Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Barbara E. Mizdail

First Year Engineering Experience with Project Centered Research Barbara E. Mizdail The Pennsylvania State University – Berks CollegeAbstractIn the 21st Century, our educational institutions exist in a climate of accelerating global change.This climate necessitates that engineers understand a systems approach and function asintegrators in a complex global society with ever increasing and demanding problems to solve.Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people, locally andglobally. Consequentially, it is incumbent upon our educational systems to see that the educationof future work forces must include a problem solving systematic approach to

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Medard Gabel

The Design Science/Global Solutions Lab: Interdisciplinary Problem/Project-Based Research and Learning Medard Gabel medard@bigpicturesmallworld.com 610.566.0156AbstractThe Design Science/Global Solutions Lab is a model for interdisciplinary problem and project-based research and learning. Students are briefed by UN experts, learn a problem solving andstrategic design and planning methodology, and use that to develop real world solutions andimplementation strategies for solving real world problems. Participants are multidisciplinary andfrom around the world. Output, developed by Lab participants, is

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Sunghoon Jang; Kenneth Markowitz; Aparicio Carranza

Developing a Senior Capstone Project Course in Integrating Undergraduate Teaching and Research Sunghoon Jang+, Kenneth Markowitz+, and Aparicio Carranza* + Department of Electrical Engineering Technology * Department of Computer Engineering Technology New York City College of Technology of CUNY 300 Jay Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 Abstract: In this current study, we will discuss how to develop a course module of seniorcapstone project as an activity of the NSF STEM grant proposal which has been awarded in theyear 2006. The

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Timothy B. Whitmoyer; David T. Vader

Design of Sustainable Water Pumps for Burkina Faso Timothy B. Whitmoyer and David T. Vader Messiah College, Grantham, PAAbstractThe Department of Engineering at Messiah College has partnered with the Handicapẻs en Avant,(a center for rehabilitation and education of handicapped persons in southeast Burkina Faso) forover a decade. One of the enduring student-faculty projects spawned from this relationship is theModified Rower Pump Project. The long-term vision of this project is to provide a sustainabledesign, including construction methods, allowing local manufacturers to build water pumps aspart of their businesses. The present goals of the project are to quantify the pump’s

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Joshua H. Smith; David Brandes

meet the needs of the communities and, secondarily, to trainstudents to be globally and environmentally aware professionals. Because EWB–LC isorganized at Lafayette as a student club, it predominately operates outside of the academicprograms of Lafayette’s Division of Engineering. In addition, EWB–USA policies regarding thementoring of student work have evolved considerably since 2003, becoming more rigorous butalso more restrictive. For example, EWB–USA requires student chapters to have at least oneprofessional mentor with direct professional experience who participates in both the design andimplementation of project work. Because not all faculty advisors are qualified to serve as theprofessional mentors or willing to travel on implementation

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

William D. Jemison; Christopher T. Nadovich

LPRDS – A Requirements-Driven team-Based Design of a 2kW Solar Energy System William D. Jemison and Christopher T. Nadovich Electrical & Computer Engineering Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042AbstractThis paper will describe a capstone senior design course that features a team-based requirements-driven project. The project scope is selected such that thetechnical requirements are sufficiently complex to require a team-based solution.The project implementation is designed to force the students to consider realisticformal engineering requirements and specifications while offering significantopportunities for student leadership. The most recent embodiment of

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

XingYing Cheng; Daren Wilcox

environment. Because we are using Ubuntu Linux operating system whichapplies the GNOME desktop environment, when we create a project, we have to select othersand type gedit into the “other command” under the project option.Bluespec Operation in LinuxAfter we installed both the Bluespec environment and the Ubuntu Linux operating system, wecan launch the Bluepec development workstation by typing the command ‘bluespec’ in the Linuxenvironment.In the workstation of Bluespec, we can execute all the behaviors like creating project, typechecking, compile, linking and simulating. The first step is creating a project. In this step, theproject option setting is very important, because we have to choose the top file and module forthis particular project and

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Curriculum, or How to Build a Dog House Carl A. Erikson, Jr, Department of Engineering, Messiah CollegeI.A.4. The Design Science/Global Solutions Lab: Interdisciplinary Problem/Project-Based Research and Learning Medard GabelSession I.B. AEC 315 - Innovative experiences in local/global/community learningI.B.1. Supporting and Assessing Service Learning of Engineers Without Borders Student Chapters Joshua H. Smitha and David Brandesb Departments of aMechanical and bCivil & Environmental Engineering, Lafayette CollegeI.B.2. Design of Sustainable Hand-Powered Water Pumps for Burkina Faso Timothy B. Whitmoyer, Messiah CollegeI.B.3. Educating ECE Majors for a Global Environment William

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Peter J. Shull; Jessica M. Crandall

that there may be a difference between what theybelieve is quality work and what the customer (the instructor) wants? The methodology used isto code student engineering reflections on a project that purposefully creates a conflict betweenthe beliefs surrounding the meaning of “always strive to do a job 100%” and the reality of doinga good quality job. The results will show that students’ perceptions as to what elements of theirwork are important are often in conflict with what is required.IntroductionMuch of engineering education is driven by the needs of industry. Engineering programsrespond to these changing needs by implementing topics that are deemed to have the mostpotential to meet the diversity of industrial needs—teamwork

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Paterne Sissinto

Video stabilization and motion detection using Matlab video processing toolbox. Paterne Sissinto Morgan State Univeristy Email: sissinto@yahoo.comAbstract This paper presents video stabilization and motion detection using Matlab Simulink.Simulink is a classroom learning tool that offers an environment for multi-domain simulationand model-based design for dynamic and embedded systems. The project utilizes that tool tosolve not only a problem common to amateur videos but also a situational awareness issue. Thestabilization process starts with computing the optical flow between successive frames

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Raymond Addabbo

6WritingThe last part of the project requires students to write a report about their project, explaining eachstep. At this step students are given the task of explaining the parameters developed in thephysical model. In order to develop higher order thinking, students are given a set of interpretivequestions to use in their narrative. For example, using Fig. 2 students would be expected tonotice the differences between the curves for the linear and non linear pendulum. The two curvesare virtually identical for the first period, but they begin to change during the second period.Comparing the curves for the second and third period we notice that the time for the nonlinearcurve to obtain its peak is delayed. Once a student makes this observation, the

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Andrzej Zarzycki

digitally native, with ways of accessing, interacting, and processing knowledge thatincreasingly conform to a digital media mindset. A successful curriculum should acknowledgethis asset and use it for further strengthening students’ knowledge. At the same time, it shouldcontinue to reference everyday experiences and provide students alternative ways to codify theirexperiences. In their first ever project done during architectural education, students are asked todevelop a cantilevered structure made of toothpick and glue that would be able to support abrick. [fig.1] Interestingly, there are hardly any questions asked regarding the project in theinitial stages of assignment. Students feel it is self-explanatory and expect it to be an

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

William Hornfeck; Ismail Jouny; John Nestor

sophomore year and the other in thesenior year. This experience strengthens their ability to communicate technical materialeffectively. In their senior design course, students are expected to write reports, makepresentations, create a project website, prepare a poster, and satisfy other requirements thatenhance not only their ability to communicate verbally but also electronically using variousmultimedia options. In addition to these two courses, ECE students are required to take twoseminar style [W] courses that require extensive writing on non-technical subjects. Theseseminars often include discussions among students of various backgrounds and countries oforigin. Furthermore, about a quarter of our students participate in a semester-long study

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

AS Ward; MN Gooseff; RY Toto; SE Zappe

emphasize active learning and provide higher-order challenges, butthese laboratories are often subject to the constraints of (a) increasing student enrollment,(b) limited funding for operational, maintenance, and instructional expenses and (c)increasing demands on undergraduate student credit requirements. Here, we presentresults from a pilot project implementing virtual (or online) laboratory experiences as analternative to a traditional laboratory experience in Fluid Mechanics, a required third yearcourse. Students and faculty were surveyed to identify the topics that were most difficult,and virtual laboratory and design components developed to supplement lecture material.Laboratories were assessed by comparing student ratings of topic difficulty

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Hu J. Cui; Seong W. Lee; Alexander K. Kinyua

Exhaust Temperature Analysis of Biodiesel Fuels Using MATLAB Hu J. Cui, Seong W. Lee, Alexander K. Kinyua Morgan State University, cuihujun@gmail.com, seong.lee@morgan.edu, alex_kinyua@bigstring.comAbstract The primary goal of the engineering curriculum is to provide the student withnecessary skills to perform effective problem solving. Another goal is to teachundergraduate & graduate students how to transition from textbook problems torealistic engineering problems and processes. Students in the Industrial EngineeringDepartment at Morgan State University, participate in ongoing projects at thelaboratories of Center for Advanced Energy Systems & Environmental

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Bahar Zoghi Moghadam

A route to a resourceful water efficiency exploration: Residential Water usage of Water Efficiency section of USGBC, LEED Program Bahar Zoghi Moghadam Zoghimb@farmingdale.edu Assistant Professor of the Architecture and Construction Management Department of the Farmingdale State College, 2350 Broadhollow Road, Lupton Hall, Farmingdale, NY 11735 A project of water usage was assigned to the freshman students of Architectural and Construction management of the State College in fall 2009. In this project all students recorded their water usage for seven days and were able to calculate

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Robert Avanzato

environment are of a persistent nature and can be viewed and accessed byavatars controlled by people throughout the world via the internet, thus providing thepotential to interact with an international community. In addition to other educationalsuccesses, undergraduate students at Penn State Abington have been utilizing SecondLife for several years and have successfully constructed a variety of projects (includingfurniture, robots, etc.) and virtual exhibits.Several case studies which demonstrate the successful application of Second Life in thearea of design and modeling will be presented below, including several educationalprojects at Penn State Abington. The basic building and scripting tools provided inSecond Life will also be outlined, and the

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Orla LoPiccolo

teaching on construction topics. Other than bringing students to a site under constructionfor every construction method discussed in class, which is not feasible, instructors rely onsupplemental visuals. Visual aids include: drawing construction materials and details on theclassroom blackboard, images on PowerPoint slides, images from textbooks, class projects suchas creating a digital visual dictionary, and videos. Gangwer notes that, ―With the influx oftechnology, visual learning and media literacy are perhaps more critical that they have been atany other time in history, it is essential for teachers to explore the world of technology, wheretheir students reside, in order to teach the way the students are learning.‖7However simply adding a video

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Beth Richards; Karen Walsh

the same way that they are required to outline the different steps of anengineering project while explaining why it was successful, they were also required to usetextual evidence from the readings and explain how they proved the overall thesis. Thiscommonality between the two types of writings were useful in giving engineering students bothvalue in other non-engineering courses as well as showing them how a composition course canbe useful for their major.Throughout the course, students were asked to write response papers linking ideas from thevarious readings. Although prompt questions were included, students were also given the optionof exploring any ideas in the readings about which they wanted to write. These assignments wereintended to

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Stephanie Parker; J. Kemi Ladeji-Osias

Implementing a Histogram Equalization Algorithm in Reconfigurable Hardware Stephanie Parker, Undergraduate Student, Stephanie_parker1987@yahoo.com J. Kemi Ladeji-Osias, Associate Professor, Jumoke.Ladeji-Osias@morgan.edu Morgan State University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 5200 Perring Parkway, Baltimore, MD 21251AbstractDedicated hardware can be used when images and video are acquired and processed. In this paper, ahistogram equalization algorithm is written in a Hardware Description Language for future implementationin reconfigurable hardware. The goal of this project is to implement a

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Christopher J. Lowrance

itmerits the attention of all educators of engineering because of its benefit to the instructor and thestudents.Most engineering experts would agree that engineering is a problem-solving science that must bepracticed in order become effective at solving complex problems. Undoubtedly, engineeringstudents across the country are getting plenty of practice solving problems outside the classroomin the form of homework, but for most engineering programs, the only time professors get toobserve their students solving engineering problems might be during laboratory hours or whileadvising on a design project. By observing our students, we gain invaluable feedback about theirknowledge and problem solving abilities. Therefore, why not observe our students

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Anil B. Shrirao; Raquel Perez-Castillejos

coatings for longer-lastingfurniture and tools. Students of all branches of engineering need to understand and to gain theability to regulate the flow of fluids under conditions of laminar flow (low Reynolds numbers)and/or high relevance of capillarity. We expect the Scotch-tape-based technique presented hereto enable the study of microfluidics in settings that do not have easy access to a cleanroom.Experimental DesignOur goal in this project was to develop a technique for fabricating microfluidic devices on abenchtop. We based our developments on soft lithography4, which is the most broadly usedtechnique for fabricating microfluidic devices in academic settings. Simplicity is the mainadvantage of soft lithography: microfluidic devices result from

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Vladimir De Delva; Keith McIver; Katherine Whitaker; Stephanie Farrell; Mariano J. Savelski; C. Stewart Slater

are learning in class while beingexposed to a realistic application of pharmaceutical technology.AcknowledgementsThis project has been supported by a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centergrant, NSF grant #ECC0540855Bibliography1 Felder, R., and R. Rousseau. Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes. 2005 Edition. United States: JohnWiley & Sons, Inc, 2005. .2 pharmaHUB. Web. 18 Dec 2009.3 Lloyd, E.. Hypothermia and cold stress. London: Croon Helm, 1986. .4 Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health, Section of Community Health and EMS.State of Alaska Cold Injuries Guidelines. Juneau: Department of Health and Social Services, Division of PublicHealth, Section of Community Health and EMS

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

James D. McGuffin-Cawley

Minerals, and the U.S. Economy, National Academies Press, 264 pages, 2008.6. R, J, Lifset, R. B. Gordon, T. E. Graedel, S. Spatari, M. Bertram, “Where Has All The Copper Gone: The Stocks and Flows Project, Part 1, J. Metals, vol. 54 no. 10 pgs 21-26 (2002).7. M. D. Gerst, “Linking Material Flow Analysis and Resource Policy via Future Scenarios of In-Use Stock: An Example for Copper,” Environ. Sci. Technol. vol. 43 no. 16 pgs. 6320–6325 (2009).8. G. A. Zsidisin, “A Grounded Definition of Supply Risk,” Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management vol. 9 nos. 5-6 pgs. 217–224 (2003).9. USGS Minerals Information: Commodity Statistics and Information: 2009 Minerals Commodity Summaries: on line at http://minerals.usgs.gov

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

M. Minnucci; J. Ni; A. Nikolova; L. Theodore

Manhattan College. During the study, the students learned about the interrelationship between two 1principal subject areas of chemical engineering: thermodynamics and heat transfer. The educational outcome of thisresearch project provided the students with a better understanding of how the two disciples simultaneously affectdesign applications. These concepts can be used when the student is given a task to design an applicable heatexchanger in the work field or an academic environment. The law of conservation of energy is defined by many as the first law of thermodynamics. Its applicationallows calculations of energy