Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions to ME

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Choate, Western Kentucky University; Kevin Schmaltz, Western Kentucky University; Stephen Howard, Western Kentucky University; Paul Graves, Western Kentucky University; Jonathan Martin, Western Kentucky University; Chris Kruckenberg, Western Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2007-142: AIR FLOW TEST BENCH: A SENIOR CAPSTONE PROJECTRobert Choate, Western Kentucky University Robert Choate teaches thermo-fluid and professional component courses in Mechanical Engineering, including the Sophomore Design, Junior Design, the Senior ME Lab I and the ME Senior Project Design course sequence. Prior to teaching at WKU, he was a principal engineer for CMAC Design Corporation, designing telecommunication, data communication and information technology equipment.Kevin Schmaltz, Western Kentucky University Kevin Schmaltz teaches thermo-fluid and professional component courses in Mechanical Engineering, including the Freshman Experience course, Sophomore Design, Junior

Conference Session

Meeting ABET Requirements

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Biney, Prairie View A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2007-1556: ASSESSING ABET OUTCOMES USING CAPSTONE DESIGNCOURSESPaul Biney, Prairie View A&M University Page 12.261.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Assessing ABET Outcomes Using Capstone Design CoursesAbstractThis paper presents a methodology fo r using capstone design project courses for assessing anumber of ABET outcomes. In the advent of EC 2000, Engineering programs have grappledwith methods for assessing some of the ABET outcomes, especially those skills which are nottaught in the traditional engineering programs.Senior Design and Professionalism I and II are two capstone design courses taken by seniors inthe College of Engineering over a

Conference Session

Innovations for the Senior Year of the ME Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elvin Shields, Youngstown State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2007-72: FOSTERING CREATIVITY IN THE CAPSTONE ENGINEERINGDESIGN EXPERIENCEElvin Shields, Youngstown State University Dr. Elvin Shields is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research has been generously sponsored by a University Research Professorship during the 2005-2006 academic year at Youngstown State University. Since 1995, Dr. Shields has coached approximately 250 mechanical engineering students through nearly 90 capstone design projects ranging from collegiate competitions to industrial problems. Page 12.757.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007

Conference Session

Innovations for the Senior Year of the ME Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Showkat Chowdhury, Alabama A&M University; Abdul Jalloh, Alabama A&M University; Ruben Rojas-Oviedo, Alabama A&M University; Mohamed Seif, Alabama A&M University; Amir Mobasher, Alabama A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

expected outcomes, as well as to theAccreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria and some additionalME Program criteria based on the requirements by the American Society of MechanicalEngineers. The program outcomes should be measurable, and so an assessment tool or Surveyhas been developed. The survey form is completed by the students at the end of the secondsemester of the Capstone Design course, along with their final project report. Evaluations bythe instructors are also completed. The student survey results and faculty evaluations arecompiled and compared with the above mentioned course mapping. The results show thatthere is considerable matching between the course mapping for the expected educationaloutcomes done by the

Conference Session

Improving ME Instructional Laboratories

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Matsson, Oral Roberts University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

be used as a comparisonwith forces derived from pressure distribution measurements.It is sometimes difficult to get students to fully complete a course project that is a part of acourse with lectures and labs since they have homework problems and reading assignments at thesame time as they work on their project. A project of the extent that has been shown in this paperis probably better suited for a senior capstone design project where the students can concentratemore on the project itself. Alternatively, one can let the students work on the same project duringtwo different courses scheduled either during the same semester or two consecutive semesters.The cost of building the experiment described in this paper was around $3,200 including

Conference Session

Improving ME Education: Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Langerman, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; William Arbegast, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Daniel Dolan, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

(AMP) employs student/faculty teams to in-vestigate material joining research/design issues. The latest in the state-of-the-art FrictionStir Welding (FSW) equipment is available in the AMP center. Currently, AMP projectsinvolve over 30 graduate and undergraduate students from across campus. AMP providesstudents with: 1. Sponsorship and mentorship of capstone senior design projects, 2. Laboratory employment, 3. Undergraduate research opportunities.Capstone Senior Design Projects – The AMP center routinely sponsors senior capstonesenior design projects ( fourteen over the last three years). These projects raise issues thestudents will encounter during their industrial careers – starting with the development ofan agreed to “statement of

Conference Session

Improving ME Education: Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nidal Al-Masoud, Central Connecticut State University; Peter Baumann, Central Connecticut State University; Alfred Gates, Central Connecticut State University; Zdzislaw Kremens, Central Connecticut State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

and Possible Ways of ImplementationKey attributes 1 Suggested but not limited to possible means of achieving“The Engineer of 2020” the desired attributesStrong analytical skills Science and mathematics with focus on applications involving analytical objectives of several technical courses, which would develop strong reasoning skills rather than memorizationPractical ingenuity Accountable laboratory requirements – well coordinated laboratories and lectures. Application oriented projects – Perhaps all capstone projects should be

Conference Session

Improving ME Education: Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Duffy, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Linda Barrington, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Cheryl West, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; John McKelliget, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Eugene Niemi, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Sammy Shina, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Hongwei Sun, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Chris Niezrecki, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Robert Parkin, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Majid Charmchi, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Peter Avitabile, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

students compared to the student engineering population17. Our ownexperience with voluntary capstone courses also indicates a similar overrepresentation ofwomen (in one course 4 to 1 over 6 years) and older and more diverse students.Service-learning itself is certainly not new, and S-L in engineering is not new. Some ofthe authors have been integrating S-L into courses at UML for about ten years. Oakes(2004)14 has a list of 33 universities that have S-L in engineering and describes a numberof examples of S-L. In 2004-05 the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded tenprograms to introduce S-L into engineering, which would add about 8 more universitiesto the list. EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) started at Purdue andnow includes

Conference Session

Introducing Active and Inductive Learning and Improving the Learning Curve in ME

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Byrne, Western Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

education Figure 4. Student Rusty Welborn, Page 12.1310.7environment, and can be recognized in the faculty reward tested the mechanical properties ofsystem. die-cast aluminum.Figure 5. Students David Brown, David Kleinholter and Jimmy Sandusky provide a regionalaluminum sheet manufacturer with a design as their senior capstone design experience.Team projects serving as a capstone design experience, where students

Conference Session

Meeting ABET Requirements

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth Van Treuren, Baylor University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

), specifically supported five of the 14 outcomes: a, b, e, g, andk. The assessment tools comprised prelab homework, exams, an experimental design project,written reports, oral presentations and team/peer evaluation. The senior capstone design course,taken in addition to ME Lab, accounted for another seven outcomes. It was decided by thefaculty that one or two courses are not sufficient to demonstrate the necessary assessment of theprogram outcomes. There were several outcomes, though, which made more sense to beassessed by a laboratory course. For instance, all accredited engineering programs must have acomponent of experimental design in their curriculum. ABET Criterion 3b states “Engineering

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions to ME

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Avitabile, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

homeworkproblems and tests have explicit answers, given the problem statement. Unfortunately most, if notall, engineering problems do not follow this cookbook approach. Students must be allowed toexperience problems that require them to formulate solutions to problems with no specific straight-line structure to the solution – they must learn how to “think outside the box” [7].Laboratory (and the senior capstone project) is the one place where students have the opportunityto “think on their own” and assemble separate pockets of knowledge to solve a complete problem.The biggest advantage is that real-world exercises and experimental approaches clearly show thatthere is not always an “answer at the back of the book”. Students are often frustrated by this

Conference Session

Innovations in Mechanical Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jesse Maddren, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

with several unknowns and optimization problems with one ormore independent design variables. Over the years, the laboratory has been used to test othertypes of projects including longer term projects that are more applied, such as the design of asolar domestic hot water system for a dormitory and the design and construction of small thermalsystems, such as a soft drink cooler.This paper presents a survey of how thermal systems design is taught in mechanical engineeringprograms. The paper also outlines the author's personal experiences with teaching thermalsystems design, what has worked and what has not worked.BackgroundA brief investigation into different mechanical engineering programs across the United Statesshows that many programs offer

Conference Session

Innovations for the Senior Year of the ME Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gregory Davis, Kettering University; Craig Hoff, Kettering University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

of real engineering systems. Further, students mustbe exposed to professional standards and organizations, governmental regulations, teamdynamics, and societal concerns. In short, students must be afforded the opportunity to practiceengineering, learning how to apply the underlying scientific principles to the design of thesesystems. Working on applied research projects can meet these challenges.The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) annually conducts a series of collegiate designcompetitions where students from Universities throughout the world compete. Many schoolsintegrate these competitions into the capstone design course. Capstone projects are valuable inthis regard, but taking these projects one step further to the point of doing

Conference Session

Improving ME Education: Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amir Jokar, Washington State University-Vancouver; Hakan Gurocak, Washington State University-Vancouver; Dave Kim, Washington State University-Vancouver; Xiaolin Chen, Washington State University-Vancouver; Hamid Rad, Washington State University-Vancouver

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

engineering, control, automation, and robotics, materials and manufacturing, computer-aided engineering, and machine design. • Engineering software skills; an introductory software called Working Model 2D, was taught and practiced in class in order to be used for solving real-world engineering problems, and to be used in individual or group design projects later in the semester. • Design project competition; a design project, entitled “Water-Powered Vehicle”, with a competition at the end was used as a motivation tool to instill critical thinking and creativeness. The twenty one enrolled students were divided into seven teams and each team was given a one-liter bottle of drinking water to use it as the only source of

Conference Session

Innovations in Mechanical Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nihad Dukhan, University of Detroit Mercy; Michael Jenkins, University of Detroit Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

had to design the experiment for, amount of work involved, ease ofplaying the role of a teacher, whether they became aware of the their own learning process,whether the new awareness would help in learning other materials, advantages/disadvantages andlevel of enjoyment and time spent on the project. The survey results were analyzed and haveshowed positive advantages of this learning experience in the areas mentioned above. Page 12.1321.21. IntroductionTraditionally, engineering undergraduate students are provided with some design experiences inthe capstone design course, and as part of some other engineering courses, which include design-type

Conference Session

Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics Instruction

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Philip Gerhart, University of Evansville; Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Bruce Cain, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

appropriate PTC as a guide. At a medium-sized technical university, studentsread and reported on PTCs as part of a senior thermal science laboratory course. At a largeresearch university PTCs were used as reference material in a laboratory capstone design course.In addition to instructor’s experiences, assessment data from student surveys are presented.1. Introduction to Performance Test CodesA. What Are Performance Test Codes The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)Performance Test Codes (PTCs) provide uniform rules and procedures for planning, preparation,and execution of performance tests and for reporting the results 1,2. A performance test is anengineering evaluation, based on measurements and calculations, whose results indicate

Conference Session

Improving ME Education: Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Efstathios Michaelides, University of North Texas; Reza Mirshams, University of North Texas

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

unified way concepts such as momentum and thermal boundary layers.6. A project course on “thermal engineering projects,” offered in the second semester of the junior year, is taught jointly by the professors who taught the thermal science courses and serves as the cornerstone project course for all the thermo-fluid concepts the students have been taught in the previous semester.7. The senior-year courses are reserved for the typical capstone design course and two required courses on nuclear energy and alternative energy sources. These and technical elective courses, including a recommended course on entrepreneurship, form the bulk of the senior year curriculum.8. Technical elective courses are planned to be offered with

Conference Session

Improving ME Instructional Laboratories

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Samuel Yang, Troy High; Mariappan Jawaharlal, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Purpose Sensor Board for Mechatronic ExperimentsIntroductionIn the past decade most undergraduate engineering programs have adopted mechatronics in someform into their mechanical engineering curriculum. However, due to their multidisciplinarynature, mechatronics courses1-3 across the programs vary significantly. Some courses focus onmicroprocessors and programming, some on sensors and others on controls. There are alsomechatronics courses based on robotics. There are also mechatronics capstone design projects.At Cal Poly Pomona, mechatronics is offered in all these flavors depending upon the course andthe instructor. Experience indicates that students who are involved in mechatronics projects arethe ones who had some prior exposure in this field

Conference Session

Meeting ABET Requirements

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bobby Crawford, USMA

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

ProgramAbstractAssessing the level at which a Mechanical Engineering program achieves its stated outcomes isessential, not only to a successful ABET evaluation but also to the continued improvement andeffectiveness of the program. While survey data is valuable, it should only be one component ofa broader assessment plan. The Mechanical Engineering (ME) program at the United StatesMilitary Academy (USMA) has employed a method to feed graded event averages and standarddeviations from student assignments, examinations, and projects into a multi-level assessmenttool that provides a valuable measure of how well the students are achieving the programoutcomes.In the fall of 2005, the need arose to objectively evaluate how well the students in a designcourse were