Collection

1981 North Midwest Section

Authors

Henry L. Kucera; Elton G. Solseng; George L. Pratt

demonstrate energyconservation as energy supplies become expensive andcritical. A rubber band-powered tractor contest seemed to be theanswer. Here was an inexpensive, equal source of energyfor young designers to work with. In many ways rubber bandpower offers chances for more innovation than standardizedmodel airplane engines.The Contest: This type of activity should be meaningful, but alsofun and interesting for all concerned. The sponsoringdepartment should be rewarded by the quantity and qualityof potential students contacted. The actual planning andrunning of the contest can be delegated to undergraduzatestudents in the department. The contestants should beenthused while designing, constructing, and competing withtheir peers. Rules

Collection

1981 North Midwest Section

Authors

O. Hawaleshka

thegovernment can ill afford to alienate.The basic question is relatively simple: Which programs and schools shouldbe licenced and supported? Obviously: those that are best for the objectiveintended, the production of a satisfactory engineering graduate. On whatbasis is. one to judge which schools meet requirements? A set of standardshad to be developed to reflect the goals and needs of the country's futureengineers.The Philippine environment is not conducive to a straightforward applica-tion of the familiar 11 peer evaluation 11 method common to Western countries. 159Such an accreditation method can easily lead to abuse. The Project consul-ting team after a very thorough investigation of conditions, evaluationof

Collection

1981 North Midwest Section

Authors

P. C. Pfister

format was chosen to accomplishthe following objectives: 1. Understand the morphological approach to the design of a complex system (1, 2).* 2. Practice the technique and procedures for innovation by de- fining a real life problem and developing a practical system for the solution (3, 4). 3. Experience the advantages and difficulties of working to- gether as a design team. 4. Communicate ideas through formal (written) and oral presen- tation before peers and a panel of professional practition- ers. In a period when the tendency has been to make the engineer awhite collar worker dependent on the computer and on theoretical stu-dies, we want to help tilt the balance

Collection

1981 North Midwest Section

Authors

Scott J. Conrad

. 24Approximately 50 responses were received. A better response wasdesired so arrangements were made to have the technical writing classeswrite essays outlining the criteria each student felt composed aquality engineering education. Two hundred essays were obtained.These essays, as well as the fifty initial responses, were analyzed bynoting the frequency of the rather wide range of criteria mentioned.The results are tabulated in Table 1. DEVELOPING THE SURVEYOnce a list of 11 important 11 criteria had been generated, development ofa survey instrument to measure those criteria began. The instrumentwas used on three groups: faculty, recent graduates, and currentjunior and senior undergraduates. The first group, the faculty