Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kamesh Namuduri

students.(g) Provide professional development opportunities to the faculty of community colleges throughadvanced training programs, collaborative research activities, and workshops. The proposed activities lead to increased awareness of information security related issues in thecommunity. The partnerships and knowledge sharing are expected to result in enhanced learningexperiences for students and increased student retention rates in the area of Cybersecurity and Forensicsfor WSU and community colleges in the state of Kansas. We expect that students who graduate through 2the proposed career paths will pursue careers in Cybersecurity and

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

J. Oh; B. Kissick

increased as we did more and more projects together.How did we become co-mentors? Among four mentor types (traditional mentor, step-ahead mentor, co-mentor, spouse mentor),10 our relationship was strengthened by the co-mentor aspect. Our academic experiences (2 to 34 years) and ranks (assistant to fullprofessor) provided traditional mentor and step-ahead mentor. Traditional mentor is“similar to a wise and capable elder” and our library director served in that capacity.Step-ahead mentor is “analogous to a protective older sibling who smoothes the path forthe protégé.” Our group consisted of full-, associate-, and assistant professors, whorepresented hierarchical layers of academic careers, and were natural step-ahead mentors.However, being an all

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Day W. Radebaugh

1 The Devil is in the Details: Why Engineering is an Inexact Science Day W. Radebaugh Assistant Professor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas 67260AbstractOne of the main reasons cited for the choice of an engineering career is the desire toemploy an exact science. Most students of engineering distinguish themselves from thepractitioners of “soft” sciences, such as psychology, marketing, sociology or

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Theodore W. Manikas; Gerald R. Kane

applications. This experience helps define the student's career direction, andalso helps companies identify potential recruits. In order to make these opportunities available tostudents, engineering departments must develop collaborations with these companies. Inaddition, outside resources such as government funding will aid in the success of an internshipprogram.This paper discusses the formation of collaborations between our department and localengineering companies, and the process used to obtain external funding for undergraduateinternships. It is hoped that the lessons learned from this paper will provide guidance to otherfaculty attempting to establish internship programs for their undergraduate engineering students.OverviewCooperation between

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Abu S.M. Masud; Don E. Malzahn

IACassessment is qualitative. Table 1 shows how these tools are used in assessment.The direct method for evaluating whether the objectives of the program are beingachieved is to obtain the employment history of program alumni to find out the extent towhich the program prepared them to be successful in their chosen careers. Thisinformation has been obtained indirectly, through the Alumni Survey, carried out by the 1. Faculty Develops Initial Set of Program Objectives 2a. IAC 2b. Alumni 2c. Employer ISC Comments Survey Survey Input

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Brandon W. Olson

student’s perspective it can often lead toa seemingly disconnected group of concepts and tools with no clear link to real-worldexperiences. This is especially confusing for students whose learning mechanisms aremore physically oriented. In an environment of nearly exclusive lecture-style learning, students are conditionedto absorb material in this fashion, in spite of the fact that most of the learning in theirfuture careers will not occur in this learning mode. In addition, there exist a substantialgroup of students (and instructors) whose learning processes are rooted in physicalexample and in having the opportunity to experiment with concepts, rather than throughan oral “download”. The present work is a step towards a method of instruction

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christopher C. Ibeh; Monika Bubacz; Andrey Beyle; Stefano Bietto; Stan Scoville; Dilip Paul; Charles Blatchley

” program, and5. provision for adequate faculty level to staff the graduate “materials science andtechnology” program,2008-101. implementation of the “materials science and technology” program,2. sustainability of efforts for funding of the Center for Nanocomposites andMultifunctional Materials (CNCMM), and the graduate “materials science andtechnology” program, and3. development of a strategy for enhancing career opportunities for graduates of the“materials science and technology” program.Results and Discussion of ResultsConcurrently, CNCMM is implementing several research and education programsinvolving students at various levels of academia. The REACH-RS [Research andEducation Academy for Coaching/Mentoring High School – Rising Stars

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2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kimberly H. Henthorn

career leads to more successful learning overall. Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 2Ultimately, the job of an educator is to prepare students for life outside the university. Sincemost engineers in the workforce are expected to work effectively in groups comprised of peopleoutside their immediate discipline, the transition from student to employee is much easier ifgraduates already have the skill set to work with others. In fact, many surveys from industrieshiring students have specifically commented that besides technical

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ramazan Asmatulu; Waseem Khan; Humphrey Wamocha; Adebayo Adeniji

careers innanoscale science and engineering [6-10]. Our team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Wichita State Universityalready started developing a nanotechnology laboratory. The objective of this laboratory is todesign, fabricate, analyze, and test structures and systems at nanoscales. In this laboratory, ourstudents will learn nanotechnology to improve their skills, which will also improve their job 2finding opportunities and leadership in the near future. We strongly believe that laboratoryexperiments in nanoscale research and development are essential for engineering students toenhance their practical knowledge after fundamental concepts. For this reason, following testsare

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Surendra Singh

involvement with OCAST helped me transition from being an intern to a full-timeemployee. My experience at Tucker Technology gave me a glimpse of what it was like in thework field. It also gave me an idea of what I was looking for in my career path. I gained someuseful skills working as an intern for Tucker Technology, but the job was more technical thanwhat I was interested in. I realized that my interests lay more in human relations and less in thetechnical area. After Tucker, I did an internship with PSO and found my niche. I do enjoy thetechnical side of my work, but more importantly I get to work with lots of different peopleincluding customers, contractors, and engineers. After three months as an intern, I was offered afull-time position and

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Leroy R. Cox; Katie Grantham Lough

so long to acquire. Despitenumerous papers written and many presentations made throughout their college career, many ofthese people will not be able to communicate their engineering skill via written communication.This article seeks to highlight the importance of writing skill in engineering education. Makinguse of recent literature with regard to the subject, and examples of less-than-adequate writing, thecase will be made that some premium should be placed on writing skill as a means of betterpreparing students to function in today’s working world.IntroductionIndustry today wants engineers who are not only technically proficient, but who also can writewell. The most common complaint about graduating engineers is their poor writing skills

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2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kevin R. Lewelling; Kevin S. Woolverton; Michael C. Reynolds

students to select careers inengineering and improve retention rates by making course work applicable and highly visible.We will be tracking these rates over the next few years to confirm these assumptions.References1 Hissey, T. W., Enhanced Skills for Engineers, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 88, No. 8, pp.1367-1370, August 2000.2 Ford, R.M. Goodrich, J.G. Weissbach, R.S., A multidisciplinary business and engineeringcourse in product development and entrepreneurship, Frontiers in Education 34th AnnualConference, Vol. 1, pp. T2E/5 - T2E10, October 2004.3 Sullivan, J.F.; Knight, D.W.; Carlson, L.E., Team Building in Lower Division Projects Courses,Frontiers in Education 32nd Annual Conference, Vol. 1, pp. T1A-7- T1A-12, November 2002.4 Felder, R.M

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2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Larry A. Glasgow

,” Wall StreetJournal, October 6 (2005).2. Finkelstein, N. D. “Context in the Context of Physics and Learning,” nfinkels@ucsd.edu (2001).3. Wankat, P. and F. Oreovicz. “Gaming the Curriculum,” ASEE Prism, 15:48 (2005).4. Glasgow, L. A. “Reconnecting Chemical Engineering Students with the Physical World,” presented at theAnnual AIChE Meeting, San Francisco (2006).5. Grose, T. K. “The Mechanics of a Career,” ASEE Prism, 14:25 (2005).6. Mc Dermott, L. C. and P. S. Shaffer. “Research as a Guide for Curriculum Development: An Example fromIntroductory Electricity, Part 1,” American Journal of Physics, 60:994 (1992).7. Slater, T., Adams, J., and T. Brown. “College Student Success in Completing a Simple Circuit,” submitted toJournal of College Science

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2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Douglas R. Carroll; Hong Sheng

Conference of the American Society forEngineering Education" 8[4] Siau, K., Sheng, H., and Nah, F. (2006) “Use of a classroom response system to enhance classroom interactivity”, IEEE Transactions on Education, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 398-403Biographical InformationDr. Douglas R. Carroll, PE is a Professor in the Interdisciplinary Engineering Department at theUniversity of Missouri-Rolla. He is best known for his work with solar powered race cars, winning twonational championships and publishing a book on solar car design. He has received many teaching awardsin his career. His research interests are composite materials, solar-electric

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2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

J. Collins

. ERICClearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. Office of Educational Research andImprovement, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.ericacve.org/fulltext.asp5 Cronin, B. (2003). Bowling alone together: academic writing as distributed cognition. Journal of theAmerican Society for Information Science and Technology, 55 (6), 557-560.6 Spector, J.M. (1999). Teachers as designers of collaborative distance learning. Society for InformationTechnology and Teacher Education International Conference, San Antonio Texas. ED 432 259.

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Shannon G. Davis; Carol S. Gattis; Edgar C. Clausen

students entering the engineeringdiscipline.1 Most 6th, 7th and 8th grade students do not know what engineering is, and do notrecognize engineering as a viable career option. Furthermore, research tells us that women andminority students are drastically underrepresented in the engineering fields.2 To more effectivelyprepare students in their pursuit of an engineering degree, students should be encouraged to takethe appropriate math and science sequences that now typically begin in middle school or juniorhigh, so that ultimately they will have the math, chemistry, calculus and physics that preparesthem for an engineering major.In 2005, the College of Engineering and the College of Education and Health Professions at theUniversity of Arkansas formed

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Behnam Bahr; Kurt Soschinske; George Gray

time. The comments aregiven below for each question:Question 1: What were the strengths of this course? “It’s a very good intro into the tools of the trade.” “Provides an awareness to the practical areas of my career.” “Great projects.” “Practical knowledge that can be used in life. Good instructors.” “I think one of the best things was the experience of the instructors. Also loved making projects.” “I liked the open ended creative project.” “The practical application was by far the best part.” “The strengths were the hands on/eyes on experience that we received. “ “It gave a preparation and good tool in dealing (with) my senior design project.” “Provide information and knowledge about

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

William A. Kline; Thomas Mason

, Ability to relate RHV project experiences to more engaged classroom performance, Experience on which to base career decisions – what they like to or don’t like to do, Internship experience and professional polish essential for job seeking. Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 6For faculty, the program offers professional development opportunities through the applieddevelopment projects. Some projects require additional depth of expertise on a particular fieldand faculty involvement ranges from advice, to short term consulting, to serving as a projectmanager for a