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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark A. Shields; Bryan Pfaffenberger

Session 2561 Teaching Engineering Career Literacy and Teamwork Communication Skills in the First-Year Writing Course Bryan Pfaffenberger, Mark Shields Technology, Culture, and Communication/University of VirginiaOne of the challenges that has long faced engineering education is to adaptcommunications instruction to the needs of engineering students. English compositioncourses, while appropriate for liberal arts students, do not focus on the communicationskills prized by the organizations that hire engineering students. Such skills include thecapacity for clear technical exposition (including process analysis and

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Neda Fabris

Session 2392 Laboratory Workshop for Mothers and Daughters Neda Fabris California State University, Los Angeles ABSTRACT During the last two years I have organized and conducted two six week workshops for female highschool students and their mothers at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), to awakentheir interest in engineering careers. In this paper I am describing the project and discussing theresults obtained. INTRODUCTIONIn an increasingly technology-and engineering-oriented

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Rosa Gerra; José L. Torres

2 shows the growth of participating students in what now has become the Post-SecondaryAwareness Seminar. In the most recent version of the Seminar, 368 students from 23 Schools inthe area, both public and private, were invited to participate. The location of the Seminar rotatesamong the local Colleges; the 1997 Seminar took place on the campus of Indiana-PurdueUniversity of Fort Wayne. Figure 2. Participation in the Post-Secondary Awareness Seminar in the period 1986-1997. (UHA, 1997.)The Post-Secondary Awareness Seminar has evolved over the years into a career planningworkshop:1986-1989 PSA "Day". A sequential presentation of topics of interest to the Latino Community, including

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

James L. Neujahr; Herbert Seignoret; Gary Benenson; Ed Goldman

implementing programs in the schools. A majorimpediment is the lack of qualified technology teachers, or even of teacher education programswhich could develop the next generation. This paper proposes a solution to this dilemma:preparing and certifying engineering students for careers in K-12 education. It describes a pilotproject at the City College of New York (CCNY) which is encouraging engineering students toconsider teaching as career. Finally, the paper outlines efforts to develop new pathways to teachercertification designed specifically for recent engineering graduates, as well as engineers returningfrom industry to education. WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION?The importance of technology is widely recognized by the

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark A. Shields; John P. O'Connell

engineering tools necessary for engineering practice.University of Virginia Professional Development AttributesGraduates beginning their careers should have certain qualities (related ABET Criteria): Technological Capability: Know and be able to practice the fundamental technical facets of engineering (a, b, e, k) Leadership/Cultural Competence: Become leaders in a diverse, complex world (h, j) Industrial Readiness: Appreciate functions, dynamics and evolution of "industry"; understand the expectations about their roles, contributions and attitudes (c) Individual/Team Effectiveness: Understand themselves and others; thrive in diverse and ambiguous situations (d) Ethics/Values

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert J. Witt; Gilbert A. Emmert

enable students to pursue post-graduate education in nuclear engineering and relatedfields, and to adapt to emerging technologies throughout their career; and a broad perspective ofthe ethical responsibilities and societal impact of their profession. Page 2.236.1Knowledge GoalTo provide a fundamental education in all of the areas of: mathematics, physics,computer science, basic engineering science, nuclear engineering design, and humanitiesincluding ethical, societal and diversity issues. This will include in-depth exposure to most of theareas of: radiation shielding, reactor physics and design of core loading patterns to achieve safeand efficient

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Dr. Mihir K. Das

the Southern Region of Los Angeles County. The primary objective of the programwas to strengthen the students’ commitment and confidence in pursuing higher levels ofmathematics and science and to enter a career in engineering. The newly developed curriculumfocused on the use of mathematics and sciences in higher education, and demonstrated howsciences and mathematics are used to solve real-life engineering problems. It also had an criticalcomponent relating to the computer and its uses in engineering and communications, includingsome skills training in wordprocessing, spreadsheets, computer graphics, and networking usingInternet. Further, there was an important parent component empowering the parents to becomeactively involved in the

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephanie L. Blaisdell; Mary Anderson-Rowland

Session 1692 A Pipeline to Recruit Women Into Engineering Stephanie L. Blaisdell, Mary R. Anderson-Rowland Arizona State UniversityWomen constituted only 17% of those awarded bachelor degrees in engineering in 19951, a slightincrease (16%) from the previous year2. The future does not seem much brighter, either. In1990, senior males in public high schools were more than three times as likely to choose a careerin science, math or engineering than women3. Interest in engineering careers among collegefreshmen in 1995 reached a 20-year low, with only 2% of the women planning to

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Philip J. Regalbuto; Page Ransom; Mary Morton-Gibson; Lise V. P. Esch

students to succeed in their Engineering Technologycourses. The course was first taught in the Fall of 1993. The faculty of the EngineeringTechnology department identified Engineering Technology skills and topics in which thesestudents were deficient. These topics were not being covered in the Developmental Studiescourses in which the students were registered. The topics and skills included in the course wereconcepts and terminology used in Engineering Technology, use of a scientific graphingcalculator, problem solving techniques, and the SI system of measurement. Also included was adiscussion of what Engineering Technology is and how it differs from Engineering; therequirements of the various Engineering Technology majors and the careers

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael L. Mavrovouniotis

classroomlearning. Do you plan your own advising approach to guide your advisees and foster theirdevelopment?Academic advising is not just a clerkish support service; it is an integral part of the educationalprocess. The advisor's office, with its many systematic student contacts, is a powerfulmechanism for helping students realize their full potential. Academic advising has an impact onretention, academic success of students, and the students' career choice process.Many varied and important duties lay claim to a faculty member's time. Advising does not, andshould not, take a substantial time commitment. Advisors should have a sense of caring aboutthe students and the willingness to develop and follow good advising practices. They shouldreflect on their

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

David M. Woodall

, rather than process oriented, and thesechanges respond to industry concerns about the purpose and value of accreditation. The mostimportant features of the new criteria are the requirements that each program develop specificprogram objectives and establish processes for regular self assessment of the program’sperformance in achieving those objectives. This new flexibility is a welcome change for ABET,which has sometimes been accused of having a “bean-counting” mentality, rather than beingconcerned about measures of the real success of a program, such as employability of graduatesand rewarding, life-long careers for graduates.Nuclear engineering programs have an opportunity under the new ABET criteria to carefullycraft objectives which are

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert J. Herrick; Dennis R. Depew

Research Opportunities Each year faculty members and graduate students conduct nearly one million dollars inapplied research projects sponsored by business and industry through the School of TechnologyCenters for Excellence. These research projects provide many opportunities for graduate studentsto work with faculty members in their respective fields of specialization. These research projectsfocus on the solution of problems in the workplace through technology transfer, education andtraining, and strategies to improve businesses’ competitiveness. Page 2.415.2The Master of Science DegreeRealizing that each student has different career goals

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald W. Smith; Robert Bowman; Carole M. Mablekos

and an entrepreneurialcounselor from the Council on Adult and Experiential Learning. Administrative and facultyteams from the four colleges dealt with other management and program issues, such as jobplacement, special programs, curriculum development, financial aid, and public relations.PRIDE worked closely with the Private Industry Council for tuition support, taking care to seethat students were placed on career paths likely to lead to new employment. Students "clients"were counseled about their educational needs and interests while they organized their retrainingprograms in support of their career plans. These activities were augmented through the servicesof other agencies and organizations, such as the City of Philadelphia, the

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

A. Janaki Rao; B.K. Darshan

majority under private management, often have remote locations with poor accessibility, poor facilities for girls with no provisions for waiting rooms or even toilets, and poor protection against sex greedy male onslaughts of different gradations. These factors are strong deterrents in seeking engineering education for the daughters of middle class families.3. PROBLEMS OF ENTRY INTO SERVICE : The few women who mange to acquire engineering qualification have a greater hurdle in securing a deserving job, since feminine sympathy and professional dividends are mutually exclusive for the employer. The reasons are as follows. (i) Lady’s career is linked up with her marriage and

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Sheng-Hsien (Gary) Teng

The common requirements for manufacturing engineers are the ability to react to theproblems quickly, their knowledge on the state-of-the-art technology, their ability to gatherinformation for problem solving, their ability to manage a project, and their communication skillsin coordinating activities and selling the improvement ideas. Lankard discussed three importantthings for students to obtain a job [1]. Basic skills provide students with job-keeping andinterpersonal skills. Technical skills allow students handle technology used on the job.Apprenticeship builds the bridge between school learned knowledge and the real-world work.Grossman and Blitzer suggested strategies for career survival which include an action plan,motivation, the

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

V. Coppola; K. Powell; D. Hyland; B. Cosgrove; A. Waas; A. Messiter; Joe G. Eisley

years to address specific career goals. The implementation of implicit curricular “threads” (i.e. coverage of topics via coordinated portions of courses throughout the four-year program, as opposed to coverage in a separate course). - written, oral and visual technical communications; - engineering problem solving through computing; - engineering ethics; - teamwork and team leadership; - randomness and uncertainty; - environmental impacts and issues. Increased use of teamwork in courses: five of the ten required courses inside the Aerospace department are to be based on team projects and team grades. A

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

John M. Dorosz; Ester B. Johnson

coordinators provide the new students a more detailedintroduction to academic and other campus resources such as employment and career explorationservices of the Career Development, the one-on-one assistance available through the centralizedTutoring and Learning Center of the Department of Learning Skills and Educational Opportunityas well as tutoring available through the College, and free student-run services provided to ensurepersonal safety and security on campus. Also covered early in the course are topics such as noteand test-taking skills, introduction to the computer-aided engineering laboratory, etc.A second key portion of the course deals primarily with the majors offered in the College. Aftera discussion of the kinds of work engineers and

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

James S. Tulenko; Edward T. Dugan; David E. Hintenlang

education professionals is to re-engineer the nuclear and radiological curriculum toensure that we present the curriculum that meets the educational needs and opportunities in thenuclear field. Preparing our students to succeed in today’s nuclear and radiological field is a Page 2.52.2challenge and an opportunity. We must re-think our curriculum to determine which skills areappropriate for our students to learn to be successful in their careers. The ABET EngineeringCriteria 2000 could not have been better designed for nuclear engineering education at this timein its life cycle. The criteria forces us to ensure that we get the feedback from our

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mulchand S. Rathod; Joella H. Gipson

and cooperation among its partners toaddress mutual needs pertaining to education of the technological workforce. The specific mission of this virtualcenter is to collaboratively focus on restructuring product design curricula and teaching practices with authenticactivities in an application mode. In the fast changing world of science and technology, there exists a need for an integrated educationalexperience for middle school students so that students and their parents appreciate the fact that technical educationprovides viable career opportunities. Students at the middle school level should be nourished to become talentedtechnicians, technologists, and engineers as they proceed into the world of technological development. One of

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ingrid H. Soudek

and race issues come up when the class reads and discussesHaving Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First Hundred Years, by Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany(with Amy Hill). The Delany sisters are black, but some of the problems they had to deal with intheir lives had to do with being female, and mirrored some of the history of women'semancipation. They chose, for example, to become professionals, dentist and teacher, overmarriage and motherhood. In their time, they felt that they had to be one or the other; they didnot believe that it would be possible to combine career and marriage. This is not only anexample of values of individuals, but values of the society at the same time. At one period inAmerican history, married women could not be teachers or

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mary Anderson-Rowland

disciplines in the university. Many beginning freshmen engineeringstudents do not have much understanding of an engineering career. Engineering is not a topictaught in middle schools or high schools. Students may choose engineering because someonetold them their good math skills qualified them for an engineering career or because they wereaware that engineers make good salaries. Obviously engineering is not for everyone and therewill always be some engineering students who determine that they really do not want to be anengineer. However, many other students may like the engineering curriculum, but because theydo not see the relevance of the beginning engineering courses, may drop out during or after thefirst year.A survey was made of freshman

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

S. L. Ceccio; G. Tryggvason; Dawn M. Tilbury

surveys sent out, 180 were returned for a (relatively high) 35% return rate. Thesurvey showed that of those responding, over two thirds have an advanced degree or wereworking on one. All are employed or attending school. Most are currently working forlarge companies with over 1000 employees, and a large number had worked for only asmall number of companies (one or two) during their careers. Somewhat interestingly,this number was only slightly higher for those who graduated in 1972 than for those whograduated in 1982. The largest group works for automotive related industries or services,which is not surprising considering the economy of the state of Michigan. Overall, ourgraduates (or at least those who responded) are a successful group. Over a

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

John T. Bell

on reactions through the discussions and directed studies that Dr. Bell provided prior to and during programming. I do not know if the class has guided me into my current position, but I do know that I had a better understanding of catalysts and plant applications after I left my research project. Subsequently, I am currently a sales engineer who trouble shoots plant applications and promotes catalysts and adsorbents to refineries and petrochemical companies.Student 5 was perhaps affected the most by her experiences on this project, in terms of Page 2.450.4influencing future career decisions and

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Jerry W. Samples; Robert Martinazzi

receiving at the university. Page 2.413.2The fourth seminar series of topics focuses on the educational assistance available to thestudents. Seminars are held on the Learning Resource Center, Owen Library resources, Internetand Career Services. Special emphasis is placed on the wealth of resources available over theInternet and the need for the students to become “master web crawlers”. Library personnel offerextensive seminars on the Internet to include development of a www home page for the students.Students are acquainted with the elaborate e-mail system at the University and how it functionsas the primary vehicle for communicating with faculty

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Tracy Vogler; Nelson Jaramillo; Lia F. Arthur; Jeff Gray; Irem Y. Tumer; Frank Serpas; Eric Matsumoto; Ronald Barr

university administration and National ASEE. Acopy of the Purdue student chapter constitution, included in the ASEE Student ChapterInformation packet, was used as a convenient starting point.Defining primary and secondary purposes was the first step in setting up the formal structure ofthe organization. The five primary purposes of the chapter focus on graduate students inengineering and sciences: 1) to encourage students to consider academic careers; 2) to arrangeregular mentoring between students and faculty; 3) to enhance the teaching and presentationskills of prospective educators; 4) to develop the skills to establish and lead a research program;and 5) to assist students in their search for academic positions. Secondary purposes focus

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Jon E. Freckleton

Session 2625 Design Content in a Graphics Course Jon E. Freckleton PE Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY 14623-0887Abstract RIT is a career oriented institute with a long history of close ties with industry. Allstudents in Engineering must complete live coop work blocks. This has two major effectson design content in the curriculum. First, the content must start in the lower level coursesto prepare the students for their coop work blocks which begin in their third year. Second,the design content must be truly relevant; coop makes the

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Henry A. Wiebe

. This need is eloquently expressed in the executive summaryof a 1992 NSF report (11) emanating from a “Presidential Young Investigator Colloquium on U.S.Engineering, Mathematics, and Science Education for the Year 2010 and Beyond.” Thissummary states: “Numerous reports and studies have expressed serious concerns that the U.S. educational infrastructure is ill-prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of the next century. The low level of scientific and technological literacy in our society is deplorable, and the trickle of talent flowing into careers in engineering, mathematics, and the sciences from all segments of society is deeply disturbing. The poor condition of our educational infrastructure is

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Yale N. Patt; Kevin J. Compton

2 1 0 3 1 3Changing interest in a career in software and hardware designTables 7.1 and 7.2 contain the raw data as follows: Each row represents the degree of interest (1= no interest, 5 = very strong interest) before the course started. Each column represents thedegree of interest at the end of the course. Table 7.1 is for a career in software design. Table 7.2is for a career in hardware design. Note that 64 of the 222 respondents increased their interest ina career in hardware design, while 40 students decreased their interest. Table 7.1 Interest in a career in software design

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Campbell; Irma Becerra-Fernandez; Gustavo Roig; Gordon Hopkins

the South Florida area. Unlike manyother mentor programs, PRISM included fifteen mentees who had grade point averages below 3.0on a 4.0 scale. All of these mentees were minority students, including both persons of Hispanic andAfrican descent, with a good gender representation (5 students or 33% were females). Severalactivities were held over a nine month period which included meetings with the mentors, a “get-to-know-you” breakfast, and a seminar where the mentors spoke about their careers and lifeexperiences. Anecdotal responses from students, mentors, and professors have shown that theparticipants all found the program to be very valuable. Due to their participation in this program,the mentees have already seen a correlation between their

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald H. Rockland

or more years before graduation, typically in arelated technological field. Over 95% of those replying agreed or strongly agreed that the BSEThas helped their career. With respect to job title, over one-third of the students worked in technical areas (research,design, engineering and development). Almost one-half of the students responding had jobpositions immediately after graduating with the title engineer. There was a great diversity in the types of jobs first performed after graduation (See Table I).This could have a significant impact in the response to the questions on the impact of courses intheir first position. Page 2.116.1