Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

John W. Hansen

Session T3A2 Pre-Engineering Education and the STEM Career Expressway John W. Hansen Center for Technology Literacy University of Houston AbstractThis project describes the statewide activities of the University of Houston’s Center forTechnology Literacy to transform Technology Education in 6 – 12 public schools into theScience, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Career Expressway. The STEMCareer Expressway represents the integration of the physical sciences, mathematics

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2005 GSW

Authors

Rafic Bachnak; Korinne Caruso; cody ross; Carlton Prewitt

Session T4C3 Attracting Underrepresented Students for Careers in Science and Engineering Korinne Caruso, Rafic Bachnak, Cody Ross, Carlton Prewitt Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi AbstractTexas A&M - Corpus Christi recently implemented a new program geared toward localarea high school students. Its efforts in encouraging juniors to participate in a two-weeksummer workshop and a follow-up science and technology exhibit promises to improvethe recruitment of underrepresented

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Wendy Otoupal; Pete Hylton

many college students considering an engineering ortechnology career, is their difficulty in mathematics. Unfortunately, too many students,by the time they reach middle school, have decided that the math they see in theclassroom does not teach them anything useful for the real world. The approachdiscussed by the authors utilizes common every-day examples that are designed tocapture the students’ interest and encourage them to develop and apply the math skillsnecessary to analyze the engineering aspects of the real world examples. This not onlykeeps their interest in technology careers alive, but it helps them develop the math skillsthey will need for success. IntroductionTeaching Mathematics in an urban

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Mirley K. Balasubramanya; George D. Tintera; Alexey Sadovski

directing them towards research activities as part of theirundergraduate careers. In particular, the program facilitates retention of a diversepopulation of engineering students. The program introduces students to the academicenvironment through challenging activities connecting mathematics to science andqualitative observation to quantitative calculation. The program also provides theparticipants with immediate contact with their peers, near-peers (in upper-division andgraduate students) and faculty. The combination of content and friendships happen in theenvironment in which they will work and study in the next years and helps them see thepossibilities of their success. In this paper we review the activities, academic and social,that have been

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

G. Beate Zimmer; eremy S. Flores; Alexey L. Sadovski

having publications. Such experience will likely have an influence inthe student’s career choice. Research students also get financial support and sometimes thebenefit of office space. A study1of science, mathematics, and engineering majors concludes: (p.384) “All students, regardless of race or ethnicity, appreciated those departments and facultywho had given them a discipline–specific work–study opportunity or the chance to be involvedwith a research project. We found that research opportunities for any undergraduates were rareon all seven campuses. However, students who had been involved in departmental research werevery enthusiastic about their experience and felt it greatly enhanced their interest in the field.”Another book2 on retention

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Richard Bannerot

Copyright ©2005, American Society for Engineering Education DiscussionThe engineering profession, especially mechanical engineering, continues to havedifficulties attracting females. The traditional assumption has been that young womenavoid careers in engineering because of their lack of interest in math or of confidence intheir math skills. This assumption is clearly questionable based on the large number offemale psychologists (63%) and biologists (43%) compared to female engineers (10%).3That study3 also indicates that women who are strong in math, and hence candidates forengineering careers, tend to seek careers in the biological sciences instead because “theyvalue working with people…and don’t

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Robert A. McLauchlan; Ranjeet Agarwala; Laura Lopez; Kenneth Nix; Guadalupe Fernandez; Chad Jurica

Session T3C4 Predicting Freshmen Engineering Students Success Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Based Emotional Intelligence (EI) Model Kenneth Nix Guadalupe Fernandez Chad Jurica Laura Lopez Ranjeet Agarwala Robert A. Mclauchlan Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Texas A&M University-Kingsville AbstractEmotional skills are key to personal happiness, healthy relationships, and personallymeaningful careers. This paper investigates sensitivity analysis of key EmotionalIntelligence (EI) indicators used in an

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Pete Hylton

includea risk management section. Even where TRM is not required by government edict, manybusinesses are instituting their own internal requirements for it. This means that today’sengineering and technology graduates would benefit from an exposure to TRM processes.But there is even more of an advantage to introducing this in the classroom. Properlyapplied, Technical Risk Management can be used in a Capstone Design Course as ameans of tying together the various concepts that have been studied during the entirecollege career. This connectivity can be a welcome addition to such a course. The TRMprocess consists of four phases, Risk Identification, Risk Assessment, Risk Mitigation,and Risk Management. The Risk Mitigation phase forces the design team

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Charles D. Parker; B. Neal Whitten

Session T1B1 Improving practical knowledge of educators with cooperation of municipalities B. Neal Whitten, Charles D. Parker Department of Technology and Geomatics – Construction Engineering Technology East Tennessee State University ABSTRACTUndisputedly, there are many educators in the engineering and engineering technologyfields that have superior academic and theoretical knowledge. This knowledge makesthem well prepared for teaching students who want to go in to academia or researchoriented careers, but may not make them as well prepared for

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Wayne N.P. Hung; V. Jorge Leon

has to rank hundreds or thousands of resumes to shortlist fewcandidates from either domestic or overseas universities. Educational institutions, therefore,should be proactive to response to industrial needs to ensure a good fit between their graduatingengineers and the global industry.Students normally will consider future employment prospect before choosing their careers andschools. Because of the high rate of engineering lay off in the US, bright students might avoid atechnical career and might choose non technical fields such as medical, law, or business.Forward looking educational institutions, therefore, should have attractive and quality programsto attract top students and almost guarantee employment to their graduates.Bridging between

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Clay Naito

student feedback indicate the course is successful in providingan enjoyable overview of structural engineering. IntroductionUndergraduate engineering education at Lehigh University is configured to allow freshmen toexperience a variety of fields prior to making a decision on which path to pursue for theiracademic career. All freshmen are accepted to the College of Engineering as undecided with aspecified area of interest. To assist with the decision making process the students are required totake an engineering design class in addition to the standard math, science and humanity courses.The class is taught to half of the students, approximately 150, in the Fall semester and theremaining half in the Spring

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Monty Smith; Mitty Plummer; Leticia H. Anaya

organization whose goal is to encourage high school, middle school, and homeschool students to pursue careers in engineering, science, and technology. It does this byholding an annual robotics competition where teams from local schools compete forplacement in the district, state, and national championships. DC BEST gets schoolsinvolved by providing them free of charge the supplies, the game field, the environmentfor competition and any technical help that they may need. For 2004, DC BESTprovided to the schools three events: Kick Off Day, Mall Day and Game Day. The KickOff Day event was held on September 18, 2004 at the UNT College of EngineeringResearch Facility, Denton, Texas; the Mall Day event was held on October 24, 2004 atthe

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Carole Goodson

world” situations. 2. My civic engagement projects and activities caused me to improve my problem analysis and critical thinking skills 3. Through civic engagement I have improved my ability to work successfully with others. 4. My civic engagement projects and activities have increased my ability to communicate effectively. 5. I feel prepared to perform successfully in a new career because of what I have learned in my civic engagement experiences. 6. I can use experiences and knowledge gained through civic engagement as I apply and interview for jobs. 7. Civic engagement projects and activities help me to understand and appreciate people who are different from me. 8. I am committed to being involved in my community

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Randall D. Manteufel; Ramon Rodriguez; Kerry O’Connor; Jason Torres

students graduate and begin their professional careers, particularly in the HVACRfield.ExperimentThe experiments involve the use of various fluid dynamics and HVACR equations forcalculating our total system head loss, converting flow rates to fluid velocities, and calculatingsystem efficiencies. The compilation of these results will be able to adequately define oursystem parameters and accurately define our pump/energy cost savings. Proceedings of the 2005 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering EducationTwo separate experiments were designed for this apparatus. The first experiment has

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

John D. Fernandez

world” situations. 2. My civic engagement projects and activities caused me to improve my problem analysis and critical thinking skills 3. Through civic engagement I have improved my ability to work successfully with others. 4. My civic engagement projects and activities have increased my ability to communicate effectively. 5. I feel prepared to perform successfully in a new career because of what I have learned in my civic engagement experiences. 6. I can use experiences and knowledge gained through civic engagement as I apply and interview for jobs. 7. Civic engagement projects and activities help me to understand and appreciate people who are different from me. 8. I am committed to being involved in my community

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Zhenyu Zhang; Yeshwanth Sampath; Dr. Rita Caso; Amy Collins

students who are enrolled full-time are more likely to persist, and “interms of the delta-p statistic, for each credit hour dropped, the likelihood ofnon-retention increased by 29%”7. Lanni’s 1997 study indicated that African-Americancommunity college students did not do as well as white students, but a higherpercentage of the African-American students were part-time students10. Whenfull-time/part-time status is considered, both African-American and Caucasian studentswere more likely to be successful if they were enrolled full-time10.Pre-college preparation also appears to have a significant impact on the success ofstudents’ college careers. Bean and Metzner located several studies supporting theconnection between study skills/study habits and

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Amir Karimi

have been heavilydirected towards evaluation of two criteria: Criterion 2- Program Educational Objectives andCriterion 3- Program Educational Outcomes. These two criteria are described in the most recentABET publication (2005-06 Engineering Criteria)1 as:Criterion 2. Program Educational Objectives: Although institutions may use differentterminology, for purposes of Criterion 2, program educational objectives are broad statementsthat describe the career and professional accomplishments that the program is preparinggraduates to achieve. Each engineering program for which an institution seeks accreditation orreaccreditation must havein place:(a) detailed published educational objectives that are consistent with the mission of the institution

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Kenneth Van Treuren

Future of ME LabWhile the course is fulfilling its purpose, a concern of the author is the lateness in whichit occurs in the curriculum. A student on the four year traditional track must then takeME Lab and the senior capstone design course concurrently. This creates time pressuresthat stretch the students. For this reason, each year there are a number of students whoopt to take ME Lab in the spring ( the only time it is offered) and then graduate inDecember, taking the capstone design course (offered every semester) during the fallsemester. Faculty numbers and availability preclude offering ME Lab each semester.Another concern is that the student’s major lab experience is occurring in what is usuallythe last semester of their academic career

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Daniel J. Burroughs

undergraduate students arepursuing careers as network and security administrators, and the program is developed tosupport this need. Most of the undergraduate students in our program have received anA.S. degree in Computer Technology from a 2-year college. This A.S. programconcentrates heavily on the basics of networking and operating system administration.Along the way, students have the opportunity and are encouraged to pursue variouscertifications in network and system administration. By the time students arrive at UCFand begin their specialization in security, they already have a strong background in thebasics of system and network administration. However, their education prior to UCFtends towards very detailed training on a limited set of tools

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Aiman S. Kuzmar, City of Corpus Christi, TX

think.This knowledge enabled him to improve his own teaching skills for this specific course and itwill have a similar effect in the long term teaching career as well. Additionally, this experiencehelped the instructor to discover his own teaching shortcomings and mistakes. This wasaccomplished by listening to the student in charge and by observing the classmates who arelistening and trying to understand. Teaching shortcomings and mistakes can be generallyrectified but they have to be identified first. The instructor learned something else which is alsovery important from this process. By occupying a neutral seat, he learned possible and potentialstudents pitfalls. In normal teaching setting, the instructor does not easily recognize thesedangerous

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Thomas J. Krueger; Ted Aanstoos; Ronald E. Barr

. Criterion 2 states that engineering degree programs must define a set ofeducational objectives, promote those objectives to external interests, and have in place amechanism to evaluate the success of their objectives. Although ABET was reluctant at first todefine what was meant by educational objectives, recent agreement has resulted in the followingdefinition: Educational Objectives are broad statements that describe the career and professionalaccomplishments that the program is preparing graduates to achieve several years aftermatriculation from the BS degree. Proceedings of the 2005 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Copyright © 2005

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Scott Starks; Sally Blake; Eric MacDonald

. Young peopleneed preparation in science and mathematics before they get into higher education – and beforethey begin flowing out into the workforce2. If we want more females and minorities to take aninterest in technological fields, we must create a more inclusive view of engineering andtechnology. The first step is to debunk the stereotype of the “computer nerd” by depicting thebroad array of career options in science and technology3. Proceedings of the 2005 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering EducationThis paper addresses activities that have been conducted in the El Paso area

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

John D. Fernandez

program and the results that have been achieved so far. Background Facts“By avoiding computers, women [and minorities] may be missing out on the generoussalaries and abundant career opportunities in information technology.”1 Texas A&MUniversity – Corpus Christi (A&M-CC) in partnership with the Nation ScienceFoundation (NSF) and Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium (TETC) is trying tocombat the shortage of women and minorities in computer science. This shortage is seennationwide, and in 2001, 3.4 percent of all conferred undergraduate degrees were Proceedings of the 2005 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Jessica M. Dick

program and the results that have been achieved so far. Background Facts“By avoiding computers, women [and minorities] may be missing out on the generoussalaries and abundant career opportunities in information technology.”1 Texas A&MUniversity – Corpus Christi (A&M-CC) in partnership with the Nation ScienceFoundation (NSF) and Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium (TETC) is trying tocombat the shortage of women and minorities in computer science. This shortage is seennationwide, and in 2001, 3.4 percent of all conferred undergraduate degrees were Proceedings of the 2005 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi