Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Baumann, Central Connecticut State University; Nidal Al-Masoud, Central Connecticut State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Management Methodologies Support a Senior Project Research Course and Its AssessmentAbstractMotivated by required program learning outcomes and recommendations from a continuousimprovement plan focus group, Central Connecticut State University has uniquely organized itsmechanical engineering senior project design research class to include significant review ofDesign of Experiments (DOE) and Project Management (PM) methodologies. Both studies havebeen linked to computational software tools for students to use in their capstone experience. Theultimate goal of the class is a project design proposal in which researched backgroundinformation forms the introduction to a managed project plan which can include designedexperimentation within the

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bethany Fralick, Purdue University; Jed Lyons, University of South Carolina

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, responding or controlled. F I can plan a procedure including all of the steps necessary to perform the experiment. G I feel confident that my experimental design report will be thorough. H I feel the task description did not contain enough information to design an experiment. I I like the open-ended nature of this assignment. J I am frustrated with the lack of direction of this assignment.The post-survey contained 21 Likert scale questions: the 10 questions from the pre-survey and anadditional 11 Likert scale questions. The post-survey questions can be seen in Table 2. Thelettered questions were those asked in both the pre- and post-survey while the numberedquestions were asked only in the post-survey. The

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Praveen Malali, Old Dominion University; Pooja Bais, Old Dominion University; Robert Choate, Western Kentucky University; Sushil Chaturvedi, Old Dominion University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

a Web- Based Virtual ExperimentAbstractKey words: Web-based, Virtual Experiment, Instrument selection, Uncertainty Analysis.A methodology has been developed and successfully implemented for transforming physicalexperiments in an undergraduate thermo-fluids laboratory at Old Dominion University (ODU), adoctoral university, into web-based virtual experiments while the Mechanical Engineering (ME)faculty at Western Kentucky University (WKU), an undergraduate university, have developedand implemented a Design of Experiments (DOE) Plan to assure that graduates of their programhave acquired the skills necessary to design and conduct experiments and analyze experimentalresults. This paper presents details about a web-based

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ivana Milanovic, University of Hartford; Tom Eppes, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

complianceare raised; consequently, the effort required to plan, prepare and follow-up on general visitsplaces an increasing burden on programs, departments and colleges. This paper discusses themeans, methods and techniques developed to efficiently deploy departmental and programresources on small undergraduate institutions.Our College maintains nine accreditations with both the Technology and the EngineeringAccreditation Commissions of ABET. The following practices have been put into place tomaximize productivity: (1) prime movers lead, plan and coordinate the process, (2) standardizedtemplates are employed, (3) deliverables are assigned and shared by faculty, (4) useful content issourced from all programs and (5) faculty are supported with ‘how to

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Garrett Clayton, Villanova University; James O'Brien, Villanova University; Kenneth Kroos, Villanova University; Amy Fleischer, Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

aspects of ME and tohelp students develop general skills needed to be successful ME students and engineer. Theseobjectives are achieved through a hands-on, project-based laboratory coupled withcomplementary theory-based lectures. This class differs from typical introduction to engineeringcourses because it is offered to sophomores, which enables higher-level engineering content tobe covered. The topics addressed in this paper are the initial development of the course, theevolution of the course over the past eight years, the current state of the course, studentassessment of the course, and plans for future development.1. IntroductionIn this paper, the development and evolution of the sophomore-level introduction to MechanicalEngineering (ME

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brian Vuksanovich, Youngstown State University; Darrell Wallace, Youngstown State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

academia. Having worked with some of these graduates that werediscussed previously first hand, a premise was developed to address that following issues: 1. provide a setting for the students to use the skills they learn in class to solve problems in creative and innovative ways 2. increase students’ ability to handle loosely defined and open ended questions 3. develop communications skills with non-technical colleagues 4. develop negotiation skills and the art of the compromise while still achieving the end goal 5. learn how to plan a project and develop the discipline to hold to itA team of faculty at Youngstown State University is working to develop a collaborativelaboratory (dubbed CoLab) that

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joao Vinhas, Politecnico de Viseu; Joao Paiva, Politecnico de Viseu

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Next, they were invited to split up into teams of 3. Each teamhad to design five different projects for five different experiments. A month was set as thelimit to present plans for the experiments. During that period, students had to imagine whatkind of experiments they wanted to perform, they had to clarify objectives and selectlaboratory material, doing the necessary research. Written plans with the description of theexperiments, their objectives and corresponding laboratory material were delivered to theinstructor. After the instructor analyzed the plans, they were discussed with each team in order toclarify or modify some of the proposals. Sometimes they were technically unfeasible, most ofthe times due to the lack certain lab devices

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions - Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Willis, Southern Methodist University; Paul Krueger, Southern Methodist University; Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

planning, message content, and educational issues has appeared in journals including Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Services Marketing, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Advertising Education and Southwest Mass Communication Review. Her commentary and results of her work have also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, Adweek, Incentive, The Dallas Morning News, Ragan’s Newsletter, Los Angeles Daily News, and Promotional Products Business. She is co-author of two books and more than 30 refereed publications. In 2007 she received the Research Innovator Award from the Advertising Research Foundation. She holds the Ph.D. in

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer-Part I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Simin Hall, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech; Catherine Amelink, Virginia Tech; Sam Conn, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

and Policy Studies at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include work-life spillover among faculty and issues confronting underrepresented groups in the STEM fields. Catherine has served as the Coordinator of Special Projects for the Office of the Provost at Virginia Tech focusing on faculty work-life issues, diversity efforts, excellence in undergraduate education, and coordinating university planning activities and served as a doctoral intern with the State Council of Higher Education.Sam Conn, Virginia Tech Prior to joining Virginia Tech's Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning as Director, Sam served as Assistant Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Information

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hakan Gurocak, Washington State University, Vancouver

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Table 1 Robotics Course Content Week  Topics covered  1 Sub-systems and components of a robot Mechanical, electrical, process, control, sensor and planning sub-systems; robot arms; robotic actuators; transmission elements. Spatial Descriptions and Transformations Position, Orientation and frames; Mappings; Transform operator. 2 Spatial Desc. and Trans. (cont’d) Rotation operators; Transform equations; Absolute and Relative transformations. 3 Spatial Desc. and Trans. (cont’d

Conference Session

Student Learning and Assessment

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raghu Echempati, Kettering University; Enayat Mahajerin, Saginaw Valley State University; Anca Sala, Baker College Of Flint

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

students. This aspect should be looked in to anddiscussed further by the concerned faculty offering those projects to carefully define anddifferentiate the individual aspects and requirements of each final project so that the students canturn in a single quality report to all courses rather than individual reports for each courses. Thisminimizes any cheating practices that may arise due to non-coordinated projects by studentstrying to claim ‘double credit’ for the same amount of work done for more than one class.Assessment of Course Learning Objectives (CLOs) and action plan (See Figure 1):CLO 1:Students used MatLAB or Excel for the most part of HW/CW/Quizzes and Tests. They usedCAE tools to some extent on the Tests but more on the Final Project

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Benson, Kettering University; Ada Cheng, Kettering University; Odesma Dalrymple, ASU Polytechnic

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

progress students from one level of mastery to another.Second, these trajectories do not have the same linear, hierarchical structure that the AugmentedSyllabus or the Knowledge/Skills methods employ. By developing connections between specificcontent areas an individual trajectory on its own does not provide structure to a curriculum.Instead, these trajectories support success within the larger goals and display what is presentrather than what is desired. This is especially important since at many institutions there arestudents that engage with the curriculum outside of the planned approach (i.e. seniors who endup taking Chemistry I, students who end up repeating a given class, or transfer students). These

Conference Session

Student Learning and Assessment

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nicholas Harlow, Western Kentucky University; Robert Choate, Western Kentucky University; H. Joel Lenoir, Western Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

the dust collector. Ducttransitions were desired so that the effects of the transitions with respect to air flow could beobserved. The set design specifications gave the student worker the opportunity to gainexperience in experimental planning, methods of measurement, and selection of instrumentationas set out in the ME Program’s design of experiments components.1,4,5 Page 15.570.3Design of the Test BedIn order to meet the design specifications there were four major components that needed to bedesigned and/or selected: Ductwork, Dust Collector Connection, Duct Supports, andInstrumentation. The design and selection process for each of these

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Valle, Georgia Institute of Technology; Wayne Whiteman, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

maintained by theGeorgia Tech Office of Institutional Research and Planning,http://www.irp.gatech.edu/Peer%20Institutes.html. Nineteen schools were investigated to obtaina sample size of ten schools with combined BS/MS programs. This figure implies that about onehalf of our current peer mechanical engineering programs have a dual bachelor and master’sdegree program. Table 2 shows a list of the schools included in our study. GT Peer Institution with BS/MS Programs Stanford University Johns Hopkins University Carnegie Mellon University Virginia Tech

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jorge Rodriguez, Western Michigan University; Alamgir Choudhury, Western Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

about topics that they were not familiar with (e.g., FMEA, testing standards andprotocols.)MethodologyThe design process has many variations but, in general, it can be seen as a tool that helpsengineers achieve efficient design and produce a quality product. The design process consists asequence of steps, which are: identify the need, define the problem, research related topics,apply constraints and criteria, brainstorm solutions, analyze solution(s), select the best solution,document the solution, communicate the solution, do further research, build the prototype,perform tests, and finally verify and evaluate that proposed solution.A project plan was set up along with a fixed timeline (Gantt chart) which guided us to achieveour goal. In order

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanical Systems: What's New

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raghu Echempati, Kettering University; Richard Dippery, Kettering University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Assessment ReportOne of the ideas for assessment followed by the authors was to generate a term by term summaryreport of the assessment data collected during each particular term. This is developed based on ameeting of the instructor with all faculty generally involved in teaching this course. The reportamong the other details reviews and documents the identified deficiencies of the concepts andthe difficulties faced by the students and the planned actions for recommendations andcontinuous improvement. For example, offering help sessions, or including recitation period to Page 15.1166.5the course credits (for example, 3 hours of lecture instead

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions - Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Debra Mascaro, University of Utah; Stacy Bamberg, University of Utah; Robert Roemer, University of Utah

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

waterjet cutter in the ME machineshop. (b) The students’ CAD drawing on the waterjet computer. (c) The waterjet nozzle aboveseveral cut fourbars. (d) A set of “volleybots” with fourbars.In addition to implementing new hands-on laboratory exercises related to lecture content and thedesign project, we also made an effort to weave the overarching robotics theme into theSolidWorks® exercises by having the students model robot parts instead of the arbitrary objectsassigned in previous years. For example, on the SolidWorks® proficiency portion of the ME1000 final exam, students were asked to model and assemble three parts making up thesimplified robot “R1D1” shown in Figure 3a. In future offerings of ME 1000, we plan to makeuse of parts from “MECH„E

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vincent Sabatini, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Ryle Maxson, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Darris White, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Jack McKisson, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; William Haupfear, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

technologies, along withincreased awareness of the environmental impact of petroleum energy use, have resulted in newopportunities for vehicle electrification. The EcoEagles HyREV system features a high degree ofvehicle electrification including; an all-electric driving range of 32 km, all electric accessories,plug-in charging and electric all-wheel-drive and the integration of three electric motors witheach over 55kW of peak power.The competition and EcoEagles vehicle performance specifications, based on their CAD andPSAT analyses, can be seen below in Table 1. Table 1: Vehicle Technical SpecificationsDevelopment of the HyREV SystemsThe EcoEagles team has adhered to a simplified version of GM’s Global Development plan

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions - Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Green, LeTourneau University; Carolyn Conner Seepersad, University of Texas, Austin; Katja Holtta-Otto, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

unsolicitedcomments from students after class such as “thank you for doing this [assistive] project.” Figure 2: Automated Pill Dispenser Prototype, Accommodating Multiple Disabilities (Functional prototype and photo by “Team #18”: B. Ludwig, N. Bryant, and C. Schults)3.2 Course Background: 3rd Year Design Methods rdThe 3 year Design Methods course strengthens and extends the foundational conceptsintroduced in 1st year Cornerstones Design for all engineering and engineering technologymajors, excluding materials joining and civil engineering (60-90 students per year.) Studentsexplore a variety of engineering design methods through a semester-long reverse-engineering re-design team project. Example topics include: planning the

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanical Systems: What's New

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Camilla Saviz, University of the Pacific; Said Shakerin, University of the Pacific

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

preferences for visual, active, orhands-on learning. Use of toys and demonstrations, when well-planned, practiced, andintroduced in support of class content, can liven up the classroom, engage and challengestudents, and help them visualize concepts that may otherwise be outside the realm of theirexperience.The literature on use of toys in education is indeed rich. Articles can be found in publicationssuch as American Journal of Physics, The Physics Teacher, the European journal PhysicsEducation, Prism and the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education. Severalsuppliers including PASCO and Educational Innovations, Inc. have developed their businessesaround supplying the types of toys used in support of science and engineering education

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hui Shen, Ohio Northern University; Richard F. Miller, Ohio Northern University; David Sawyers, Ohio Northern University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

research needs a significant amount of supportand supervision from faculty members. However, faculties in undergraduate programs like theMechanical Engineering Department at ONU have heavy teaching, advising and servicerequirements. Usually one faculty member teaches six or more courses an academic year inaddition to committee service, academic and capstone project advising, lab instruction, andprofessional development. In addition, due to that absence of graduate students, faculty membersalso do their own grading, hold office hours, and run their own labs. Therefore, it is difficult forfaculty members to also find the time required to closely supervise undergraduate researchassistants. However, with proper planning and accommodations

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angkee Sripakagorn, Chulalongkorn University; Kuntinee Maneeratana, Chulalongkorn University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

knowledge in design decision, accounts for 60%.The remaining 40% come from soft skills, including working in teams, project management andcommunication skills. From a different perspective, the grading framework places 40% on theinitiation and the progress of a project while 60% is awarded to the final results.At the start of the academic year, the administrative committee works with the advisors throughthe students to come up with the project proposal that, most importantly, covers the intendeddesign experience. As discussed earlier, the key is to include design realization and verificationprocesses. In addition, students need to plan the project well, including task distribution amongthe team members, scheduling and budgeting. These issues become

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanical Systems: What's New

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ashok Kumar Manoharan, Auburn University; P.K. Raju, Auburn University; Chetan Sankar, Auburn University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

concepts,understandings, and skills that they don’t develop just by sitting through the lecture. Combiningsegments of lecture with short active learning activities is an excellent way to keep studentsinterested and involved. Naturally, improved levels of interest and attention increase learning.Thus, giving a few minutes of lecture time for an active learning activity can actually increasethe amount of information covered and retained, rather than decrease it6. A number of activitiesthat have been successful in the Introduction to Engineering classes are given below. Theinstructor can choose appropriate methods from this list: (a) Planning: be prepared, make the task clear to students (prepare the assignment in written form). Make sure the

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions - Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Goodarz Ahmadi, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

particleinteraction with laminar flow, Brownian motion, and particle deposition by diffusion,interception and impaction. The sections on interactions of particles with turbulence and turbulent depositionare normally taught in the second course. Computational modeling of turbulent flowswas discussed, and classical models of turbulent deposition were described. In additionthe process of aerosol charging and transport under the action of electrical forces andturbulence were presented. A number of computational modules were added to make the coursepresentations of the materials more interactive. The plan was to have sufficient numberof calculation modules for the student to experiment with. As a result the student coulddevelop a physical

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions - Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rajesh Bhaskaran, Cornell University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

experience. They also encounter the V&V step in the SimCafe modules used in theother three courses listed in Table 1. We plan to incorporate the latest V&V thinking into thetutorials and introduce students to related standards from ASME2 and AIAA1. Thisconcomitantly will address the ABET requirement that students be exposed to engineeringstandards. In the process, V&V can be given a more prominent and consistent role in thecurriculum. Page 15.1065.10SimCafe TemplatesWe are developing templates on SimCafe which educators can use to author new web-basedsoftware tutorials that follow the structure discussed above. In the templates, each high

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Natasha Smith, University of Southern Indiana

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

professional communication. At the same time, lab exercises can help introduce orsolidify engineering concepts presented in the classroom. Agrawal presents objectives forlaboratory courses which include critical thinking in the planning and execution as well as for theevaluation of models and experimental data, in addition to effective communication5. Thesepedagogical purposes should be harmonious but may not be if students' attention is focused onlearning too many new concepts at the expense of reasoning through the experiment itself. This Page 15.1173.2is of particular concern for students new to standards of engineering reasoning and reporting

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mathew Hagge, Iowa State University; Gloria Starns, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

equation forconservation of energy. To do this successfully, students need to better understand thedifferences between heat, work, temperature, internal energy, etc. The concept based learningmethod is not just a successful teaching method, the authors also believe it meets thefundamental need of gaining understanding sufficient to overcome many of thesemisconceptions. The authors plan to present the performance of students currently enrolled in aconcept based learning section of thermodynamics on the TTCI (Thermal and Transport ConceptInventory) at the ASEE conference. Please note that the authors will not have seen the TTCIquestions prior to student testing, and that no changes have been made to the teaching of thecourse to address the examples

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanical Systems: What's New

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arun Chintalapati, Missouri University of Science and Technology; Hong Sheng, Missouri University of Science and Technology; Richard Hall, Missouri University of Science and Technology; Robert Landers, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer-Part I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

B. Terry Beck, Kansas State University; Greg Payne, Kansas State University; Trevor Heitman, Kansas State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

here.A more complete large scale Pitot-static probe is planned for future implementation, whichwould provide better control of orientation and viewing of other yaw angles. A simplifiedschematic of the current large-scale Pitot-static probe test model is shown in Figure 10. Themodel was constructed from ABS Plastic, and had a diameter of about D = 1.25 in. (31.8 mm),and an overall length of about 14.0 in. (356 mm). One end was hemispherical with a diameter D,and the other end was elliptical in shape. (a) Leading Edge Smoke Streams (b) Close-up Leading Edge Flow Figure 11: Simplified Pitot-Static Probe Flow Visualization—Normal OrientationFigure 11(b) shows the streamline behavior near the leading edge of the simplified