Conference Session

Successful Outcomes of Student Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Khanjan Mehta, Pennsylvania State University; Sven Bilen, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

preparationfor the Venture design reviews.Software Interfacing: Covers the interlinking of various programming languages andapplication programs like LabVIEW, C/C++, MATLAB, SQL, MS Office, ActiveX, .Net, etc.Students also learn how to access and develop Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) and spawnexternal applications.Functional Verification and System Characterization: Deals with topics like technical riskidentification and management, verification and validation, and developing test plans andimplementing them using automated testing equipment.Controlling Devices and Sub-systems: During this session, the students learn concepts likecurrent sourcing and sinking; button debouncing; pulse width modulation (PWM); controltechniques; proportional, PI, and PID

Conference Session

Course-Based Approaches to Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Donald Carpenter, Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

business plan competitions, speaker series, student entrepreneurship clubs, andseminars. At LTU, the grant provided the funding to integrate the existing entrepreneurialprograms into a new innovative interdisciplinary program focused on developing the“entrepreneurial mindset” on our campus. The skills associated with the entrepreneurial mindsetare communication, teamwork, leadership, ethics and ethical decision-making, opportunityrecognition, persistence, creativity, innovation, tolerance for ambiguity, risk analysis, creativeproblem solving, critical thinking, and business skills (including marketing, financial analysis,and strategic planning). The course described within this paper (EME 4981 Creative ProblemSolving) was one of the courses

Conference Session

Institutional and Curricular Reform

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Froyd, Texas A&M University; Charles Henderson, Western Michigan University; Jean Layne, Texas A&M University; Andrea Beach, Western Michigan University; Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado; R. Sam Larson, Kaiser Permanente Colorado

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

initiative?), (2) barriers to change (what will makeit hard for you to reach your goals?), (3) foci for change (what parts of the system will you seekto change?), and (4) strategies for change (what is the big picture of how you plan to bring aboutthe change?). Page 13.906.2GoalsGoals for change convey expectations for desired conditions at the conclusion of a changeinitiative. Change agents should start with their goals for change, since clearly articulated,compelling, widely supported goals for change will facilitate explicit decision-making processes.For example, some engineering departments across the country are facing the challenge to reducethe

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Research

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Lambrechts, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

. Asshown, only in a few locations were groundwater levels always below Elev. 5 (see dark andhatched areas on the figure). In most other areas, the groundwater was at some time found to bebelow Elev. 5 (light shading areas).Concerns for groundwater levels and wood pile preservation have been on the minds of localengineers since the 1880s. In Stearns’s report of 1894 for the planning of the Charles RiverDam10, it was noted that groundwater levels in 1878 and 1885, which are before and one yearafter construction of the Boston Main Drainage sewer system, were about the same andgroundwater levels were between Elev. 6.7 and 8.5. However, he noted that observation wellsinstalled in the 1890s, for a study of the proposed Charles River dam showed some

Conference Session

Metrology Laboratories

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Georgia Harris, National Institute of Standards & Technology; Christopher Grachanen, Hewlett Packard Company

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

for use as outreach handouts.Current Status and Insights: The Marketing team has a liaison member from the Outreachcommittee and is pursuing sponsorship of copies of American Society of EngineeringEducation’s (ASEE) “Engineering – Go for It” to distribute as another outreach resource. Theliaison between NCSLI Learning and Development and Marketing is still new. Currentvolunteers are in agreement about the need to have a common plan and to work together. But,we have limited insight on whether the marketing tools and resources are helping to attract newstudents to careers in metrology or to NCSLI as a professional organization based on thesepreliminary efforts.Summary and ConclusionsNCSLI has made progress in the past three-and-a-half years on

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Lynch, Dartmouth College

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

integration andevaluation of social, economic, and physical factors – the three aspects of sustainability.Achievement at this level requires the “B” achievement described above to be advanced inpractice to the analysis level, through structured experience and in synergy with other realworks, built or planned. Successful progression of cognitive development in thisexperiential phase must be demonstrable. Page 13.1129.5A Curricular ApproachA teaching approach to sustainable engineering based in Natural Resources can be devised forEngineers, taking advantage of the scientific and mathematical skills already demanded of them.As a first principle, we need

Conference Session

Innovative K-12 Engineering Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jacqueline Isaacs, Northeastern University; Jay Laird, Metaversal Studios; Lisa Regalla, Museum of Science Boston; Carol Barry, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Ahmed Busnaina, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

character,to ensure audience identification across the broadest possible audience. Ultimately, given thebudget and time constraints of the original six-month development plan, it was decided to makeHarold the brawn and Nikki the brains.Nikki originally had been named Nancy, and both characters were white and appeared as middle-class, stereotypical “science nerds.” The team felt that this might limit the appeal of the gamefor some of the target audience, and that the “science nerd” stereotype needed to be avoided tomake enjoyment of science more accessible to the target audience. The team decided that Nancyshould be made more ethnically ambiguous; the character was redrawn, her name was changed,and a new voice artist was sought. Fortunately, since

Conference Session

Engineering in the Elementary School

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Manisha Shrestha, George Mason University; Kelly Morris, MPES; Rajesh Ganesan, George Mason University; Donna Sterling, George Mason University

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

students in science and mathematics. The NSF GK-12 program offers a uniqueopportunity to address this need.National Science Foundation (NSF) has established a GK-12 program that provides fellowshipsand education pedagogy to graduate students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, andMathematics) fields. The fellows serve as a resource to teachers, and help to increase students’interest in STEM. The plan is for the partnership between the fellow and teacher remains activefor 1 to 2 year/s. NSF has granted funds to SUNRISE project at GMU to initiate partnershipswith unsatisfactory-performing schools in 3 school divisions in the Washington Metropolitanarea. Eight schools are participating in the SUNRISE project; seven elementary schools and

Conference Session

Applications of Engineering Economy

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Robertson, Arizona State University; Michael Kozicki, Arizona State University; Slobodan Petrovic, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

domains. It was initiated by aneed to explain new technology in course work and has since been extended to researchand development outcomes in several industry sectors.Technology evolution rests on a brutally Darwinian process that is based on theinteraction of engineering, economics and market opportunities. This makes any longterm planning difficult yet there is every reason to believe that the scope and impact oftechnical change will be as profound in the next thirty years as it has been in the lastthirty. However, it is difficult to find a balanced view of any emerging technology. Theadvocates obviously dwell on its strengths and sometimes their enthusiasm can drift intounsubstantiated hype and wishful thinking. At the other end of the

Conference Session

Opportunities for Entrepreneurship Programs and Program Assessment

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Mason, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

atPenn State.7 Using faculty input and a review of entrepreneurship education in theliterature, they identified the following knowledge and skills for improvement ofentrepreneurial potential. Risk Taking Need for Achievement Leadership Creativity Customer Orientation Communication Teamwork Business Plan Development Bsns skills/language Engineering skills/lang. Dealing-ambiguity Tough skinned/ & insufficient info perseveranceWork is progressing on instruments to measure these aspects of knowledge, skills andtraits that might be affected by entrepreneurship centers and programs, but there are

Conference Session

Problem Solving and Misconceptions

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Jackman, Iowa State University; Sarah Ryan, Iowa State University; Craig Ogilvie, Iowa State University; Dale Niederhauser, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

asynchronous discussions. It was found that the majorityof messages were related to resolving or solving the problem as compared to problemformulation.6 This may indicate that students tend to move to the solution process prematurely.A similar phenomenon was observed by Kelsey, who found that discussions about problemsfocused primarily on finding the solution as opposed to problem formulation.7 Volkemaobserved that problem formulation occurs early in planning and design activities (core activitiesin engineering).8 He suggested that factors contributing to poor problem solving performanceinclude problem complexity, expertise, problem solving environment, and processes used by the

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Kim, Howard University; Mohamed Chouikha, Howard University; Veronica Thomas, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Howard University in 1982. She is currently a Professor within the Department of Human Development and Psychoeducational Studies and Senior Research Associate with the Capstone Institute, both at Howard University. Dr. Thomas’ research interests include culturally responsive evaluations and the educational and socio-emotional outcomes of students of color. Dr. Thomas has collaborated with the Department of Electrical Engineering in planning and implementing evaluation studies. Page 13.59.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Mobile Studio Experience of Experiential

Conference Session

Programs that Serve Industry & Academia

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brian Dickson, University of Strathclyde

Tagged Divisions

Continuing Professional Development

communication4 Written communication Involvement Work under pressure Accuracy5 Loyalty, integrity Learning ability Take responsibility Adaptability6 Specific knowledge Specific knowledge Teamwork Teamwork7 Involvement Fitness for work Assertiveness Work under pressure8 Critical thinking Initiative Adaptability Concentration9 Adaptability Tolerance Initiative Time management10 Tolerance Teamwork InitiativeTable 4. The 10 Most Common Competency Gaps Europe Japan1 Planning & organising Problem solving2 Negotiating

Conference Session

Innovation & Assessment in the delivery of IT/IET

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adam Stienecker, Ohio Northern University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

, and other alternatives to give the students an array of experience. ̇ The KUKA I/O, other than a few discrete points near the tool mounting plate, is brought out of the DeviceNet connection in our particular model. This is unlike some robotic systems made by KUKA and others. This was not necessarily a failure, but an added planning point for the author. Allen-Bradley [9] CompactBlock I/O systems are used to make the discrete I/O accessible to the student via DeviceNet. Successes ̇ During the second year of building the laboratory a portable dual monitor tree was installed near the robot, shown in figure 2. One monitor was connected to the robot and another

Conference Session

The Pipeline

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Plotkowski, Grand Valley State University; Mary Ann Sheline, Grand Valley State University; Margo Dill, Grand Valley State University; Jessica Noble, Grand Valley State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Sheline has a BS in Biology from Chatham College, Pittsburgh, Pa., MA in Natural Science from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Pa., and Ed.S. in Education Administration from the University of Nebraska at Kearney.Margo Dill, Grand Valley State University Margo Dill is a Program Coordinator for the Regional Math and Science Center at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Grand Valley State University. Her work with K-12 education is focused on planning, directing, and facilitating student programming and teacher professional development in science, technology and mathematics. She has eight years of experience with collaborative student programs such as; the Science, Technology and

Conference Session

Electrical ET Curriculum and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carl Spezia, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

assessment criteria.The project assessment plan consists of five components: individual task technical evaluationusing a memo format, informal oral task/project presentations, individual formal technicalreports, peer assessment of technical and self-management skills, and self-assessment oftechnical and self-management skills. For the first assessment component, each team memberreports task progress to the instructor three times during the project schedule in the form of abusiness memo with task deliverables attached. The instructor assesses student work based onthree criteria: 1) adherence to schedule milestones, 2) technical and grammatical correctness, 3)completeness of presented work when compared to the expectations defined in the

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Friauf, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Stephen Williams, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Steven Reyer, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Owe Petersen, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

final designreports, detailing the exact design, and including test plans and results. These three reportsrequire significant team cooperation to produce – defining tasks, assigning work, meetingdeadlines, agreeing on technical aspects, integrating ideas, and managing the writing project.The quality of the reports typically improves as the quarters progress, with the teams meshingbetter and polishing their writing skills. It is important that each team report have a formal“editor” – the person who not only proofreads the report, but ensures that the tone and style ofthe writing is consistent. When this is not employed, the authors have often observed an abrupt“jump” in tone from one chapter to the next.Formal presentations are required at the

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jin-Hwan Lee, University of Cincinnati; Ali Asgar Bhagat, University of Cincinnati; Karen Davis, University of Cincinnati; Ian Papautsky, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

communication skills with sufficient understanding andknowledge of their research topics. At the end of spring quarter, senior students prepared andperformed a final senior project presentation well. A team-based project allowed peer learning,teaching, and tutoring as well as expository instruction. Through multidisciplinarycollaborations project, senior students could experience not only BioMEMS research but also theimportance of safety issues, improvement of communication skills between team members and Page 13.1042.7activities, and careful schedule planning to reduce dead time. After finishing the two projects,one of three students

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part Three

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thorsten Wagener, Pennsylvania State University; Sarah Zappe, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

couple students said that a little more real world applicationwouldn’t “hurt” but that the course already had a lot of connections. Another reason that thepercentage is still high is that some students misinterpreted the question. While the questionspecifically asked if there needs to be a stronger link to real-world examples in the course, basedon some of the responses, it appears that some students read the question as “Do you think thereneeds to be a strong link to real-world examples?” We plan to revise this item in future surveysto avoid this misinterpretation.While not one of the highest rating items on the rating scale, some students expressed thatincreased interest and attention is one of the benefits of completing the case studies

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics IV

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

B. Kyun Lee, LeTourneau University; Paul Leiffer; R. William Graff, LeTourneau University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

subjects, andthat engineering classes must contain enough material to motivate students. Page 13.1013.12 Graph 15 Graph 166. Goal after graduationGraphs 17 and 18 show the students’ goal after graduation by years and by total numbersrespectively. While 22 % of students are undecided, 62 % of students plan to join industry and14 % plan to study at graduate schools. However, the number of students who considergraduate schools is actually decreasing from freshmen to seniors. This fact needs more study

Conference Session

Enhancing K12 Mathematics Education with Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wendy Huang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Barbara Brizuela, Tufts University; Peter Wong, Tufts University

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

are embedded in some greater context that makes the design work have a purpose, and (2) the activities make mathematics a necessary means to designing an effective product or process.For example, in the Amazon Mission unit (consisting of three week-long design challenges thatcan be done throughout the year), students read a one page introduction that invites students to Page 13.759.2imagine that they are planning to visit an indigenous people group in the Amazon rainforest.Students learn that many Yanomami people suffer from malaria and that their first designchallenge is to design a prototype of a medicine carrier that can

Conference Session

Potpourri II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Waterfall, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Elizabeth Albrecht, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Stephen Williams, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Owe Petersen, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

grows and he/she eventuallyemerges as a mature functional professional capable of standing on his/her own. In that vein,King states that “Developmental academic advising is both a process and an orientation. Itreflects the idea of movement and progression. It goes beyond simply giving information orsigning a form.”3 Raushi also suggests, “to advise from a developmental perspective is toview students at work on life tasks in the context of their whole life settings, including thecollege experience.”4 “Crookston believed that higher education provided opportunities forstudents to develop a plan to achieve self-fulfilling lives and that teaching included any

Conference Session

Biological & Agricultural Technical Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kumar Mallikarjunan, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Anand Lakshmikanth, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; John Cundiff, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Andrew Fulton, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

Engineering Education (EngE) and Page 13.107.2the bioprocess wing of the Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) at Virginia Tech was launchedin September 2004. The first project was awarded in Fall of 2003 and became a planning projectfor the second funding from NSF for the DLR. This DLR project, funded in Fall 2004, focusedon reformulating the engineering curriculum for specifically bioprocess engineering program inthe Department of Biological Systems Engineering in conjunction with the freshman program inthe Department of Engineering Education and School of Education12. The formed committeeassessed a need for students improving their skills by having

Conference Session

Focus on Under-Represented Women

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Donohue, University of Virginia; Larry Richards, University of Virginia; Carolyn Vallas, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

curriculum, faculty, administration, degreerequirements, course schedules, plans of study, instructional techniques, access to researchopportunities and mentoring/advising relationships in order to neutralize barriers toretention/persistence most effectively. In other words, the Victorian, industrial model oftechnical education in which students are processed like so many widgets is no longer viable andmust be reassessed. The persistence of this out-of-date model is a testament to, among otherconsiderations, institutional inertia; no other industry would tolerate overall “wastage” (notretained to graduation) of roughly half the “product.”53Calls for institutional reform are not new in the engineering education community; see, forexample, the

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aleksandr Panchul, UTSA; David Akopian, UTSA

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

constant flow of the students who has their very first experience with not only Page 13.428.8cell phone programming, but also with programming in general. That is why the toolkit includesmeans for own software application development. If beginners can use included libraries for theexperimenting without any additional programming, then advanced users can use ourdevelopment templates to include their own algorithms. The basis of the application and itsbuilding blocks could be dissected to show how it works inside and why it was the best way todo it.Development and debuggingThe development of the application has the cycle: planning, writing the code

Conference Session

Sustainability and Environmental Issues

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Achintya Bezbaruah, North Dakota State University; Wei Lin, North Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

needed for an environmental manager.Assignments, Tests, and Hands-on Model DemonstrationsFive to seven homework assignments and three to four tests are planned during a semester.Student inputs are being used to decide on the nature of assignments and tests. Assignments aredesigned to help the students learn additional topics not extensively covered in the class and todevelop the ability for critical analysis and problem solving. In-class tests were done away withafter the first year based on student feedback and instructor’s own evaluation. It was felt that theclass time spend on in-class tests can be better utilized for course discussion. Presently all testsare take-home and more extensive than the conventional in-class ones. The questions in

Conference Session

Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lyubov Kurkalova, North Carolina A&T State University; Keith Schimmel, North Carolina A&T State University; Stephen Johnston, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

previousexposure to economics. Another source of diversity in the courses is the presence of internationalstudents from a number of different countries. To aid with overcoming these challenges, aconcise economics primer has been developed that students are required to go through andanswer questions about before the first meeting of EES 810. Since some students have had someeconomics coursework previously while others have not, the primer is intended to help “level theplaying field” in terms of economics background among these students. To this point theaccountability for going through the primer has only been in terms of the questions in it being thefirst homework assignment in the course. In the future, we plan to provide a course pre-test toprovide a

Conference Session

Institutional and Curricular Reform

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Gardner, Boise State University; Pat Pyke, Boise State University; Cheryl Schrader, Boise State University; Janet Callahan, Boise State University; Amy Moll, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

, which has many other priorities. For example, the future ofone of our centerpiece efforts, supplemental instruction in math, is on hold. The extensiveassessment yielded evidence of success on the part of the participating students, student surveysindicated this was their favored method of supplemental support (as opposed to the traditionaltutoring center, going to the professor's office hours, and other methods) and that it boosted theirconfidence in math. Yet this SI program is expensive (at least $50,000 a year to support Pre-calculus through Calculus II). Still, the tutorial services director is an advocate of this programand the associate vice president for undergraduate studies has already funded training for SIdirectors and plans to move

Conference Session

Embedded System Design

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alex Doboli, State University of New York-Stony Brook; Eddie Currie, Resonance Publications, Inc.; Patrick Kane, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation; Dave Van Ess, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

it hard to explore the open-ended aspects of their projectdescription, as well as the correlations between the precision – speed – and memoryrequirements of the subsystems.Student suggestions for improvement included an overview presentation of popular embeddedarchitectures (including FPGAs) and summaries of the strength and weaknesses of each.Students also indicated that the work requires very good coursework planning so that the labwork and course project work do not become overwhelming.Another aspect that we plan to further detail is the impact of constraints such as power andenergy consumption on reconfigurable embedded design. We are considering the presentation ofmodels for power and energy consumption in analog, digital hardware and

Conference Session

Mentoring Graduate Students

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ram Mohan, North Carolina A&T State University; Vinaya Kelkar, North Carolina A&T State University; Ajit Kelkar, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

Page 13.590.7interdisciplinary course such as this is that the teaching or mentoring rarely ended with the end ofthe semester or even with an ‘A’ grade. The statistical concepts introduced to the students havemade them realize that in a research study the time to see a statistician is not when the data hasbeen collected but when planning for the data collection. This was found to be the case in fewcase study observations. Few examples of such experiences are: ‚ “John Smith” came to see me this summer when he started planning his study to discuss his research design and its validity and of course the type of data he plans to collect and the appropriate methods to analyze. ‚ “Jane Jones” knew she would need to use regression