Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Thomas R. Marrero

   Project-based Learning: Centrifugal Pump Operations Thomas R. Marrero Department of Chemical Engineering University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to describe a new project-based experiment on centrifugal pumpperformance and operation. A low-cost modular, table-top centrifugal pump system wasdesigned and constructed for use by undergraduate chemical engineering students. The use of thepump system resulted in an increased hands-on experience. Laboratory activities includedgenerating pump performance

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Patricia S. Buford

Laptop Recycling Project: A Service-Learning Experience Patricia S. Buford Electrical Engineering Department – Arkansas Tech UniversityAbstractThis paper describes an interdisciplinary humanitarian project initiated by the ElectricalEngineering Department at Arkansas Tech University. The project goal was to provide solarpowered computers to disadvantaged students in areas where resources were not available forthem to otherwise have computer access. It also incorporates environmental aspects of recyclingold laptop computers and powering them with solar energy. This project occurred during the2008-2009 school year upon receipt

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

James G. Steuber

The Machine Component Design Manual Project and Other Tools for Teaching Mechanical Design James G. Steuber, Ph.D. Arkansas Tech UniversityAbstractThe difficulties in teaching and learning the design of machine components and the assessmentof a students ability to do so are addressed in this paper. Teaching and learning machine designis hindered by the inexperience of students and an instructors’ inability to motivate students tolearn this sometimes ambiguous topic. Students are often intolerant of the ambiguity that showsup in the iterative nature of design, full of decisions, and conceptualization. The assessment ofdesign ability is

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kenneth J. Fischer; Christopher D. Depcik; Lorin P. Maletsky; Robert M. Sorem; Ronald L. Dougherty

A Three-Semester Capstone Design Sequence: Advantages and Disadvantages Kenneth J. Fischer, Christopher D. Depcik, Lorin P. Maletsky, Robert M. Sorem, Ronald L. Dougherty University of Kansas, Mechanical EngineeringAbstractEngineering departments have many possibilities when it comes to the organization of thecapstone design experience. This experience is generally packaged in one or two semesters inthe Senior year of engineering students. Curricula include varying levels of content related to thedesign process and tools that facilitate the process, in addition to the actual performance of thedesign project. In addition, the outcomes of

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Julius Marpaung; Louis Johnson; William Flanery

the former students’ complaints, and addressed them. The three main things thatstudents pointed out were the final project, the execution of the final project, and the discrepanciesbetween the lectures and the lab assignments. The authors of this paper believe that students should beallowed to choose one of many projects that interest them and not the one that solely interests theinstructor of the class in order to motivate students even more while following Bloom’s Taxonomy. Theauthors also believe that the labs should be built on a top of each other to further utilize the importanceof repetition and prior knowledge. There are six levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy: Remembering,Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating 23. The

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Sohum Sohoni; David Fritz; Wira Mulia

, Microcomputer Principles, Computer Architecture, Compilers,Embedded Systems) as students progress through a Computer Engineering curriculum. Thesystem consists of a fully pipelined, MIPS-like processor with surrounding support hardware.The support hardware includes a programmable interrupt controller, VGA controller andframebuffer, UART, memory controller, simple cache, timer, and GPIO hardware. Allcomponents are written in Verilog HDL, are open-source, and are freely available. To supportthe hardware components, a unified assembler, cycle accurate simulator, and board interfacesoftware package is included. The software is written in Java, works on Linux, Windows, andMac OS, is open-source, and is freely available from the project website[1].With only

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Lawrence Whitman; Karen Reynolds; Zulma Toro-Ramos

opportunitiesintentionally designed to promote student learning and development. Reciprocity and reflectionare key concepts of service-learning.” Duffy, et al. (2009) stated that service-learning is “… ahands-on learning approach in which students achieve academic objectives in a credit-bearingcourse by meeting real community needs.” At WSU, the definition of a service learning activityis broadly described with three aspects: • an educational experience that is course-based and credit-bearing; • an organized service activity consisting of an intentional and thought-provoking application of classroom learning to active and engaging work by participating in a group project that meets identified community needs; • structured

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Melissa Miller; Randall Reynolds

that would provide a high interest classroom project basedupon sound curriculum. The challenge for the project was to refine an academic competitioninvolving a simulation-based video game relating to Industrial Engineering. The project wasdivided into 2 divisions, one for junior level students in grades 6 – 8 and one for senior levelstudents in grades 9 – 12. Obviously, a major issue was designing the competitions with aproper level of difficulty for both age groups while keeping the subject matter relevant tomeaningful engineering concepts and instructional frameworks.The competitions were intended to help students acquire fundamental problem solvingcapabilities as well as a basic understanding of some tools used in Industrial Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

James L. Huff; Todd A. Patten; Richard L. Wells; Monte Cox

aHaitian Creole word that means ―together.‖ This word captures the spirit of a collaborativeservice-learning partnership involving the Peltan Christian Primary School in northern Haiti, andthe professional counseling and engineering departments at Harding University. Bothdepartments seek to partner with this primary school by primarily focusing on their relationshiptogether while working on projects related to HCD that appropriately grow out of therelationship.The Ansanm partnership is interdisciplinary in nature as both Harding‘s engineering andprofessional counseling programs interface with the same Haitian partners. As the engineeringdepartment designs appropriate technology systems for the partners in Peltan, Haiti, theprofessional counseling

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

David Che; David Clark; Tom Magnone

industry. A three credit course inmanufacturing engineering and a three credit course in quality engineering are being offered inthe spring semester in alternate years. We immediately saw the benefit of this arrangement fromthe feedback of our recent graduates in the industry. In this paper, the authors summarize whatwas learned from integrating manufacturing engineering concepts into mechanical designcurriculum, and incorporating global aspects of manufacturing in manufacturing engineeringcurriculum. We will outline some of the changes we have made to the curriculum and thechallenges we have faced. Topics of discussion also include immersing students in an industrialsetting in and outside of classrooms and hands-on project-based experiential

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

E. Specking; Edgar C. Clausen

3performed three problem solving activities. Subsequent days focused on a branch of engineeringby performing projects that required critical thinking/problem solving skills. Tours were oftenused to introduce the middle school students to engineering research. Table 1. Highlights of EEP1 2010 Day Major Activities 1 Overview of engineering; puff mobile; stick ‘em up project; marshmallow launcher; protect the pill 2 Mechanical Engineering: patrol robot; mining robot 3 Computer Science/Engineering: two programming robotics activities; tours 4 Electrical Engineering: electromagnet launcher; windmill; tours 5

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Robert M. O'Connell

challenges. Although specifically adapted to thetwo-course electric circuit theory sequence, the results reported here can probably be applied toany sophomore level engineering course.IntroductionCopious research has shown that traditional lecturing is a very inefficient way to facilitateconceptual learning1, and that student-centered active learning can result in a deeperunderstanding of the concepts in question2. Furthermore, when active learning is conducted inan extensively group-based learning environment, e.g., problem-based learning, project-basedlearning, or team-based learning, students develop various generic, professional functioningknowledge skills, such as problem-solving, written and oral communication, independentlearning, team work

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jonathan Cefalu; Timothy Roemer; Pawel Kosakowski; Shankar Krishnan

effective alternative tomachining a part within the confines of a semester is to use a three-dimensional rapid prototype(3D RP) system to fabricate the part. This is a practical method to quickly and accuratelyestablish the proof of concept. The primary objective of this paper is to study, design, and buildan artificial mitral heart valve with 3D RP and to explore the feasibility of including 3D RPprocess in BME design courses.In most engineering projects the product designs are conceptualized, fabricated, tested, analyzed,and refined. The rapid prototyping system uses three dimensional Computer Aided Design (3DCAD) files to fabricate a physical model. These models are usually made from ABS-plastics,starch, rubber, or another suitable material

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Robert I. Egbert

topics as the least favorite part of the class. Assuch we are in the process of reducing the amount of time spent on such topics. In response, wehave reduced the amount of time spent of such topics and replace it with more outside speakers.Similarly, tours of campus facilities, such as the library, have not been popular. Many studentsin the class do not show up for these tours.Students have expressed interests in off-campus tours of engineering related facilities but thelogistics of organizing such tours has proven to be difficult. Still we hope to try this at somepoint in the future.Students have also expressed interest in doing some kind of laboratory project in the course. Atthis point we have not found a suitable lab exercise that could be

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Wayne Helmer; Damon Mobbs

Way high schools in the USA.Proceedings of the 2011 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for EngineeringEducation 7Figure 6. Dimension Uprint10RepRap is a 3D printer that is also called a “self-replicating machine” - one that anyone canbuild (and duplicate). The RepRap project was conceived and developed by Dr. AdrianBowyer, a senior lecturer in engineering at the University of Bath, UK. It has been describedas a “small manufacturing plant in your own home.” The plans for the RepRap 3D printerand detailed tutorials are available for free on their web site. The RP unit again uses the FDMmethod. See Figure 7. The parts cost about $750. It

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Megan F. Dunn; W. Roy Penney; Edgar C. Clausen

Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 31-37. 4. Bjorklund, S.A., Parente, J.M., Sathianathan, D., 2004, “Effects of Faculty Interaction and Feedback on Gains in Student Skills,” Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 93, No. 2, pp. 153-160. 5. Colbeck, C.L., Campbell, S.E., Bjorklund, S.A., 2000, “Grouping in the Dark: What College Students Learn from Group Projects,” Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 71, No. 1, pp. 60-83. 6. Blair, B.F., Millea, M., Hammer, J., 2004, “The Impact of Cooperative Education on Academic Performance and Compensation of Engineering Majors,” Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 93, No. 4, pp. 333-338. 7. Besser, R.S., 2002, “Spreadsheet Solutions to

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Marwan Abumahaimed; Joseph J. Rencis

contended that the experiential learning is the fundamental base ofeducational settings. Dewey first identified experiential learning as a fundamental foundation informal educational at the beginning of the 20th century. After Dewey, many psychologists andeducators believed that experiential learning is a valuable process and could be added totraditional instructional methods rather than replace them. Others believed that experientiallearning is an enhancement tool of the learning process that cannot be replaced.27Experiential learning is a stage or process where the student is prepared to do more than just anobserver. Labs, workshops, projects, presentations, class discussions, and teamwork all fall intothe experiential learning category

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Julia L. Morse

activities pursued by students in Fall 2010 included: • Participation in activities of Mini Baja, Electric Car Club, or the Rocketry Club. • Technical training provided by their workplace (3 students). Proceedings of the 2011 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 7 • Technical research toward a specific hobby application or personal project (3 students). • General technical readingNot only is the percent of Reading/Research-type activities down, but those that in the previousyear had been largely article readings of general interest, while the 2010 reading-and-researchactivities were

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Monty J. Smith; Lakshmi Sudhaker

1 are coordinates in state space representing solar panel angles (deflection) off thevertical axis (the symbols representing differentiation x  dx / dt , etc., has been used here), f is an external wind gust, the pair { , wn } are assumed positive constants representing the damping ratio(  <<1) and natural frequency (radians) of the bending mode of the solar panel.Since this presentation is focused on the analogies between the time and frequency domains,there are conditions on the external disturbance f that restrict the analysis based on Bode plots,and gain and phase margins. Since most signals can be projected onto a series of harmonic timedomain operators, i.e., a series

Collection

2011 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Douglas R. Carroll

lecture notesto be saved, projected on a computer screen, and transmitted over the internet. The digital tabletalso has the “cut and paste” ability so that textbook pictures can be pasted into the lecture. Thisallows the teacher to use high quality graphics in the lecture, which is especially helpful whenexplaining the three dimensional problems, and other problems where it is difficult to draw agood picture by hand.Homework, quizzes and exams for the classes are traditional. Students are assigned to workproblems out of the textbook for homework, and work similar problems for quizzes and examsduring class. The goal is to use the distance technology to help the students perform better onthe traditional homework, quizzes and exams. The primary