Conference Session

Innovative and Computer-Assisted Lab Studies

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harry Franz, University of Houston-Downtown

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

Systemsand is part of the four-year Control and Instrumentation Technology program at the University ofHouston Downtown (UHD) in Houston, Texas. Continuing development of the electrical powersystems course includes the knowledge and application of LabVIEW software for various virtualexercises and projects. Included in the class are many actual electrical power control projects thatrange from the initial studies of the basics of electrical power systems and LabVIEW to the finaladvanced capstone project design.Many of the class students work in industry in various related professions. Also, the classstudents have varied technical experience level and background of academics. The proceedingtwo elements make the class both challenging and interesting to

Conference Session

On Pedagogy of Lab Courses and Their Design

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alan Cheville, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy to address studentdevelopment. Bloom’s Taxonomy identifies levels of knowledge and helps faculty identifystudents who have mastered those levels. Multiple pedagogical techniques are used that addresslearning at different levels on Bloom’s taxonomy: 1) independent reading with formative Page 11.1308.2evaluation helps individual students master fundamentals (remember and understand), 2) follow-up active learning in class helps student teams apply knowledge to a design problem (apply andanalyze), and 3) design projects have students test how useful acquired knowledge is (evaluateand create). The following

Conference Session

Unique Laboratory Experiments and Programs

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kendrick Aung, Lamar University

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

Measurements Lab ClassAbstractMeasurements Lab is a core junior course for mechanical engineering majors in the Departmentof Mechanical Engineering at Lamar University. The main objective of the course is to trainstudents to be able to use various instruments and equipments needed in a mechanical engineer’scareer. This paper discusses the revamping of the course describing each experiment and therelated materials, the relevance of each new experiment to ABET outcomes related toexperimentation, and the evaluation of student projects and their assessments. Responses andfeedback from students are presented to evaluate the effectiveness of new experiments and groupprojects.IntroductionLaboratories are essential for education and training of engineers as

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Linda Schmidt, University of Maryland-College Park; Janet Schmidt, University of Maryland-College Park; Paige Smith, University of Maryland-College Park

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

Maryland-College Park PAIGE E. SMITH, Ph.D., Director of the Women in Engineering Program, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland. Dr. Smith is a co-PI of the CCLI grant. She provides leadership in recruiting and retaining female engineering students for the college. Her current research focuses on engineering design teams and project management. Page 11.269.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 20061526: BESTEAMS: A Curriculum for Engineering Student Team Training by Engineering FacultyEngineering instructors who have uttered the following sentence have

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wenshen Pong; Tim Le, San Francisco State University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

. Page 11.476.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Development of Hands-on Experimentation Experience For Civil Engineering Design Courses At San Francisco State UniversityAbstractThis project will describe the revision of structural design courses, such as Reinforced ConcreteStructures and Steel Structures, at San Francisco State University’s School of Engineering, amajor undergraduate degree granting institution. Development of hands-on experience fordesign courses originated with and was supported by funding from the National ScienceFoundation to set up an integrated undergraduate structural engineering laboratory. It aims tohelp students maximizing learning through hands

Conference Session

Design of Laboratory Experiments

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nebojsa Jaksic, Colorado State University-Pueblo

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

many books and articles on STM construction6 - 8, but they usually describeSTMs that are expensive and do not use off-the-shelf parts. While the academic literaturecontains some promising information, the Web is often a good choice for exploration ofcurrent projects. An extensive Web search revealed three promising projects (eitherunfinished, not achieving atomic resolution, or using obsolete parts) that were used as astarting point in our preliminary designs. While a successful STM project by Alexander9used very inexpensive components it required two laboratory signal generators and anoscilloscope for operation. It did not have a motorized final approach of the tip towardsthe sample and the data could not be recorded in a computer file

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mel Cossette, Edmonds Community College; Thomas Stoebe, University of Washington; John Rusin, Edmonds Community College; Robert Mott, University of Dayton; Robert Simoneau, Keene State University

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

2006-339: NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER FOR MATERIALS TECHNOLOGYEDUCATIONMel Cossette, Edmonds Community CollegeThomas Stoebe, University of WashingtonJohn Rusin, Edmonds Community CollegeRobert Mott, University of DaytonRobert Simoneau, Keene State University Page 11.952.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006session number 1526The National Science Foundation has recently funded a project at Edmonds Community Collegethat will create a National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education. The objectiveof this project is to develop a clearinghouse of teaching materials for the broad field of materialstechnology. All materials considered for this Resource Center will

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mohan Krishnan, University of Detroit Mercy; Shuvra Das, University of Detroit Mercy; Sandra Yost, University of Detroit Mercy; Kathleen Zimmerman-Oster, University of Detroit Mercy

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

systems framework, used in the design ofproducts and manufacturing processes. Design of modern day products involves the knowledgeof different engineering disciplines, as well as an ability to communicate and work well in multi-disciplinary teams. Because engineers are traditionally trained in fields such as eitherMechanical or Electrical engineering, many of today’s engineering graduates are not wellprepared to function competently in environments that require them to work on products whereelectrical and mechanical knowledge areas are intertwined.An ongoing NSF-funded project addresses these competency gaps through the development oftwo courses incorporating team-oriented and project-based activities, as a follow-up to previousefforts centered

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

S. Manian Ramkumar, Rochester Institute of Technology; Scott Anson, Rochester Institute of Technology; Charles Swain, Rochester Institute of Technology

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

2006-1038: TEACHING RELIABILITY CONCEPTS TO UNDERGRADUATESTUDENTS – AN NSF CCLI A&I GRANTS. Manian Ramkumar, Rochester Institute of Technology Prof. Ramkumar is a faculty in the Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology department at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently serving as the Director of the Center for Electronics Manufacturing & Assembly. He teaches courses in surface mount electronics packaging, robotics and manufacturing automation. He was instrumental in developing the Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly at RIT. This Center is equipped with production scale equipment, used for training and applied research projects for

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chetan Sankar, Auburn University; P.K. Raju, Auburn University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

teamwork, and satisfies the majority of the ABET 3a-k criteria. Experiencegained from disseminating the case studies through the earlier NSF CCLI grants, as well asreports from others, shows that there are many significant challenges in introducing multimediacase studies into engineering classrooms. Some of the challenges are: changes in the role of theinstructor, apprehension about using innovative materials, difficulties in evaluating and testingstudents, and training students to engage in effective team work. The goals of this project werederived in order to address these challenges. They are to provide faculty members with hands-on experience of working in teams, explain case study teaching strategies, connect STEMtheories to the real-world

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Kadlowec, Rowan University; Beena Sukumaran, Rowan University; Kauser Jahan, Rowan University; John Chen, Rowan University; Robi Polikar, Rowan University; Robert Krchnavek, Rowan University; Shreekanth Mandayam, Rowan University; Paris von Lockette, Rowan University; Yusuf Mehta, Rowan University

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

popular tool in enhancing engineering education. TheCollege of Engineering at Rowan University received NSF funding in integrating digital imagingexperiences throughout their curriculum. Students are exposed to hand-on experiments that usesimple digital imaging techniques. Experiments have been developed by different engineeringdisciplines. However the experiments are such that any engineering or science core course canadapt the developed material easily. The project comprises 8 modules that introduce students tofundamentals of DIT and its applications. All engineering students from their freshman year tothe senior year are exposed to these DI modules. Some modules are also used for K-12 outreachthrough our women in engineering and match and

Conference Session

Design of Laboratory Experiments

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Huettel, Duke University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

in signal processing, this type of laboratory experience may notgenerate enthusiasm or spark curiosity in a younger student being introduced to DSP for the firsttime.This paper reports on a project in which application-driven laboratory exercises wereimplemented as part of a required sophomore/junior-level introductory signal processing course.Students entered the course with a solid foundation in MATLAB but with no experienceprogramming in C or Assembly languages. This constrained the choice of laboratory platform, inthat students were to spend their time developing, implementing, and testing signal processingalgorithms, not learning a new programming language. The Texas Instruments C6713 DSKplatform, which can be programmed using SIMULINK

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Bean, Paul Smith's College; James Carroll, Clarkson University; John P. Dempsey, Clarkson University; Andrew H. Strong, Clarkson University; William R. Wilcox, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

incorporate these into the class arepresented.BackgroundIn 2003, Clarkson University received a grant from the National Science Foundationentitled "Hands-On Learning in Engineering". The major goal of this project was toincrease the number and quality of hands-on experiences in engineering classes. The firstclass for attempted reform was the freshman engineering class ES100, Introduction toEngineering Use of Computers. ES100 is a second-semester freshman year course takenby approximately 350 students; nearly all are engineering majors.Prior to the Spring of the 2004-2005 academic year, ES100 was handled independentlyby each of four engineering departments, each with their own instructor, teaching solelyto their own majors, using their own

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward Wheeler, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; JianJian Song, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; David Voltmer, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1991. His interests include electromagnetic compatibility, high-speed digital system design, microcontroller-based system design, embedded and real-time systems, electronics design automation, and algorithms and architecture for parallel and cluster computing.David Voltmer, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology David Voltmer is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Iowa State University in 1961. His interests include electromagnetics, microwave metrology, systems engineering, and entrepreneurial student projects

Conference Session

Design of Laboratory Experiments

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Avitabile, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Tracy Van Zandt, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Nels Wirkkala, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Jeffrey Hodgkins, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

available to study the individualeffects that may contaminate the measurement system in a controlled fashion.The actual measurement system has variable mechanical parameters—it changes every time it isoperated so that no two sets of data are alike (variable input, variable mass, variable stiffness).This forces each student to process his/her own data, as it will be slightly different from data setscollected by other students. The RUBE (Response Under Basic Excitation) is described alongwith the supporting tools that assist the student in the evaluation of the acquired data.Assessments of the first three semesters of the project clearly indicate that the students enjoyedthis hands-on project and clearly felt that they understood the material in much

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sharlene Katz, California State University-Northridge; Kathleen Alfano, College of the Canyons

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

toaddress the needs of industry by producing, as a multi-county consortium, highly skilled andeducated technicians to better meet national and State workforce demands in the fields ofinformation and manufacturing technologies.CREATE was previously funded by two NSF-ATE projects, which met or exceeded all of theirobjectives. The project had four primary goals, which included curriculum development,enrollment and retention, work-based site experiences and professional development. TheCREATE consortium developed programs that began with a common core curriculum in eitherengineering technology or computer networking. The common core curriculum allowed studentsto transfer from a participating college to any college in the consortium to take classes in

Conference Session

Virtual and Distance Experiments

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Schmidt, Bismarck State College; William Wahlman, Bismarck State College; Zachery Allen, Bismarck State College

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

system itself is unique,it is just a piece of a larger project. One of the main focuses of the WebLab project, which isfunded by a National Science Foundation Course Curriculum Laboratory Improvement (CCLI)grant (Award #DUE-0340927), is to help establish remote laboratories as a successful academictool. This challenge is two fold. The first hurdle is to validate that student learning can occurthrough remote means. The second hurdle is to inform the rest of the academic community thatremote laboratories are viable, cost-effective, and genuinely promote student learning.The first hurdle can be addressed through high quality design, not only of the system andlaboratory, but also through the use of a comprehensive system with good instructional

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Yeary, University of Oklahoma; Tian Yu, University of Oklahoma; Robert Palmer, University of Oklahoma; Mike Biggerstaff, University of Oklahoma; L. Fink, University of Oklahoma; Carolyn Ahern, Ahern and Associates

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

data.Carolyn Ahern, Ahern and Associates Dr. Carolyn Ahern, Assessment Coordinator, earned her B.A. in English from Ohio Wesleyan and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Cornell University. She also holds an M.B.A. from the University of Oklahoma. For the last 20 years, she has specialized in the design, implementation, and assessment of educational materials. Most recently, she has been the coordinator of assessment for two NSF grants at the University of Oklahoma: Sooner City (Civil and Environmental Engineering) and the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Project (the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the School of Meteorology

Conference Session

On Pedagogy of Lab Courses and Their Design

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Pape, Central Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

knowledge and skills obtainedearlier in the course to answering slightly more difficult experimental questions, withslightly increased reporting requirements. These labs are much more open-ended thanthe one-week labs and are designed to provide an experience similar to that of anengineer working on a project in industry. For the “two-week labs”, students areprovided with a general statement of the objective and the test equipment and areexpected to develop a procedure and complete the lab on their own. The results of the labare written up in a formal lab report.The intermediate design labs fall into one of two general project areas:1. Improve any existing EGR 360 experiment.2. Research and design a new experiment.Improvements to existing

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Louis Everett, University of Texas-El Paso; Elsa Villa, University of Texas-El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

support from the National Science Foundation, UTEP developed andimplemented several “modules” in a sophomore-level dynamics class. The modulespresent problems that appear to be intuitively obvious yet have unexpected solutions.Students use modeling software to apply fundamental principles to explain the solutions.This paper presents the preliminary assessment of this project. The assessmentinstruments include the Dynamic Concept Inventory [2], grades, and attitude surveys.Introduction The University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) is one of the largest producers of Hispanicbaccalaureate-level engineers in the continental United States. UTEP graduates can befound in the nation’s top graduate schools, in the upper echelons of the nation’s

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Lee, San Jose State University; Stacy Gleixner, San Jose State University; Tai-Ran Hsu, San Jose State University; David Parent, San Jose State University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

terminologies, and areas of academic emphasis. project work arranged in teams that favor mixed student backgrounds. Varying constraints in equipment availability, Flexible technical modules, selected and organized budget levels, and schedule. based on device type as well as fabrication method. Different levels of student preparation in different Clearly articulated team functional prerequisites*, subject areas, knowledge, and skills. rather than course prerequisites. Lack of open-ended problem-solving opportunities, Semi-custom design flow* and low-resolution rapid limited by high demand in cost and time

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Stanfield, North Carolina A&T State University; Caroline Moineau, North Carolina A&T State University; Shona Morgan, North Carolina A&T State University; Silvanus Udoka, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

immediately in competitiveenvironments with system engineering, information technology, and soft (communication,leadership and team) skills in addition to traditional engineering fundamentals 2,3. Such skills areparticularly relevant for Industrial Engineers who often serve as a facilitator of technical andbusiness interactions4,5.A number of efforts to increase these skills have been undertaken, the most common being thecapstone senior design projects. Curriculum designers are increasingly more aware ofdeveloping courses that combine skills from several prior courses to practice such skills.Especially innovative approaches introduce students to systems thinking early and continuouslythrough their program, stressing both engineering and business

Conference Session

Innovative and Computer-Assisted Lab Studies

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rafic Bachnak, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; Mike Englert, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

in May 2005. He worked on the ROV boat project from Spring 2004 to spring 2005. Page 11.1452.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Wireless Loggers for Real-Time Data Acquisition and Analysis Rafic Bachnak and Mike Englert Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Corpus Christi, TX 78412AbstractData acquisition is a very important aspect in the engineering world of today. There isconstantly a need for new data to be logged and analyzed. This paper describes the use ofwireless data loggers in an application where data is transferred

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mahmoud Ardebili, Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

experiential learning and gain problem-solvingskills.The lab consists of six modules: Real Time Measurements, Hand Cranked Generator andCalorimeter, Piston/Cylinder Device Gas Heat Engine, Propane Fueled Steam RankinCycle, Refrigeration/Air Conditioner Cycle, and Natural Gas Fueled Internal CombustionEngine. The lab component allows students to gain an overall knowledge ofinstrumentation of thermal systems, and the relationship between theoretical and physicalsystems. It also promotes teamwork and communication between students, particularly, indata collection, analysis and report preparation. Groups of 3 to 4 students work togetheron each project and prepare report.IntroductionIt is well known that students learn and retain more as they become more

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Todd Kaiser, Montana State University; Stilson Applin, Montana State University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

reusedthrough out all three-lab sections. Also to cutcosts the lab class sizes were kept small thisallowed the students in different lab sections toshare clean room garments and tweezers.Another measure under consideration is toassess a lab fee to each student of 150 dollars Figure 4. Teflon Bucketto cover the disposal garment and chemicalsused by each student.Conclusion Future work on this project includes developing a relationship with secondaryschool teachers and students. Two forums will be created for this to occur. Thedevelopment of these forums will occur after the Microelectronic fabrication course hasbeen set up and its operation has been demonstrated. The first forum is a two

Conference Session

Unique Laboratory Experiments and Programs

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shuvra Das, University of Detroit Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

, informationtechnology, the National Science Foundation, the Accreditation Board for Engineering andTechnology Education (ABET), the changing expectations of employers, and many other forces.Within the new paradigm, instructors are expected to harness students’ prior experiences,promote high expectations within a supportive climate and encourage inquiry and the excitementof discovery, in addition to embedding communication and teamwork, critical thinking, and life-long learning skills into the learning experience (National Science Foundation, 1996). Active,integrative project-based learning is needed to replace the passive lecture-based instruction thatis so common in our classrooms.Realizing the importance of addressing these requirements, Drs. Raju and Sankar

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephanie Farrell, Rowan University; Mariano Savelski, Rowan University; Robert Hesketh, Rowan University; C. Stewart Slater, Rowan University

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

delivery system, an engineer must fully understand the drug and material propertiesand the processing variables that affect the release of the drug from the system. This requires asolid grasp of the fundamentals of mass transfer, reaction kinetics, thermodynamics and transportphenomena. He or she must also be skilled in characterization techniques and physical propertytesting of the delivery system, and practiced in the analysis of the drug release data.The engineering goals of this project are (1) to explore different types of drug delivery systems;(2) to study drug delivery designs in a quantitative manner using engineering principles; (3) touse up-to-date industrial techniques for the production, testing and analysis of drug deliverysystems

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hanson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

Teaching Students How to Evaluate the Reasonableness of Structural Analysis ResultsAbstractStructural engineers, and engineers in general, depend heavily on software to assist in complexanalyses of large problems. As the size and complexity of a problem increases, however, thepotential for errors and the devastating impacts of those errors increase. Unfortunately, fewfaculty teach undergraduate students how to evaluate the reasonableness of their structuralanalysis results. Therefore, the National Science Foundation has funded a project to develop aversion of undergraduate structural analysis course that teaches students to not only generatestructural analysis results, but also to evaluate those results for

Conference Session

Virtual and Distance Experiments

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Schuyler, University of Hartford; Tom Eppes, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

software and the spreadof software programming skills (principally Java and Microsoft .NET), more and morework is appearing each year in journals and conference proceedings. While most of thereported systems are developmental projects by motivated faculty, it is only a matter oftime before a robust, commercially-viable solution appears on the market.Is it possible to develop a purely distance EET or CET program via some form ofdistance laboratory. We think not, and have not found a single educator who thinks so.There is a “hands-on” component that is integral to the laboratory experience that isinescapable. Does anyone believe, that a graduate who has never seen, touched, orhandled electronic components and measurement hardware or has not built

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Bowen, Rice University; Marcia O'Malley, William Marsh Rice University

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Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

2006-2627: HAPTIC INTERFACES FOR A LABVIEW-BASED SYSTEMDYNAMICS COURSEKevin Bowen, Rice University Kevin Bowen received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University in 2004, and is currently pursuing an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Rice. His current projects include the use of haptic feedback for rehabilitation in virtual environments, the development of haptic paddle kits for instruction of undergraduate engineering concepts, and the implementation of embedded microcontrollers for the control of haptic systems.Marcia O'Malley, William Marsh Rice University Marcia O’Malley received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1996, and the