Conference Session

Innovative Instructional Strategies

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Martha Allen, Georgia College & State University; Amy Kelley, Georgia College & State University

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

engineering majors,mathematics majors, chemistry majors, and computer science majors. Engineering, chemistry,and computer science majors have an inherent need for an understanding of the practicalapplications of the theory in a particular discipline. In fact, many of the ABET program criteriaspecifically list the knowledge and application of linear algebra as a necessary skill.1 In additionto applications, the theory and mathematical reasoning skills developed in an introductory linearalgebra course will be invaluable to math majors as they progress to more proof oriented contentcourses.At Georgia College & State University, there are approximately 110 mathematics majors.Roughly half of these majors are enrolled in the pre-engineering program

Conference Session

Successful K-12 Programs for Girls & Minorities

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Regina Middleton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Shelly Perdomo, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

accounting for this success? What are someof the challenges that we continue to face? This paper will discuss accomplishments andchallenges faced by institutions seeking to outreach to underrepresented constituencies.IntroductionThe under representation of women in the field of engineering is not a new phenomenon toresearch. The imbalance of men and women appears most dramatically in computer science,information technology and engineering [1]. In the case of Massachusetts, “with respect togender, the state reflects the national trends with 58% of young adults in college comprised ofwomen. However, on a national scale only 12% of students choosing to major in computerscience/IT were women, while in the state of Massachusetts this was 9%” [2]. “In

Conference Session

Integrating Math, Science and Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hong Liu, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

asking the honors program students whotake that course to learn some extra content and do some extra work. With either solution the actof mixing a significant number of honors students with non-honors students usually results in abi-modal distribution based on the students’ level of academic preparation. To teach such aclass, instructors often face more challenges balancing the content so that the strong honorsstudents can be adequately motivated without intimidating the other relatively weaker students.This paper reports on the first year’s experience offering an honors course option within anordinary mathematics course that had a mix of both honors and non-honors engineering students.1. IntroductionTypical calculus or differential equation

Conference Session

The Use of Computers in Teaching Mathematics

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jayathi Raghavan, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach; Leslie Sena, Bethune Cookman College; Hong Liu, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach; David Bethelmy, Bethune Cookman College

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

modules3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. The authors observed that many students enrolled in entry-levelengineering and computer science courses tend to plug in data without considering the purposeof the analysis and demonstrate little ability to extend mathematical concepts beyond analgorithmic level. These observations motivated the authors to form an interdisciplinary team ofuniversity faculty to discuss the development of instructional mathematics and computer sciencemodules that would enhance students’ ability to apply complex mathematical reasoning whenpresented with novel real world problems. The authors met once a week for six months inroundtable discussions. In these discussions the authors identified the following challengesteachers face when teaching mathematics : 1

Conference Session

Engineering and Math Potpouri

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Fong, National Institute of Standards and Technology; James Filliben, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Alan Heckert, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Roland deWit, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

design. Two examples of this FEM-specific approach are included: (1) The free vibration of an isotropic elastic cantilever beam witha known theoretical solution, and (2) The calculation of the first resonance frequency of theelastic bending of a single-crystal silicon cantilever beam without known solutions. In eachexample, the FEM-simulated result is accompanied by a prediction 95 % confidence interval.Significance and limitations of this metrological approach to advancing FEM as a precisionsimulation tool for improving engineering design appear at the end of this paper.(*) Contribution of the National Institute of Standards & Technology. Not subject to copyright.Introduction A fundamental mathematical modeling and computational tool

Conference Session

Teaching Engineering and Public Policy

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cindy Orndoff, Florida Gulf Coast University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

90 percent of their work time indoors, costing USbusinesses about $15 billion in productivity losses annually. “By the year 2010, another 38million buildings are expected to be constructed in the U.S. bringing our country’s total to over100 million. The challenge is to build those new buildings, and renovate the older ones, in waysthat reverse these unhealthy trends.” 1 The challenge is getting the construction industry to acceptand employ greener practices. The major way to meet this challenge is to build green. Buildinggreen has endless positive results that may include preserving natural habitats, ecosystems,watersheds; protecting water and air quality; reducing waste and greenhouse gases; thus creatingbetter outdoor and indoor

Conference Session

Assessment and Evaluation of Graphics Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Renata Gorska, Cracow University of Technology; Sheryl Sorby, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Design Graphics

these having to do with visual orientation in space, which he labelled S1, S2 and S3.S1 was interpreted as the “ability to recognize the identity of an object when it is seen from different angles”, or as “theability to visualise a rigid configuration when it is moved into different positions” as in the Flags test (Figure 1).S2 was interpreted as “the ability to imagine the movement or internal displacement among the parts in configuration”.This second factor S2 was involved in tests of mechanical movement and surface development. The third spatial factor S3was said to represent “the ability to think about those spatial relations, in which the body orientation of the observer is anessential part of the problem”. In 1951 Thurstone carried out

Conference Session

Capstone Design II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Widmann, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

work on their project and meet with their advisor weekly.The first quarter of Senior Design project is dedicated to design activities, including problemdefinition, conceptualization, decision making, detail design and analysis. The second quarterfocuses on construction and testing of the design. Topics covered in lecture or labs are listed inTable 1. For a survey of typical capstone content see Eggert.2 More detailed information on thiscourse structure and organization is provided by Widmann and Mello3.Table 1. Lecture and Laboratory ContentLecture Laboratory DeliverablesDesign Process and Methodology Requirements/Specifications Design LogbooksProject Management

Conference Session

Sustainable Energy Issues in Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cindy Orndoff, Florida Gulf Coast University

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

90 percent of their work time indoors, costing USbusinesses about $15 billion in productivity losses annually. “By the year 2010, another 38million buildings are expected to be constructed in the U.S. bringing our country’s total to over100 million. The challenge is to build those new buildings, and renovate the older ones, in waysthat reverse these unhealthy trends.” 1 The challenge is getting the construction industry to acceptand employ greener practices. The major way to meet this challenge is to build green. Buildinggreen has endless positive results that may include preserving natural habitats, ecosystems,watersheds; protecting water and air quality; reducing waste and greenhouse gases; thus creatingbetter outdoor and indoor

Conference Session

Engineering in the Elementary School

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Cunningham, Museum of Science, Boston

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

More time Understand engineering/technology content, such as: What engineers do 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The engineering design process 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 How science, technology, and 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 engineering interrelate Implement an EiE unit: Manage preparation and materials 1 2 3

Conference Session

Emerging Issues in Engineering Education Research and Pedagogy

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ann McKenna, Northwestern University; Robert Linsenmeier, Northwestern University; Matthew Glucksberg, Northwestern University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

of the research plan we are presently usingto study CADEX in the context of a senior level biomedical engineering design course.IntroductionSeveral recent reports stress that the competitive advantage of the U.S. lies in its role as a leaderin technological innovation1,2. These reports make statements such as “leadership in innovationis essential to U.S. prosperity and security”3 and “innovation will be the single most importantfactor in determining America’s success through the 21st century”1. These reports send aresounding message that engineering education in the U.S. needs to emphasize and developknowledge and skills that are essential to innovation in a rapidly evolving technological society.From an education standpoint, there are many

Conference Session

Educational Software

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Hopkins, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

theymay reconstruct classroom demonstrations, and do much more.In the demonstrations, frequency-response plots, pole/zero maps, and time-domain responseplots in both domains are easily created and modified, and are programmatically linked. Theplots are also annotated in a variety of ways to help emphasize relationships among them. All ofthe plots have interactive capability, and display much more information than simple line graphs.Making changes in any of the plots automatically causes appropriate changes to be made in allthe other plots. This removes from the instructor the burden of creating, managing, and updatinginterrelated plots.This method can be used, for example, to enhance discussions of (1) zero-order-hold and bilineartransformations

Conference Session

Educating for Results: Tools used in Engineering Technology

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Hundley, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis; Terri Talbert-Hatch, Indiana University; Joshua Killey, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis; Elizabeth Wager, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

, such as Information Systems, also found that “68% of CIOs said that ‘soft skills’ such ascommunication and team building are more important today than five years ago” (pg 1)1. A gapexists between what employers expect from academic programs and what they discover in newlyhired graduates1. Paramount to all skill sets, the ability to learn is crucial. Many fields require‘retooling’, or learning new approaches and technologies. Instructors at the post-secondary levelmust foster the ability to learn through “incorporating sufficient challenge into courseassignments and projects,” (pg 6)1.There are two categories that employers fall into: those who are hiring to fill a specific job, andthose hiring for raw skills2. Many graduates do not possess the

Conference Session

Two Year College Tech Session II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elaine Craft, Florence-Darlington Technical College; Barbara Anderegg, Madison Area Technical College

Tagged Divisions

Two Year College Division

Conference Session

Alternative Energy Source Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Schubert, Packer Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

library, the student team researched the history of these devices. They foundthat plasma torches were first developed by NASA in the 1960s to simulate re-entry of spacevehicles. A plasma torch consists of a gas (either air, or combustible gasses for even highertemperatures) greatly heated by passage through a miniature bolt of lightning created byapplying a high voltage between two electrodes. Two types of torches are used in practice, theplasma cutter, which is commercially-available, and the less common plasma torch, as shown inFigure 1. Figure 1. Plasma cutter (left) and plasma torch (right). Page 13.984.3On the left of

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Design in the Classroom

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Wesner, Carnegie Mellon University; Michael Bigrigg, Carnegie Mellon University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

Conference Session

Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lynette Osborne, The George Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

AC 2008-2764: PERCEPTIONS OF WOMEN’S TREATMENT IN ENGINEERINGEDUCATION: FROM THE VOICES OF MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTSLynette Osborne, The George Washington University Page 13.971.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 1 PERCEPTIONS OF WOMEN’S TREATMENT IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION: FROM THE VOICES OF MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTSDespite the well-documented under-representation of women in higher education engineeringprograms, little research has probed the perceptions of gendered treatment of women ascompared to men in these programs. Such information may be

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

University that is now in its third year ofoperation.1 It has a current student body of eighteen students with its first graduate havinggraduated during fall 2007. The disciplinary backgrounds of the students include chemicalengineering, mechanical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electricalengineering, environmental science, applied mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, andagricultural economics. A feature of the program that was incorporated into its initial design is athread of exposure to energy and environmental economics. The rationale for inclusion of thisthread included (1) to provide a vehicle for interdisciplinary conversations among students with avariety of engineering and physical science backgrounds, (2) to respond

Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Mechanical Engineering Technology

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alamgir Choudhury, Western Michigan University; Pavel Ikonomov, Western Michigan University; Jorge Rodriguez, Western Michigan University; Sam Ramrattan, Western Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

from other parts of the world formore efficient and cost effective products and services. The workplace of engineeringand engineering technology program graduates is changing due to increasing global Page 13.912.2competition, changing demographics and technology, integration of engineering andbusiness function, shrinking product life cycle and environmental awareness. To regaintheir predominance in the field, manufacturing industries in Michigan need better-educated technical graduates trained in current technology. These graduates are alsoexpected to be equipped with generic engineering skills beyond their area of expertise[1]. In many courses in the

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Benson, Kettering University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

. Developinglecture notes, acquiring sense of campus culture, creating evaluation tools and the grading andassessing students are just a few of these challenges. However, one of the most difficultchallenges facing the new faculty member is remaining responsive to their students. With all ofthe demands on an instructor’s time and attention, it is hard to hear and make time to understandstudent frustrations. It is even harder to make midstream adjustments to one’s instructional plan.For the students, however, the mismatch between the instructor and student, such as instructionthat is above their level of ability, can lead to disastrous levels of frustration and conflict in theclassroom. Reform in education[1-5] and studies in cognition[6,7] reinforce

Conference Session

The Use of Computers in Teaching Mathematics

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jenna Carpenter, Louisiana Tech University; Brian Camp, Louisiana Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

at Louisiana Tech University has historically spent approximately $20,000 each year onstudent paper graders to grade homework assignments. The use of WeBWorK would, thereforefree up most of these funds to be used in other, hopefully more effective, ways to improvestudent retention and success in mathematics. For the 2007-2008 academic year, for example,these funds are being used to support Supplemental Instruction for the calculus courses. Thus,the goals of this effort were to 1) increase student mastery of course content, 2) increaseindividual student accountability on out-of-class assignments, and 3) more effectively utilize theprogram budget to enhance student retention and success in mathematics.WeBWorK1 is a web-based (versus software

Conference Session

Off the Beaten Path

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rebecca Bates, Minnesota State University-Mankato; Denise Wilson, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

Education Conference: San Diego, California.2 McKinney, D. & Denton, L.F. (2005). Affective assessment of team skills in agile CS1 labs: the good, the bad,and the ugly. SIGCSE Bulletin, vol. 37, no. 1, March 2005, pp. 465-469.3 Hansen, Stuart & Eddy, Erica (2007). Engagement and frustration in programming projects. SIGCSE Bulletin, Page 13.324.7vol. 39, no. 1, March 2007, pp. 271-275.4 Gungor, Almer, Eryilmaz, Ali, & Fakioglu, Turgut (2007). The relationship of freshmen’s physics achievementand their related affective characteristics. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 1036-1056.5 Denton, Leo F

Conference Session

Projects & Laboratories in Mechanical ET

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pramod Kumar, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Pavel Ikonomov, Western Michigan University; Suren Dwivedi, University of Louisiana-Lafayette; Alamgir Choudhury, Western Michigan University; Jorge Rodriguez, Western Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

from the two laserscanners, scanning in two mutually perpendicular planes XZ and YZ are recorded and thenconverted to 3D point cloud data using the scan matching algorithm. From the measured pointcloud data, the 3D model of the road is created by the application of special algorithms and dataprocessing. This precise 3D model obtained can then be used for simulating and testing thevehicles’ performance, for their dynamic stability and durability.Keywords. 3D Road surface model, road profile, laser scanning1. IntroductionDigitizing of a road surface using images has been tried using multiple sensors [1]. There havebeen only few researches dealing with road parameters (width, center line, etc) using laserscanning and terrain profile from

Conference Session

Materials In Design And Manufacturing

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Krishna Bhavaraju, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Pavel Ikonomov, Western Michigan University; Suren Dwivedi, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Alamgir Choudhury, Western Michigan University

capabilities lcan be easily extended and used for creating and open system framework by connecting it to areal OT setup to control nanoparticles manipulation. In addition, a feedback system can be buildto increase of precision of movement.Keywords: Virtual Reality, Optical Tweezers2. IntroductionScanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) [1], Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) [2] and OpticalTweezers (OT) are some techniques used for nanoparticle manipulation. AFM is a contactmethod for nanoparticle manipulation. This method has limitations such as wear of the tool tipand particle getting stuck to the tip of the AFM probe making it difficult to release the particle atdifficult at desired location. While STM is a non-contact method, it can work only in

Conference Session

Careers and Professional Development in BME

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Guilford, University of Virginia; Katherine Bishop, University of Virginia; William Walker, University of Virginia; J. Milton Adams, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Biomedical

biomedical engineers presents special challenges, given the wide range ofcareers, graduate and professional education options that are open to them. Biomedicalengineering (BME) programs generally find that a large portion of their graduates are bound formedical school. Anecdotally, it is often claimed that BME is superior as a pre-medical course ofstudy to traditional pre-medical majors in academic preparation 1, or when measured inadmission rates. Indeed, the field is rife with claims of supra-normal medical school admissionsrates, with some program web sites claiming medical school admission rates of up to 90%.Defensible quantitative data on the admission rate to medical schools of BME graduates islacking. So too are concrete demonstrations that

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

communities) and recruitment (community programs, camps). The Page 13.1251.2overarching goal defined by the sponsoring agency, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,was to “support programs to increase retention and recruitment efforts, and to improve studentlearning through better undergraduate teaching.” 1 The breadth of our university initiative ispresented in Appendix A, along with information about assessment methods for each component,resulting publications and reports, and institutionalization status.We believe our experience, particularly in affecting lasting change at our institution, providessome valuable lessons not only for recipients

Conference Session

Shifting Trends of Course and Curricula in IET and IT

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ismail Fidan, Tennessee Tech University; Austin Pinkstaff, Tennessee Tech University; Faruk Taban, Western Nevada College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

Page 13.748.2software has been used and course students have learned how to use it to generate their models in.stl part file format.Table 1 shows the course outline1: Table 1: MIT 4450 course outline CAD PortionSession 1 Parametric Modeling Fundamentals Constructive Solid Geometry Concepts User Interface, View Controls and Model StructureSession 2 Model History Tree Parametric Constraints Fundamentals Creating your modelsSession 3 Revolved Protrusions, Mirror Copies, Rounds, and Chamfers Part Drawings and Associative Functionality Parent/Child Relationships and Design Variables Datum and Sketcher Tools

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronaldo Luna, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Richard Hall, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Michael Hilgers, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Ghulam Bham, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Richard Elgin, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Charles Morris, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Glenn Morrison, Missouri University of Science & Technology

: environmental,geotechnical, hydrology, surveying/measurements, and transportation.The principal objectives of this research project are: (1) To create a web-based learning systemthat supports student learning on how to apply GIS within the context of civil engineering, (2) Toimplement learning modules in existing undergraduate civil engineering courses, (3) To carry outa series of summative and formative evaluation studies (including external evaluators) withcomponents and iterations of this learning system under development, and, (4) To disseminatethe developed educational materials and learning system to other universities in order to test theability of our results to scale and port. The GIS tool and the Civil Engineering content wereselected because

Conference Session

Engineering Education in the Mid-East / Asia

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raymond Thompson, DAE University

Tagged Divisions

International

for a region that needs and desires high quality education.IntroductionIn the past ten years, many universities have opened branch programs in the Middle East,especially in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In addition,numerous local institutions have been established. According to Theodore Kattouf, former USambassador “Even before September 11 there has been dissatisfaction with the quality of higher Page 13.395.2education in a number of Arab countries. Standards have declined as the number of young peoplehas exploded, filling schools well beyond their capacity.”1 This region of the Middle East isstable

Conference Session

Anything New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ing-Chang Jong, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

theneighborhood of its equilibrium configuration is constant. Fig. 1 Actual beam Fig. 2 Conjugate beamThe beam in Fig. 1 is in neutral equilibrium and will adopt a deflected shape. Is it possible to as-certain the deflection of a loaded beam in neutral equilibrium? The answer is yes according to theconjugate beam method,1– 4 but a resounding no according to all other established methods,3–12such as (a) method of double integration (with or without the use of singularity functions), (b)method of superposition, (c) method using moment-area theorems, (d) method using Castiglia-no’s theorem, and (e) method of segments. These other methods all expect a beam to have suffi-cient well-defined boundary conditions for use