Conference Session

Web-Based Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gregory Rutkowski, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

assist in this process, all students within the Page 11.527.2University of Minnesota system are given a Portfolio when they begin their college career. 25Mb of memory is allocated for storage with potential for expanding to 100 Mb. Aftergraduation, students can continue to access their Portfolio indefinitely. Costs for this system arederived from existing technology and computer fees. Besides students, the University ofMinnesota also supports Portfolios for all faculty and staff for their own professionaldevelopment. Students are able to store and selectively share information with anyone at any time. Thecapability defines the owner’s

Conference Session

Computers in Education Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Jones, Southwest Tennessee Community College; James M. Northern, Southwest Tennessee Community College

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

and can create and solve new problems in real time. The tablet PC and projectoreliminate the need for a blackboard. Having the flexibility to teach courses with minimalfacilities allows the Engineering Technology Department to move its classrooms to appropriateoff-campus sites near the students.RationaleHistorically the Engineering Technology programs have been available only at the maintechnology campus. Students knew what field they were interested in, were very mature,working, and advancing their careers. To attract more students, the Engineering TechnologyDepartment has developed a just-in-time initiative. The department is offering a seamlesseducation that starts with a technical certificate and progresses to an associate’s degree

Conference Session

Computing Tools for Engineering Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raluca Rosca, University of Florida

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

) felt that people with advancedMATLAB experience that are enrolled in this class should be offered the option of a project ormore complex programs. Students commented favorably on the integration of MATLABprograms in PowerPoint presentation, as well as on the rapid feedback provided by thediscussion of the homework problems in class.From the nine students answering the open-ended question regarding the strengths of thecourse (EML 4920), 6 students commented positively on MATLAB. One senior level studentwent on to say “MATLAB is a crucial tool in the future of any engineer. Providing studentswith a basis of its features and workings early in their college career is imperative.”Other Students’ Opinions on MATLAB Teaching and Miscellaneous

Conference Session

Computed Simulation and Animation

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Maixner, U.S. Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

diagrams for water is provided, along with suggested tutorial questions for students and recommendations for additional applications. Feedback comments are provided from seniors who used the Mollier and T-s diagrams, and from juniors who used a similar application which provided a tutorial on p-v and T-v diagrams. Several screen shots of the worksheets are provided. The spreadsheet files are available from the author via email.IntroductionTo the budding thermodynamics student, nothing can be quite as daunting as the initial exposureto the property tables for gases and (even more so) two-phase fluids. Many undergraduates, evenat the end of their careers as mechanical engineering degree candidates, are uncertain of

Conference Session

Computers in Education Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Lindquist, Arizona State University; Harry Koehnemann, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

Division’s computing resources and it is the platform on which faculty haveinstalled the software applications and will demonstrate them to students in class. Other formfactors, including tablets, were discarded for their limited computing power and their price pointfor computing power.The Division’s Laptop Policy intentionally permits students to purchase a laptop that does notmeet specifications. The minimum specifications are designed to guide a purchase in thesophomore year that ensures that laptop’s features will be adequate until graduation three yearslater. The policy is flexible and permits students to purchase cheaper laptops early in theircollege careers with the expectation the computer will likely need to be upgraded

Conference Session

Issues in Computer Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Bower, Kansas State University-Salina

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

third module isthe same as project four in Nutt's Linux kernel projects book.6 However, after the students havestudied the first two modules, the third module is a simple program to write. Finally, thestudents are asked to write a user space program to compare the system time returned from thegettimeofday() system call to the xtime global variable reported by the kernel module.The fourth project deals with device drivers. The students expressed that they had a high interestin this lab because a device driver is something that they can visualize themselves developing atsome time in their careers. Again, the students begin by looking at a sequence of modulesobtained from the Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide.1 The device studied here is

Conference Session

Mobile Robotics in Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Ahlgren, Trinity College; Igor Verner, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

the characteristics that we would like the students to acquire inthe robot projects and demonstrate at the robot contests are implied in the concept of engineeringaptitude. The engineering aptitude characterizes readiness of the individual to master engineeringand technology or to pursue an engineering/technical career [11]. Aptitude tests includeengineering and technological problems, which require understanding theoretical concept andability to use them in practice [12].For example, the questions posed in the NEAS tests for secondary school students who did notstudy technology/engineering subjects cover the following topics:• Mathematical reasoning. Students solve practical problems and use mathematical methods studied in school algebra

Conference Session

Web-Based Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eugene Ressler, U.S. Military Academy; Stephen Ressler, U.S. Military Academy; Catherine Bale, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

provide some anecdotes to give the flavor of unexpected challenges thatinevitably arose during contest operations and how the contest’s design allowed them to be met.The overarching goal of the WPBDC is to increase awareness of and interest in engineeringamong a large, diverse population of middle and high school students. As described in our earlierwork,2 its motivation is to attract young students of the United States to careers in engineering,math, and science in order to mitigate projected national shortfalls in the future. This leads tomore specific goals, which are that each contestant should: • Learn about engineering through a realistic, hands-on problem-solving experience. • Learn about the engineering design process—the application