Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ahmad Al-Daraiseh

: Neural Networks, ART, FAM, GFAM, GEAM, Hybrid, Genetic Algorithm I. INTRODUCTIONTHE Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) architecture was developed by Grossberg (1976) [1].In 1992 Mr. Carpenter developed a Neural Network (NN) called Fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) [2].FAM architectures became very popular and were used in the literature to successfully solvemany classification problems. Researchers then developed other ART NN‟s such as EAM [5]and GAM [6] that used different category representations to attain better performance and toreduce the effect of a phenomenon called Category Proliferation (CP) (Creating extra categoriesfor better performance especially when used with noisy data). The authors noted that FAM,GAM and EAM

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Kevin Dahm; Thomas Merrill; William Riddell

these new assignments, explaining how they are intended to promote and support entrepreneurship in engineering students, and discusses how entrepreneurship provides an excellent framework for meeting the main pedagogical objectives of the course: teaching technical communication and engineering design. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Design, Engineering Design, CommunicationI. Background and IntroductionProject-based learning has been gaining popularity in engineering curricula as a means to addressthe professional skills component (or A-K criteria) that were introduced by ABET in the 2000criteria. [1] The College of Engineering at Rowan University has adopted a sequence of courses,known as Engineering

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Muhammad M. Baig; Rafiqul Islam

technology and significantly enhance the students’ employment opportunities. Viewing the fact that there is and will be an ever-increasing demand for engineers and technologists in this field, Northwestern State University, at Natchitoches, Louisiana, introduced a one semester (3 credit-hour class and 1 credit-hour lab) course on Microcontrollers. In both our instruction and lab experiments we have selected the Microchip’s PIC 16 & PIC18 microcontroller family devices, namely 16F84A, 16F54, 16F870 and 18F452 for obvious reasons. We have attempted to provide our graduates adequate knowledge to design, test and analyze basic microcontroller-based circuits

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

B. Samanta; Chiraag Nataraj; Sanjeev Reddy; Mark Woods; C. Nataraj

robots. Once the target was detected the robots would reach the target using the PSO algorithm. Results of initial exploratory efforts were encouraging. The students got a first-hand experience of implementing swarm robotics as a real-time engineering application.Key words: Swarm robotics; swarm intelligence; Lego NXT; school students’ researchexperience; Java programming; demonstration.I. IntroductionRobotics is viewed as an emerging field that has potential to significantly impactthe nature of engineering and science education at all levels, from K-12 tograduate school [1-7]. A recent development in robotics is swarm robotics [8].The use of a large group (swarm) of small, simple and cheaper robots with

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Tom M. Warms

thesefeatures, such as iterative and recursive functions, and value and reference parameters.Basic rules for tracingThe name of the function being executed appears above the vertical line. Names of identifiersare placed on the left side of the line and the identifiers' values on the right. Input values areunderlined, boxes indicate output, indicates the RETURN character, and returned values areencircled. Indeterminate values are indicated by '?'. In tracing each statement, the values thatresulted from tracing previous statements are available.Some introductory examplesFigure 1 shows a program to calculate the sum of two input numbers, along with its trace.(Figures 1 – 8 first appeared in [1]. The tracing method was described in [2, 3]; some

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

J. Ledlie Klosky; Gunnar Tamm

thisexperience, one might expect that the prin-ciple challenge for undergraduates would betechnical in nature, like computing stressesfor an unusual loading or solving a complexdynamics problem. However, we have no-ticed that the main difficulty is not studentability or training; the central feature of un-successful teams is a lack of motivation.“Regardless of the student’s learning styleand basic intelligence, he or she will not learnif not motivated” [1]. Teams that possessthe drive to finish rarely trip over technical Figure 1 Students display their tower and blades, ex-or resource issues but instead adapt and ecuted using only discarded materials (junk) and simpleovercome, achieving far

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Sofia M. Vidalis; Joseph J. Cecere

schools, interfacing with various audiences and employersof the construction industry, and an advocate to the program. The advisory board acts in advisorycapacity to the SDCET program, the School of Science, Engineering and Technology, and thecollege. Each member of the advisory board is chosen by their position and/or expertise in theindustry, government, and academics. The advisory board committee meets and reviewsapplicants’ resumes and then selects the applicant or applicants that are best fit for the advisoryboard. There is a cap of 22 members that can serve in the advisory board. The SDCET Advisory board has been identified by the college to be an excellentexample of an outstanding board 1. Their activities show how different an

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Anthony Manno; Kamal Shahrabi

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

B. Samanta

, medicineand econometrics, among others. Several methods have been used for predictionof real life complex, nonlinear time series commonly encountered in various suchapplication domains [1-3]. In recent years, there is also a growing interest inincorporating bio-inspired computational algorithms, commonly termed ascomputational intelligence (CI), in discovering knowledge from data, both ineducation and research [4-9].Among various CI techniques, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have beendeveloped in form of parallel distributed network models based on biologicallearning process of the human brain. Among different types of ANNs, multi-layerperceptron (MLP) neural networks are quite popular [4]. Recently singlemultiplicative neuron (SMN) model has been

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Orla LoPiccolo

immediately asked to list the five passive house concepts. The test results support existing studies that show 65% of students to be ‘visual learners,’[1] and that graphics with text provide a more effective means of introducing a new topic than video. [2] Key words: Passive house, video, graphic, visual learner.IntroductionPassive House construction reduces “the heating energy consumption of buildingsby an amazing 90%.”[3] With the passing of the American Clean Energy andSecurity Act (ACES) on June 26th, 2009, passive house construction is likely to bea requirement in the new nationwide energy code mandated by this Act. TheACES requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to: establish and enforce thisnew nationwide energy code and achieve a “30

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Sarai Hedges

, lifelong learning, Six SigmaSix Sigma, started in 1986 by Motorola, has been defined in numerous ways. It has been called aphilosophy, a methodology, and a set of tools [1]. One of the more concise definitions is “adisciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects … in any process --from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.”[2] Six Sigma is now endemicto industry—automotive, chemical, financial, manufacturing, and retail to name a few—fromAmerican Express to GE, Advanced Micro Devices to Xerox and is credited with saving millionsof dollars while improving product or service quality and customer satisfaction. In June of 2008Allen Arthur, Sarai Hedges, and Virginia Westheider met to discuss using the

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Parag Magunia

two Poisson random variables. Keywords: Shapiro-Wilk, normality, hypothesis test METHODS AND MATERIALS Possible values for λ1 and λ2 were taken from the set {1,3,5,10,15,20} and onlyincluding those values which lead to nonzero differences between λ1 and λ2 . Pleasenote that sometimes different pairs of lambda values lead to identical differences. For each pair of λ1 and λ2 , samples were generated using values of n = 10, 15,20, and 25 from the two separate Poisson distributions, X 1 and X 2 , with parameters λ1and λ2 , respectively. Each sample from X 1 was paired with a sample from X 2 ofidentical sample size. A hypothesis test was then performed to test the eqaulity of λ1 andλ2 . This test

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ti Lin Liu

. In computationalMethods, the updated computer will be used as the powerful tool for the analysis phase inengineering design. Applications topics include statics (truss, frame), strength of materials (combinedstresses, deflection of beam with finite difference method), mechanical design (spring, joints connections,gear, shaft), and dynamics (rocket, linkage, vibration). Some examples are illustrated below.Examples:1. Frame static force analysis. The frame is supported by a pin at point A and a link DE. Neglectthe weight of the members. Determine the reaction at pin A and the axial forces in members DE,BD, and CD. First, the frame is solved in Excel. The sketch, free body diagram, and equationsfor equilibrium are given. The solution of the

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Jeng-Nan Juang; R. Radharamanan

sensing the difference in propagation time between beams of light traveling in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions about some closed optical path [1]. This paper presents a brief overview of optical gyroscopes and examines their suitability to a particular application where the current mechanical device has exhibited poor reliability. Conclusions are formulated that support the recommendation of developing an open loop, analog fiber optic gyroscope which will satisfy the requirements of the particular application of interest as well as those of similar systems. With the advent of laser technology in the 1960’s, a concentrated effort began to replace rotating

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ossama Elhadary

research the author was also able to show that the longer the duration between the creation of the SOW and the project start (kickoff meeting), the more likely that changes will occur in the project which implies that the longer the delay in project start the more there is a need to reevaluate some of the assumptions made during the planning phase.KEYWORDSIT Implementation, Project Management, Change1) IntroductionChange is inevitable in many projects and it would be wrong to assume that allprojects will proceed exactly as planned without any change occurring.Effectively managing projects and the dynamics of change is critical to success[1]. After studying the cumulative effect of change in construction projects,McCally [2] concluded that

Collection

2009 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Jeanne Radigan

“The practice of gaining supervised practical experience is nothing new” [1]. Internshipsas part of a formal education program can trace its roots back to the Middle Ages where it wascommon practice to learn a trade under the direct supervision of a master craftsman. Apprenticesoften had to agree to “pay back” their employer by agreeing to work for a certain period of timeonce they were considered fully trained. In the early days, most, if not all of the training wasdone on the job, with little formal theoretical education. By the early 1900’s, experiential learning had established itself at institutions of highereducation in several fields. The clinical training programs for medical students were recognizedas a key component in