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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Chirag Variawa

The Student Perspective on a Project Based Learning Course Chirag Variawa University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science and EngineeringAbstractCourses that use Project Based Learning (PBL) may present specific and unforeseen challengesfor both the instructor and students taking the course. This paper discusses a “typical”undergraduate engineering student’s experiences while in such a course, focusing on both thepositive and negative aspects which have played important roles in understanding the coursematerial.Engineering Strategies and Practice II (ESPII) is a PBL course offered at the University ofToronto which requires all first year undergraduate engineering students to

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Thomas F. C. Woodhall

Designing a Rubric to Assess the Problem Definition Phase of Student Design Projects in Upper Year Engineering Courses Thomas F. C. Woodhall, B.Sc., B.A., M.Sc. (Candidate) Queen’s University at Kingston Ontario CanadaAbstractIn order to bridge the gap between a student’s understanding and instructor’s perception ofsubject mastery, it is important to assess upper year capstone design projects in a way whichtargets the important aspects within each stage of the design process, while providing feedbackthat is instructive and helpful. A rubric was created that assesses a student’s mastery of theproblem definition phase of a design project (as defined by Dominick et al. 2001). The

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Susan J. Masten; Robert V. Fleisig

Engaging First Year Students in Engineering Design through Engineers Without Borders Susan J. Masten and Robert V. Fleisig McMaster University, First Year Engineering Program, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1 mastens@mcmaster.ca, robert@mcmaster.caAbstract - It is important first year engineering students learn the engineering design process involves more thanmathematics and physics. To accomplish this, students choose design projects from a variety of disciplines, developed withEngineers without Borders and situated in either a developing country or a remote area of Canada. All the projectsrequire, not only a technical solution

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Brian Kosobudzki; Bill Grove; Sam Aguilar; Vince Sabella

-inspired steering hub. Once the steering wheel is removed, a pulley system will replacethe steering wheel. The pulley system will allow the use of the motor to turn the steeringshaft. With the installation of the motor next to the steering column, a joystick canreplace the steering wheel. In order for the joystick to control the motor, amicrocontroller must be used. With the mechanics in place, programming themicrocontroller will allow the inputs of the joystick to be translated to the motor. Thushaving the joystick replace the steering wheel allowing a new medium of vehicleoperation. This process took the entire project team the entire semester to implement. Whennever thought the process would be so intensive or time consuming. The first

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Ahmed S. Khan; Beverly Cronin; Maneesh Kumar; Atef Mustafa; Pankti Patel; Joey Socorro

Application of RFID Technology in a Senior Design Course Ahmed S. Khan Beverly Cronin Maneesh Kumar Atef Mustafa Pankti Patel Joey Socorro DeVry University, Addison, Illinois 60101, USA AbstractThis paper describes the design and implementation of a senior project based on RFID (RadioFrequency Identification) technology. The objective of the project, titled “Real Space PhysicalObject Tracking System (RSPOTS), was to design a complete

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Zachary Bensusan; Leslie Gregg; William Leonard

Implementation of an Experiential Learning Strategy Based on a Classroom/Industry Partnership Zachary Bensusan, Leslie Gregg, William Leonard Rochester Institute of Technology, 78 Lomb Memorial Drive Rochester, NY 14623abstractThe classroom/industry connection is an often-underutilized tool, which could prove to beinvaluable in an educational setting. The experience of working with an outside company inorder to complete a class project not only emphasizes the importance of organization andteamwork, it also enhances the students’ education through experiential learning by illustratingthe processes that companies often employ. A

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Jason Salonga

sentiment From my experience, art studio courses have been almost exclusively project-oriented. Each pro-that individuals who are art-inclined are mutually exclusive from those who are science-inclined, ject involved the production of an artwork: a drawing, a painting, a photograph, or a print. Pro-and thus engineering-inclined, make it difficult for people to understand why I might be inter- fessors would introduce projects by defining project objectives and requirements, by displayingested in both. Having had extensive exposure to both in my university education, I believe art and discussing relevant works by prominent artists, and by teaching technical skills specific toand engineering share a stronger

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Tom Moran; Jeffrey Wagner

, paneldiscussions, entertainment, student design project demonstrations, student creativity contests,and exhibitions of digital art, photography and mural displays of student writing. In addition,during the year the Working Group encouraged cross disciplinary faculty interchange through“Unlikely Partners” activities.Unlikely PartnersAlthough faculty interchange and dialogue occurs across RIT’s campus through a variety ofmechanisms, including an Academic Senate, service on Institute-wide committees, campus wideprograms such as an annual Faculty Institute on Teaching and Learning, and other programs,rarely do faculty members from different disciplines interact within a classroom setting.The “Unlikely Partners” activities sought to pair faculty members from

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Wei Cao; Peggy Vance; Robert Lockhart

, and did the experiments bythemselves under the supervision of NASA bus crew. Those shows and experiments covered thewide range of NASA research projects, such as model shuttle launch, model wind tunnel, turboengine experiment, satellite communication ground station and other advanced technology fromNASA. A particular Lego Mindstorms Robot show drew much attention from the kids. And theNASA colleague told the kids that this small robot is mimic version of the real robots sent toMars. They both used the same scientific and technology principles. And that the LegoMindstorms Robots was invented by MIT learning lab, which aims to teach the science andengineering principle for k-12 kids. Dr. Wei Cao shared his experience with

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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R. Dennis Foster

decades have focused on information technology and data management and not onthe impact a project has on the quality and cost of living. Simultaneously people have shiftedfrom rural areas to the overburdened infrastructure of cities. These infrastructures are aging andmaintenance or replacement is not keeping pace with deterioration. (2)There has always been talk since 1960 of adding extra years to the current 4 year program asindicated in an article in this September‟s issue of the American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE) magazine.(3) The co-op universities have always used the co-op terms wisely as thoseextra years. Originally the draft “Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21 st Century”listed 15 desired outcomes; a review increased

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Robert Edwards; Gerald Recktenwald

Teaching Core Concepts in Thermal and Fluid Sciences Using Devices Familiar to the Student Robert Edwards Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Gerald Recktenwald Portland State UniversityAbstract Students often struggle with core concepts in thermal and fluid sciences courses. Through aNational Science Foundation funded project we are developing a suite of experiments designedto expose student misperceptions about core concepts, and to hopefully improve the students’understanding of the basic principles. The experiments use common devices that the students arefamiliar

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Doug Reeve P.Eng.; Annie Simpson; Veena Kumar; Emma Master; Dave Colcleugh; Greg Evans P.Eng.

integrates leadership development through all facets of the engineeringstudent experience: curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular. Pioneering work of theDepartment of Chemical Engineering starting in 2002 is being extended through co-curricular leadership development training, workshops, summer experiences, communityservice projects and other opportunities in departments and divisions across the Faculty.The Faculty has already adopted two “columns of integration” in the engineeringcurriculum, communication and design, and will now move to implement a third, namelyleadership. In July 2006, the Faculty appointed its first Leadership DevelopmentProfessor who has developed a new senior-level course, "Leadership and Leading inGroups and

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Gregory E. Needel

kits. As technology changes and advances, it is important to keep adapting theeducational topics in engineering majors to contemporary subjects such as robotics. This paperdiscusses the development and use of robotic kits for the classroom environment. Differentplatforms presently exist which provide systems for educators to use as a teaching vehicle fortheir lessons. In addition to currently available kits, designing or adapting kits for use in specificcourses provides engineering educators a customized tool for the classroom and an opportunityfor their students to help instruct their peers. Using robotics kits in the classroom encompassesthe full spectrum of fields including the project design process, mechanics, electronics, andcomputer

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Deborah Tihanyi; Margaret N. Hundleby

with regard to communication. The Department of Materials Science andEngineering is unique in the Faculty in that it has a significant communication-focused course ineach of years two, three and four of the degree program (see Table 1, next page). Each of thecourses is content-based, and each builds on the skills acquired in the one(s) before it, lookingforward to both the capstone project in the fourth year (thesis or industrial research project(IRP)) and professional practice.In MSE390, each of the deliverables goes through several iterations and receives extensivefeedback from both faculty and peers. Course instructors facilitate class workshops anddiscussion and meet individually with each student as the work progresses, in addition

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Michael A. Jackson; Thomas Schulte; Nathaniel Kane; Elaine Lewis; Surendra Gupta; Santosh Kurinec

show that the forum was very successful on an immediate short termassessment. In long term, we will be assessing its impact. We are working on further improvingthe contents and delivery and reach out wider area schools. The discussions at the Forum alsorevealed a critical need for involving high school guidance in future forums. SERVICE LEARNINGService-Learning (SL) is an educational method and practice of teaching by which participantslearn and develop through active participation in services that meet the needs of the community.A project was undertaken with collaboration the College of Liberal Arts in getting involved inthe Northeast Neighborhood Alliance (NENA) NENA-RIT 2006 Summer Learning Community.A

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Surendra K. Gupta

inNanotechnology and MEMS being developed under a department-level reform grant from theNational Science Foundation to the department of microelectronic engineering. The experimentscover two families of techniques: atomic force microscopy and x-ray diffraction. At the end ofeach experiment, each student pair is given a different experimental dataset to analyze. Studentssubmit their analysis and results in a written lab report. The paper also describes the format ofthe lab reports.IntroductionIn the last three years, the Advanced Materials Lab (AML) has experienced a surge in demandfor its characterization and testing services. This surge in demand is primarily due to greaterparticipation of undergraduate students in research projects involving

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Chitralekha Potnis; Ajit Potnis

; developmentUndertaking research on the problems of industry by educational institutions means handling ofsuch problems in the classrooms and the laboratories of these institutions. That is one of thesurest and most effective ways of building up a faculty involved in practical problems andpreparing students to deal with such problems. Industries should establish their own R & Dwings which should work in close liaison with educational institutions to carry out theresearches.5. Ancillary production centerAuthors feel that projects at undergraduate & post graduate level should be essentially industrialbased. i.e., requirements of industry. Ancillary production centers should be started at variouseducational institutes. The product (requirement of industry

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Lawrence Agbezuge

Elementpackage) for solving an engineering problem.The basic concepts taught in an applied Finite Element Analysis course wereutilized to solve a transient heat transfer problem in a cylindrical duct whosethermal conductivity is temperature dependent. The problem was given to graduatestudents to be solved with commercial software (licensed for academic research) asa project for the final examination. A significant number of the students wereengineers working for a company in the Rochester area.The students were expected to satisfy four primary goals in solving the assignedproblem. The goals were (1) to examine the governing equation in order tounderstand the nonlinear nature of the boundary value problem, (2) to correctlydefine the mixed boundary

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Nasser Saleh

(CEAB) requirement for teaching lifelong learning skill through thecurriculum as per clause 2.1.1 “The criteria are intended to identify those programs that developan individual’s ability to use appropriate knowledge and information to convert, utilize andmanage resources optimally through effective analysis, interpretation and decision-making. Thisability is essential to the design process that characterizes the practice of engineering”.6Information literacy sessions have been planned not to be a separate entity of most courses butthey were infused and integrated with regular course work. IL sessions are used to be a corerequirement for first year engineering project course, engineering communication, andengineering design courses. These

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Carl A. Lundgren

to distinguishing products, companies and individuals1. Surveys of graduates of theMechanical Engineering Technology (MET) program at RIT 2 indicate the majority of alumnimigrate toward management. This is not unique, Fisher, et al at Penn State Behrend recentlyreported3 on the results of alumni and businesses surveyed for “business knowledge attributes”necessary for engineering technology graduates.Incorporating business and management skills has been accomplished with specific courses such asengineering economics, and project management, available as electives or as required courses inmany if not most engineering and engineering technology degree programs. At RIT students elect toparticipate in a wide range of College of Business minors

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

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Lisa Schneider

participated in these programs or organizations during their time in theCollege.Program Seniors –Ever participatedAcademic Excellence Workshops (AEWs) – one-creditcollaborative learning supplements to 1st- and 2nd-year core 35.5%math, chemistry, and computer science courses.Undergraduate Research (in faculty research program) 44.2%Student Project Team – competitive student-run design 26.0%teams.Peer Tutoring 20.3% Seniors –Ever Member Seniors –Ever LeaderEngineering Student

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Rei Marzoughi

inquiry and uses the City of Hamilton as a case study to allowthe exploration of civic and public issues through an inquiry project. Additionally, students workon different assignments that teach them to use community and university resources in research.E&S 2Y03 – Case Studies in the History of Technology – Year 2This course brings in guest lecturers each week for the purpose of exploring different topics inthe history and philosophy of technology. Students are exposed to a number of different readingsthat emphasize the impact of technology on culture. At the end of the term, each studentconducts a paper and presentation that focuses on a topic in the history of technology.E&S 3Y03 – The Culture of Technology – Year 3This course explores

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Chioma Ekpo

individual andinteractive group sessions, we guide students to identify their technical and soft transferableskills from their community work, volunteer work, design projects, course work, and studentclub activities. Using self-assessment exercises, they are able to find the right vocabulary toconvey that experience in relation to the opportunities they are considering. The objective is to inturn generate a result-oriented resume, by understanding each employer’s needs. Secondly, weassist them in developing a sense of context at this stage, for example the notion of a wanting adream job is dismissed and replaced by a new attitude that understands that a career path ismapped out in stages with varying aspirations and challenges along the way, be it

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Daren R. Wilcox; Gerd W. Wostenkuhler

ispM4A5development board. Realizing the same logic with all three device technologies pulled the materialtogether for the students.The remaining laboratory assignments are centered on using VHDL to realize an equivalentimplementation of discrete MSI logic on the CPLD development board. Decoders, shift registers,counters, and state machines are taught in VHDL using a structural, data flow, or behavioral approach.The board can be used for different realizations of state machines like a traffic light sequencer or avending machine controller. The implementations include sectional test of the (sub-) modules in the realworld and discussions of used hardware (e.g. number of used macrocells).As a final consideration, a project that pulls all the key learning

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Colin Campbell; Steve Lambert; Oscar Nespoli

Alternative Drinking Water Engineering Design Process Sources Elora Home Heating Case Engineering Design Process Molten Steel Ladle Volume and C.M. calculations Verification of computer calculations Process management and Process management [4] simulation Hood hinge design Kinematics and Dynamics PLC controller design PLC programming5. References 1. Erskine, J.A. and Leenders, M.R., “Learning with Cases”, 1997, Richard Ivey School of Business. (www.ivey.uwo.ca/cases) 2. Herreid, C. “What is a case?”, National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/teaching/whatis.html) 3

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Mark A. Hopkins

versus transient response, (4) steady-state magnitude andphase and their relationship to the Bode plots, and (5) phase-lead and phase- lag.Complete details of the method are presented. The software is available on the web, and is freeif used only for educational purposes.1. IntroductionThe ability to use computers at the lectern, enabled by relatively cheap projection equipment, hastremendous potential for computer-aided teaching. This is not a reference to being able topresent PowerPoint slides, using computers in essentially the same way we once used overheadprojectors to show transparencies. Rather, we now have the ability to create accuratemathematical plots on-the-fly, and dynamically manipulate graphical content to emphasizepoints of

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Carol Richardson

technology (EE+ME+ET) programs. Table 1 showsfreshmen enrollments and full-time upper-division transfers to RIT, and within the fiveengineering and engineering technology departments participating in this project. For2004-6, it shows that full-time transfers comprise 10% of incoming students in all of RITwhereas the proportion of engineering/technology transfers ranges from 12 to 19%. Table 1: Freshmen & Upper-Division Transfer EnrollmentsEntry: Fall Quarter of→ 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006All of Freshman 1729 1847 2106 2036 2129 1926 2036 1954 2109RIT Transfer 126 125 122 166 189 172 203 213 208EE+ME+ET Freshman

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

George H. Sutherland

conditionsunder which they were measured, so the question of why the range of measured tire verticalstiffness values went so low needs to be understood.ConclusionsNot surprisingly the author has had both some good and some challenging results in using open-ended at home assignments. As issues are raised specific to those assignments, it becomespossible, after subsequent analysis, to give the students some guidance that lessens the potentialfor the students to easily come to erroneous conclusions in their experiments. However thistakes away from the open-endedness of the project. This leads the author to the conclusion thatin the at home situation where continuous instructor monitoring of the process does not occur,the kind of experiment that is given has

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2007 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Hamid Shokrollah Timorabadi

., “Learning and Teaching Styles In Engineering Education”, Proceedings of the 2004 ASEE Annual Conference, 2004.[3] Dunn, R., DeBello, T., Brennan, P., Krimsky, J., and Murrain, P., “Learning Style Researchers Define Differences Differently“, Educational Leadership, Feb. 1981.[4] Brown, S., and Vranesic, Z., Fundamental of Digital Logic with VHDL Design, McGraw Hill, New York, 2000.[5] Edwards, C.H., and Penney, D.E., Differential Equations & Linear Algebra, 2nd Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.Biographical InformationHAMID SHOKROLLAH TIMORABADI, P. Eng.Hamid received his B.Sc, M.A.Sc, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto in1996, 1998, and 2005 respectively. He worked as a project