AC 2007-266: USING INDUSTRIAL ADVISORY BOARDS TO ASSESS CAPSTONEDESIGN COURSESStacy Wilson, Western Kentucky UniversityMark Cambron, Western Kentucky University Page 12.1551.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Using Industrial Advisory Boards to Assess Capstone Design CoursesAbstractThe electrical engineering program at Western Kentucky University (WKU) was created in 2001with a focus on project-based education. Faculty have developed a series of experiencesthroughout the curriculum to support this mission which culminates in a year long designsequence. In this sequence, students must plan, design, and
experience is critical for continuous improvement and satisfyingaccreditation agencies. In this paper, we will focus on a particular model involving studentresearch projects in international locations, and will describe how the learning outcomes of theprogram are assessed for purposes of accreditation evidence and program improvement.At Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), about half of all engineering graduates travelinternationally to do academic work through the university’s Global Perspective Program, aprogram that grew from the project-based educational structure implemented at WPI in the early1970s. WPI sends more engineering students abroad than any other US university2. A uniqueprogram aspect is that students satisfy WPI general education
instructionalstrategies developed teaching graduate and undergraduate Industrial Engineering students andhow the author adapted them to teaching undergraduate Engineering Technology students.Examples of the strategies and tools used to teach the Six Sigma Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) methodology and the quality concepts and tools, applied to thestudents’ Six Sigma projects will be discussed. The undergraduate senior-level Six Sigma coursecombines traditional lectures with experiential learning opportunities where the students applythe DMAIC methodology and Six Sigma tools to real-world projects within the College ofTechnology and Computer Science (TECS). Sample deliverables and templates from priorstudents’ Six Sigma projects are provided to
previousconstruction practices, they have time on neither studying through all relevant constructiontechniques or management skills nor practicing through construction projects within 4 years.Students often feel frustrated when they try to illustrate how a construction project is managedand what construction participants communicate.One goal of Construction Management Program is to make students become successfulconstruction managers who are capable of solving both common and unusual problems. Butconstruction management problems usually are tangled with techniques with management issues,students must learn how to use both technical and management skills to manage constructionprojects properly. Usually undergraduate students learn basic civil engineering
, for advanced undergraduates andgraduate students, is proposed that uses a problem-based learning approach to teaching designusing industrial problems. The Course Description section for the proposed course includescourse objectives, outline of the weekly activities, and recommended textbooks. The CourseDeliverables section contains the assessments for the course that mimic the types of deliverablesthat are found in industrial projects. The Course Implementation section describes how thecourse would be implemented. There is no data on the actual implementation of the course sincethis is only a proposed course at this stage.Course DescriptionThis course is focused on advanced undergraduates and graduates students who havesuccessfully completed
oriented) themes for graduation projects andinducing students to industry, new approaches of industry-academy cooperation and apractical engineering design education have been created. This paper will explain anddiscuss this newly established engineering design education model, results from the capstonedesign education, and its effects on design education.2. Capstone Design EducationThe level of domestic design technologies reaches only about 50%-70% of the top level ofthe world. When a new design technology is introduced, 5~20% of overall sales must beincreased. 1 The domestic industry is especially lacking in system design technology (46.9%)and materials technology (28.8%). 1 Also, at least 2-3 years of field training and experienceneeded for
implementation impact. However, the inherent complexity and variability presentwithin economic evaluation models often limits practical use for assessment of theeconomic impact of field implementations as well as within Total Quality Management(TQM) curriculums. In response to the limitations of traditional accounting andengineering economics methods, Engineering Technology faculty at IUPUI and otherPurdue regional campuses have created an Excel-based spreadsheet model for evaluation ofthe economic impact of quality improvement projects throughout the implementation cycle.Although this tool was specifically developed for use within healthcare, we have found thismethodology to be invaluable for supporting project initiation and assessment of
Microsoft Working Connections program was the strongpersonal and professional relationships that developed between the faculty mentees and theirmentors and the professional development experienced by the program participants. The AACCstaff took note of the powerful “faculty professional development” aspects of the program and inthe early years of the new millennium, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation(NSF), developed their own mentee/mentor based advanced technological education facultydevelopment project. Dubbed the MentorLinks program, its first class consisted of seven mentee Page 12.1445.2community colleges and six mentor
AC 2007-2145: INTEGRATING THE TEACHING OF COMPUTER SKILLS WITHAN INTRODUCTION TO MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COURSETimothy Hinds, Michigan State University TIMOTHY J. HINDS is an Academic Specialist in the Michigan State University Department of Mechanical Engineering. He teaches undergraduate courses in machine design, manufacturing processes, mechanics and computational tools. He also teaches a senior-level undergraduate international design project course and has taught graduate-level courses in engineering innovation and technology management. He received his BSME and MSME degrees from Michigan Technological University.Craig Somerton, Michigan State University CRAIG W. SOMERTON is an
. Teetor Educational Award. Dr. Reisel is a member of ASEE, ASME, SAE, and the Combustion Institute. Dr. Reisel received his B.M.E degree from Villanova University in 1989, his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 1991, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 1994. Page 12.1405.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY POLICIES BY UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING STUDENTSAbstractThis paper describes the incorporation of a project involving the development of energy policiesby students in a senior-level
theireffectiveness and how the feedback of the assessment is fed back to the studentsto keep them in the assessment loop. These assessments satisfied a-k programoutcomes, benefited the students and provided valuable information to improvethe program. The engineering program had a successful ABET visit in 2005.IntroductionCriterion 4 of ABET 2000 requires that students participate in a major designexperience prior to graduation. Project based senior capstone courses satisfy thiscriterion very well. These senior design projects also have the added advantage ofbeing a great venue to demonstrate the ABET Engineering criterion 3 (a-k)program outcomes.The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and implementation ofthe assessments tools that satisfy
control, process planning. A short summary of planning, implementation, and managingof a CIM environment will also be covered. The students will conduct experiments on creating aCIM environment using computer supervisory control. By conducting a hands-on CIM labproject, students have access to the relatively new technologies associated with computerintegrated manufacturing, which enable them to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changingtechnologies and become creative problem-solvers and designers. In this project, students designa product that starts with raw materials and continue with fabricating parts, inspecting,assembling, and storing. This paper emphasizes on the technical contents as well as educationalvalues of the
communication in engineeringfields. Throughout the semester, the teams are required to utilize the concepts learned inlecture and apply them to the completion of a fun, yet inexpensive design project. Inpresenting their work, the teams must demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentalengineering principles behind their design in addition to simply exhibiting thefunctionality of their project.During the Fall 2006 semester, the project facilitates learning of energy systemsinvolving renewable energy sources. Students were required to construct a system thatuses solar, wind, and/or hydro sources to collect energy. Furthermore, their system mustbe able to store, transport, convert, and utilize the collected energy to power a small lightbulb. The overall
”. The TechnologyAccreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technologyrecognizes the importance of being able to work on teams. In the Criteria for AccreditingEngineering Technology Programs, Criterion 2e requires that “An engineeringtechnology program must demonstrate that graduates have an ability to functioneffectively on teams.” How can instructors ensure that our students learn how to workeffectively on teams? How can we teach our students teamwork and team leadershipskills?The traditional approach to developing team work and team leadership skills involvesassigning students randomly to teams, giving them a project to work on, and expectingthem to somehow magically learn to work together effectively as leaders
, aerodyanmics, and advises a variety of independent study projects. Page 12.1102.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 New Faculty, Undergraduates, and Industry Contracts: Observations and Lessons Learned from Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering ProfessorsAbstractMost new faculty have little experience managing contracts, and most have minimal experienceadvising undergraduates conducting research. Combining these two roles leads to bothsynergistic and antagonistic opportunities/challenges often not obvious at the outset. In thispaper, relatively new (3-6 years) authors from civil, electrical, and
, 2007 Addressing and Implementing a Safety Plan for Intercollegiate Design CompetitionsIn the Department of Engineering Technology at Middle Tennessee State University concernshave been raised about the safety of student-led engineering projects. These concerns havemanifested because of the recent growth in the number of student-led projects, the number ofstudents involved, and the space required to accommodate them. These projects have a facultyadvisor to assist with arranging the use of department facilities and equipment, and handle thefinancial aspects related to university policy. The student teams are responsible for all otheraspects of the projects, including: the designing, building, testing, and
AC 2007-1513: ENHANCING THE CAPSTONE DESIGN EXPERIENCE IN CIVILENGINEERINGShashi Nambisan, Iowa State University Shashi Nambisan, PhD, PE: Director of the Center for Transportation Research and Education and Professor of Civil Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU), Ames, Iowa. Prior to coming to ISU, Shashi was at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) from July 1989 to January 2007. He enjoys working with students and he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the area of Transportation systems as well as the undergraduate capstone design course sequence. An active researcher, Shashi has led efforts on over 130 research projects that have addressed and responded to
Locketter is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University. He recieved his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1999. His interests include the physics or polymers and numerical / computational methods in materials science.© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 SOPHOMORE YEAR IN CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AT ROWAN UNIVERSITY: INTEGRATION OF COMMUNICATION, MECHANICS AND DESIGNAbstractEngineering clinics are a sequence of project-based learning (PBL) courses taken everysemester by all engineering students at Rowan University. The purpose of these coursesis to prepare students for aspects of engineering practice, such as
industrial research and development, has received several Small Business Innovation Research awards on applications of TDR in process monitoring, and has taught undergraduate physics for many years. Page 12.934.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Integration of a Research/Teaching/Entrepreneurship Model At Elizabethtown CollegeAbstractIn this paper we review an integrated research-teaching-entrepreneurship project atElizabethtown College, where majors in engineering and business are offered in addition toliberal arts curricula.The research component involves a continuous
technology can be employed for humanprogress” and in turn, Athreya explains, “helping the impoverished have a better life can, forstudents, be a life-changing experience."1A recent article discussed how undergraduate engineering students were involved in engineeringprojects to help solve the problems of the developing world. Projects ranged from simple (e.g.creating a tool for removing kernels from dried corn) to complex (e.g. design an inexpensivecytometer for hospitals). In the development of the tool for removing kernels, students stated“… we found in the class that it’s not always the technical aspects that are important—it’s alsocultural.”2Opportunities for engineering graduates to apply their expertise to solve both technical and
nosewheel control system for use by pilots early in their trainingprocess. The engineering students were challenged to create specifications for a turningradius for the device. This involved investigation of how a steerable nosewheel operateson an actual airplane. Based on these specifications, the students were challenged todesign a mechanical linkage system that allows the freedom of movement to meet thesespecifications.This design project gives engineering students an opportunity to apply design principlesto a practical project. The engineering students gain an understanding of work as a team;work with the client, and the sequence and process of design. Beginning pilots using thedevice gain an enhancement of motor skills that positively transfer
based on individual and team progress toward the previously established design objectivesCourse FormatThe reference course is intended to give graduate students a broad background into the issuesthat enter into the design and exploitation of structures and components fabricated using modernanisotropic composite materials. The course entails a combination of lectures (with homeworkand tests), as well as student team projects with individual and group criteria.The lecture topics are intended to integrate the traditional academic offerings in compositematerials, with a focus on issues related to design. In addition to the course offerings discussedpreviously, lectures (with sample problems) are given on a variety of topics, including
AC 2007-1561: ENGINEERING SUSTAINABILITY?!Roger Hadgraft, The University of Melbourne ROGER HADGRAFT is Director of the Engineering Learning Unit in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He has been working on problem-based learning issues since 1991 and has implemented significant curriculum change using project-based learning at both Monash and RMIT Universities. He is a civil engineer with interests in hydrologic modelling, knowledge management and engineering education. He has recently moved to the University of Melbourne to assist in the implementation of the Melbourne Model.Jenni Goricanec, RMIT University Jenni Goricanec has 25+ years of experience in
thiscourse is valuable for students in preparation for their careers, an opportunity existsthrough the use of information technology (IT) to improve the administration of theprogram while extending the positive aspects of this program to the community at-largeand to future students. The use of an IT-based system enables the problems addressed byCapstone students to be preserved and subsequently reused, refined, and built upon toaddress the problems that arise tomorrow.This paper relates the details of an NSF-sponsored project that included the developmentof an IT-based Knowledge Sharing System (KSS) to assist with the capture andproliferation of accumulated student experiences. This project serves as a template forsimilar efforts and includes the
to submit preliminary engineering reports within one year of the permit renewal date tomeet these very stringent nutrient discharge limits. Based on the activity this is now generatingin Virginia, it is becoming clear that the 2010 deadline will be very difficult to meet simply as aresult of the demands placed on the environmental engineering community, not to mentionconstruction requirements. There have been reports that there are not nearly enough qualifiedengineers in the region to complete this work by 2010, even if all of those available did nothingbut this type of project work. Similar activity is occurring in other regions of the US
AC 2007-103: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT: ANINTERNATIONAL SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMThomas Soerens, University of Arkansas Thomas Soerens is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Arkansas. He teaches and performs research in the areas of water quality sampling and data analysis, ground water remediation, and water and sanitation in developing countries. He serves as president of the Northwest Arkansas professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA and as faculty advisor for the UA student chapter of EWB. Before entering the academic world, he spent several years working on rural development projects in Pakistan and in the Maldive Islands.Charles Adams
joining the freshman engineering culture as a student. The researcherwas embedded in the freshman engineering classroom for one year. Class activities involved twoteam-based design projects. With the goal of investigating the context and process of learningengineering, Sherry recorded her learning progress, self-efficacy, and observations in a journaland discussed her experiences with other researchers involved in this project. Data wereexamined through the lens of Bandura’s self-efficacy model. At the beginning of the class,Sherry started with moderately high self-efficacy; however, poor team communication andfailure in her first design project significantly decreased her perceived self-efficacy. She also hadtool phobia due to unfamiliarity with
Engineering Education, 2007 Design Oriented Course in Microprocessor Based ControlsAbstractPreviously, the microprocessor based control class at Texas A&M University - Kingsville hasbeen taught using lecture based class material and microprocessor simulators to illustratemicroprocessor operations and control system issues to students. “However, students learn moreand get more engaged in a project oriented learning environment.”16 For this reason the coursehas been completely restructured to include a practical design project as opposed to onlysimulations that will enable the students to directly apply the knowledge that they have gainedfrom the course. This experience “will enable the students to gain a greater understanding of
address the challenges facinga student-run lab. Case studies of projects are also used to highlight important lessons learnedover the years.1 What is S3FL?Since 1998, the Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory (S3FL) at the University ofMichigan’s College of Engineering has combined a formal design process with student creativityand spontaneity to train and provide students with opportunities for research in space systemsdesign and development.1 Each year, S3FL involves over a hundred undergraduate and graduatestudents in realistic and intensive design-build-test activities ranging from balloon payloads tomicrogravity experiments to nanosatellites. By participating in the end-to-end development ofcomplete space systems, students acquire
Project Management. He also advises students on their senior design projects. He is author of “The Telecommunications Fact Book, 2E” and co-author of “Technology and Society: Crossroads to the 21st Century,” “Technology and Society: A Bridge to the 21st Century,” and “Technology and Society: Issues for the 21st Century and Beyond.” He is a member of ASEE, and a senior member of IEEE.Beverly Cronin, DeVry University Beverly C. Cronin holds B.A from Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, a B.S in Music Engineering/Audio Recording Systems from the California Recording Institute, San Francisco, CA, and a B.S.E.E.T. from DeVry University, Addison (October 2006). She has five years work