Conference Session

New Research & Trends for Minorities in Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Imbertson, University of Minnesota-ECE; Anders Sonnenburg, Xcel Energy; Munira Masoud, Xcel Energy; Meron Demissie, Mortenson Construction

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

director of the service learning program at Purdue University, EPICS(Engineering Projects In Community Service). In the past when Dr. Oakes would reviewstandard student capstone engineering projects, that is non-service learning, he would oftenencounter projects that didn’t work. The students could show that they worked hard on theirprojects but many aspects of their projects, and much of their understanding of the technologies,were incomplete. Dr. Oakes would contrast these experiences to his experiences reviewingservice learning projects. The service learning projects were almost always complete andworking, and the students had full and deep understanding of the technologies. The reasons forthis difference are likely twofold. First, the students

Conference Session

Build Diversity in Engineering Graduate Programs

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ali Ansari, Virginia State University; Jahangir Ansari, Virginia State University; Krishan Agrawal, Virginia State University; Arthur Fridrich, Virginia State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

directly involved in the process.Our faculty made a presentation in the Best Assessment Practices at Rose-Hulman Institute ofTechnology. This directly impacted more than fifty faculty members from other institutions.Our team also published five articles in the ASEE Proceedings and one in proceeding of IJME –INTERTECH on outcomes associated with capstone projects during the past four yearsOak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation(NEES)NEES and ORAU collaborated with the VSU and conducted a workshop on January 11, 2008 tothirty-five (35) VSU STEM faculty members. Twelve of our faculty members continued to workwith NEES in identifying research opportunities on earthquake. As a result, two VSU

Conference Session

Build Diversity in Engineering Graduate Programs

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Abhijit Nagchaudhuri, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Terry Teays, Johns Hopkins University; Mary Bowden, University of Maryland at College Park; Guangming Chen, Morgan State University; Richard Henry, Johns Hopkins University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

summer but for the relationships fostered by this exchange. Some ofthe students are still in touch with their faculty mentors, integrating their research experiencesinto their capstone senior design projects. A senior student from UMES, who worked as asummer exchange student at MSU, is now pursuing graduate work at MSU. Also, if thisprogram were to be extended in the future to some of the community colleges in the state, wewould undoubtedly see some of the best community college students transferring to a four-yeardegree program as a result of a summer internship experience, where they might not have feltmotivated or confident enough to do so otherwise. Recruitment and inclusion of communitycollege students may represent an important step in