Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Shepard, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Camille George, University of St. Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2010-175: DESALINATION DESIGN PROJECT FOR THERMODYNAMICSLABThomas Shepard, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Thomas Shepard is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota. He received an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University and B.A. in Physics from Colorado College. His teaching interests include undergraduate courses in the thermal/fluid sciences, experimental methods and renewable energy technologies. He has research interests in experimental fluid mechanics, energy conversion, and engineering education.Camille George, University of St. Thomas Camille George is an Associate Professor and the Program Director of Mechanical Engineering at

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

AC 2010-763: DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT AND PROJECT MANAGEMENTMETHODOLOGIES SUPPORT A SENIOR PROJECT RESEARCH COURSE ANDITS ASSESSMENTPeter Baumann, Central Connecticut State University Dr. Baumann is an Associate Professor of Engineering at CCSU. His industrial experience spans 20 years. He is Past Chairman of American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee B7 and is on his local ASM International chapter’s Board of Directors. Dr. Baumann received a B.S. in Metallurgy at Penn State, earned an M.S. from MIT Mechanical Engineering, and completed a Ph.D. in Materials Science at Polytechnic University. E-mail: BaumannP@ccsu.eduNidal Al-Masoud, Central Connecticut State University

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

AC 2010-145: EXTRACURRICULAR PROJECT ENHANCES STUDENTLEARNING: A CASE STUDYNicholas Harlow, Western Kentucky University Nicholas Harlow is an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering and is currently in his senior year. He is also employed as a student worker for WKU’s Thermal-Fluid Mechanics Laboratory.Robert Choate, Western Kentucky University Robert Choate is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Western Kentucky University. He teaches thermo-fluid and professional component courses, including Sophomore Design, Thermo-Fluid Systems Lab and ME Senior Project Design course sequence. Prior to teaching at WKU, he was a principal engineer for CMAC Design Corporation

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Forsberg, Hofstra University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2010-1593: A MULTI-FACETED CAPSTONE DESIGN PROJECT IN HVACCharles Forsberg, Hofstra University Page 15.57.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 A Multi-Faceted Capstone Design Project in HVACThe Beginnings 1In 2000 I was contacted by a former student working for an engineering firm in theHVAC field. He wanted to discuss a system that he had designed for cooling of aglycol/water solution used in a heating and cooling system for a commercial building.The situation was as follows:A two-pipe heating and cooling system for a building has a central loop circulating eitherhot or chilled water. The central loop

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Scott Post, Bradley University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Selection of the students on teams follows bestpractices of grouping students from under-represented groups together. After that, students aregrouped based on common interests gleaned from a survey given on the first day of class. In thegroup projects students are allowed to set their own responsibilities within the team. Typicallyone person will be in charge of the team budget, one person will conduct experimental testing,one person will be responsible for numerical modeling, etc. For the group projects each team isgiven an allocation of “Monopoly Money” that they use for purchasing supplies and paying forfaculty and staff time to help them on their projects. At the end of the semester group projectstudents give an evaluation of the performance of

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hakan Gurocak, Washington State University, Vancouver

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2010-986: HYBRID COURSE FORMAT FOR PROJECTS IN ROBOTICSHakan Gurocak, Washington State University, Vancouver Hakan Gurocak is Director of School of Engineering and Computer Science and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Washington State University Vancouver. His research interests are robotics, automation, fuzzy logic, technology assisted distance delivery of laboratory courses and haptic interfaces for virtual reality. Dr. Gurocak is an ABET Program Evaluator for mechanical engineering. Page 15.659.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 HYBRID COURSE FORMAT

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brandon Field, University of Southern Indiana; David Ellert, University of Southern Indiana

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2010-1804: PROJECT-BASED CURRICULUM FOR THERMAL-SCIENCECOURSESBrandon Field, University of Southern IndianaDavid Ellert, University of Southern Indiana Page 15.993.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Project-Based Curriculum for Thermal Science CoursesAbstractThe incorporation of semester-long projects into two different courses are discussed in thispaper, one project in a senior-level Fluid/Thermal Design course (F/TD) in the Engineeringcurriculum and two projects in a junior- or senior-level Thermodynamics and Heat Transfercourse (T-HX) for the Industrial Supervision/Advanced Manufacturing curriculum. The contentof both of these courses has been

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Maixner, United States Air Force Academy; William Parker, Air Force Research Laboratories

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2010-48: DESIGN OF A MULTI-MODE FINITE-DIFFERENCE HEATTRANSFER PROJECTMichael Maixner, United States Air Force AcademyWilliam Parker, Air Force Research Laboratories Page 15.358.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Design of a Multi-Mode Finite-Difference Heat Transfer ProjectAbstract: The development of a comprehensive inite-difference project at the end of a heattransfer curriculum is described. The problem requires evaluation of the school’s football ieldturf heating system, incorporates all of the major heat transfer modes (convection, conduction,and radiation), and requires students to investigate both steady state and transient versions ofthe problem

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 I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angkee Sripakagorn, Chulalongkorn University; Kuntinee Maneeratana, Chulalongkorn University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2010-1181: DESIGN AS THE PRIORITY IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION: ANIMPLEMENTATION IN A SENIOR PROJECT COURSEAngkee Sripakagorn, Chulalongkorn University Angkee Sripakagorn is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, an M.S. from Oregon State University, and a B.Eng. from Chulalongkorn University, all in Mechanical Engineering. His area of expertise is thermal science.Kuntinee Maneeratana, Chulalongkorn University Kuntinee Maneeratana is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. She earned a Ph.D. and a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering, both from

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

AC 2010-49: STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARDS DESIGNING EXPERIMENTSBethany Fralick, Purdue UniversityJed Lyons, University of South Carolina Page 15.1112.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Student Attitudes towards Designing ExperimentsAbstractThe broad objective of this research is to contribute to our understanding of how mechanicalengineers learn to design and conduct experiments. Specifically, this study investigatedundergraduate student attitudes towards the design of open-ended experimental projects, andhow these attitudes are different among freshmen, juniors and seniors. Freshman, junior, andsenior mechanical engineering students all were given

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brent Nelson, Northern Arizona University; Constantin Ciocanel, Northern Arizona University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

classrooms and textbooks. As such, they also rarely have theopportunity to learn how experimental design and theoretical modeling work together tounderstand practical systems. To address these shortcomings, a low-cost solar water heaterdesign project was developed and integrated concurrently between a mechanical engineeringheat transfer course and a thermal systems laboratory course. The low-cost constraint reinforcedphysical understanding of heat transfer concepts and ensured messy, non-ideal designs to whichtheoretical modeling could not be neatly applied. A heat transfer concept inventory to assessstudent learning showed minimal gains in student understanding while a self-report attitudesurvey administered to the students demonstrated that they

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

paper is todetail investments and benefits of this type of collaborative experience for the student as well asthe requirements for implementation, assessment and success of the work.Assessment of the student’s progress throughout the project and the student’s scholasticimprovement overall were tracked by both MET and F&PA faculty. The results of theexperiment have provided enough confidence to conduct further experiments which are beingplanned for the Spring semester of 2010.I. IntroductionThe United States has long prided itself on the innovative capabilities of its industrial base.Henry Ford’s assembly line concept not only put the Ford Motor Company ahead of itscompetition when it was introduced, it also helped the United States out

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

. This paper describes research activities conducted primarily in the mechanicalengineering department by undergraduate students. Projects in biomechanics and biomaterialsintegrate engineering mechanics and materials science with the life sciences to enableundergraduate engineering students to participate in cutting-edge research. These activities areexpected to attract more students, especially female students, to engineering and to expand thefuture career options of mechanical engineering students.There are a number of special circumstances that must be considered when developing researchprojects that are appropriate for undergraduate students. The undergraduate research activitiesare carefully designed to recruit suitable students and to

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

in a typical machine designcourse. These are some of the attributes for innovation and creativity which help them develop amindset for possible entrepreneurship. It takes a mechanical engineering graduate a long way topractice professional engineering if he/she develops strong engineering and problems solvingskills with a different mindset. Machine Design is a typical course that gives this experience.Based on many years of teaching this course, in this paper, the authors present the assessment ofcourse learning objectives (CLOs) and how they are linked to direct assessment of homework,class work, exams and design project outcomes. The CLOs are also mapped with the ABETProgram Outcomes. This being a core course it is offered every quarter at

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

, every factor in the life cycle of the product should be taken into account. Aspart of a Capstone Design Project, and with the goal of illustrating complete engineering designprocesses where factors besides the technical ones need to be taken into account, industry-sponsored projects are undertaken by teams of students. The project presented here deals with anautomotive subassembly that needed to be redesigned and evaluated. The system is a powerslider assembly which is installed in the rear of current-model trucks and powers the rearwindow. The current design is bulky, expensive, and takes too much time to install. Theobjective of the project was to introduce a new design for the power slider which would be moreefficient in terms of operation

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

. degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. He teaches courses in engineering design, and is interested in integrating the use of design projects and active learning throughout the curriculum to improve engineering education. Page 15.778.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Integration and Reinforcement of Engineering Skills Beginning in the First-Year Design ExperienceAbstractAs the first step in implementing a Student-driven Pedagogy of Integrated, Reinforced, ActiveLearning (SPIRAL) throughout our Mechanical

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer-Part I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Chasnov

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

the adiabaticcompressor are isolated from their power sources. In an effort to complete the picture for ourstudents, design of power plants was added to the course content of thermodynamics formechanical engineering students (MEs). The Single Rankine Reheat power plant will beconsidered here for our discussion. Efficiencies along the energy conversion path are computedand projections are made for the use of alternative fuels in the supply chain.Students, rather than simply learning how to compute entropy changes for individual processsteps, learn how to place a “value” on their thermal systems. By design, the “value” is basedboth on economics and ethics.IntroductionMechanical Engineers are facing a challenge in today’s marketplace in areas of

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

future projects. Surveys also indicate strong agreement that extremeexperience interviews “inspired ideas that are better for average users as well.” An examinationof interview transcripts shows the extreme experience interviews are valuable not only foruncovering a much more comprehensive set of customer needs, especially with respect toproduct-user interactions, but also for obtaining innovative redesign suggestions from customersthemselves. The results collectively show extreme experience interviews are an effective andvaluable addition to the design process in these courses, with additional room for improvementin teaching technique.1 IntroductionIn the last decade the engineering design community has shown tremendous interest in

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Foster, George Fox University; Chad Hammerquist, George Fox University; Robert Melendy, George Fox University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

designs of new machines and operator interfaces.Unfortunately, many engineers lack knowledge in areas of cross-discipline knowledge. Theybecome specialized in their own field to the fault of not considering (or even knowing) how theirrole in a project impacts the other participants. 17 If students can gain a strong understanding ofhow to apply control theory in real-world applications, they will diversify their knowledge set andcan communicate and design more effectively. Additional arguments have been made forincluding PLCs in controls education. 13,14,18BackgroundThis section highlights the history and context for the PLC and the motivation for pursuing thisinvestigation.HistoryPLCs were first developed by Information Instruments, Inc

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

-and Nano-Mechanics of Materials, the Laser Micromachining Laboratory, the Research Centerfor Advanced Manufacturing, and the Micro Sensor Laboratory. Each faculty member submitteda list of possible projects from their research laboratory in which REU students could participate.Some of the projects were similar to those from previous years, while other projects were new tothe REU program.The REU program was advertised through an email message that was distributed toundergraduate engineering students at the host institution, faculty contacts at other universities,and the Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network (WEPAN) nationwide list-serve.The email message referred potential applicants to a website* which was used as the centralsource

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Doughty, University of Portland; Steven O'Halloran, University of Portland

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

,affording students the opportunity to test the validity of the lumped capacitance model for thesystem. In the fall of their senior year, the same students in a technical elective Systems andMeasurement course are asked to design and conduct an experiment to validate their simulation.This includes generating LabVIEW code, setting data acquisition parameters, and determiningappropriate post processing for the data. Additionally, students are given a review of theirnumerical study just prior to their experimental work. Analysis of their performance and anassessment of survey results are used to determine the degree to which the integrated exercisehas been appreciated.IntroductionThis paper documents a heat transfer project that incorporates both

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

assessment is based on thecommonly used course topics and based on identifying the common course learning objectives(CLOs). CLOs are then mapped with ABET’s program outcomes (POs). Assessment tools suchas class work, home work, quizzes, tests, as well as the final exam and/or final project work withpresentations are used to assess the performance of the students. The rationale for writing thispaper is to understand the variation if any in students’ understanding of the material on theiroverall performance in the class. Variation is to be expected since the student population isdifferent (full time versus part time, graduate versus undergraduate) and the course is taught bydifferent instructors. However, usage of common CLOs, course topics, and

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yunfeng Wang, The College of New Jersey; Christopher Ault, The College of New Jersey; Teresa Nakra, The College of New Jersey; Andrea Salgian, The College of New Jersey; Meredith Stone, Independent Evaluator

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

(IMM) and Music in the same class. It isa project-oriented course that fosters critical thinking, creative problem-solving, andcomputational thinking skills through an open-ended team project requiring the synthesis ofknowledge in all four core disciplines. Students work collaboratively to design and developinnovative robotic and graphical conducting systems that can direct an orchestra. Topics taughtinclude robotics, visual music, abstract animation, computer vision, algorithms, data processing, Page 15.166.2music conducting, and project management.This course was offered in the semester of Fall 2009 for the first time. It is a cross-listed

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions - Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Goodarz Ahmadi, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

environmental processes involve particle transport,deposition and removal. In the last decade, significant research progress in the areas ofnano- and micro-particle transport, deposition and removal has been made. A series ofcourses was developed to make these class of new important research findings availableto seniors and graduate students in engineering through developing and offering ofspecialized curricula. This project involved integration of numerical simulations andexperiments in the developed courses. The course materials were mostly made availableon the web and some courses were taught at University 1 and University 2 campusessimultaneously. Based on the course materials, a series of short courses was also offeredat several countries. The

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

design the vehicle in a real-worldatmosphere. Sponsors of the competition provide teams with the engineering tools andequipment needed to create a realistic vehicle design project. Using these tools the ERAU team,the EcoEagles, have devised a Power-Split EREV propulsion system. The team will build aprototype vehicle that will be tested at GM’s Desert Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona andMilford Proving Grounds in Detroit, Michigan.Vehicle electrification is a major component of the vehicle design. The team designed around a25-mile electric range, which provides a significant benefit for most consumers. The averagecommuter (50%) drives less than 40 km per day. This means that a consumer using theEcoEagles vehicle almost never has to use the diesel

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

and critical thinking skills is to developexercises that require them to look for and explain unexpected behaviors. This paper describeshow the toys were used in class to demonstrate topics that were being taught – the students knewwhat to look for. Several ideas for assignments and projects are presented in the Appendix –these can be used as a starting point for helping students develop their skills in observation,analysis, and critical thinking. The assignments may serve as more useful measures of studentlearning because students can take as much time as they need to examine the toy and formulatetheir answers.ConclusionSeveral inexpensive toys were introduced in this paper. Despite their simplicity, each can beused to demonstrate an array

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Patterson, San Diego State University; Christopher Paolini, San Diego State University; Subrata Bhattacharjee, San Diego State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

]. Page 15.348.2One approach to improve on these shortcomings was to embed a separate program into thebrowser interface to enhance the capabilities of the browser. These programs are now commonlyreferred to as plug-ins. The Java Runtime Environment which allows users to run Java appletsand the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view Adobe Acrobat files are examples of other widely usedbrowser plug-ins. Starting with Adobe Flash CS3, the introduction of ActionScript 3 meant thatFlash now offered a fully developed object-oriented programming language. Flash was chosen asthe primary development tool for this project since Flash offers a wide range of features toduplicate desktop functions, provides rich multimedia and visual tools, provides a robustprogramming

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

Senior Project Design course sequence. Prior to teaching at WKU, he was a principal engineer for CMAC Design Corporation, designing telecommunication, data communication and information technology equipment.Sushil Chaturvedi, Old Dominion University Sushil K. Chaturvedi is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Old Dominion University. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 1975, and has been with Old Dominion University since 1978. Page 15.1288.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Uncertainty Analysis and Instrument Selection using

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

AC 2010-361: A CASE STUDY OF A THERMODYNAMICS COURSE:INFORMING ONLINE COURSE DESIGNSimin Hall, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech Dr. Simin Hall is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech and Polytechnic Institute. Her applied research in education is focused on cognitive processes and motivational factors in problem solving in computationally intensive courses such as engineering using online technology. Prior to joining ME at Virginia Tech, she completed a collaborative research project between the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, College of Engineering at Texas A&M, and Department of Sociology at University