Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Brian P. Self; Lynne A. Slivovsky; Kevin Taylor; Sema Alptekin

Copyright © 2007, American Society for EngineeringPast ProjectsComputer Engineering (CPE), Electrical engineering (EE), Mechanical Engineering (ME), andIndustrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) have all had a great deal of success with servicelearning. CPE has a a two-quarter Capstone Design experience that provides teams of studentswith large, loosely defined projects for real-world customers.In the first year of the capstone, all projects involved Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) andwere designed and implemented for the new RFID Center on campus, a collaborative centerbetween multiple engineering and agriculture disciplines. Example projects include an ActiveTag Design, a Smart Shelf System, and an RFID Entry System. The

Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Mohammad Amin

areas should complete some prerequisite courses or equivalent courses beforetaking any graduate level course at National University.The MSWC program consists of 10 required courses and two capstone Master’s researchprojects. Students are encouraged to take these courses in the order of presentation. WCM601and WCM602 are referred to as foundation courses, therefore they must be taken before takingany other graduate level course in the program. The capstone project class is an integratingmechanism to provide realistic experience for the student. It is a two-month project solving a realproblem for a real client against a time deadline using all available tools and resources asstudents work together in teams. This component addresses the need to

Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

John T. Tester

remained fairly constant,1 though differentdepartments have increased steadily (such as Mechanical Engineering) while others have varied.The “Design4Practice,” or “D4P,” curriculum is a series of innovative undergraduate classes whichinvolve active learning laboratories for the students in each of their freshman, sophomore, junior andsenior years. The program objectives were developed in response to the call by industry forbaccalaureate engineers to possess a broader set of skills beyond their analytical and computer skills.This call was strengthened by the Engineering faculty’s observation of the students’ experiences insenior capstone design during the late 1980’s and 1990’s. These students, who had had no priorexperience with a design process

Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Nhut Tan Ho

A Framework for Improving Learning and Retention in a Diverse Student Population Dr. Nhut Tan Ho Department of Mechanical Engineering California State University, Northridge AbstractMeeting the projected U.S. engineering workforce needs for increased representation ofunderrepresented minorities will be challenging due to the poor retention and academicperformance of too many minority engineering students. As a response, this psaper describes anapproach built upon an innovative undergraduate education initiative pioneered by MIT calledConceive-Design

Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

M. M. Gilkeson

year’s Clinic.The team’s professor advises, coaches, monitors, evaluates, and provides feedback. Eachengineering faculty member serves as a faculty advisor for two projects each school year. Since thistask is an important part of every engineer’s teaching load, advising the capstone design experienceis viewed as everyone’s responsibility. It follows that the Engineering Department would not hire anindividual who does not believe in the importance of the Clinic Program.The student team coordinates its activities with the sponsor's liaison to ensure that the sponsor'sgoals are achieved and that the design experience corresponds as closely as possible to whatengineers encounter in actual practice. Thus, the questions and problems that teams face