Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ken Vickers

Graduate Recruitment Strategies Ken Vickers Research Professor, Physics Director, Microelectronics-Photonics Grad Program University of Arkansas AbstractMicroelectronics-Photonics (microEP) was started in the fall of 1998with the goal to emulate an industrial technical work group environmentas much as possible in the academic environment. This goal was put inplace primarily in recognition that the professional behaviors thatmost student observe in their academic career are the actions of theirprofessors, whose behaviors are driven by an entirely different set ofreward and recognition criteria than are used

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Andy Matthews; Jerri Dwyer

thatthey know how to embark on the job search and are thus ineffective. Some studentsconduct an effective job search campaign but are ill-equipped for the transition tothe world of work.How can we provide a coherent message about what is needed to prepare for the jobsearch and transitioning to the world of work? How can we clearly and consistentlyarticulate the essential elements of career planning from the outset?These questions challenged us at the University of Arkansas Career DevelopmentCenter to create this cohesive comprehensive career development program -theProfessional Development Institute. Our vision is to prepare students to shine abovethe rest of the competition. If successful, the program supports the University’s rolein the economic

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kathleen Condray

studentsare able to realize the dream of going abroad. Using German as an example, this paper will outline how students can both stay on-trackin their engineering curriculum and gain valuable work and study abroad experience in thesummer which will help them in their job search and in their careers beyond graduation.Programs discussed will include RISE (Research in Science and Engineering) of the DAAD(German Academic Exchange Service), in which students receive paid fellowship positions inuniversity doctoral laboratories, CDS (Carl Duisberg Society), in which students work in paidinternships in offices in their field at companies such as Porsche and Siemens, and ICE(International Cooperative Education), in which students complete paid

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Bryan Hill

successful. The workshop will also look at some of the common mistakes a new recruiting operation falls into. You will leave this workshop with many tools, including: how to hire a good recruitment team, how to find good prospective students, how to successfully work a career fair and increase your booth attendance, what prospective students want to hear in a presentation, how to make a successful recruitment phone call, what a tour should include, how to develop a successful correspondence plan, and how to keep track of the prospective student information and contacts.

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

William W. Ryan; Tiffany Wiederstein; Danny King; Malcolm Fowler

college engineering programs. An answer to both questions has been found with thedevelopment of high school pre-engineering academies. The development of these academieshas brought K-12 educators, career tech educators, and university educators together to design apathway that uses the strengths of each partner to better prepare students for entry into, andsuccessful completion of, university engineering programs. The initial motivation for theseacademies was acknowledgement that the attrition level of students pursuing engineering degreesis far too high. That attrition rate is greater than 50% nationally. The rate in Oklahoma at someschools is greater than 60%. This attrition can be attributed to three primary factors: 1. Students

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephanie G. Adams; Jeffrey W. Rieske

society; and 3) toincrease students’ awareness of cultural differences by considering their own culture fromanother’s perspective and thereby develop a global view of research.Introduction Research has shown that research experiences play a critical role in introducingundergraduates to the culture of graduate school and research [1]. Research experiences exposeundergraduate students to the creativity of the research process and enable them to apply formalcourse knowledge. Additionally, undergraduate research experiences encourage students topursue graduate education and have been considered effective in attracting and retaining studentsin a variety of science and engineering careers. According to Dr. James McCullough, formerDirector of

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Larry N. Bland

theirrecruiting process. It was important to distinguish both explicit and implicit activities. Forexample, at one institution the recruiting personnel stated that they were selling the totaluniversity and their process did not provide for selling separate majors. However, when Imentioned engineering they pull out a separate recruiting packet that was tailored to engineeringstudents and a department presentation focused on engineering careers. At a second institute,they again were selling the total institution. But in this case, all campus tours started in theengineering building. The building, contents and heritage were considered key to the wholeuniversity. Without seeing the natural setting, I would have missed these subtle distinctions. Human

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephan A. Durham; Mark L. Kuss; Ernest Heymsfield; Hanna Sheppard

testing programare shown in Figures 2 and 3, respectively.At the end of the six week program, the group of students are required to present there researchfindings to parents, teachers, and friends. This program has been useful in recruiting studentsinto the engineering field. In addition, it has been recognized that students learn to work ingroups effectively.Student FeedbackThe program has been very effective in providing students with the opportunity to succeed incollege. In addition, the research projects performed by these students have encouraged many ofthem to pursue careers in Engineering. Success stories and student feed back are found below. “Proceedings of the 2005 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Roy A. McCann

andphotonics. Consequently, revision of the core electrical energy conversion curriculum is ex-pected when planning for future employment trends and the evolving ABET accreditation guide-lines.III. Revitalizing undergraduate energy conversion educationGiven the motivation to update the undergraduate core energy conversion course, the fundamen-tal issue to be addressed is identifying the content that will best serve the educational needs ofstudents over the span of an engineering career. This is a speculative task, but the continuingtrends over the previous decades can provide a guide. First, the application of electric energyconversion processes continues to expand. Whereas 25 years ago most aerospace, automotiveand many industrial processes relied

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Larry N. Bland

-long learning; • A knowledge of contemporary issues.It is this second set of outcomes that creates the foundation for this paper. These skills have beencontroversial within the engineering community. Some individuals look at this as interference to "Proceedings of the 2005 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education" 2our main purpose of teaching the hard skills. Others see them as a very necessary part ofpreparing our students for future career needs. In this paper, I will look at some of the literature that establishes the context

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christi L. Patton; Daniel W. Crunkleton; John M. Henshaw; Douglas Jussaume; Robert L. Strattan

.). Immediate feedback is provided during the question and answer period of thepresentations. Written comments and oral questioning encourage the students to analyzetheir engineering approach and explore the concepts of continuous improvement. Thelevel of assessment is unbiased and comprehensive. Consistently scoring average orexcellent indicates that the students have met the industrial standards of competency inthese areas. It is very gratifying to both students and faculty to have such clear andconcise feedback on their performance.ConclusionChallenge X has been an excellent opportunity for TU students to learn more about thework they will be doing in their future careers and participate in leading-edgetechnological development addressing

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

R. L. Kolar; K. M. Dresback; E. M. Tromble

teaching andresearch in areas of national need,” and it is administered by the Department of Education. Here,“need” has a dual meaning: students must demonstrate financial need, and fellowships areawarded to disciplines viewed as traditionally having a shortage of well-qualified domestic stu-dents. Engineering is one such discipline. Since, from the outset, the program has targeted stu-dents who are interested in academic careers, statutory requirements dictate the course of studythat GAANN Fellows pursue must include a structured education component, so that, upon grad-uation, they are prepared for both the educational and research missions of academia. Herein, wepresent an overview of OUr (University of Oklahoma) GAANN program, which we have

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stuart Bernstein

though they are teaching it totheir peers, which increases their own understanding.Role PlayingRole playing can be fit into any engineering class in different degrees. In Personnel andSupervisory Methods, role playing is instrumental in having the students apply what they arelearning to pseudo real life simulations. It is not as effective as an internship or a servicelearning project, but it does afford the students the safety of the classroom. In design and theoryclasses, role playing can be used where team projects have been assigned, if, at the completion ofthe project, the students are required to make a presentation in the role of designing engineer.This is a real life situation in which they will find themselves during their careers. Role

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Wangping Sun; J. M. Zhang; Z. J. Pei

meet the challenges in their future careers. In thispaper, the instructors of IMSE 564 will share some experiences in teaching the course, anddiscuss how the learner-centered environment was established for the class.KeywordsEngineering education; Lean manufacturing; Learner-centered environment.1. IntroductionAt Kansas State University, Product and Process Engineering (IMSE 564) is an engineeringcourse offered once a year to the senior undergraduates by the Department of Industrial &Manufacturing Systems Engineering (IMSE). It is a required course for the students whose majoris Manufacturing Engineering, and the students with other majors may take it as an elective. Inthe course, the students learn how to design the economic production

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephan A. Durham; W. Micah Hale

necessary skills and training to help further my education and career as a civil engineer.Concrete CountertopsThe enthusiasm and success created from the previously discussed projects led several studentsin the spring 2005 semester to construct concrete countertops, Figure 5. Figure 5: Concrete CountertopTwo students designed and built several concrete countertops for a local homeless shelter inFayetteville, AR. The students partnered with several architectural students for the project whichincluded countertops and cabinetry. The students believed that the projects they had performedin the class helped in the construction of the countertops for this voluntary project.Conclusion “Proceedings of the

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Melissa Miller; Randall Reynolds

withpeers and a time for a discussion with the class about career opportunities in engineering andcomputer programming. It is a treasured opportunity when eighth graders are receptive to aconversation about the future and that was a very positive result of this activity. While theactivity was in progress, the students involved also became more focused on their regular mathclass, which was a welcome surprise.Overall, both projects were well received by the students and provided worthwhile instruction.References1. Foreman, J., July/August 2003, Next Generation Educational Technology Versus the Lecture. EDUCAUSEReview [On-line], http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0340.pdf , 12 July 2004. "Proceedings of the 2005 Midwest Section

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephen B. Taylor; Darin W. Nutter; James A. Davis; Joseph J. Rencis

departmental freshman curricula, retention related activities are oftenevaluated at this level. The University of Arkansas (U of A) is no different and has an ongoingeffort to increase its six-year graduation rate through improved retention. In addition, the U of ADepartment of Mechanical Engineering (ME) is trying to better understand its six-yeargraduation rate by first focusing on the retention of students during their freshman year. For the sake of comparing retention data internally and externally, some commondefinitions need to be established to foster uniformity. A freshman is universally defined as aperson who is going to college for the first time in their academic career and who is considered afull-time student with regard to the

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ameya A. Chandelkar; Deepak G. Bhat

, Jerusalem (1969), pp. 255-342. Proceedings of the 2005 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 11AMEYA CHANDELKAR is a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering. He obtained his Bachelors degree inProduction Engineering from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India in 2000. His research has been supported by theGiffels Chair Endowment Research Fund. Mr. Chandelkar will graduate with MSME in Fall 2005.PROF. DEEPAK BHAT is Giffels Chair Professor of Engineering at the University of Arkansas. He holds a Ph.D.from University of Southern California (1978). His professional career spans 25+ years of

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

A. Lambert; D. J. Russomanno; P. Palazolo; S. Ivey

receiving critiques more typical of “real- world” engineering than of traditional assessment. • High-school students’ participation in undergraduate work with engineering students provides an opportunity for the high school students to connect course content to real-world problems, which may motivate them to consider a career in engineering or science.Example 3: First-Semester Retention Rates and Student Learning StylesProject Summary: This project also involves a multi-disciplinary team, yet this team iscomposed of five faculty members from two universities representing five different sub-disciplines of engineering with the goal of learning more about first-semester studentretention issues.Specifically, the project

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jason Weiss; Farshad Rajabipour; Thomas Schmit; Sebastian Fait

7interested in the more chemical and theoretical aspects of materials. An increased use of studentsurveys will be conducted. The course will shift from the use of the H-ITT personal responsesystem to the E-Instruction system simply because these tools have been implemented campus-wide at Purdue and it will enable the students to use the remote controls in more than one class,thereby making them more economic for students.AcknowledgementsThe material presented in this paper is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation throughGrant No. 0134272: a CAREER AWARD granted to the first author. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions orrecommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Norman D. Dennis

class and engage students41 is the single most significant event in improving my professional career (10 years). I am42 only sorry I did not find the information sooner.”4344 Finally a post workshop questionnaire is administered at the end of the semester following the45 workshop (approximately 7 months out). In that questionnaire the same questions posed in the46 pre-workshop questionnaire are asked again. The participants were requested to rate on a scale Proceedings of the 2005 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 10 1 of 1 to 5 their abilities before attending ETW and

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephanie Ivey; Anna Lambert

. Godleski, E.S., “Using Personality Type (MBTI) to Increase Retention of Engineering Students,” Proc. 1986 ASEE Annual Conf., Cincinnati, OH, pg. 304-307, 1986. 21. Kolb, D. Learning Style Inventory. Boston, MA: Hay Resources Direct, 1999. 22. Cross, P.A., and Faulkner, P. The Learning Style Inventory: Convergent validity study in an applied career setting. Public Service Commission of Canada: PPC, 2004. 23. Kolb, D. A. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. 24. Philbin, M. “Male and female college students' learning styles differ: an opportunity for instructional diversification.” College Student Journal