. It involves elements of instrument calibration, computerized dataacquisition, and uncertainty propagation. The experimental details of the laboratory aredescribed along with the goals

Conference Session

ECE Lab Development and Innovations

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Mauritzen

An Integrated Approach to the Design of Experiments David W. Mauritzen, William A. Westrick Indiana University Purdue University Fort WayneThis paper defines a philosophy for the design of experiments which has been used to generatematerials primarily intended for sophomore level engineering students in laboratory courses. Itoutlines integration of background course material, analytical work, computerizedevaluation, and simulation which has been used successfully in our first electrical circuitslaboratory.Both the design and contents of our laboratory courses have been impacted by technical andsocietal changes. The complexity of both has increased dramatically and requires that we

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Yong Tao; W Bao; R Moreno; Marc Zampino; Yiding Cao

projects in order to integrate hands-on experiments in traditionalthermal science lecture courses and to reorient traditional teaching laboratory courses withdesign, build, and test (DBT) activities. In particular, the following principles and methods areadapted: a hands-on experience integrated to abstract concepts discussed in lectures, a clearlinkage to industrial applications, and Design Build and Test (DBT) projects. Specifically, twoDBT course modules are developed: the heat exchanger and scaled building air-conditioningsystem. The project reforms the current thermal science stem curriculum with changes to threerequired lecture courses in such a way that the contents of the stand-alone ME lab course isintegrated with the lectures through the

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

John Crimaldi; Daniel Knight

Division of Experimental and Laboratory Oriented Studies Session 1526 A Laser-Based Flow Visualization System for Fluid Mechanics Instruction John P. Crimaldi, Daniel W. Knight University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado 80309AbstractAn interactive turbulent water flow facility and laser-based flow visualization system are used toreinforce fundamental concepts in the instruction of fluid mechanics. For this pilot study, thelaboratory instructional module was incorporated into a single topic within the curriculum of agraduate-level fluid mechanics course

Conference Session

BME Introductory Courses

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Jendrucko; Jack Wasserman

. However, the combination of a statewide reduction in credit hours and thedifficulty in students determining the application of various mathematic and engineeringprocesses resulted in a new combined focus for this course. Because of need to develop a perspective of understand of statistics, multipleexposures to the topics is useful. In recent interviews with seniors, they have agreed thatthey have taken a good course in statistics, but it was difficult to relate to “realapplications”. Although they used the concepts in the BME laboratory course, it tookextensive time to really see what to apply. They expressed a desire to see some of thematerial utilized earlier in their courses. The new BME 271 course will provide students with some