Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Gregory S. Parnell; Michael Kwinn

The First Course GREGORY S. PARNELL, Ph. D. MICHAEL J. KWINN, Jr., PhD Professor of Systems Engineering Associate Professor Department of Systems Engineering Department of Systems Engineering United States Military Academy United States Military Academy West Point, New York 10996-1779 West Point, New York 10996-1779 Office: (845) 938-4374 Office: (845) 938-5941 Mobile: (914) 720-3989 Mobile: (845)401-8361 FAX: (845) 938-5919

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Omar A. Shehadeh; Aiman S. Kuzmar

The Opinion of the Engineering Faculty Members at the Hashemite University in Zarka, Jordan on Teaching Engineering Using Arabic Instead of English Omar A. Shehadeh Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature The Department of Arabic Studies, The Hashemite University, Zarka, Jordan Aiman S. Kuzmar, P. E. Assistant Professor of Engineering The Engineering and Engineering Technology Programs Penn State Fayette- The Eberly Campus, Uniontown, PA, USAABSTRACTEnglish is used in engineering education in Jordan. It is the opinion of the two

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Aaron S. Bradshaw; Gary N. McCloskey; Franklin Miguel

Development of a Civil Engineering Design Course Based On Reflective Action Aaron S. Bradshaw, Merrimack College Gary N. McCloskey, O.S.A. Merrimack College Franklin Miguel, Merrimack CollegeAbstractAdded to solid technical skills, there are a number of “soft” skills that a civil engineer must possess to besuccessful in practice. A concept for a course is proposed where students can develop technical and non-technical practice skills using the learning approach of reflective action which was first introduced byDonald Schon in the 1980’s. Reflective action is demonstrated through a design problem involving

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ryan A. Ebel; Donald S. Abbott-McCune; David Chang

Undergraduate Mechatronics Couse Design Project MAJ Ryan A. Ebel, United States Military Academy MAJ Donald S. Abbott-McCune, United States Military Academy MAJ David Chang, United States Military AcademyAbstractThere is a real need to educate our engineering students in the application of electronics, controls,mechanics, and software; this multidisciplinary initiative has led to the creation of an undergraduateMechatronics courses at the United States Military Academy (USMA) and many other universitiesaround the world. The focus of these courses is to emphasize application and hands on laboratory work ingeneral, and design projects in particular. This paper presents an

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Dean Aslam; Aixia Shao

provided in [50].Expected Impact Table 1 shows the possible impact on different audiences in different settings and environments. Theefficacy of the program discussed in this paper is based on teaching at the undergraduate/graduate(formal) and K-12 (informal) levels. It may be pointed out that no formal education research wasconducted to generate the Table 1. Thus, the data provided here is qualitative and is based on theassessment of instructors, parents and other professional observers (one of the observers had a doctoratein education). Table 1 Learning level (Basic, Intermediate, Advance), underlying STEMS areas (S, T, E, M), expected impact (Low,Normal, High), learner interest (Low, Normal, High), possible audience types (Families

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

R. Radharamanan; Ha Van Vo

this paper clearly indicate the learning opportunities provided to the students at MUSE. Thestudents also participate in the multidisciplinary senior design projects in their final year. Theeffective use of theory classes, design and manufacturing lab facilities, multidisciplinary seniordesign projects, and co-op opportunities provide the students the needed expertise and preparethem well to meet the challenges in the industrial workplace.References[1] Davis, D. C., Gentili, K. L., Trevisa, M. S., and Calkins, D. E., “Engineering Design Assessment Processes and Scoring Scales for Program Improvement and Accountability,” Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 91 (No. 2), 2002, pp. 211-221.[2] Dym, C. L., Sheppard, S. D., and

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Wei Cao; Yanqing Gao; Jason Robert Mace

different operation platforms work together as aswarming group; the organization and function of a swarming team is just like bees or ants. Theindividual intelligent robot can run in either autonomous mode or cooperative mode. Normally, there isone or more ground station(s) to coordinate and initiate the swarming team. The path planning andobstacle avoidance will become a part of formatted cooperative team work. The communication between the ground station(s) and individual intelligent robots has beendeveloped in a systematic manner in the past decade. However, there is no convinced and reliablephysical communication means between individual robots available. And the fact of that there isn’t anymethodology of information exchanging between

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Dean M. Aslam; Zongliang Cao; Cyrous Rostamzadeh

theassessment of instructors, parents and other professional observers (one of the observers had a doctorate ineducation) during 2006-07. Table 1 Learning level (Basic, Intermediate, Advance), underlying STEMS areas (S, T, E, M), expected impact (Low, Normal,High), learner interest (Low, Normal, High), possible audience types (Families, Children, Adults, College Students, Teachers,Professionals, Underserved, Retired, Boy Scouts, Hobbyists and Explorers), and possible locations (Museum, Science &Technology Center, Community Center, Mall and Shopping Center, Library, Websites, After-School Locations). Gen. Learning STEM Expected Learner Audience Possible Unique Aspect Area

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Joseph Robert Yost; Randy D. Weinstein

individual department schedule constraints. Ingeneral, a single faculty member from each department is designated to be with the students forthe two week duration. Table 2: EGR 1700 Department Schedule (each for Che, ECE, ME, CEE ) W eek 1 M o nday Tue s day W e dne s day Thurs day Friday Le ctu r e 1 Le ctu re 1 Le ctu re 2 Le ctu r e 2 no thing 1 2 :3 0 -1 :2 0 1 :0 0 -1 :5 0 1 2 :3 0 -1 :2 0 1 :0 0 -1 :5 0 (Se c tio ns 2 ,3 ,4 ) (Se c tio ns 1 ,5 ,6 ) (Se c tio ns 2 ,3 ,4 ) (Se c tio ns 1 ,5 ,6 ) 0

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Peter Thomas Tkacik

camaraderie). 1Lastly, the race car outing generated immense publicity and Mechanical Engineering Technology studentsin particular have become engaged in the program. Both MET students and their faculty have sincejoined the Mechanical Engineering race teams and participate strongly. The Mechanical Engineeringclass prerequisites for “Motorsports Instrumentation” will be modified to accept the best of the METseniors for the upcoming fall semester class.What is in the motorsports program for the student‟s future?To get a feel for the immensity of the engineering need in this industry, consider that Nascar racingsupports 154 Sprint cup, Nationwide series, and Craftsman truck teams, in addition to a

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Jennifer Zirnheld; Adam Halstead

projects for the course were chosen so as to cover all of the main disciplines at least once. Table 2 shows a breakdown of the disciplines covered by each topic. Table 2. Breakdown of multidisciplinary project topics and associated disciplines Discipline(s) Topic Mechanical, Industrial, Environmental, Civil Portable Shelter Design/Implementation Electrical, Ethics Power Grid Design/Management Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical, Environmental Biodiesel Synthesis/Analysis Aerospace, Industrial, Mechanical, Civil Hot Air Balloons/Air Travel As can be seen, many of the disciplines are covered by more than one

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Elif Kongar; Paul Kontogiorgis; Nancy L. Russo; Tarek Sobh

most girls reporting a loss ofinterest in STEM around the age of twelve 9, there are now many studies reporting cases10 where womenenrollment is much higher than men in engineering societies. The collaborative environment of theactivities arranged by these societies may be a contributing factor in the change.Historically, about one-third of all bachelor’s degrees have been awarded in science and engineering.Even though women are 56% of the college population, women earned only 19.5% of engineeringbachelor's degrees in 200511. Despite this high retention rate, in the long run we observe an increasingtrend: Since 1970, the number of bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering (S&E) awarded annuallyto men has fluctuated around 200,000

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

David I. Schwartz

internal measure) can represent a gamestate9. By dynamically adjusting difficulty, a game can adapt to different player abilities9, 10.Adapting the formalism and state4, 9, a score function at time t assigns a score s to a temporal game stateg: s: g →ℤ (3)where s ∊ Z and g = G(t). Thus, a score can provide a basic measure of temporal game state. FromSection 2, G(t) represents an abstract measure of temporal game state—state is an arbitrary representationof G’s components (Equation 1) at a specific time t. Thus, in Figure 2, state can replace score, usingEquation 3.For discrete systems (e.g., turn-based play), we can instead refer to time ti, score si

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Paul G. Ranky

-assessment ispossible. This means that students become more self-critical as they participatedirectly in their own learning process. Team, group and class assessment isintegrated into every module of our programs (supported by active codespreadsheets, computer programs, often with embedded 3D objects, video-clipsand animations) that the students can interrogate to understand either thequestion(s) or the answers better.The important observation about millennial generation students is that all of thenoted attributes should be respected, and that the education system should adjustto delivering these customer expectations at a high quality level. In this paper 1some tested

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Rashmi Jain; Keith Sheppard; Elisabeth McGrath; Bernard Gallois

design, encourage a mindset in which students seek technicalsolutions often rooted in a specific engineering discipline with little regard for the context in which theirproduct, system, or service may be deployed, the societal or business need(s) it may fulfill or even itsrelations to all the other engineering, business or ‘environmental’ domains that can contribute to success.In order to better prepare engineers with a systems perspective and the competencies to be effective insystem design, there is a need to promote the development of systems thinking in engineeringundergraduates. Coupled to these efforts we also see the merits of seeding this approach even earlier inK-12 communities as part of a movement to incorporate pre-engineering into

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

David J. Palazzo; Chad C. Schools

acceleration, 3.8 g, is in accordance with many of today's roller coasters, where coasterengineers typically design for a maximum acceleration of 4 g. 9 o’clock 2 o’clock Figure 2a: Plot of Speed (m/s) vs. time (s) for the front cart. Figure 2b: Plot of Total Acceleration (m/s2) vs. Time (s) for the front cart. This analysis could easily be scaled to varying levels of difficulty and may also be suitable forengineering disciplines as well. Other physical phenomena which could be investigated from this casestudy include conservation of energy, non-conservative forces acting on the cart during its motion throughthe

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Beena Sukumaran; Joshua Bonzella; Kevin McGarvey; Heather Klein

distribution system projects in Honduras, El Salvador and Thailand and a fishhatchery and geothermal power generation design for Cheyenne, S. Dakota. One of the emphases ofEngineers without Borders is that project personnel involved with implementation of projects in differentregions of the world also maintain long standing relationships with them. In addition, a social survey isrequired of the local population and designs being implemented be approved by and not disrupt the socialfabric of the community. Previous works in the area that will be utilized by the projects include productredesign for the developing world as described by Weiss et al2. In their paper, they have described effortsat developing products that can be redesigned using local

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

M.G. Guvench

fact the junior electronics courses (ELE342and ELE343) constituting prerequisites for this course also emphasize design but at a smaller scale andusing discrete BJT and off-the-shelf ICs rather than at the chip level using CMOS technology. Thisemphasis on “design” in our electronics sequence of courses has been implemented starting with an NSFgrant to establish and develop a “Computer-Integrated-Electronics” Laboratory (C.I.E. Lab) in the early1990’s. The concept of “Computer-Integrated-Electronics Laboratory” simply brings computers into theelectronics lab where designs implemented are tested for verification. Availability of PC-basedcomputational and graphics software along with inexpensive circuit simulation tools like “PSpice

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Bassem Alhalabi; M.K. Hamza; Ali Abu-El Humos

experiment’s parameters and Components control points, such as motors, solenoids, heating Figure 1. Remote Lab Environment (RLE) Components element, switches, etc.• Data acquisition & control unit (DAQ): an interface between the sensors and actuators, other instrument devices and computer- server(s). This module’s chief functionality is to communicate the computer commands to actuators as well as communicate the data measurements to the computer.• Computer (microcontroller): this component basically runs the experiment software and goes through the experiment steps and interacts with the user via the DAQ and sensors/actuators. Many controllers are available in the market. The National

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2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Roger Chapman Burk

,”which meant that it had to include a laboratory component. All Princeton students are required to taketwo “S&T” courses. This was an additional incentive for liberal arts students to take the course. Therequired preparation for the class was limited to algebra, a little calculus, and good high-school science.It was open to all class years. Engineering students were welcome on the grounds that their knowledgewould enrich the class; they were expected to find the technical approach elementary but would get acomprehensive overview of the space flight problem. They were limited to no more than 25% of theavailable seats.2. Course DesignThe catalog description of the course was: This is an introductory aerospace engineering course for non

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Matt Armstrong; Richard L. Comitz; Andrew Biaglow; Russ Lachance; Joseph Sloop

Engineering Design Process Environment: Technological Design & Economic Analysis Political Alternatives Social Generation Modeling & Analysi s Problem Decision Definition Making EngineeringCurrent Status: Needs Design Comparison of

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Linda Ann Riley; Charles Thomas

establish a bridge that we hope in time will ultimately affect the pipeline ofentering engineering freshmen. At the very least, the partnership has provided the authors with a deeperappreciation of the challenges and opportunities associated with middle and secondary education systemsin Rhode Island and the nation.ReferencesAmerican Society for Engineering Education. (2007). Profiles of Engineering and Engineering TechnologyColleges. Washington D.C.: American Society for Engineering Education.Jefers, A. S. (2004). Understanding K-12 Engineering Outreach Programs. Journal of Professional Issues inEngineering Education and Practice (138), 95-108.National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Statistics. (2006). The Nations Report

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2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

) is one of the nation’s four federalservice academies. CGA focuses on the academic, military and physical development ofyoung men and women as leaders in service to our nation. CGA provides the U. S. CoastGuard (USCG) with approximately 190 new Coast Guard officers each year. Upongraduation, each graduate receives a commission as an Ensign in the Coast Guard and aBachelors of Science degree in one of eight fields. The Civil Engineering program, one offour engineering majors at CGA, averages 30 graduates per year. The CGA Civilprogram has taken advantage of the small class size in its development of the capstonedesign course. Students work in teams on several projects each year with clients in theCoast Guard or the local community.In the late

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Andrew Grossfield

toeveryone to ponder and contemplate at any time and can serve as a model for researching otherdisciplines.Forty years ago, mathematicians exhibited pride in their ability to hide geometric or visual representationsof mathematical concepts. The mathematics reform of the 1990’s sanctioned the representation offunctions as single valued curves. More remains to be done. Currently, Proof Without Words is anongoing feature of the MAA monthly, The College Mathematics Journal. Examine the wonderfulcompilations, Proofs Without Words 1 and Proofs Without Words II 2 by Roger B. Nelsen. Examine alsoMath Made Visual by Claudi Alsina & Roger B. Nelson 4. While mathematicians may enjoy the puzzlesprovided by Proofs Without Words, an effective pedagogical tool

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Shih-Liang Wang

force. Rather, it can bedetermined after the force directions have been determined. The driven gear will be rotating inthe direction of the tangential component of the force. This is especially helpful to determine thedirection of rotation of worm gear, as most textbooks do not present a concise way in doing so.References:[1] M. F. Spotts, T. E. Shoup, and L. E. Hornberger "Design of Machine Elements", 8th ed., Prentice- Hall, 2003.[2] R. L. Mott, "Machine Elements in Mechanical Design", Prentice Hall; 4th ed., 2003.[3] R. Budynas and J. K. Nisbett, “Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design”, 8th ed., McGraw- Hill, 2008.[4] R. L. Norton, Machine Design: An Integrated Approach 3rd ed, Prentice Hall, 2005.[5] C. R. Thomas and V. S. Hillsman

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Arthur Heinricher; Brian Savilonis; David Spanagel; Robert Traver; Kristin Wobbe

mission, and others build first-year seminars connecting students withfaculty research interests. (See Upcraft, et al, 2006.)WPI made project-based learning the core of its academic program in the early 1970’s when itdefined graduation requirements that included two major projects (Grogan, 1988). One is in themajor and is usually completed in the senior year. The second project is usually completed in thejunior year and challenges students to work on a problem at the interface of science, technology,and societal needs.Today, about half of WPI’s students (about 400 students each year) complete their junior-yearproject at one of 23 project centers around the world. For example, a team of three students (onechemical engineer, one civil engineer and

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Daniel J. McCarthy; Michael J. Kwinn

objectives with the program outcomes. Developing graded events that assess students’ abilityto meet the course objectives is a normal part of the course pedagogy. In terms of supporting the directassessment plan, we require our course directors to develop these graded events with an eye not onlytoward assessing the course objectives but assessing the program outcome(s) with which their courseobjectives align. In doing so, they are able to use the performance criteria and related scoring rubrics foreach of the program outcomes as a means for developing their course graded events.As part of the process of developing their graded events, course directors are required to document thealignment of the content in the graded event (down to individual

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Vicki V. May

separate units of the course. Each person in thegroup is required to select a different reference(s) and draft the section individually; thegroup then evaluates the individual sections and combines them to create a single section,which they post to the class wiki. In addition to digital resources available to the studentsthrough Blackboard, I have placed several textbooks on reserve at the library.Student responses so far have been mixed. In addition to midterm and end-of-term surveysrelated to the effectiveness of this approach, I am tracking student usage of the digitalresources. A comparison of the class notes developed by individual students with thosedeveloped by the groups allows me to assess the contributions of the individuals and

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Diana Schwerha; Chang Liu; Sertac Ozercan; Tripura Vadlamani; Lev Neiman

Statistics," College Student Journal, vol. 41, pp. 454-459, June.2007.[4] F. A. Conners, S. M. Mccown and B. Roskos-Ewoldson, "Unique challenges in teachingundergraduates statistics," Teaching of Psychology, vol. 25, pp. 40, 1998.[5] T. Franklin, J. Mayles, C. Liu and D. Chelberg, "Games and engineers in the science classroom: Acase study," in 18th International Conference of the Society for Information Technology & TeacherEducation (SITE), 2007,[6] C. Liu, "Second life learning community--A peer-based approach to involving more faculty membersin second life," in SLSS Educator's Workshop, 2006,[7] C. Liu, "Software project demonstrations as not only an assessment tool but also a learning tool," in2006 SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Abdelshakour Abuzneid; Khaled Elleithy

] L.A. DaSilva, G.E. Morgan, C.W. Bostian, D. G. Sweeney, S. F. Midkiff, J. H. Reed, C. Tompson, W.G. Newhall, B. Woerner, “The Resurgence of Push-to-Talk Technologies”, IEEE Communications Magazine, January 2006[6] J.Q. Bao, L. Guo, W.C. Lee, “Policy-Based Resource Allocation in a Wireless Public Safety Network for Incident Scene Management”, MobiCom ‘06 Proceedings of the 12th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking[7] Certified Wireless Network Administrator, Official Study Guide, Third Edition.BiographiesDr. Khaled Elleihty received the B.Sc. degree in computer science and automatic control fromAlexandria University in 1983, the MS Degree in computer networks from the same university in 1986,and the MS