Conference Session

Building Blocks for Public Policy in Curricula

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carl Fayerweather, University of Toledo; Sorin Cioc, University of Toledo; Douglas Oliver, University of Toledo

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

2006-897: POWER PLANT PROPOSAL AND FEASIBILITY: A STUDENTPROJECT FOR A THERMODYNAMICS COURSECarl Fayerweather, University of Toledo Carl is a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering.Sorin Cioc, University of Toledo Dr. Cioc is a visiting professor of Mechancial Engineering.Douglas Oliver, University of Toledo Dr. Oliver is undergraduate director of the mechanical engineering program at the University of Toledo. He is also an attorney. Page 11.1001.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Power Plant Proposal and Feasibility: A Student Project for a Thermodynamics

Conference Session

Building Blocks for Public Policy in Curricula

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joel Haight, Pennsylvania State University; Richard Devon, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

2006-1838: KATRINA IN THE CLASSROOM: ENGINEERING AND PUBLICPOLICY THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNINGJoel Haight, Pennsylvania State University JJoel M. Haight, Ph.D., P.E., CIH, CSP was appointed in January 2000 as an Assistant Professor in Penn State University’s Department of Energy and Geo-Environmental Engineering. He has a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, both from Auburn University. Dr. Haight worked as a safety engineer for the Chevron Corporation for 18 years prior to joining the faculty at Penn State. In addition to human error research, Dr. Haight also does research in the areas of safety program effectiveness and leading

Conference Session

Building Blocks for Public Policy in Curricula

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Dunn, Environmental Protection Agency

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

engineering course through a course project that focused on mobile sourceemissions. Six of the eight students enrolled in the course were third and fourth year mechanicalengineering students. Two graduate students from other engineering schools were also enrolled. To formulate my ideas for the project, I collaborated with staff at the City of ChicagoDepartment of the Environment, the Region 5 EPA office, and EPA headquarters. The resultingproject had two elements. Both originally focused on Pilsen, a Chicago neighborhood that isboth a trucking hub and a population center for working class families. As part of the firstelement, students assumed the role of fleet managers of small trucking firms in Pilsen seeking tojoin EPA’s SmartWay Transport

Conference Session

Building Blocks for Public Policy in Curricula

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alison Tramba, University of Virginia; Edmund Russell, University of Virginia; P. Paxton Marshall, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

2006-1046: PUBLIC POLICY AND ENGINEERING DESIGN: A CREATIVEPARTNERSHIP IN ENGINEERING EDUCATIONAlison Tramba, University of Virginia Alison Tramba is an undergraduate student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. She plans to graduate in May, 2007, with a double major in Systems Engineering and American Studies. An internship in Washington, DC, research at UVA, and participation in interdisciplinary projects with the School of Architecture have motivated her to pursue a career in policy regarding housing and infrastructure provisions. Alison is also a two-term representative to the university's Honor Committee.Edmund Russell, University of Virginia

Conference Session

Engineering and Public Policy Pioneering Courses

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristen Tull, Lafayette College; Sharon Jones, Lafayette College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

used in the course include assigned chapters from a generic public policy text, PublicPolicy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives,1 and a reader of current events known as TakingSides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Science, Technology, and Society2. In addition,there are several additional readings which are either provided by the instructor, or students aredirected to the online copy of a journal article. The students are also required to find somereadings on their own for the assigned projects to improve their information literacy skills asthey relate to engineering public policy issues.As a sophomore-level course at a liberal arts college, the emphasis is to introduce students to thetheoretical aspects of engineering public

Conference Session

Topical Public Policy Issues

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carole Womeldorf, Ohio University-Athens

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

understanding of the essential fundamentals and convince them ofthe inadequacies of their stubborn misconceptions and poor procedural habits. Page 11.687.5While Wyatt’s prescription of small student-executed original research projects for the broadrange of important engineering fundamentals would definitely help open student’s minds,comprehensive implementation without a massive overhaul of the current system is unlikely.But the idea of a supervised exploration of the unknown in her paper is suggestive. And anengineering education adaptation of Jeremy Silman’s approach to teaching chess3 I believe willprovide a more efficient and workable system, without

Conference Session

Topical Public Policy Issues

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Devon, Pennsylvania State University; Elizabeth Kisenwether, Pennsylvania State University; Richard Schuhmann, Pennsylvania State University; Robert Pangborn, Pennsylvania State University; Kim Barron, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

penetration in the workplace of our graduates. In a biennialsurvey of recent engineering graduates from Penn State reported below, we have found distinctlymodest levels of importance in the respondents’ work assigned to “Importance of Working on anInternational Project.” Although this importance rating has been creeping up since the firstsurvey of 1993 graduates, it is still below a 3 on a 5 point scale. Conversely, the respondentsrated study abroad experiences highly (3.5 to 4.5) even if they did not have one, and most didnot. So those surveyed have very positive attitudes towards engagement with the rest of theworld, but they are not yet rating its significance to their work very highly. Both these findingswould seem to challenge the view that our

Conference Session

Topical Public Policy Issues

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Frank Barnes, University of Colorado-Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

rapid growth in the number of engineering graduates in Asia and around the worldan important question is: how should we be preparing the undergraduate in the US tocompete? Asia is graduating more than half a million engineers a year compared to roughlysixty thousand in the US and starting wages are one third to one tenth those in the US.Several approaches to this question will be presented including, the broadening of the typicalengineering program to include specific focuses on leadership skills, the understanding ofmajor issues such as the environment, population dynamics and poverty. A second approachwill be getting our students involved in working on trans-national design projects that requireworking with other students over time and

Conference Session

Topical Public Policy Issues

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Devin Stewart, National Academy of Engineering; Norman Fortenberry, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

education discussions have had an increased prominence since the recent releaseof the National Academies’ report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing andEmploying America for a Brighter Economic Future7. Its slate of high profile committeemembers (such as Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of the Lockheed MartinCorporation, and Charles Vest, president emeritus of MIT) and action-oriented recommendationshave helped garner significant publicity. Many members of Congress have been quick toembrace its recommendations, and several proposals and pieces of legislation have beenintroduced in the wake of the report. These include bills by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) toestablish an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and authorize

Conference Session

Engineering and Public Policy Pioneering Courses

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jacqueline Isaacs, Northeastern University; Christopher Bosso, Northeastern University; Carol Barry, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

current and projected workforce. To increase student awareness of thesocietal implications of this developing technology, the academic partners in the Center forHigh-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN), an NSF-sponsored Nanoscale Science and EngineeringCenter (NSEC), have created a team taught course entitled “Nanomanufacturing I”. Assessmentof engineering and science student performance is reported for the segment of the course thataddressed policy issues.1. IntroductionThe academic partners in the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN), an NSF-sponsored Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), have created a team taughtcourse entitled “Nanomanufacturing I”. Faculty from all three core partner academicinstitutions, including Northeastern