Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Carlos D. Barreiro; John L. Schmalzel

DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENERGY ASSURANCE PLAN FACILITATED BY STUDENT PROJECT TEAMS Carlos D Barreiro, Dr John L SchmalzelAbstractThe U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has recently mandated that each state create or updatetheir energy assurance plan (EAP), which describes how the state intends to respond to a varietyof possible disruptions to their energy supplies. During the fall of 2010, the New Jersey Board ofPublic Utilities engaged Rowan University to help draft the state’s EAP. To accomplish this, weintegrated the development of the plan as part of our Junior/Senior Engineering Clinic program.An initial team of five students developed a draft EAP within the 14-week semester constraints.Key

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Daniel Schmalzel

from an individual PV module,through the combiners to the inverters, and then to the transformer at the campus powersubstation. They are also learning about the documentation associated with a project of this size,which spans CAD drawings, impact assessments, and permitting. The team is responsible for thecreation of request for proposal (RFP) that will be issued as a solicitation. A project of thismagnitude also involves important engineering economic assessments since the project cost andpotential is based on return on investment calculations, which must be attractive to prospectivepower purchase agreement (PPA) partners. Students are defining the system that the universityand the winning bidder will create to deliver power for a fixed

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Victoria Schuele; Ronald Edwards; Don Gillich; Andrew Kovanen; Brian Moretti

Educational Applications of Pyroelectric Acceleration Victoria Schuele1, Ronald Edwards1, Don Gillich1, Andrew Kovanen1, Brian Moretti1 1 Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY 10996AbstractIn order to graduate the United States Military Academy (USMA) with an undergraduate degreein nuclear engineering or physics, each cadet must complete a capstone project. They also havethe option of completing an independent study to graduate with honors or further their futureeducational opportunities. The Nuclear Science and Engineering Research Center (NSERC), aDefense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) office, sponsors these projects, providing

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Robert Marlor

organization.Once the funding and facilities are in place, the Baja SAE program can provide a good setting forproblem-based learning. In this paper, the insights gained from the author’s first three years indeveloping a new SAE program at NMU will be presented so that other faculty advisers of SAEstudent design projects can benefit from this experience.IntroductionTo design, build, and race a successful Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Baja car, a newSAE club faces a variety of challenges. In 2008, a new SAE student chapter was formed atNorthern Michigan University (NMU) and the author became the faculty adviser for this club.This paper presents the insights gained from the author’s first three years of developing a newSAE program at NMU.The primary

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

James Roche

Energy Efficiency Studies as a Tool for Enhancing Student Involvement James Roche, Rowan University, New JerseyAbstractAn important growth area for undergraduate engineer education is to train students for roles inthe emerging sectors of sustainability and renewable energy. The method for incorporating suchnew topics into existing curricula is the challenge. At Rowan University, the method used is theEngineering Clinic approach, which draws from a portfolio of projects designed specifically toaddress a topic. In these Engineering Clinics, students are provided with hands-on experience ina project-based setting. During the Spring 2011 semester, students lead a

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Laurent Simon

learned at the undergraduate level areadequate to describe and regulate the processes. Familiarity with the topics is a pre-requisitebecause the issues that arise in biotechnology, for example, may be different from those relatedto a chemical reactor system. Experiences gathered so far have shown that, at least for thestudents, an understanding of the specific biological application is necessary to fully appreciatethe solution strategies. In this project, a series of problems, which include Laplace transforms,dynamic response and controller tuning, are written to facilitate the dissemination of biologicalknowledge and promote the learning of process control.Reference 1. Mitchell, Taran F.; Fernandez, Erik J.; Chalmers, Jeffrey; Good, Theresa

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ajay R. Shah

sustainability within and outside theagency and its accomplishments. Various Governors have issued executive orders to addressGreen and Clean State Buildings and Vehicles, Green Cleaning Products, eliminating purchaseand use of bottled water in state facilities, and Green Procurement and Agency Sustainability.Most recently, the Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act was promulgated,which requires state infrastructure funding to be consistent with smart growth principles whichwould further support sustainability. We will also review sustainable practices for air and wastemanagement in construction projects.

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Sean K. Turner

aspecific need. Alternatively, concentrations in a new subject can be addressed by formulating acore body of knowledge. An even faster way to begin focusing content on a new area is to adaptexisting coursework that is intrinsically flexible; for example, using capstone design and specialtopic electives. To meet the need for developing Sustainability Engineers, Rowan University isusing the Engineering Clinic program to bring together both undergraduate and graduate studentsto work on projects directly related to Sustainability Engineering. The Center for SustainableDesign located at the South Jersey Technology Park was created to focus on a broad collection ofsustainable engineering projects primarily in the photovoltaic and wind energy areas

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Andras Gordon; Kathryn W. Jablokow; Sven G. Bilen

how we introduce the Systems Approach to undergraduates as part of anintroductory engineering design class. This course, taken by almost all first-year students in theCollege of Engineering, has two hands-on projects, through which we have included an exposureto fundamental systems concepts with an emphasis on the principles of hierarchies and lifecycles.Concepts are presented by way of textbook and concrete examples, such as a single-use cameraand service system, as well as by researching the lifecycles of selected mass-produced consumerproducts. The systems concepts are then used in a problem solving exercise—that is, a client-driven design project—in which students are required to tackle a problem by following the stagesof the Engineering

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Pooyan Asadollahi; Ahmet Zeytinci

links), public utilities (water supply, sewage, andcables), city center revitalization, and storage (car parking, flood control, and goods storage).The following examples effectively show the scale of underground infrastructures being (or tobe) constructed in the world: In Europe, the Lyons-Turin link tunnel is a 200-km-longinfrastructure (Figure 1). Inauguration of the base tunnel is scheduled for 2020 with a budget of Copyright ASEE Middle Atlantic Regional Conference, April 29-30, 2011, Farmingdale State College, SUNYseveral billion Euros. In Singapore, the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) project consistsof two large tunnels with a total length of 80 km and 170 km (Figure 2). In the city of Austin,Texas, 33 km water/sewage tunnel

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ashraf Ghaly

pyramids contain a web of endless tunnels, most of which lead to dead end, andonly one leads to the burial chamber of the king. This maze of complex tunnels is totallyinvisible from the outside and can only be appreciated if rendered in three-dimensions. Thispaper will show how these pyramids were modeled in SL to help the students interactivelyexplore these invisible features of the pyramids and understand the symbol behind variousfeatures of engineering and architectural features. Assessment of the outcome of this project,included quizzing the students on the information pertaining to features hidden inside thepyramids as shown in SL models, and the relationship between a place and the cultural aspectconnected to the function it serves. Students

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Neil H. Schiller

simple. Find a relatively quiet area, free ofinterruptions, and record information as time permitted. Just put the Smart ink pen on the specialnotebook paper and start writing and talking. You can spend a few minutes to record a single Copyright ASEE Middle Atlantic Regional Conference April 29-30, 2011, Farmingdale State College, SUNYconcept and then turn off the pen. Later, you can turn the pen back on and continue writing onthe same page. I found this approach a time efficient way to develop content. The information I developed was automatically organized by its placement in thenotebook. This is a huge advantage! In this project, I have over 800 separate audio files but nomanagement

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Alfred A. Scalza

here”? They are preparing to disband. This is the “winding down stage” and the members start to disengage from “group think” back to “individual think”.Our students, when formed into a formal group, seem to follow these stages but slightlymodified. Our student groups are, by definition, temporary groups. Their time together isseldom more than a semester and usually much less. For these groups forming happens atthe first meeting and since they have a defined short term project, their direction is usuallyset quickly. Their storming, norming and performing stages seem to happen simultaneously.They usually flounder and squander much of their allotted time before they “get serious” andattack the task at hand. Toward the end of this

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Iem Heng; Farrukh Zia

levelprogramming languages; as far as embedded applications are concerned.In this section we describe a micro-controller based circuit which communicates with the PCthrough a standard serial port. This circuit is not only used to teach the basics of serial portcommunication in CET 3510; it also serves as a base for many capstone projects in ourComputer Controlled System Design I and II courses in the Baccalaureate Program.The schematic in Figure 6 shows a Microchip PIC18F2420 micro-controller based circuit.Similar micro-controllers are available from many other manufacturers such as Atmel andFreescale. This micro-controller has some very useful features as listed below:  Analog inputs for connecting analog sensors such as temperature and light level

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Orla Smyth LoPiccolo

Implementing Guided Note Taking to Improve Student Learning of Energy Saving Construction Techniques Orla Smyth LoPiccolo, Farmingdale State College, SUNYAbstractUnderstanding energy saving construction techniques is a critical component of ConstructionDesign —a technology -based, sophomore level course in which students prepare constructiondrawings for an individually prepared residential project and a team-prepared commercialproject. This course is a requirement for one of the two programs in our department,Architectural Engineering Technology, and an elective for the second program, ConstructionManagement Engineering Technology. Construction Design, like many other lecture laboratorycourses, is

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Grant Crawford; Elizabeth Bristow

numerousto list here. Major areas of focus include healthcare, women’s outreach and professionaldevelopment, and education. One well-established organization which provides opportunities forengineering faculty to volunteer their time or make monetary contributions is Engineers WithoutBorders (EWB). EWB “supports community-driven development programs worldwide by Copyright ASEE Middle Atlantic Regional Conference, April 29-30, 2011, Farmingdale State College, SUNYcollaborating with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects, whilecreating transformative experiences and responsible leaders” [12]. EWB-USA membersparticipate in professional or student chapters on a wide

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Gay Lemons; Adam Carberry; Chris Swan

Mechanical Engineering 3 F-ME-4 F Mechanical Engineering 4 M-GE-4 M General Engineering 4 F-ME-3 F Mechanical Engineering 3Table 1. Student ParticipantsProcedureThe study participants were asked via e-mail if they would be willing to participate in a researchexperiment on engineering design. After giving consent, students were tested individually in asmall conference room on campus. A small audio-video camera was mounted on the ceiling torecord speech as well as students’ hands. Participants were told that the purpose of the study wasto investigate the design process of engineering students. A practice think-aloud project ofassembling a 24-piece puzzle

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Nicholas Monsu; Kevin Timko; William Caracciolo

Learning from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Preparing for the Future Nicholas Monsu, Kevin Timko, William Caracciolo Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ 08028AbstractThis paper presents an in-depth overview of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disasterthat occurred in April 2010 off the coast of Louisiana. It contains a substantial review ofthe safety protocols that were and were not followed and how safety protocol problemscould be avoided in the future. The objective of this project was to learn from thisdisaster and to develop problem sets and demonstrations that emphasize sustainableengineering and could be used in a wide array of classes or labs

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Scott Bronikowski; Christopher Lowrance; Kenneth Viall

2: Electrical Engineering Courses using the Quiz Replacement MethodThe first benefit that certainly every college professor or teaching assistant can appreciate is thetime saved by not having to create new homework problems and grade all those homeworkassignments. Under our course model, graded homework is eliminated which means no morelong hours in the office or at home scrutinizing students’ work. Not being tied down to thisgrading commitment affords the opportunity for professors and instructors to focus theirattention in other important areas including individual tutoring via extended office hours,research, or more involvement in student projects or clubs such as IEEE. Some engineeringeducators might argue that their time spent grading

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Kalyan Mondal

code for a specific application. Such exerciseshelp students in appreciating the role of design support engineer. Many homework andexamination problems are set by providing working codes and asking students to modify thecodes appropriately per given specifications. In some cases, the header files in the code providedto students point to nonexistent folders. These forces students to learn how to search and findappropriate header file for inclusion in the project. Another common mistake by students is innot including an interrupt vector table file in programs based on interrupts. In such cases, thestudents find the code to compile and not run properly. By correcting for such omissions,students learn a valuable lesson of code debugging and