Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arif Sirinterlikci, Robert Morris University; Tony Lee Kerzmann, Robert Morris University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Page 22.893.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Integrated Hands-On Mechanical Systems LaboratoriesAbstractHands on learning and experimentation are very important aspects of mechanical engineeringeducation. Unfortunately, the integration of kinematic system demonstrations, laboratoryactivities, and relevant assignments into engineering coursework is not always easilyaccomplished or cost effective. This educational initiative is based on a concept of developinglaboratory kits that would allow multiple levels of mechanical engineering courses to utilize thesame system for numerous laboratory sessions.IntroductionThere are indications that engineers are active learners and therefore

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Dickrell, University of Florida

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2011-710: INDIVIDUAL DATA ACQUISITION AND EXPERIMENTA-TION IN UNDERGRADUATE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LABORA-TORIESDaniel Dickrell, University of Florida Page 22.861.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Individual Data Acquisition and Experimentation in Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering LaboratoriesIntroductionUndergraduate teaching laboratories in mechanical engineering curriculum are traditionallygroup-oriented courses with activities centered on large, singularly-purposed experimentalapparatus. This is often caused by the cost and maintenance support of the experiments and

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gregory J. Michna, South Dakota State University; Stephen Gent, South Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2011-896: ASSESSING AND UPDATING AN UNDERGRADUATE THERMO-FLUIDS LABORATORY COURSEGregory J. Michna, South Dakota State University Gregory Michna is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006, held positions as a Lecturer at Iowa State University and as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and joined the faculty at SDSU in 2009. He teaches courses in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and energy systems. His main research interests lie in the areas of thermal management of electronics and two-phase heat transfer.Stephen Gent

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tim L. Brower, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

learning component. University students conducted visits to two middleschool and one high school class rooms and brought various shapes of interest to the schoolchildren back to the laboratory. A 3D computer model of the shapes was created using theSolidWorks software package. A SolidWorks embedded CFD flow analysis tool was used tosimulate the flow profiles around the shapes. A mold for physical models of the various shapeswas fabricated with a 3D printer using ABS plastic and a subscale test article of each shape wasmade from a silicone elastomer. Subscale tests were conducted using Particle Image Velocimetrytechniques. The university students showed the school children the results of their project on areturn trip to the schools.In order to

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John M Mativo, University of Georgia; Natasha Smith, University of Southern Indiana

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2011-731: LEARNING IN LABORATORY COMPLIMENTS TO LEC-TURE COURSES VIA STUDENT DESIGNED AND IMPLEMENTED EX-PERIMENTSJohn M Mativo, University of Georgia Taught and researched at university level for 16 years of which 6 served as department chair. Subject area involvement in teaching and research were in engineering education; product development and manufac- turing; and energy systems. Member of ASME, ASEE, ITEEA and Sigma Xi.Natasha Smith, University of Southern Indiana Page 22.1005.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Learning in Laboratory Compliments to

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard J. Ruhala, Southern Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2011-254: FIVE FORCED-VIBRATION LABORATORY EXPERIMENTSUSING TWO LUMPED MASS APPARATUSES WITH RESEARCH CAL-IBER ACCELEROMETERS AND ANALYZERRichard J. Ruhala, Southern Polytechnic State University Richard Ruhala earned his BSME from Michigan State in 1991 and his PhD in Acoustics from The Pennsylvania State University in 1999. He has 3 years industrial experience at General Motors and 3 years at Lucent Technologies. He was an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Department at the University of Southern Indiana before joining the faculty at Southern Polytechnic State University in 2010 as an Associate Professor, where he also serves as director for their new mechanical engineering program. He has taught a wide

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anthony William Duva, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Ali Moazed, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Xiaobin Le, Wentworth Institute of Technology ; Richard L. Roberts, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Balancing Theory, Simulation and Physical Experiments in Heat Transfer EducationAbstract: Some big problems for students studying heat transfer are (1) difficulty in visualizingboth basic and complex theoretical concepts, (2) unsure how to design changes effect heat flowor temperature distributions, (3) unclear how to apply theoretical concepts in the development ofcomponents / systems and (4) confusion with how to extend single point experiments to genericapplications. It is impossible for students to solve complex heat transfer problems throughtheoretical hand calculations or execute real experiments when the boundary conditions arecomplicated because of time and laboratory equipment cost constraints. During the

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Laboratories I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Forsberg, Hofstra University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Compressor Husky 1.5 gallon Air Scout Compressor $ 100III. Experimental RunsConstruction of the apparatus is complete, and experimental runs have been performed withwater and compressed air. Thus far, most runs have been done with water. The followingdiscussion outlines possible experimental runs to be done by students in the laboratory or in thelecture class:First, let's discuss the dimensional analysis for the fluid flowing through the specimen. It isdesired to determine how the pressure drop across the nozzle varies with the nozzle dimensionsand the flow rate. Following an example in the textbook by John and Haberman3 , we willassume that the pressure drop ΔP depends on the the flow area A1 at the entrance of thenozzle

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions: Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Patrick W. Pace, University of Texas, Austin; Kristin L. Wood, University of Texas, Austin; John J. Wood, U.S. Air Force Academy; Daniel D. Jensen, U.S. Air Force Academy; Brian K Skibba, Air Force Research Laboratory

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Conference Session

Mechatronics in the Curriculum

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bingen Yang, University of Southern California; Cheng-Yuan Jerry Chen, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

of Formulas, Solutions, and MATLAB Toolboxes”.Cheng-Yuan Jerry Chen, USC Dr. ChengYuan Jerry Chen is fulltime Lecturer of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, who has in- volved with AME laboratory teaching for more than 8 years in AME341, 441, and 443 classes. His expertise is not only in analytical and computational of dynamic and control systems, but also in exper- imental and laboratory hardware implementations. He has more than 20 years of advanced machining experience and has accomplished enormous projects in mechanical and electrical designs. He is currently the head leader of the instructional laboratory in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department

Conference Session

Student Learning and Assessment II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anca L. Sala, Baker College; Raghu Echempati, Kettering University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

on experimental laboratories where students measure the behavior ofsingle degree and two degrees of freedom systems. The paper will describe the assessment toolsused in each course, provide a comparative analysis of student performance over the past fewyears, and conclude with recommendations and future plans.IntroductionMechanical Vibrations courses have been the subject of numerous papers presented at the ASEEAnnual Conference in recent years. Some of these papers focused on course curriculum1, 2,laboratory experiments3, and using simulation software such as Matlab and Simulink4, or in-house developed software5 to help students better grasp and master the material. An interestingproposal to integrate topics related to Dynamic Systems

Conference Session

Capstone Courses and Design Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bobby G. Crawford, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

collaborationIn order to facilitate the accumulation of new knowledge in the capstone exercise, the facultywanted to find a way to enhance the students’ schemata. A laboratory exercise designed aroundthe Alpha.60 RC airplane was developed for this purpose.Resources Required to Start the ProgramThe success of the first year UAV concepts sparked a growth in the UAV design program withinD/C&ME. As interest increased, the number of teams expanded from two to three. Projectadvisors assigned four mechanical engineering majors to each team. One multi-disciplinaryteam was supplemented with two electrical engineering majors and three computer sciencemajors. A difficulty associated with the inclusion of students from outside the mechanicalengineering

Conference Session

Student Learning and Assessment I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donald Wroblewski, Boston University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

problems, example problems, and laboratory experiences. Theseare integrated through a Website that provides a framework for the coursework, as well as aportal for independent inquiry into related topics. When fully implemented, specific CATs willfollow cohorts through their 4-year curriculum.The concept of CATs draws inspiration from aeronautical engineering for which exists aninherent application thread—an aircraft—touched upon throughout the curriculum, and also thesubject of a focused capstone design experience; the latter is a course taught by the author for thepast 12 years. The result is a more unified, though admittedly narrower, view of fundamentalengineering concepts, and an exposure to a critical systems engineering lesson—that

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Spenko, Illinois Institute of Technology; Jamal S. Yagoobi, Illinois Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

into Engineering EducationAbstractIn 2009 and 2010, the Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Department at the Illinois Instituteof Technology held two workshops titled: “Integrating Innovation into Engineering Education.”Participants included representatives from NSF, national laboratories, universities, and industry.The focus of the workshops was to understand how to teach innovative thinking at theundergraduate level. Three specific questions were addressed: 1) what defines innovation in thecontext of engineering; 2) what skill sets are necessary for innovative thinking; and 3) how caneducators teach those skill sets in order to foster the innovative thought process. The results ofthese discussions are presented in this paper.1

Conference Session

Mechatronics in the Curriculum

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Garrett M. Clayton, Villanova University; Rebecca A. Stein, University of Pennsylvania

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Permanent Magnet Direct Current MotorsAbstractMotors are an important curricular component in freshman and sophomore introduction tomechanical engineering (ME) courses as well as in curricula developed for high school scienceand robotics clubs. In order to facilitate a hands-on introduction to motors, an inexpensivepermanent magnet direct current (PMDC) motor experiment has been developed that givesstudents an opportunity to build a PMDC motor from common office supplies along with a fewinexpensive laboratory components. The novelty of the presented experiment is that itincorporates many aspects of commercially available PMDC motors including, windings, a rotor,bearings, a commutator, and brushes. In this paper, the experiment is presented along

Conference Session

Engineering Mechanics Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Schuster, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Page 22.101.11AcknowledgementsThanks to Lance Mayhofer and Ann Hanks at PASCO for providing materials and technicalsupport to make this lab project possible.Bibliography1. An assessment of visualization modules for learning enhancement in mechanics. D. Rhymer, D. Jensen, M. Bowe. s.l. : ASEE Annual Conference, 2001.2. A remote laboratory for stress and deformation study. A. Choudhury, J. Rodriguez, S. Ramrattan, M. Keil, P. Ikonomov, A. Goyal. s.l. : ASEE, 2006.3. Web-based virtual torsion laboratory. P. Bhargava, J. Antonakakis, C. Cunningham, A.T. Zehnder. 1, s.l. : Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 2006, Vol. 14.4. A remote laboratory in engineering measurement. M.T. Restivo, J. Mendes, A.M. Lopes, C.M. Silva, F

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brent A Nelson, Northern Arizona University; Constantin Ciocanel, Northern Arizona University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

their analysis, and although engineering students generally havecourses on experimentation, such courses are rarely combined with any significant theoreticalmodeling activities.1.2 A Low-Cost Joint Design Project1.2.1 Course StructureIn order to address the disconnect between theory and real systems that often occurs inengineering education, we developed a low-cost design project, administered jointly between atheory-focused course on heat transfer (ME450) and an experimental laboratory course inthermo-fluid systems (ME495). Note that the heat transfer course has been renumbered since theprevious implementation of the design project, when the number was ME350. The ME450course is focused on the physics of heat transfer, calculating and

Conference Session

Mechatronics in the Curriculum

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yang Cao, University of British Columbia

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

more, the virtual simulator development gains students interest andmotivates student in learning robotics. It allows more lab-type of learning. Some homework canalso be readily verified using the virtual robot. For future teaching plan, the developenvironment will be open to students‟ choice. Other engineering tools, such as simMechanics,ADAMS will be considered for dynamics and control design purpose.References[1] T., Hakan; G, Metin; B, Seta, “Hardware in the Loop Robot Simulators for On-site and Remote Education in Robotics”, International Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 22, Number 4, August 2006 , pp. 815- 828(14).[2] Costas S. Tzafestas, Nektaria Palaiologou, “Virtual and Remote Robotic Laboratory: Comparative

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sergio Celis, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

22.1255.4Timoshenko allows us access into a detailed and rich history of engineering education’sdevelopment during the first half of the tumultuous twentieth century. Universities, researchinstitutes, laboratories, scientists, faculty members and students have the most relevant place inthe Timoshenko’s autobiography As I Remember. In his narration, the Bolshevik Revolution,World War I, and the rise of Nazis in Germany are the context through which engineering andthe sciences go forward into a new technological era. Timoshenko also devotes many episodes toexplain his teaching and learning experiences and his vision about comparisons amongengineering curricula in different countries. He taught in Russia, Yugoslavia, and in theAmerican East, Midwest, and West

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Allan T. Kirkpatrick, Colorado State University; Scott Danielson, Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus; Robert O. Warrington, Michigan Technological University; Richard N. Smith, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Karen A. Thole, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; A. Kulacki, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; William J. Wepfer, Georgia Institute of Technology; Thomas Perry, P.E., American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

of women andminorities. The authors visited a variety of engineering programs to examine current educationalpractices in mechanical and electrical engineering. They found an emphasis on the acquisition oftechnical knowledge, distantly followed by preparation for professional practice. The authorsargue for a “networked components” educational model where components of engineeringscience, laboratory work, and design activities interact with one another in an approximation ofprofessional practice.In summary, greater sophistication, often at the interface between basic science and engineering Page 22.1667.5and at the systems level, influences

Conference Session

Engineering Mechanics Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

AnnMarie Thomas, University of Saint Thomas; Keith Berrier, University of Saint Thomas; Andrea Guggenbuehl, University of Saint Thomas, Health and Human Performance Department

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

spring, and a German wheel as a slipping (or non-slipping, depending on the simplifications made) disk rolling on a surface. “Dynamics withCircus Laboratory” was designed to explore these connections in a fun, intensive elective course.This course was developed to supplement engineering students’ exposure to dynamics, and togive them hands-on experience doing experiments related to dynamics. Mechanical Engineeringstudents at the University of St. Thomas are required to take a traditional Mechanics course inwhich dynamics is taught, however this new course exposed/introduced students to additionaltopics, such as Lagrangian dynamics, that are not covered in the required class. This paper willdescribe the initial offering of the course, focusing on

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

N.M. A. Hossain, Eastern Washington University; Martin W. Weiser, Eastern Washington University, Engineering and Design Department; Hani S. Saad, Eastern Washington University; Jason K. Durfee, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

) heat transfer problems. Goldstein4 also used computational methods to teachseveral topics in heat transfer courses besides the standard in-class lectures. All of the abovementioned efforts were provided to strengthen the students’ understanding in several topics in aheat transfer course. In our institution, several laboratory experiments are usually conducted besides theregular lectures to enhance the students’ understanding of numerous concepts of heat transfer.This is definitely beneficial for our students to get real hands-on experience. However, someexperiments might be difficult to perform and time consuming. Additional experimental work toconduct parametric analysis is challenging. Therefore, computational (or numerical) analysis

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wayne E. Whiteman, Georgia Institute of Technology; William J. Wepfer, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jeffrey A. Donnell, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Ph.D. students tocomplete a Teaching Practicum course during their doctoral studies. Students work closely withfaculty mentors in teaching a course. While the focus of the class is on pedagogy, the goal is forstudents to find the experience useful regardless of whether they are going into academia,industry, a research laboratory, or other career pursuits. In addition to issues dealing withteaching engineering, sessions are organized for career planning, success in both academia andindustry, ethics, and basic counseling and mentoring skills. This paper is a study of theeffectiveness of the Teaching Practicum experience. Survey responses are analyzed from nearly100 Ph.D. alumni for the period from the summer of 1996 to the spring of 2009. The

Conference Session

Why Industry Says that our Engineering Students Cannot Write

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William K. Durfee, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Benjamin Adams, University of Minnesota; Audrey J. Appelsies, University of Minnesota; Pamela Flash, University of Minnesota

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Mechanical Engineering

, for example that by graduation students must know and canapply basic principles of thermodynamics.At graduation, undergraduate students in mechanical engineering should be able to: 1. Apply knowledge of physics, mathematics, and engineering in their writing 2. Record and analyze activity related to laboratories and design projects 3. Visually represent designs and explain salient features of a part or concept 4. Synthesize and summarize key points 5. Strategize and demonstrate engineering project metrics such as productivity, costs and time to completion 6. Analyze the audience and create a document that meets the needs of the audience 7. Represent themselves professionally 8. Explain, discuss, and demonstrate

Conference Session

Design Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James M. Widmann, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Brian P. Self, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Lynne A. Slivovsky, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; J.Kevin Taylor, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Department at California Polytechnic State Uni- versity in San Luis Obispo. Prior to joining the faculty at Cal Poly in 2006, he taught for seven years at the United States Air Force Academy and worked for four years in the Air Force Research Laboratories. Research interests include active learning and engineering education, spatial disorientation, rehabilitation engineering, sports biomechanics, and aerospace physiology. He worked on a team that developed the Dynamics Concept Inventory and is currently collaborating on a grant to develop and assess Model Elic- iting Activities in engineering. Brian was the 2008-2010 ASEE Zone IV Chair and serves as Cal Poly’s ASEE Campus Representative.Lynne A Slivovsky

Conference Session

Active and Project-Based Learning

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lynn Albers, North Carolina State University; Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Bottomley, North Carolina State University Laura Bottomley received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1984 and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1985 from Virginia Tech. She received her Ph D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1992. Dr. Bottomley worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories as a member of technical staff in Transmission Sys- tems from 1985 to 1987, during which time she worked in ISDN standards, including representing Bell Labs on an ANSI standards committee for physical layer ISDN standards. She received an Exceptional Contribution Award for her work during this time. After receiving her Ph D., Dr. Bottomley worked as a faculty member at Duke University and

Conference Session

Why Industry Says that our Engineering Students Cannot Write

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey A. Donnell, Georgia Institute of Technology; Betsy M. Aller, Western Michigan University; Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; April A. Kedrowicz, University of Utah

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Mechanical Engineering

deal of debugging. Gragson tells arepresentative story of a chemistry laboratory class that was modified in an effort to promotegeneral improvement in student writing skills by offering extended instruction on report writingand better writing feedback on graded reports.9 To meet these goals, the number of projectreports was reduced from 10 to 4, and the instructors created from scratch a writing manual foruse in the course. An elaborate peer-review process was also implemented, along with a systemfor assuring that students actually performed their peer-reviewing tasks. This paper judgesstudent performance to be satisfactory, but large questions remain open; student retention of thewriting lessons was not assessed in subsequent classes or in

Conference Session

Engineering Mechanics Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jefferey E. Froyd, Texas A&M University; Christian J. Schwartz P.E., Texas A&M University; Kumbakonam Ramamani Rajagopal, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

larger range of materials than traditional mechanics of materials courses.Evaluation of the redesign is preliminary at this stage. More data on student performance indownstream courses needs to be collected and analyzed.Bibliographic Information1. Wiggins, G.P. and J. McTighe, Understanding by Design. 2nd ed. 2005: Prentice Hall. Page 22.357.132. Rais-Rohani, M. and D.T. Brown. Development of a virtual laboratory for the study of mechanics. in ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. 2000. St. Louis, MO.3. Borchert, R., D.D. Jensen, and D. Yates. Development and assessment of hands-on and visualization modules

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laila Guessous, Oakland University; Qian Zou, Oakland University; Brian P. Sangeorzan, Oakland University; Xia Wang, Oakland University; Gary Barber, Oakland University; Lorenzo M. Smith, Oakland University; LianXiang Yang, Oakland University; David Schall, Oakland University, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Michael A. Latcha, Oakland University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

experience is then capped by oraland/or poster presentations by the students of their research projects. Throughout this program,students worked closely with faculty, industrial mentors and graduate students. More than 40professionals from industry, varying in rank from senior vice presidents to researchers, toprogram directors, to young engineers, assisted the program at different levels. These industrymentors volunteered to assist the REU students in a number of different ways; Some providedguidance or materials for the research projects; others organized laboratory/industrial tours, gaveseminars, found speakers, or simply had informal discussions with the students on a variety oftopics including the automotive or energy industry, technology and

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Rex Maixner, U.S. Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado alsoprovide different insights and recent developments in the field. Engineering thermodynamics isa prerequisite, fluid mechanics is a co-requisite, and while an introduction to the basic modes ofheat transfer are covered in the engineering thermodynamics course, it is recommended thatenrolled students have satisfactorily completed a dedicated heat transfer course.While the course covers a variety of topics (solar, wind, ocean, hydro, geothermal, combinedheat and power, biomass, nuclear, etc.), a substantial portion of the course is devoted to solarenergy (active, passive, and photovoltaic), and would benefit greatly from the incorporation of a