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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Valerie L. Young; Peter L. Silsbee; Joseph W. Newkirk; Bradford L. Snowden; Anu Maria; Jerry W. Samples

recently been through a similartraining program was a good thing, too. Sort of a bridge between the newbies and thementor. Most of the ground rules of the critiquing itself were unspoken, and I don’t thinkneed to be laid out explicitly for a self-selected group. Honesty and the criticism of whatthe person did, not of the person, were both followed by all participants as I remember.Three things about me that made me go to the short course:1. Wanted to get a head start on the teaching part of my tenure package. I have muchmore experience with research than with teaching.2. Had some rotten teachers myself as an undergraduate and decided that teaching is animportant part of the university mission and I wanted to do better.3. My one semester of

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

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

Technology core curriculum to meet future needs. One of the ways to improvethe Engineering Technology curriculum is to integrate key skills. In the Summer of 1996, fivemembers of the SCATE team from Trident Technical College were granted release time to reviseEGR 103 course content to reflect the new emphasis on team building, co-operative learning andcommunication skills that are in demand from industry and education.1 The remaining two teammembers were granted release time to study and develop assessment methods.Course revisionIn the revised version of this course some of the topics were retained: Units and measurements;graphing; calculator skills and treatment of significant digits are topics that elude theunderprepared student. Four additional

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Philip R. Dail

one class, I have discovered a variety of instructionalstrategies for making large classes work reasonably well. Many of the ideas I will share arecommon practices to experienced educators. My intention is that these ideas will prove helpfulto those with less experience.Pre-First Day(1) Plan a first-day activity. Nothing is more frustrating to a student than to feel “left out” or at least “in the dark” at the first class meeting. In a class where intimidation due to size is already a factor, spending the first class pouring over a syllabus is probably not an effective means of engaging the class. Having them scan the syllabus in groups of 2 or 3 and prepare questions about what they did not understand is one means of involving

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Herbert Hess

value ofhuman interaction is a reason that distance education by Internet is more complex and difficult aproblem than some of its proponents would lead educators to believe.1 To mitigate their own occasional absence, instructors have employed several low-techmethods. Among the more popular are canceling the class, postponing the class, or hiring asubstitute instructor. With the recent advances in communication technology, a wider range ofoptions opens. A creative instructor may now take advantage of a greater range of professionalopportunities outside the classroom while disrupting the classroom schedule less than was thecase in the past. This paper presents field-tested options to combine technologies to maintain thepersonal touch, not

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

John T. Bell; H. Scott Fogler

Session 3213 Ten Steps to Developing Virtual Reality Applications for Engineering Education John T. Bell, H. Scott Fogler Department of Chemical Engineering University of MichiganIntroductionWork has been conducted in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University ofMichigan for several years to develop a series of virtual reality ( VR ) based computer modulesfor use in undergraduate engineering education. The goals of this work have been threefold: 1. To produce modules with as much practical use to as many

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas G. Stanford; Donna J. Michalek; Donald Keating

researchers and university teachers, there is broadrecognition that graduate engineering education must change to meet new challenges in thedevelopment of engineers for technology innovation in industry. As Morita,1 Chairman of SonyCorporation points out ... $The challenge for all countries, not just ours, is management of newtechnologies, new development, new products. We will need a lot of new ideas. Technology Page 2.430.1management will be the key to success for companies anywhere in the world in the coming years.Knowing how to make the best use of your engineers will be a test of whether a company willsucceed in the coming age.#Over the long term

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

William W. Schultz; Roger W. Pryor; Michael Vaksman; Mark Schumack; Kevin Belfield; Vladimir Sheyman; Mukasa Ssemakula; Shuvra Das

, and case studies are given.I. INTRODUCTIONTraditionally, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer are difficult subjects forstudents to master. Thermodynamics in some universities, for example, has failure rates as largeas 20% - 40%, contributing to poor retention rates in engineering [1]. Students eager to learn atthe beginning of the term in fluid mechanics soon become lost as they struggle with the calculusand identification of appropriate models for various flow phenomena. By the time they reachheat transfer (if they get that far) – a subject that requires knowledge of both thermodynamics andfluid mechanics – many have resigned themselves to an insecure understanding at best, and

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre; Larry J. Shuman; Cynthia Atman; Harvey Wolfe

require additional stress. For example, over the past four yearswe have observed a significant positive trend in the attitudes of our entering freshmen relative totheir initial impressions of engineering. (See Table 1.) This suggests that initiatives to better in-form prospective students about engineering have been effective, and these students may be moreinclined to remain in engineering. (We have documented that freshmen who left engineering ingood academic standing, began the year less committed to engineering than those who stayed11.) Year Male Female 1994 3.82 3.67 1995 3.86 3.81

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Rick L. Homkes; Kevin D. Taylor; Russell A. Aubrey

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Kathryn A. Neeley

integral part ofprofessional engineering education, we will need to go beyond generalizations and readyexplanations to inquire into (1) the specific knowledge, skills, and experiences that constitute the Page 2.442.1ability to communicate effectively about technical matters and (2) the cultural and historicalcontexts that have shaped contemporary views of engineers and technology.We need a new vision of technical communication that is interdisciplinary and integrative andestablishes strong links between communication and intellectual activity. It should have severalkey components.1.) It should be consistent with the notion of career preparation

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Sue Godez; Scott Evans; George H. Staab; Eric Engdahl

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Amer Mokaddem; James Moller

the learning of stress transformation and Mohr’s circle is introduced. It displays diagramsof the state of stress and the corresponding Mohr’s circle as transformation angle is varied.Results of student testing indicate it is most effective at improving ability to anticipate thevariation of stress magnitude as transformation angle varies and for identifying principal stresseson the circle.IntroductionThe transformation of stress, strain, moment of inertia among coordinate systems is important instatic and structural analysis. Late in the last century, Mohr 1, 2 introduced a graphicalconstruction to assist in the process. At Mohr’s time, the technology for graphical constructionwas drafting and any technology for computation was quite tedious

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Rossler

weigh the design experiences (70% of the final course grade) so that students take each design experience seriously. • Limit design teams to two students to minimize student coordination and group dynamic costs. • Eliminate longer, comprehensive exams and use shorter quizzes after each design experience to test individual member’s subject knowledge and skill. • Complete all design experiences by the ninth week of the academic section.General Design Experience FrameworkStudents were first introduced to basic concepts and relationships of production system dynamics(as opposed to the static case). They then developed a spreadsheet analysis of a simpleproduction system (Figure 1). The basis for

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Kara B. Wright; Charles T. Wright; Christine L. Collier; Lawrence Genalo

no prior experience withprogramming languages. The programming language they were given to use was ICC11, asubset of the programming language C. Included with ICC11 was a collection of built-incommands with which to control simple robots. One such command, motor(mtr,spd), isprovided to instruct motor mtr to turn at speed spd. For the particular computer system used,four motors can be controlled with mtr given the value 1, 2, 3, or 4. The speed value, spd, can bein the range from -16 to +16 inclusive. Thus, for example, the command motor(1, 16) tells motor1 to go in the forward direction at the speed of 16 (i.e., full speed ahead). The commandmotor(1,-16) causes motor 1 to go backwards at full speed while the command motor(1,0) turnsmotor 1

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Holly G. Peterson

which air parcels aretagged with a tracer gas. The air parcels are tracked while measuring concentrations downwindof the source, and by investigating how the tracer behaves, we learn how pollutants are advectedand diluted by the atmosphere. As reported by Gifford, substances used as tracers by early researchers include Kleenexlint, dandelion seeds, balloons, smoke puffs, and soap bubbles.1 Shortcomings associated withthese tracers are non-negligible mass constraints in addition to detection and measurementlimitations. During the past decade, however, significant developments have been made ingaseous tracer technologies. Compared to particles or balloons, non-reactive gases are morelikely to truly follow the airflow, and tracer gas

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mary Ann McCartney; Maria A. Reyes; Mary Anderson-Rowland

outlinedduring the planning meetings as:1. Build community among the participants and the current engineering students Page 2.446.22. Introduce the participants to computing at ASU3. Introduce the participants to engineering and more specifically incorporate: • engineering documentation and design projects • team building and team competition • use of computer software such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint • problem solving skills • research activities4. Help the students achieve an attitude of “I can be a successful engineering student at ASU”5. Address issues relevant to freshman students such as the function of the

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Gary Benenson; Benjamin Liaw

amanufacturing laboratory is only equipped with “turn-key” equipment and the users (both faculty Page 2.431.1and students) can only follow “cook-book” type manuals to operate the equipment.I. Introduction As a member of the NSF-funded ECSEL coalition, the Department of MechanicalEngineering at CCNY was awarded a two-year supplement grant (April 1, 1994-March 31, 1996)by ARPA-NSF TRP to renovate its program in manufacturing education with emphasis onstudent-centered learning, team work, and hands-on experience. The program includes fourcourses: ME 462 Manufacturing Processes and Materials, ME 546 Robotics and Automation,ME 311 Fundamentals of

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Fahmida R. Masoom; Abulkhair M. Masoom

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Susan M. Lord

design projects. Due to its small size,this room was not used for the freshmen lab. No special facilities are needed for the freshmenlab although one or two sinks are desirable.COURSESEG100 Exploring EngineeringExploring Engineering (EG100) is a class of approximately 200 students, mostly first yearengineers and some interested students from Arts and Sciences.1 In addition to lectures, studentsperform one lab from each of the five represented engineering disciplines: Chemical, Civil,Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering as well as Computer Science. As a senior design projectin the Spring 1996 semester, Carrie Goldwein (EE’96) designed an optoelectronics laboratory forthe EE lab portion of EG100. This project aimed to develop experiments that

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mohamed A. Bourham; Donald J. Dudziak

short summary of each undergraduate research topic,subdivided in fission reactors and applications, radioisotopes applications, plasma engineering,and nuclear materials.II.1 FISSION REACTORS AND APPLICATIONSII.1.1 Dynamic Rod Worth Measurement (DRWM) The Dynamic Rod Worth Measurement technique is an alternative method for measuringcontrol rod worth during zero power physics testing. This technique reduces the experimentduration if rods are ramped in with maximum stepping rates. The dropped rod method was thefirst part of the student’s research, followed by a determination of ex-core detector responsefactors that necessitates utilization of transport theory and employing various computer codes(DORT/TORT codes).1 As a result of this research

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

John T. Bell

engineeringeducation. However before this new tool can be effectively applied, we must first learn itsstrengths, weaknesses, and optimal implementation. A series of VR based educational moduleshave therefore been developed, in order to explore the capabilities of this emerging technology. [ 1-7 ]The interested reader is directed to the listed references and to the laboratory web site athttp://www.engin.umich.edu/labs/vrichel to learn more details of the VR modules.The StudentsThere have been fourteen students involved in the project so far, including the current four whoare just beginning their involvement. Thirteen have been either Junior or Senior chemicalengineering students, and one is a

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Matthew Hayes; David Pittner; Bryon Formwalt; Daniel J. Pack

before starting an undergraduate research project: nature of researchprojects, advantages and disadvantages, and selection criteria of research projects.Section IV will summarize what we have learned and are learning from our experiencesand a concluding remarks section closes the paper. II. Project Descriptions In this section we present descriptions of the three ongoing research projects. Westart with the autonomous helicopter control project. The goal of the first project is toinvestigate the control laws associated with an automatic helicopter control system. Inorder to experimentally test the system, a commercially available radio controlledhelicopter shown in Fig. 1 is used, a Kyosho Concept 60

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Young Je Yoo; Tae Yu Kim; Ki-Jun Lee; Byung Gee Lee

, we decided to write a text. Forfuture publication and the assistance to the writing, we contacted the local publishingcompany and discussed about writing a text. Following guidelines were made from the discussions with the publisher anddistributed to the participating faculties(1) Should be easy and interesting. Handout can be used if details and advanced topics of engineering are required.(2) Past and present development are to be explained and should give visions on engineering areas.(3) Contain examples of short story on engineering for better understanding.(4) Worldwide situation as well as local situation is to be mentioned.(5) Deal with social and cultural issues as well as issues on daily life. The contents of the text were

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mary Anderson-Rowland

2women had graduated from CEAS by Fall 1995 and 35.8% of the men had graduated .Understanding the Retention ProblemA study on the retention of minority and non-minority students was conducted by the NationalAction Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME)5. The retention in engineeringinstitutions was examined relative to five characteristics: (1) institutional control (public versusprivate); ( 2) college cost; (3) selectivity; (4) number of accredited engineering programs; and(5) number of student support programs. Selectivity was found to be the most importantpredictor of degree attainment for both minority and non-minority engineering students.Selectivity ratings are self assessments made by each college based on three criteria

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Julie E. Sharp

without the professor's extensivewritten evaluation. Many engineering educators are interested in including more and better writing assignmentsin their classes. Perhaps with numerous graded assignments already required, professors maywonder if more writing assignments will enhance students' learning enough to warrant increasingan already heavy grading load. Adding learning intensive writing assignments to engineeringclasses is possible, however, without adding extra grading, thus achieving learning gain withoutgrading pain. In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass,1 Humpty Dumptytells Alice that he has received an "unbirthday" present. If I remember correctly, one movieversion even has a song with the words "a

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Karen E. Schmahl

is a study of TQM principles and tools.When TQM had been introduced to the course, it was in the form of a section added at the end.The Memory Jogger II1 and selected readings were used to supplement the required coursetextbook.2 The basic TQM principles of customer focus, continuous improvement, work-as-a-process, and teamwork were discussed in class. In-class exercises were performed using basicTQM tools.3,4 While students appeared to learn the material in the classroom setting, a morehands-on approach was desired to reinforce the concepts. An expansion of the objectives of thelaboratory of the course was looked at as a means to provide such an applied approach.The existing laboratory accomplished two objectives: 1) providing the students

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Hamid Khan

interviews not be conducted becauseinterviews will interfere with the participants' out of class assignments. Assumptions (1) Managers were either nominated by their corporations, or by their immediate bosses or by themselves who had a high opinion of the program -- they are being compared with Page 2.456.2 those who weren't nominated. Evidently the cross section was not truly international. (2) Companies represented by their managers were very diverse in terms of place, people, product and processes. These managers used diverse capabilities of machinery, manpower, material

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mary Kathryn Mathis; Duane Stucky; Ahad S. Nasab

energy needsfor the foreseeable future. A schematic of the MTSU cogeneration system is shown inFigure 1.Student InvolvementStudents enrolled in several environmental science classes at MTSU have the uniqueopportunity to be involved in a sizable university project in which an existing steamgeneration plant is being replaced by a modern cogeneration facility. Students Page 2.457.1associated with the project work very closely with the engineers and administrators toget first-hand experience of technical, administrative, and economical aspects of a real-life project.Students work in teams of two or three members in one the following areas;1. Administration

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1997 Annual Conference

Authors

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

were the focus of the Spring 1996 meeting of the College of En-gineering National Advisory Committee, composed of leaders of business and industry. TheNational Advisory Committee strongly endorsed the proposed changes and recommendedthat the College faculty adopt the recommendations for all programs as soon as practicable.The faculty voted to adopt the recommendations in Spring 1996, and departments beganworking on how to implement revised curricula that met the guidelines spelled out in theTask Force recommendations.1.2 Recommendations of the Task ForceAfter two semesters of work, the Undergraduate Curriculum Task Force proposed for facultyapproval: 1. a mission statement and education goals for the College’s undergraduate programs

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

William W. Durgin