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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Matthew T. Siniawski; Adam R. Carberry; Rafiqul I. Noorani

A Project-based Approach for a Design and Manufacturing Laboratory Course Matthew T. Siniawski1, Adam R. Carberry2, Rafiqul I. Noorani1 1 - Loyola Marymount University / 2 - Arizona State UniversityAbstractAn upper-division design and manufacturing laboratory course for mechanical engineeringstudents was redesigned to incorporate a semester-long project. The goal of the project was toprovide students with an experience applying the design process to develop a simple product, amanual bottle opener. During the design process, students individually generated a conceptualdesign, created a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) model of their design

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Tina Smilkstein

Increasing Lab Participation and Content Retention Through Supportive Laboratory Preparatory Assignments Tina Smilkstein, California State University at San Luis Obispo I. AbstractA study is done on an electrical engineering circuit lab course to assess the effect onparticipation, retention of course content and student satisfaction when prelab assignments wereexpanded to include a write up of the experiment background and goals. Reading that wascreated specifically for each lab covered background for the lab that the students should bebringing with them from previous courses but did not tell them how to do the lab. They wereasked to summarize the

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Harmonie A. Hawley; Brian O'Dell

the students, which included scenarios that necessitated the choice of fieldequipment over bench-top equipment. Overall, the field labs were successful. Based on thisoutcome, further study is anticipated for the Spring 2013 semester.IntroductionEngineering labs are an important component of Undergraduate engineering education for allengineering disciplines. Laboratory instruction is used to incorporate practical applications intotheoretical classes1,2. Lab courses usually focus on application and critical thinking skills asopposed to knowledge and comprehension (i.e. factual recall)3,4. Flora and Cooper2 discuss theimportance of labs, including traditional labs and inquiry-based labs, in EnvironmentalEngineering curricula. The authors note

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Bridget Benson; Bryan Mealy

Work In Progress: Teaching Introductory Digital Design Online Bridget Benson, Bryan Mealy Electrical Engineering Department California Polytechnic State University San Luis ObispoAbstractAdvances in technology have created unique opportunities for teaching digital design courses.Students in the course no longer need to be present in the laboratory in order to obtain practicalhands on experience and master the course material as students can complete laboratoryassignments at home using relatively inexpensive commercial off the shelf developmentplatforms and free software design tools. In addition, eLearning tools such as Moodle, YouTube,chat rooms, and

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Jin-Lee Kim

Framework for Sustainability Practices in Construction Education Curriculum using BIM Jin-Lee Kim, Ph.D., P.E., LEED AP BD+C Department of Civil Engineering & Construction Engineering Management, California State University Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840 - U.S.A Email: jinlee.kim@csulb.eduAbstractThis paper presents a framework to develop a unique and innovative virtual approach in order todeliver sustainability practices using Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology forundergraduate students and implement it as a new hands-on laboratory- and project-based coursein the

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Eniko T. Enikov; Jesus Acosta Iriqui

majors at the University ofArizona. The project illustrates the entire control systems design cycle from systemidentification, through analysis and design of dynamic compensators in classical (transferfunction based) and modern (state space based) control theory. Advanced topics such as systemidentification tool box of Matlab, design and testing of an observer/controller pair is alsoillustrated in an intuitive way suitable for undergraduate students. A summary of the mainlearning gains is also presented.The workshop will conclude with a question and answer session as well as individualizedexperimentation with the portable hardware.IntroductionHands-on laboratories are an essential part of the engineering curriculum since its inception.Their

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Cheng Chen; Jose Valdovinos; Frank Sanchez; Nelly Avramova; Hector Santillano; Robert Hartsock

. Numericalsimulations have inherent limitations due to the simplification of complicated force-deformationrelationships within engineering structures. Laboratory experiments therefore play a critical roleby enabling immediate evaluation of structures under simulated earthquake loading and byproviding data to calibrate numerical models. Findings from laboratory experiments not onlyreplicate the damage and failure of structures during earthquakes, but also provide the mosteffective means for the earthquake engineering profession to understand and utilize newtechnologies to engineer structures that withstand earthquakes. Real-time hybrid simulationtechnique7~10 divides the simulated structure into: (i) experimental substructures to be physicallytested in

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Milica Markovic

details of pedagogical and instructional approach, challenges and waysto overcome them are discussed. All Matlab codes, ADS and Momentum files and laboratories canbe downloaded from author's web site24. In the last section analysis of the effectiveness of studentlearning before and after using the industry level CAD tools is presented.Visualization of fields and wavesVisualization of static electric and magnetic fields presents significant challenge for studentsbecause integration of vector calculus, electromagnetic theory and computer programming requiremetacongitive skills. In the recent past, several instructors reported active use of Matlab,Mathematica and Maple in electromagnetics classroom lectures. Belu3 et. al. have developed 12electronic

Collection

2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Sergio Mendez; Lisa AungYong

increased due to experiential, hands-on measurements and computersimulations.IntroductionMost engineering students are taught the concepts and mathematics of heat transfer, but are notgiven the opportunity to fully grasp the practical aspects of this phenomenon. As an indication ofits importance, many engineering disciplines include heat transfer as a core course in theirundergraduate and graduate curricula. Unfortunately, this topic can be unappealing to studentsbecause of the rigorous mathematical derivations and because they do not get a tangibleunderstanding of the concepts covered in lectures and textbooks. Laboratory experiments areoften performed in undergraduate lab courses, but once again, the students tend to find many ofthese

Collection

2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Hao Jiang; José Carrillo; Alam Salguero; Ellaine Talle; Enrique Raygoza; Xenia Leon; Ben Lariviere; Amelito G. Enriquez; Wenshen Pong; Hamid Shahnasser; Hamid Mahmoodi; Cheng Chen

Engaging Underrepresented Community College Students in Engineering Research Hao Jiang1, Jose Carrillo2, Alam Salguero2, Ellaine Talle2, Enrique Raygoza2, Xenia Leon2, Ben Lariviere 1, Amelito G. Enriquez2, Wenshen Pong1, Hamid Shahnasser1, Hamid Mahmoodi1, Cheng Chen1 1 School of Engineering, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 2 Cañada College, Redwood City, CAAbstractOne of the effective methods to engage and excel underrepresented minority (URM) students inthe STEM field is to “replace standard laboratory courses with discovery-based research”, asmentioned in the 2012 PCAST report [1

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Lucia Riderer; Harmonie A. Hawley

members to study at the graduate level and to pursue their career dreams.Three field trips were held throughout 2012 as part of the second component of Links toEngineering. Several EEWIE members visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CAand the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Laboratory at California State Polytechnic University,Pomona during the summer, 2012. Two of the EEWIE participants attended a three-day NASAAdvanced Rocketry Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama from July 18 to 21, 2012.The final component of Links to Engineering was to have students work on Engineering-relatedresearch projects. Members were not required to conduct research, but several students opted todo so. Three EEWIE members joined the Citrus College Rocket Owls

Collection

2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Taufik Taufik; Dale Dolan

Work-In-Progress: Enhancing Students’ Learning in Introductory Power Electronic Course Using an LED Driver Project Taufik, Dale Dolan California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoAbstractThis paper presents a new hardware project assignment introduced in the first course of powerelectronics at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo. The new project is a culmination ofseries of experiments in the laboratory portion of the course. There are several objectives forassigning the project. First, the project is aimed to enhance students’ learning by exposingstudents to practical issues in dc-dc converter designs. Secondly

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Fabricio Braga Soares de Carvalho; Orlando Rocha Baiocchi; Robert Friedman

relevant achievement of the conjoint research is the possibility to apply for external fundingboth in Brazil and the US. There is great potential for external funding from agencies such as theDepartments of Agriculture, Energy, Defense, Homeland Security, as well as by the NationalScience Foundation, PNNL, NIST, NOA and Nature Conservancy. In Brazil, CAPES13 andCNPq14 are the main public agencies supporting finance and logistical needs to help expand thelevel of scientific research in the country.Preliminary results of the cooperation allow the expansion of the research scope to includeadvanced centers in wireless communications field. Cooperation has been established with theNorthwest Laboratory for Electromagnetics and Acoustic Research (NEAR)15

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Antonella Sciortino; Lisa Star; Tesfai Goitom

importance of receiving guidance and assistance from a more experienced peer. Some graduate students might not be fully aware of what mentorship involves and the benefits that mentorship will provide to their professional development beyond the credit they will receive in the class for participating.Similar challenges were reported by Attarzadeh et al.19 while implementing a mentorshipprogram at the University of Houston where seniors were recruited to mentor students in lower-division laboratory courses. The authors proposed a set of strategies to improve the effectivenessof the program.Proposed StrategiesBelow are some of the strategies that will be implemented in our mentorship program based onour observations and suggestions by

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kurt McMullin; Thalia Anagnos; Jan Hustler; Nancy Thomas

of experiments steps andhad introduced some adjustments to their laboratory courses3, 6. As the group moved into thephase of formalizing a definition for these steps, each member shared what they did in their ownclasses. Group members critiqued each other’s laboratory assignments and had lively discussionsabout what really required students to “design” their experiments. Many discussions revolvedaround levels of proficiency for the rubric. For example for the “select the proper range ofindependent variables” step, the group discussed at great length the difference between“reasonable” and “optimal” ranges, giving examples from their own experiences. The resultingrubric was clearer and more generally applicable because of the input of this

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Xiaomin Jin; Xiao-hua Yu; Xiang-Ning Kang; Guo-Yi Zhang

International Research/education Collaboration on GaN LED/LDs between Cal Poly (USA) and PKU (China) Xiaomin Jin a, Xiao-hua Yu a, Xiang-Ning Kangb, and Guo-Yi Zhangb a Electrical Engineering Department, 1 Grand Avenue, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA, 93407-9000; b School of Physics and State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871.AbstractWe initiated and established an international collaboration with institution in China. This is oneof the international programs at California Polytechnic state University (Cal Poly

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Paul M. Jones; J. Richard Phillips

academic year. Projects involve teams of four or five engineering/computer science,or technology students, and a faculty advisor working on a real customer problem for afull academic year (1200 hours per team minimum). Faculty and staff support the effortsof the student-led professional practice teams that solve the problems for the customer.The sponsor will have full use of the results.The college launched the Professional Practice Program in 2008 with nine foundingcorporate partners: The Aerospace Corporation, The Boeing Company, DirecTV,Heateflex, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems,Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and SouthernCalifornia Edison. In its second and third year

Collection

2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Jim Helbling; Angela Beck

Southwest Conference Copyright © 2013, American Society for Engineering Education 335 1. For laboratory or design courses where the experimental object or test article is fabricated by the students, we suggest that the students be allowed to manage their own budgets and thus practice social responsibility. 2. For these same courses, we suggest that students be required to evaluate the materials used in fabrication in terms of both environmental impact and personal safety during the manufacturing process. 3. For courses offered to seniors, we suggest that the faculty contact their campus

Collection

2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Andrew Siefert; Jonathan Hoy; Keith Christman; Kevin R. Anderson

SUBMITTED TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION PACIFIC SOUTHWEST SECTION CONFERENCE UCR, APRIL 18-20, 2013 Using Arduino Microcontroller Based Robot Projects to Teach Mechatronics in a Hands-On Mechanical Engineering Curriculum Andrew Siefert, Jonathan Hoy, Keith Christman, Dr. Kevin R. Anderson, P.E. California State Polytechnic University at Pomona Mechanical Engineering Department Mechatronics and Robotics Laboratory

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2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Alex Dekhtyar; Anya L. Goodman; Aldrin Montana

biological problems. Our approach relies on well-defined interdependent roles for biology (BIO) and computer science (CS) students in a project-based laboratory. We recognize distinct learning objectives for each major and implement them in two separatecourses taught side-by-side: Bioinformatics Applications for BIO majors and BioinformaticsAlgorithms for CS majors. We rely on separate lectures for each group of students, but inlaboratory we form joint interdisciplinary teams to work on building software for solving specificbiological problems. The teams rely on the biological expertise of BIO students and the softwaredevelopment skills of CS students to produce the software and to use it to obtain requestedresults. For each assignment, BIO

Collection

2013 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

David B. Lanning

Engineering includes the largestdepartment, the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department. The official tally ofaerospace engineering (AE) students was 534 in Autumn 2012 and the number of mechanicalengineering (ME) students was 96. Therefore, the department is responsible for over one-thirdof all students at the campus.The engineering student body is composed exclusively of undergraduate students. Thedepartment strives to provide strong student-faculty instruction and mentorship, significantdesign experiences, and a hands-on learning environment. Engineering laboratories withextensive space in which students can work are a feature1.While the entire campus takes pride in the degree programs and various opportunities availableat our campus, our