Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Keith L. Hohn; LaVerne Bitsie-Baldwin; Julia Keen; Hani Melhem; Anil Pahwa; Jan Wiersema; Barb Licklider

2 Learning Communities Focused On Student Learning and Teamwork SkillsKeith L. Hohn1, LaVerne Bitsie-Baldwin1, Julia Keen1, Hani Melhem1, Anil Pahwa1, Jan Wiersema2, and Barb Licklider2 1 College of Engineering, Kansas State University/ 2College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University 2AbstractEngineers are increasingly being valued as much for their ability to learn new things and operateas a member of a team as for their technical skills. For this reason, a significant goal ofengineering education

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Roy Myose

foraccreditation in Aerospace Engineering, a program must show that students have the "ability todesign a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such aseconomic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, andsustainability."1 At Wichita State University, the Aerospace Engineering program includes the traditional mixof general engineering core, aerodynamics and propulsion, dynamics and control, and structurescourses followed by a two-course capstone design sequence. In addition to the capstone designsequence, aspects of design are covered in a multitude of non-capstone classes starting in thesophomore year. Many of these non-capstone classes utilize a series of class

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Douglas R. Carroll; Hong Sheng

themicrophone for a few seconds so it can automatically adjust to his/her voice volume. Aheadset microphone plugged directly into the computer is inexpensive and works verywell for the office hour sessions. Office hours can be conducted with the faculty memberseated in a chair; a wireless microphone is not necessary. Figure 1 illustrates the student’s screen during a Webex® session. The left two-thirds of the screen shows one of the shear stress problems that was assigned forhomework. Through Webex®, the faculty member controls the left two-thirds of thescreen. The students put the chat box on the right side of the screen, as illustrated in thefigure. The students use the chat box to communicate with the faculty member and askquestions. The

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jason Moore; Mitchell A. Thornton; Ronald W. Skeith

havecompletely grasp the text manipulation since they will need it for the final project that combinestext manipulation, web development, and Object Oriented process (OOP). The final project is assigned in two parts. The first part is a Unified Modeling Language(UML) diagram and the second part is the working website. Collecting the first part of theproject separately accomplishes two goals: • Forces students to go through OOP methods before completing the project. • Gives time to fix problems that students may be having with web development.Figure 1 shows a potential student top level UML diagram. 1 Page

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Saeed M. Khan; Gregory Spaulding; Deanna Livengood; Paul Benjamin; Justin Schemm; Kenton Dreilling; Chase Maxton; Fred Kreiman

Cantenna (Fig. 1) was taken up by students as a classproject for the Communication Circuit Design (ECET 420) course. Chief amongthe motivational factors influencing their choice seemed to be a desire to learnmore about cantennas that could potentially help them share internet access withtheir friends that lived reasonably close. In the early part of the research cycle wecame upon the world record1 for "unamplified" Wi-Fi distance (125 miles). Thisfeat was accomplished by linking two dishes antennas (10 feet and 11 feet) indiameter. Each antenna was attached to a Zcom PCMCIA card with a built inpower of 300mW. This record influenced the design team to start thinking aboutbuilding a high-gain Wi-Fi antenna that would be able communicate over

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Raju Dandu; John E. De Leon

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Meader Woo; John M. Watkins

,signals and systems, communications, and control systems. Yet despite this significant exposureto and need for the frequency response, many undergraduate students have limited intuition onwhat it means and represents. As we have learned in other areas of engineering education, forstudents to understand a concept they need to work with it, either in simulation, or ideally inexperimentation. Unfortunately, equipment for measuring the frequency response, such as adynamic signal analyzer or frequency response analyzer, is often too expensive and complex fora typical undergraduate engineering lab. Furthermore, it does not allow to students toexperiment in simulation, when an experimental lab is either not feasible or desired.Consequently, in Watkins 1

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

R.L.A. Jordan

were both paper exams that were given and graded in theconventional manner. For the exams, an Excel spreadsheet was used to determine theunderstanding of the students and what objectives for the exam and course were met. Forfuture courses, automated methods for assessment are being researched. Table 1 shows thegrading sheet that was used for the mid-term exam. The names have been replaced to protectthe student’s privacy. As can be seen the right most column gives some indication of howwell the class understood the particular topic. 5 Table 1. Grading for Exams Objectives Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Percent Problem 1 Overall

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Walter O. Craig

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

J. Collins

Information Literacy, distributed cognition, and virtual teaming in a linked writing/general education chemistry assignmentIntroductionInformation literacy is an umbrella concept encompassing library instruction, computerliteracy, critical thinking, communication, ethics, and lifelong learning. How mightinformation literacy contribute to teamwork? Information Literacy enables learners to“master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assumegreater control over their own learning” 1 . In a teamwork situation, can individual skillswith information gathering and synthesis contribute to the work of the group? We knowfrom communication and composition journals that a teamwork assignment

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Waleed K. Al-Assadi; Mandar V. Joshi; Sagar R. Gosavi; Daryl Beetner

presents our experience in incorporating Altera DE-2 FPGA boardequipped with Altera Cyclone-II FPGA demo boards into variety of computer engineeringcourses at the University of Missouri-Rolla. The paper details application of Altera DE-2 boardinto sophomore and senior courses. The sophomore course, the digital systems design,incorporates embedded systems using the 8051 microcontroller, and in senior courses such asVLSI design and computer architecture, where designs utilizing multiple-components (system-level design) can be prototyped and verified. The paper presents the benefits of introducingindustrial-standard design tools to our students so that students will focus on whether they havedesigned their circuits correctly.1. Introduction FPGA

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

William M. Baer

law.Introduction Ethics has always played an important role in the engineering professions. According tothe Code of Ethics for Engineers presented by the National Society of Professional Engineers,“engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity.”1 In fact, thedocument gives as one of its fundamental cannons that engineers should, “conduct themselveshonorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, andusefulness of the profession.” Unethical academic practices commonly occur in the university setting. It would be niceto think that engineering students are more ethical than their counterparts, but one study hasshown the opposite to be true. Donald McCabe found that 72% of

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

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

Research and Education at the Center for Nanocomposites and Multifunctional Materials [CNCMM], Pittsburg State University Christopher C. Ibeh1,2, Monika Bubacz2, Andrey Beyle2, Stefano Bietto2, Stan Scoville2, Dilip Paul3, Charles Blatchley3 1 – Professor, Department of Engineering Technology, PSU 2 – CNCMM, PSU 3 – Professor, Departments of Physics and Chemistry, PSU, Pittsburg, KS AbstractThe Center for Nanocomposites and Multifunctional Materials [CNCMM] at PittsburgState University, is an inter-institutional and multidisciplinary effort to implement theONR-sponsored “Multifunctional Materials for Naval

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kamesh Namuduri

our communities. 1. Introduction Community colleges are a critical part of the educational system in our country, offeringaffordable education and training to millions of Americans [1]. There are twenty two community collegeswithin the state of Kansas which offer two year associate degrees in variety of disciplines. Thesecommunity colleges serve the needs of the regional industries (aviation, electronics, and software amongothers) by providing the necessary basic technical education and training for the current and futureworkforce. Wichita State University (WSU) is one of the three major universities within the state ofKansas with an annual enrollment of 14,000 students. WSU, in coordination with community colleges within

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Johannes Strobel

of problem solving in the workplace. Forinstance the SCANS Report “What Work Requires of Schools” [1], states that problem solving isan essential thinking skill for workers. Engineers, physicians, managers, etc. are hired, retained,and rewarded for their abilities to solve workplace problems. For engineering education, thismeans a challenge to integrate workplace real-world problems into the curriculum and stayingabreast with new challenges and changing roles of engineers in the workplace.If education programs are to fulfill these challenges, a better understanding of the nature ofworkplace problem solving is necessary. This holds especially true for instructional andeducational strategies that heavily utilize problems, like ‘problem-based

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ramazan Asmatulu; Mehmet B. Yildirim; Waseem Khan; Adebayo Adeniji; Humphrey Wamocha

Nanofiber Fabrication and Characterization for the Engineering Education Ramazan Asmatulu*1, Mehmet B. Yildirim**, Waseem Khan*, Adebayo Adeniji* and Humphrey Wamocha* * Department of Mechanical Engineering Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount Wichita, KS 67260-0133 ** Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount Wichita, KS 67260-0035 Abstract Electrospinning is a novel process of producing sub-micron and

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ing-Chang Jong

:1-12 (a) method of double integration (with or without the useof singularity functions), (b) method of superposition, (c) method using moment-area theorems,(d) method using Castigliano’s theorem, (e) conjugate beam method, and ( f ) method usingmodel formulas. Naturally, there are advantages and disadvantages in using any of the abovemethods.Many engineers favor to employ the method using moment-area theorems because it has thebuilt-in advantage of graphical visualization during the drawing of diagrams of elastic weights(i.e., the bending moment divided by the flexural rigidity of the beam), as well as the drawing oftangential deviations associated with the deflected beams, in solving problems. There are twomoment-area theorems. Both of