Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

M. Giger; K. M. Siddiqui; C. Loukides; F. Coowar

Session 1260 Employment Pattern and Educational Standards of Engineering Graduates in the Lao PDR F. Coowar, M. Giger, C. Loukides and K. M. Siddiqui1 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland c/o National Polytechnic Institute, Vientiane, Lao PDRABSTRACTThe National Polytechnic Institute (NPI) is the only tertiary institution in the Lao PDR thatproduces engineering graduates at the Bachelor’s level in the major engineering fields ofCivil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. Since its establishment under a UNESCO-sponsored project in 1984, a total of

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Gerald R. Frederick; Benjamin Koo

concepts and outlooks of American students. They can help promote andinstill in the American students an understanding and awareness of the international aspects ofglobal conditions, particularly as related to engineering(1). This will serve as an introduction toother cultures and, upon graduation, these former students can assist engineers and their organ-izations as they become involved in global projects. A feasible plan to accelerate culturalexchange is to encourage students to live in dormitories with intermingling of international and Page 2.72.1American students. For example, the University of Toledo has completed an “InternationalHouse

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Sohi Rastegar; Gerard L. Coté

Session 1526 An Interdisciplinary Combined Research-Curriculum in Biomedical Optics Sohi Rastegar, Gerard L. Coté Texas A&M UniversityABSTRACTThe objective of this project sponsored by the NSF Combined Research-CurriculumDevelopment program is to develop, implement, and evaluate an interdisciplinarycurriculum in Biomedical Optics. The thrust of the new curriculum includes thedevelopment of four new courses based on research advances made within theBiomedical Engineering Program at Texas A&M University in collaboration withinternal and external medical centers

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Justin R. Chimka; Karen M. Bursic; Cynthia Atman

design process "as a map for how to get from the need for a specific object to thefinal product " (p. 3) and notes that "The designer's knowledge of the process and the problem'sdomain determine the path" (p. 4). All engineers design, whether it be a factory layout, a newcomputer system, a major construction project, an improved production process, an electronicsubassembly or a new material. It is the core of the engineering profession. Wright 24 notes that"engineering design is as varied as the engineering profession, and it is as broad as the problemsfacing humankind. An engineer's designs may be as small and intricate as a microchip for acomputer system or as large and complex as a space shuttle" (p. 95).* This research was made possible in

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Randall Guensler; Christopher Conklin; Paul S. Chinowsky

Session 1658 Development of a Web-Based Environmental Impact, Monitoring and Assessment Course Randall Guensler, Paul Chinowsky, Christopher Conklin School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThe information revolution has had a dramatic effect on engineering education in the 1990’s.Educators and students alike have witnessed a dramatic shift from traditional teaching methodsand tools to a new, innovative, interactive approach. What began as the simple use of computersand information technology for student projects has developed into the large scale use ofcomputer

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ralph O. Buchal

theresulting work is usually seen only by the instructor. Group reports are typically constructed by assigningsections or chapters to each team member, and joining the sections together at the end. This approach has beenpartly dictated by a lack of tools for collaboration. Tools are now available to permit shared creation of rich multimedia documents by teams of students.These documents can then be contributed to a common knowledge base. The Internet can be considered aglobally distributed, shared knowledge base.A Case Study: The University Space Network Pilot Project The University Space Network (USN) Pilot Project is a multi-institution collaboration established in1995 to develop and offer a multimedia-based course in Spacecraft

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Evangelyn C. Alocilja

50-minute computer laboratory session. A “lecture” period may consist of course materialpresentation by the instructor, student interactions among themselves facilitated by the instructor,and student teamwork. Cooperative learning1 is used to convey the contents of the course to thestudents. Students work individually to accomplish assigned homework, exams, and projectpapers; work as a team of two to solve classroom problems and computer exercises, and work asa team of three to complete and present poster projects to the class. Name Tags. Knowing each other well is an important factor in a successful classroomand in building teamwork. To facilitate the process, each student is requested to wear a nametag, provided by the instructor

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

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

candidates’ daily experience. Thefoundational principles for most of the eighteen modules are taught in interactive tutorials writtenwith the multimedia authoring package Authorware®. Complementing the computer-basedtutorials are instructor-assisted problem-solving sessions, experiments, work-related teamprojects, case studies, or traditional lectures. The tutorials include periodic assignments such ascomputer problems (solved using a spreadsheet or mathematics package) and traditional "pencil-and-paper" problems.Presented here is a discussion of the teaching philosophy, a description of the structure of thethermophysics curriculum, and a summary of content. Portions of the computer-based tutorialsare described, and examples of experiments, projects

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Trevor B. Davey; Ngo Dinh Thinh

exchanges,assistance in purchasing equipment's and supplies and presentation of technical papers. InNovember 1996, under the sponsorship of the Division of South Asia Programs of the NationalScience Foundation, a workshop was convened at CSU, Sacramento to bring togetherengineering and science educators from the principle colleges and universities in Vietnam withsome of their counterparts in the United States. The purpose of these meetings was to exchangeinformation on science and technology curriculums, discuss educational objectives of the twocountries and to investigate the possibilities of joint research projects and exchange programs forfaculty and students.The participants from Vietnam included the Vice President and senior academic

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

T. Al Austin; Steve Wells

5Four of the five courses listed above included students from 2 provinces in Canada. These pilotcourses have been so successful that further courses are being developed and active recruitmentis planned for the Fall 97 semester. Method of Delivery At present five courses have been developed that are suitable for study at home orindustry. The following methods of delivery have been implemented.1. Course Packs. Each course is accompanied by a text book, computer software (whereapplicable) and the following written material: a. Syllabus b. Course outline c. Instructors notes and special questions d. Sample problems with solutions e. Practical assignments f. Projects (where

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

John M. Dorosz; Ester B. Johnson

are exposed to hands-on design projects. Throughout the course,the facilitators stress the importance of regular contact with academic or faculty advisorsthroughout the students academic career. In addition, the coordinators offer many helpful hintsfor maximizing use of a system which is efficient but rather dependent on student initiative andself-responsibility.The class carries one degree credit and is graded on an "A through F" basis. Attendance ismandatory, although one unexcused absence is allowed. Students are required to submit regularhomework from the text, "Studying Engineering", by Ray Landis, as well as two design projects,a spaghetti tower and a model car made of newspaper, designed to specific criteria. The towerproject is an

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ray Adams; Paul Duesing; Ajay Mahajan; David McDonald

and technology. The implementation plan, which involves introducingstudents to the use of this equipment in fundamentals courses and then reinforcing its use inadvanced courses and a capstone senior projects course sequence, moves the student from thebasic to advanced levels of cognitive learning.Modern instrumentation equipment was therefore added to several laboratories so that thestudents would use it in both fundamental and advanced courses. The process of upgrading theinstrumentation capability of these laboratories was supported by an Instrumentation andLaboratory Improvement (ILI) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and grantsfrom the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation. The followingsections

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Karim J. Nasr

providedwithin the Electronic Book. Students normally spend the first week of the course going throughthe tutorial and getting familiar with the software contents. At the end of the first week, studentswere asked to provide their initial feedback (impression) on the software and document what theyhave learned. Generally, students were impressed by the front end of the software which exhibitsthe tool bar, the various buttons and commands, and the palettes. However, the tutorial wasperceived as lacking in applying the commands to the field of thermodynamics. In a typical term,students were normally assigned a total of fourteen computer problems (seven Mathcadassignments) and a design project, in addition to their usual weekly homework assignmentsextracted

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Sr., Buck F. Brown; Jr., Buck F. Brown

to this “knowledge explosion” has been to pack more “essential facts” into thecurricula. Careful consideration of this issue suggests that an information-laden society requiresresourceful skills, insights, and abilities; hence, educational innovation must focus less on factsand more on problem-solving and inquiry-based learning. The Wabash Valley EducationalAlliance1, supported by the National Science Foundation (DUE-9553705), has implemented animportant educational vision and established a permanent cooperative effort within the WabashValley (west central Indiana) to meet this need. This paper describes how this project addresses instructional methods that impact theeducation of students of technology, science, mathematics, and

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Surendra K. Gupta

. Historical PerspectiveBy the early 1980s, almost all mechanical engineering programs required their freshmen orsophomores to take a course in higher-level programming language (primarily Fortran, C orBasic). Most programs required students to take an additional course in Numerical Methods1,2.With skills students developed in these two courses, they were able to write programs forengineering design and analysis projects, and to develop data acquisition and analysis softwarefor experimental projects in their upper division courses.By the late 1980s, with the personal computer (PC) revolution underway, many upper-division Page 2.383.1technical courses

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Kevin S. LeBlanc; Bruce E. Segee

communication standards, and how to program usingOLE. Specifically, linking and embedding, OLE automation and OLE controls are discussed.Section 3 gives an example using OLE in a generic automation project. Examples of usinglinking and embedding, as well as OLE automation, are related to Microsoft Word and Excel inan automation application. An example of where OLE controls can be used in development isalso discussed. The second half of Section 3 gives a specific example using OLE in a simpleintelligent system. Section 4 gives concluding remarks on industrial automation using OLE.2. Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)2.1 OverviewOLE is a mechanism that allows two software modules to connect and communicate with eachother on the same machine. Specifically

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Gregory M. Dick

functionalitywithin an organization is referred to as the Intranet. Intranet communications are often selective(i.e., access to information is only granted to those within the organization). The principal goalof this project is communications among class participants; however, no access filter has beenapplied. The information referenced is globally available and offered as an example to otherswho may wish to incorporate these techniques into their own classes.Electronic mail and the World Wide Web are communications tools enabled by Internet - Intranettechnology which are available to support the distribution of course materials. The World WideWeb is a platform independent communications system layered on top of the Internetinfrastructure. The Web is enabled

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Karen Frair; Karan L. Watson

improvement through assessment and evaluation. TheFoundation Coalition partners draw on their diverse strengths and mutual support to constructimproved curricula and learning environments; to attract and retain a more demographicallydiverse student body; and to graduate a new generation of engineers who can more effectivelysolve increasingly complex, rapidly changing societal problems. The improvement ofrecruitment and graduation of traditionally underrepresented groups is an integral part of theFoundation Coalition strategic plan. This paper discusses Coalition projects to date and otherefforts focused on increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in engineeringeducation.IntroductionThe National Science Foundation's Engineering

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard L. Marcellus

(correct or incorrect) for probabilities, expected costs, and so forth. • Recognition of the need to collect data. • Creation of the kinds of solutions that might be found in textbooks. • Extensions of the problems to make them more meaningful. • Identification of situations where the problems are real. • Introduction of decision criteria. • Recognition of ethical and safety issues. • Intuitive understanding. • Vague answers and just plain wrong answers.Students’ Evaluations of the Design ProblemsIn the spring of 1996, when the students were nearing the end of their senior design project, Iasked them their opinion of the design activity. (One or two of the respondents had taken thecourse before 1995, but had still

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Shivakumar Raman; P. Simin Pulat; Hank Grant; Bob L. Foote; Adedeji B. Badiru

from the Industrial Engineering (IE)program at OU and three faculty members from the Industrial Engineering and Management(IE&M) program at OSU have developed a strong working relationship and have crafted animportant niche in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). As part of these collaborativeactivities, the programs have fostered research exchanges including joint National ScienceFoundation (NSF) research projects, faculty and student exchanges, and two-way interactive,compressed digital video courses providing cross-institutional graduate credit.Integrated Production Management (IPM) ResearchA working sub-group of faculty from OU (B. Foote, S. Pulat, S. Raman and A. Badiru) and OSU(M. Kamath) were funded under a three year research

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph Herkert

-class exercises include risk assessments, judging probabilities and discussion of the causes andimpacts of the case studies from the perspectives of the analytical models introduced in thecourse. Group projects consist of research and presentation during an entire seventy five minuteclass period of a case study of a past or potential technological catastrophe that was not includedelsewhere in the course. The presentations, which are required to actively involve the rest of theclass, often include simulations, talk show formats, and mock hearings. Recent topics haveincluded Airline Safety, Dam Failures, Computer Network Crashes, Breach of BiologicalContainment, and High-Speed Police Pursuits.World Wide Web links utilized include primary source

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph Herkert

; Technology,Society and Culture (sociology and anthropology); Environmental Economics; Philosophy ofScience; and Science, Technology and Public Policy (political science).An STS MinorA minor in STS serves to meet the need of students who desire more comprehensive study of therelationships between science, technology and society. In addition, minor programs provide“institutional legitimacy” to STS efforts, as well as a means of drawing together faculty with STSinterests and of advertising to students the availability of STS courses.The STS Minor at NC State consists of five courses including Issues in Science, Technology, andSociety, an independent study technology assessment project. Of the remaining four courses, atleast one must be taken in each of

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

A. J. Marchese; Robert P. Hesketh; T. R. Chandrupatla; Ralph A. Dusseau; John L. Schmalzel; Kauser Jahan; C. Stewart Slater

University are introduced to engineering designthrough a series of hands-on engineering laboratories and design projects. The objective is toinvolve them in incrementally progressive design experiences. For example, students design amodified flashlight switch, a complete flashlight, undertake the design of proof-of-conceptexperiments, and finish with a system-level design of an environmentally friendly coffeemachine. Thus, the freshman design experience at Rowan specifically avoids “gimmicky”competitions and focuses instead on the design of real engineering devices such as flashlightsand coffee machines. In order to achieve this focus, freshman students must be exposed to avariety of engineering principles, experimental methods, and design tools not

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Wade C. Driscoll

advance the aspects of design that the case study is likely to cause to surface. The instructor knows in advance the levels of maturity and expertise that are required for the problem. The instructor does not have to rely on forces outside of his or her control to supply a suitable problem that is consistent with the educational aims of the lesson. The instructor does not have to respond to pressures from the workplace in establishing deadlines for student work. That is, the project can be managed according to educational objectives rather than enterprise objectives. The instructor does not have to be concerned that a shift in company priorities may result in a lack of

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Anthony J. Muscat; Evan D. H. Green; Emily L Allen; Linda Vanasupa

d Department of Materials Engineering California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA AbstractAn interdisciplinary course in semiconductor processing has been developed and successfullyintroduced into the chemical, materials, and electrical engineering curriculums that blends newand traditional teaching techniques. A start-up company culture is created in which teams of“employees” composed of students from a range of disciplines and having varied industrialexperiences work side-by-side on a long-term (semester) project threaded with short-term (twoweek) open-ended design components. The long-term

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Herbert Hess

university elsewhere. Design projectswith industry support explored the medium, with the industry supervisors at one site and studentsat another. Regular research meetings on videoconference enhanced a number of researchprojects, including the following in just the first year: a Federal Rail Administration project withMK Rail, a large generator modeling project with Idaho Power Company, severalmicroelectronics projects with Hewlett-Packard, Santa Clara Plastics, Preco, and MicronTechnologies, and a “smart irrigation” project with J.R. Simplot. Engineering pioneered theinstallation, but Business, Psychology, Agriculture, Education, and Law soon discovered some ofthe research-enhancing potential. The university rents a T1 line and divides it as

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Holly G. Peterson

Session 3151 A TRACER LABORATORY FOR UNDERGRADUATE ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS HOLLY G. PETERSON MONTANA TECH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANAI. INTRODUCTION Environmental engineers are often involved in field work to assess the impacts ofenvironmental problems. While traditional lectures and problem-solving exercises serve as thebasis of most college-level courses in environmental engineering, “hands-on” projects arenecessary to provide students with additional skills to succeed as professionals after graduation.The purpose of this paper is to

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Corrado Poli; Brian Riggs; Beverly Woolf

manufacturing and design arehighly interdependent and that they should be integrated [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Several of these programshave received financial support from the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) which wasinitiated in 1992 to develop education and training programs that enhance U.S. manufacturingskills.The Engineering Academy of Southern New England (EASNE) is one of the coalitions receivingfinancial support from the TRP for its “activities that would improve the general state of the U.S.competitiveness and productivity and provide a high-quality work force for the 21st century” [7].EASNE is a coalition composed of industrial and educational participants. The primaryeducational participants are the University of Connecticut (UCONN), UMASS

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

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

developed for both the educational processes a student experiences and theoutcomes he/she should possess at graduation. Eliciting customer requirements and feedback inengineering education is not new, as the literature indicates many such applications. (Forexample, see references6,7,8,9,10,11,12.) However this research effort extends the customer’scontribution by empirically modeling the relationships between the process measures and theoutcome measures, thus creating a feedback mechanism that may be used in process monitoringand improvement.In this paper we examine one portion of the larger project, that of creating a set of outcomemeasures for the program. This was accomplished by incorporating the use of feedback fromalumni and structured

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert L. Reid; Bruce D. Hoeppner

of 1992,thirty-two students elected the design and construction of Sun Warrior II as their number onechoice for a senior design project. The electrical engineering, mechanical engineer andindustrial engineering students were divided by their choice into Structures, Propulsion, PowerControl, Instrumentation, and Simulation subgroups. The objective was to design and build afaster solar powered boat capable of competing in the Minneapolis, Seattle, and Japan raceswhere the differing rules allow from 0 - 200 pounds of batteries and with 0, 40 square feet,and 480 watts of solar collectors. An advantage that this group had over last year's team wasthe availability of photos and videotapes of all the American and Japanese solar boats of