AC 2009-1519: AN ON-LINE RFID LABORATORY LEARNING ENVIRONMENTAND THE ASSESSMENT OF ITS USERS’ EDUCATIONNabil Lehlou, University of ArkansasNebil Buyurgan, University of ArkansasJustin Chimka, University of Arkansas Page 14.209.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 An Online RFID Laboratory Learning Environment and the Assessment of its User’s EducationAbstractDue to the increasing demand for RFID expertise and the existence of a knowledge gap betweenindustry and academia in this domain, work has been stimulated to help spread understanding inthis field and bridge the gap between theoretical examinations and industrial practices
andapplying their RF knowledge the manufacture of integrated circuits and othersilicon-based products.Normandale Community College has created a new course entitled NANO 2295Advanced Plasma Processing. This course was first offered during Springsemester of 2008 and had an enrollment of 8 students. The course was modeledafter PCC’s MT 240 RF Plasma Systems course.Faculty EnhancementFinally, this project will provide faculty training in plasma technology andplasma-aided manufacturing. Three faculty enhancement workshops forcommunity college faculty will be held during 2008 and 2009. A two-day basicplasma technology workshops, which focuses on basic plasma physics and RF
AC 2009-1922: INTEGRATING A FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING PROGRAMWITH A LIVING-LEARNING COMMUNITYTimothy Hinds, Michigan State University TIMOTHY J. HINDS is an Academic Specialist in the Michigan State University College of Engineering Undergraduate Studies and Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is the lead instructor for the Cornerstone Engineering / Spartan Engineering program teaching courses in engineering design and modeling. He has also taught courses in machine design, manufacturing processes, mechanics, computational tools and international product design as well as graduate-level courses in engineering innovation and technology management. He has over 25 years of combined academic
of students studying both engineering and business, and to direct those skillsto product development. The intent was not merely to allow students to receive twograduate degrees in a compressed time frame, but to tightly integrate the two degrees sothat multidisciplinary student teams would be able to develop an industrial product all theway from concept to market. The students obtained a Master of Business Administration[MBA] degree and a Master of Science [MS] degree in an engineering discipline in 23months. The students worked in teams and were expected to have developed a concept, abusiness plan, a marketing plan and a prototype for a marketable product by completionof the program.Development of two new graduate courses: ≠ Product
. Thedecentralized virtual lab can provide 24x7 availability because a student does not need to shareany equipment with others. Virtualization technology has helped improve and will continuehelping enhance distance learning through remote labs.AcknowledgmentsThis project is part of the ongoing effort to integrate virtualization technology into ourcurriculum. I would like to extend thanks to Dr. Tijjani Mohammed, Dr. Phil Lunsford, Dr.Chengcheng Li, and Mr. Lee Toderick for their help and support.Bibliography1. P. Li, P. Lunsford, T. Mohammed, L. Toderick, and C. Li, “Using Virtual Machine Technology in an Undergraduate Intrusion Detection Lab”, Proceedings of 2007 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, June, 2007.2. P. Li, T
AC 2009-1520: THE ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS: AN ASSESSMENT OFSTUDENT PERCEPTIONS AND LEARNING AT THE FRESHMAN LEVELThomas Schubert, University of San Diego Thomas F. Schubert, Jr. received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California, Irvine, Irvine CA in 1968, 1969 and 1972 respectively. He is currently a Professor of electrical engineering at the University of San Diego, San Diego, CA and came there as a founding member of the engineering faculty in 1987. He previously served on the electrical engineering faculty at the University of Portland, Portland OR and Portland State University, Portland OR and on the engineering staff at Hughes Aircraft
capstone projectwhich is pursued in teams and addresses specific products to improve healthcare and aging-in-place and products that improve the lives of persons with disabilities. These needs wereidentified by healthcare professionals in focus group discussions. The teams are mentoredthroughout the development process by the professionals that initiated the need. The role of theseprofessionals is that of an active and vital voice of the customer fully integrated in thedevelopment process. Over the past three years sixty students have followed the senior capstonecourse sequence and six patentable products have been created.BackgroundIn 2004, the Council on Competitiveness issued its final report on the National InnovationInitiative called
, ability toset priorities, understanding of the business fundamentals, and creativity and innovation.The importance of non-technical skills in a technical curriculum is something that has beenconsidered by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), in both itsEngineering Technology and Engineering accreditation standards. ABET currently requires non-technical skill sets that include: an ability to function effectively on teams; an ability tocommunicate effectively; a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelonglearning; an ability to understand professional, ethical and social responsibilities; a respect fordiversity and a knowledge of contemporary professional, societal and global issues; and acommitment
AC 2009-1366: CONSIDERING THE MATHEMATICAL APPROACH ANDCOURSE-CONTENT STRUCTURE WHEN TEACHING PHYSIOLOGY TOBIOMEDICAL ENGINEERSRegina Nelson, University of Wisconsin, Madison Regina Nelson is a doctoral student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received an M.Ed. in Special Education from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on teaching methods and assessment of learning outcomes related to the physiology sub-curriculum in biomedical engineering education.Naomi Chesler, University of Wisconsin, Madison Naomi Chesler is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at
. This core groupof eleven faculty members prepared for a leadership role in the communication project byattending a CxC-sponsored Faculty Institute during the summer of 2005. The engineering teamreceived a comprehensive orientation to the campus-wide CxC program and explored how theirparticipation could lead to the integration of communication goals in the COE curriculum. Theyworked on their individual syllabi, as well as college-wide plans for a COE CommunicationStudio. They shared their ideas about an engineering graduate’s need for communication skillsand their newly-revised syllabi with faculty members representing all colleges, who provided aninterdisciplinary audience for their perspectives. In many cases, the necessary communication
customlearned and recording the most uncomfortable moment or a success story for the week. A Page 14.431.5course description of an example class is provided in Appendix C. This is a suggestedoutline for a course in any university.Student TestimonialThere is a relative dearth of examples of students who have successfully completed asemester of study abroad and still graduated on time; this is a testimonial from onestudent who did: “My semester abroad was excellent. I went through all the standard phases – infatuation, homesickness, rebound, and integration. I know how exciting it can be to live somewhere new, how frustrating and exhausting
withthe Master program. An online program allows nontraditional students to take classes at theirconvenience while retaining their full-time jobs and maintaining their commitments to familyand community. Among a set of courses required by curriculum, construction estimating was oneof the most challenging courses for online delivery due to its complexity, hands-on approach oflearning, and group work requirements. This paper reports the process, results, and lessons Page 14.453.2learned from developing and delivering an online construction estimating course during summerand fall semesters in 2008.StartupDuring the 2008 spring semester, the Department
the capstone seniorprojects and after the entire three-semester co-op experience is completed. In this scenario EGR409 loses its impact because it is too late in the curriculum. The present sequence is thereforeless beneficial to the students in terms of co-op experience and the senior project.InputsA survey of the employers and input gathered from discussions with them indicated that theywanted students to be better prepared with, among other things, a grasp of solid mechanics andwith a broader background in machine elements before they go for the first co-op. An ability toselect basic off-the-shelf machine components was also desirable. .Many employers also indicated that they wanted students to be familiar with the FEA tools andshould be
and equipment grants to formalize a curriculaaround the captured knowledge. Akbar and Dutta12 address the balance that must be foundbetween research and education that is complicated by the inclusion of both government andindustrial labs. They conclude there is a “synergistic benefit of such an approach and reinforce aprevalent belief that innovation in research can help enrich education.” Finally Newberry13developed a missile system design graduate curriculum that strove to balance scientificdevelopment and robust design. He emphasized that “Design and judgment are the essence ofengineering; they are the primary factors that differentiate engineering from science.” This is alesson that should not be forgotten even as we work hard to advance
expense to companies3. It stands to reason that supply chain managementhas become an area that companies are giving much more attention and are integrating into everyfacet of their business. As companies went global with their sourcing programs over the years,procurement became a strategic function within successful organizations4. It has becomeimportant for students in engineering and technology programs to become familiar with theconcepts of supply chain management, forecasting, inventory control and continuousimprovement. This paper will describe how effective supply chain strategies using inventory control canhelp companies become more competitive in the global marketplace. The author will explain amanual simulation that is used in his
incorporated seamlessly into a design that can be implemented onFPGAs. As such, a course needs to be developed encompassing microcontroller architecture,digital system design and implementation on FPGAs using VHDL. This paper describes thedevelopment of such a course with a case study of microprocessor design and implementation.The discussions also extend to incorporating an IP core processor in a system design that targetsFPGAs.IntroductionOne of the major objectives of curriculum development is to enhance students’ learning1. Thefactors that support this objective has been identified in1 and in several other studies as: a)allowing students to be empowered, informed, and responsive learners who can assume ameaningful role in the society; b) providing
, involving faculty from the departments ofComputer Science (CS), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and MechanicalEngineering (ME) and was designed top-down, starting with goals and objectives. Recognizingthat it is impossible to include a comprehensive course of study equivalent to a BS in CS, ECE,and ME in a 4-year degree, the new RBE program provides a solid foundation in each, withapplications drawn from Robotics. In keeping with WPI’s educational approach, the curriculumengages students early and often in creative hands-on projects.The core of the program consists of five new courses: an entry-level course and four “unifiedrobotics” courses based on a “spiral curriculum” philosophy, where the students are engaged inincreasingly complex
carry specific stimulating molecules and addressingmolecules, are taken up by targeted immune cells, triggering an increased and more specificimmune response1. Although nanoscience promises major benefits for health and may makepossible a wealth of new technologies, there have also been concerns about possible harmfuleffects of nanomaterials on health2-3.The emerging field of nanoscale science and engineering provides tremendous potential to allowscientists and engineers to improve existing products or to enable completely new applications.In order to realize this potential, the workforce needs to be trained and educated in theinterdisciplinary fields that provide the intellectual foundation for nanotechnology4. For thisreason, there is a large
teaching heat and mass transfer,” Proc. 2000 ASEE Annual Conference, St. Louis, MO.36. J.L. Barrott, “Why should cases be integrated into the engineering technology curriculum?,” Proc. 2001 ASEE Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM.37. B.S. Motlagh, A. Rahrooh, N. Safai, “Redefining engineering education methods using new technologies,” Proc. 2002 ASEE Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada.38. R.P. Hesketh, S. Farrell, C.S. Slater, “The role of experiments in inductive learning,” Proc. 2002 ASEE Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada.39. M. Alley, H. Robertshaw, “Rethinking the design of presentation slides,” Proc. 2003 ASEE Annual Conference, Nashville, TN.40. A.M. Eskicioglu, D. Kopec, “The ideal multimedia-enabled
AC 2009-1201: NURTURE MOTIVATED, CONFIDENT, AND STRATEGICLEARNERS IN ENGINEERING THROUGH COGNITIVE ANDPSYCHOLOGICAL INSTRUCTION FOR AN ENTRY-LEVEL COURSEWei Zheng, Jackson State University Dr. Wei Zheng is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Jackson State University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001 and has over 10-year industrial experience. Since becoming a faculty member at JSU in 2005, he has made continuous efforts to integrate emerging technologies and cognitive skill development into engineering curriculum. He serves as a freshmen advisor for the First Year Experience Program at JSU and is the Principle Investigator for
predict effectiveness. Bailey and Stefaniak3used surveys, interviews, and focus groups to determine what employers in the IT industry valued asimportant non-technical skills for employees. They identified both soft skills and business skillsmentioned by the 325 IT professionals surveyed. A panel at the ACM Conference in 1978 presented skillsets of what industry looks for in new hires – among these skills are math ability, software developmentknowledge, problem-solving, team skills, initiative, diversity, and versatility14.Several resources exist for teaching issues of professionalism and ethics. Among these are exercisescompiled by the working group on integrating professionalism into the curriculum11. An exercise aboutresearching types of
of students and a nation-wide declining demand forelectronics technicians. As Moore’s Law continues to impact and transform the electronics fieldone wonders what skills will be needed by electronics technicians by the middle of the nextdecade (2015) and beyond or if there will be any demand for students that have the typical skillsets of electronics technician graduates of this decade. Recently, within the faculty ranksteaching in this area, there has been more discussion about the future and an increasing sense ofurgency that curriculum change is needed or there will be an ever increasing disconnect betweenwhat skills business and industry desire and what is being taught in typical ET associate degreeprograms. Many forward looking faculty
can be applied directly to electronics engineering technology,the uniqueness of the students and the program requires special effort to make it work. This paper discusses the challenge of incorporating statistics in the curriculum of electronicsengineering technology program at Texas A&M University.Incorporating statistics into electronics engineering technology curriculum Statistics is an important tool for robustness analysis, measurement system error analysis, testdata analysis, probabilistic risk assessing, and many other fields in the engineering world. Thekey to the success of teaching and learning statistics for engineering students is to make itrelevant to the engineering problems they face26. Using real-world data5, 15 and
programs are in an ideal position to support the packaging industry. This paperdescribes the first Mechatronics Engineering Technology bachelor program specifically designedto serve the packaging industry. The paper describes the program’s development process, thefinalized curriculum, industry partners, and laboratory development efforts.I. IntroductionWith global economy, consumer, industrial and commercial goods need to be packaged andshipped to different locations. The package must protect the content, deliver proper informationabout the content and in certain applications be appealing to customers. Packaging industries areunder continuous challenges as the cost of energy and material increases. More efficientpackages with less material are
expected need for design, operation andmaintenance personnel in the power industry, in particular for those in the State of Texas. ThePower ET program has been partially funded by the Texas Workforce Commission and iscurrently developing a new curriculum that can effectively provide the students with knowledgein power generation, power transmission, instrumentation and control, and thermodynamics asrequired by engineering positions in the power industry. The new curriculum has an emphasis inthree technical areas17: • Electronics Engineering Technology, with a focus in the areas of power, instrumentation, and control. • Mechanical Engineering Technology, with a focus in the areas of materials
densities (darkness). Figure 14 shows a CR image of a high pressure steam pipe used in nuclear power plants. It can be seen that the pipe was wrapped with a thick layer of thermal insulation material which is typical for steam pipes. The main goal for this pipe CR inspection is to monitor and detect the flow-accelerated corrosion on the pipe walls. Flow-accelerated corrosion has been a major engineering and maintenance issue for the nuclear power plant which can be effectively detected with CR without the need to remove the insulation.≠ With today’s amazingly powerful image processing software as an integral part of the CR system, CR users can easily change the image density, enhance the contrast, zoom a selected region
, adapting to the change hascaused many programs to become increasingly aware of what similar programs are doing inother parts of the country or even other parts of the world. A part of all strategic planningincludes comparing oneself to one’s competitors. In the educational world, we are notnecessarily so concerned with competition but with improving and serving students. Hence,institutions frequently collaborate, so the term benchmarking is used for the initial comparisonbetween programs. This paper benchmarks two urban Mechanical Engineering Technologyprograms and compares their background, objectives and outcomes, curriculum, and laboratories.It is hoped that this benchmark will encourage other programs to perform similar comparisons inan effort
of Hartford Dr. M. Saleh Keshawarz is Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, USA. He has been involved in engineering curriculum issues both in the US and Afghanistan for many years. He has assisted Kabul and Herat universities in Afghanistan in revising their engineeing curricula. Dr. Keshawarz mat be contacted at keshawarz@hartford.eduAkram abu-aisheh, University of Hartford Dr. Akram Abu-aisheh is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Hartford. He is currently the assistant chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and director of the electronic and
the process of integration of Engineering and Technology in cthe urriculumframeworks.Data CollectionParticipants were contacted via e-mail with a request to schedule an interview. Interview timesvaried, ranging from 30 to 60 minutes. Variations were primarily a result of some participantsgiving brief answers, focused primarily on their direct involvement with the process, and someparticipants giving more detailed explanations providing a broader overview of the standardsdevelopment and inclusion in the curriculum frameworks. Due to their work schedules, two outof five participants preferred to have an interview via phone. The other three participants agreedto meet at their work places. Interviews were audiotaped and subsequently transcribed
culturallyimmersive China context. It is these experiences, skills, and opportunities that have beendeemed necessary to prepare graduates for the rapidly globalizing and highly technicalworld they are entering according to industry and the Accreditation Board forEngineering & Technology (ABET). Success factors include: • The transition to an experiential learning curriculum that cross-cultural, multidisciplinary student teams employ in assessing new ventures and internal growth opportunities presented by startup or established firms, • The inclusion of an executive education style workshop attended by sponsor firm personnel, and Page