and Assistant Department Head of the Department of Engi- neering Education at Virginia Tech. He is the Director of the multi-University NSF I/UCRC Center for e-Design, the Director of the Frith Freshman Design Laboratory and the Co-Director of the Engineering First-year Program. His research areas are design and design education. Dr. Goff has won numerous University teaching awards for his innovative and interactive teaching. He is passionately committed to bringing research and industry projects into the class room as well as spreading fun and creating engage- ment in all levels of Engineering Education
AC 2011-1758: FRONTIERS OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGI-NEERING: AN INTRODUCTORY FIRST YEAR COURSEJohn A. Orr, Worcester Polytechnic Institute John A. Orr is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and served as Provost of WPI from 2007 through June, 2010. Prior to this he held the position of Dean of Undergraduate Studies. He served as head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department from 1988 to 2003. Dr. Orr received the BS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He began his professional career at Bell Laboratories and joined the faculty
discussed.Given the multidisciplinary component of the new curricula, junior and senior level studentsfrom different engineering majors will be able to register for the course.The course will also contain several lab practices for hands-on learning. There will be differentlab assignments; using the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER®)which is a free computer software developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL) used to model on and off-grid power sources. By using this software, students willexperience ways to evaluate and analyze different design options for intelligent hybrid powersystems. It will allow students to explore what renewable technologies are the most cost-effective and evaluate their impact on the
American Society of Civil Engineers.The course was developed as part of a National Science Foundation grant in the Course, Curricu-lum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) program. A pilot offering of the course was offeredin Spring 2010 and a second offering of the course is scheduled to be offered for Spring 2011.Preliminary direct assessment efforts from the pilot offering indicate that the course was success-ful in meeting instructional goals. Indirect assessment gives further indication that the coursewas successful in preparing students for their studies in civil and environmental engineering, inhelping the students gain appreciation of infrastructure problems facing the United States, and indeveloping teamwork skills.BackgroundThe
identified. We grouped the teachers’ responses to this question byinteractions: student- student, teacher-student, and student- technology.Thirty-three teachers mentioned students conducting science investigations, groups engaging inproblem solving activities, students having group discussions, students involved in role playing,and students building models or diagrams as examples of student-student interactions. Forinstance, Julia described how she conducts her science class with her third grade students. Sheasks students to work with partners in conducting experiments and writing laboratory reports,“…Science lab, which is what I teach, and it’s special. So, it’s forty minutes a week for half theyear. They come and we do the hands on activities, so
. Page 22.1341.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Student teams, a simulation or a real team experience?AbstractThe tradition in engineering education places students in teams during their senior year; likely aspart of a capstone laboratory or design course. In most cases teams were done on a “pick yourown partners” basis. Furthermore, no time was spent discussing teamwork, the importance ofteams, how teams should be structured or the skill set one needs to be an effective team member.To some extent, changes made by ABET to their accreditation criteria in 2000 have forced theengineering community to at least assess student teamwork. This, in turn, has motivated many totake a
. Fini, North Carolina A&T State University Dr. Ellie Fini is an assistant professor of Civil Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. Her expertise is in Transportation and Construction Engineering. She conducts research in pedagogy assessment and instructional laboratory equipment. She also conducts research in the area of sustainable construction materials, pavement design and rehabilitation. She received her Ph.D. from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the Director of Sustainable Infrastructure Materials Laboratory at NC A&T State University. She is currently the principle investigator of four active NSF grants on sustainable construction materials. She has been involved in a
with the course? Q3 Is the team project useful to you? Q4 What was the level of “hands-on” experience has been achieved through the laboratory exercises? Q5 Please, provide an overall evaluation of the course. Page 22.1236.11The senior project design courses, using the renewable energy topics was offered for the firsttime in the 2009-2010 academic year. At the end of each quarter, all students have beenrequested to answer (with a five point scale: 1-very poor, 2-poor, 3-satisfactory, 4-good and 5-very good) an anonymous questionnaire as shown in Table 2. According to the results, the newproject-based approach
focuseson one school, identified here as Eastern Technical University (ETU). This analysis is restrictedto ETU’s first-year mechanical engineering curriculum, which typically involves students takingMechanics (ETU Physics), Calculus (ETU Math), Introduction to Manufacturing (ETUEngineering), and/or Introduction to CAD (ETU Design). Each course includes threecomponents: lecture, recitation, and laboratory. ETU’s curriculum generally identifies lectures asthe main venue through which content knowledge is imparted, while the recitation sessions areprimarily used as an opportunity to engage with the material through Q&A experiences andparticipation in group-work exercises. The laboratories serve as vehicles for specific skilldevelopment and attempt
variety of disciplines. This course was developed as part ofan NSF CCLI (Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement) grant, and is offeredthrough the School of Engineering. A team of engineering faculty members, educationfaculty members, and a K-8 educator collaborated on the course.Course LogisticsThe catalog description for this course is as follows. This is a one-semester survey of engineering topics. Topics will span machine design, manufacturing, thermodynamics, electronics, computer programming, and chemical engineering. The course will have weekly lab sessions, which will allow students to apply what they are learning from lectures in a hands-on setting. Emphasis will be placed on how the material is used
Society http://www.biophysics.org/BFRL Building and Fire Research Laboratory http://www.nist.gov/bfrl/ESA Ecological Society of America http://www.esa.org/FASEB Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology http://www.faseb.org/FMB Federation of Master Builders http://www.fmb.org.ukFMS Federation of Materials Societies http://www.materialsocieties.org/Geochemical Society http://www.geochemsoc.org/Geological Society of America http://www.geosociety.org/HFES Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
.Did these transatlantic exchange students believe that the teaching styles encountered abroad were more effective in supporting learning than those at home? 4.What changes in style (at home and “study abroad” institution) do they believe could be adopted as a result of their experience?In the case of theme two, as an output of the semi-structured interviews, five important“course related” variables emerged as being of interest and worth exploring further. Thesevariables were: a. The amount of course related “homework” typically employed. b.The amount of “self directed learning” undertaken. c. The extent of the credit weighting for “continuous assessment”. d.The degree of enforcement of attendance at lectures and laboratories. e. The
, graphics and problem solving, with the need for motivating andengaging students. Active learning in freshman year courses is also believed to improve retentionand appeal to more diverse population of students. The Living with the Lab curriculum uses design and fabrication projects involving DCelectrical circuits, computer programming, solid modeling, machining, rapid-prototyping,working with hand tools, testing, data analysis and plotting5, 11-13. Students assemble their ownset of hand tools. They purchase a robotics kit that is used throughout the curriculum. The“Living with” in the title of the curriculum refers to student ownership of critical components ofthe laboratory hardware. Students complete homework exercises with this hardware at
implementation of teaching/learning at the college level; e.g. be knowledgeable of key organizations supporting engineering instruction like ASEE and ABET, general publications in education, and instructional resources; e.g. Ohio State Center for Advancement of Teaching (formerly Office for Faculty and TA Development).Obj. 2 - Students will be aware of the curriculum issues related to engineering education specifically; e.g. accreditation requirements, laboratory development and design instruction.Obj. 3 - Students will be able to recognize the options for types of instructional approaches to engineering materials and have understanding of their appropriate application.Obj. 4 - Students will be able to implement
required inboth the engineering and the engineering technology programs. The portion of the EDSGNcourse under study involves multiple student design projects—one lasting two weeks andanother lasting 3 weeks. CBIOS is taught to all engineering technology students in their junioryear. It consists of a common lecture for all sections of the course and separate laboratoryexperience for each section with a maximum of 16 students per section—76 students in 5laboratory sections. For this work, the final two laboratory projects served as test period.Table 1 shows the breakdown of the basic data for participants and team makeup. The teamsizes ranged from 3 member teams to 5 member groups. The groups changed membership andsize between the two projects
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
University of Pennsylvania and School District of Philadelphia rely on a successful partnership in order to close the STEM equity gap, enhance learning, and increase access and awareness, for students, teachers, parents and community members. IntroductionThe collaboration between the Secondary Robotics Initiative (SRI) and School of Engineeringand Applied Science (SEAS) serves as a model of a sustainable K-12 and universitypartnership. The Secondary Robotics Initiative provides pre-engineering programs for 6th -12thgrade students. Linked with the GRASP3 (General Robotics, Automation, Sensing andPerception) laboratory at SEAS, the SRI empowers both students and teachers while
having the student as first author on the journal paper. If the student writes some, but the faculty member is responsible for the majority of writing and editing, include the student as a corresponding author. Attend industry, professional organization, and other meetings that may help identify potential research topics and partners – Many professional engineers working in the industry have great research ideas and interest but limited time to write proposals and conduct research. Consider working with these engineers as consultants on these potential research projects. Work to acquire the needed laboratory materials and equipment to be successful in your research area
South Florida, and joined Northern Arizona University as an Associate Professor in January 1999, where he is currently Professor of Electrical Engineering. He has been a JSPS Visiting Researcher at Yokohama National University, a Visiting Research Scientist at Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Tokyo, and a Nokia Fellow at Helsinki University of Technology. In 2007, he co-organized a US-France Workshop on Sensor Networks and the Environment sponsored by the French government. In Spring 2008 he was a Visitor at SAMSI, where was Program Leader of SAMSI’s Program on Environmental Sensor Networks.Wayne A. Shiroma, University of Hawaii at Manoa Wayne Shiroma, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Hawaii
Student W ould like to learn more Develop additional lab Implement a testing lab Questionnaire through hands-on work to measure the that students conduct that laboratory experiences changes in mechanical will measure hardness and that complements the properties due to heat toughness of various heat theory taught in class treatment and tempering treat conditions of 4140 processes of 4140 steel steel. Have students plot
International Liquid Crystal Society Multimedia Prize. In 2003, he received a NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship to research NEMS/MEMS adaptive optics in the Microde- vices Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Fontecchio received his Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University in 2002. He has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed publications.Eli Fromm, Ph.D., Drexel University (Eng.) Eli Fromm is the Roy A. Brothers University Professor, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Center for Educational Research in the College of Engineering of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. After his BSEE he was employment with General Electric and E.I. DuPont. He sub- sequently pursued graduate studies
discussedwhat they would like bioengineering undergraduates to know regarding problem solving,laboratory techniques, and modeling.ResultsThe major charges from industry regarding what bioengineering programs should teach theirstudents include: 1) oral presentation, team work, and communication skills, 2) stringent labdocumentation practices, 3) fundamentals of the FDA regulatory process, and 4) statisticalanalysis techniques.Assessing the New Curriculum: Current Student FeedbackFeedback sessions from 2009 and 2010 involving current seniors, already described, were usedto obtain qualitative data regarding student satisfaction with specific proposed curriculumchanges. A consensus was reached that the addition of a second Capstone option, where
he established an optical communi- cations laboratory for development and characterization of optical components, systems, and protocols for high-performance avionics data networks. Dr. Rosen is currently an assistant clinical professor at Drexel University, where he is responsible for developing and teaching courses in microprocessors, microcon- trollers, and FPGAs. Dr. Rosen has carried out research sponsored by the National Security Agency, National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, and the Missile Defense Agency. Dr. Rosen is the author or coauthor of over 50 publications and conference proceedings and the holder of five U.S
theviability of the passive UHF RFID system to locate the position of a tagged objects, stored in amultiple shelved warehouse environment is investigated. A pilot system was implemented and itsperformance was investigated by a team of two students in the electronics engineeringtechnology (EET) program during one semester senior design project. A 915 MHz RFID systemperformance was investigated and analyzed in a simulated environment in the radio frequency(RF) laboratory. The concept of using RFID system for position identification in the simulatedstorage environment was successfully proven. The pilot system was able to identify taggeditems’ locations with very high efficiency especially in an RF friendly environment. The workrequired the analysis of
ethics study(including preparation of a code of ethics by students), and preparation of a complete project reportthat contains all design drawings and calculations. This course also involve leadership and oral andwriting components as part of their learning objectives.The student performance in courses involving laboratory also includes evaluation of laboratory reportsrequired from students. Grading of laboratory reports is rigorous and involves evaluation of technicalcontents, clarity and coherence of presented materials, and writing skills.Most of the architectural engineering senior level courses also involve projects. In addition to homeworkproblems, exams, etc. the student evaluation in these courses is also achieved through review of
. Page 22.1703.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Work in Progress: Distance teaching of Thermodynamics with Adobe Connect and Dedicated Engineering Software.Abstract.A considerable number of schools nationwide are currently offering undergraduate engineeringand engineering technology programs via distance-learning. Unlike other “narrative” academicprograms, however, engineering programs still present pedagogical challenges in distanceeducation especially in subjects that require mathematical derivation, sample problem-solution,property evaluation and laboratory practice. Several technologies are currently available fordistance education, such as: TV broadcasting, web-based
Physics webpage; http://physics.dickinson.edu/~abp_web/abp_homepage.html, accessed10/12/10Bernhard, Jonte. Improving Engineering Physics Teaching - Learning From Physics Education Research.In Physics Teaching in Engineering Education. 2000. Budapest.Bransford, J., Brown, A., and Cocking, R. 2000 How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School.Washington, D.C.: Commission on Behavioral and Social Science and Education, National ResearchCouncil.Carlton, K. (2000), 'Teaching about heat and temperature', Physics Education, 35 (2), 101.Chi, M. T. H. Commonsense Conceptions of Emergent Processes: Why Some Misconceptions AreRobust. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2005. 14. 161-99.Chi, M. T. H. (2006). Laboratory methods for assessing experts’ and
controllers (PLCs, EET 276) course were already scheduledto be taught during the spring semester, these courses were identified for the pilot program.Although only one course was originally going to be used as the test bed, it was decided to usethe technology for both a laboratory and classroom-only course. In this way, two distinct coursedelivery methods would be compared to the new methodology. It should be noted that the Webexsystem was implemented two days after the semester had begun, in response to an emergencysituation that prevented the instructor from regularly teaching on campus. This prevented athorough evaluation of existing technologies prior to implementation of a system.The resulting technology configuration consisted of the
of the program. Page 22.1309.4Thus if classroom assessment activities such as homework assignments, oral and written reports,laboratory and field exercises, quizzes and tests are linked to course outcomes, and the courseoutcomes, in turn, are linked to program outcomes, simple mathematical manipulations can bedone to identify and quantify the strengths and weaknesses in students‟ development, courseeffectiveness and program achievements. The results can be graphically presented to allow easyinterpretation and create a meaningful impact on the program stakeholders.Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is used as the tool of choice to keep the data on
. degree in Computer Engineering with a minor in Computer Science at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. He is currently serving as a research assistant at the Engineering Technology department at Drexel University. Robin has been involved in various projects funded by Pfizer, NASA, NSF and Department of Education. His areas of research include Embedded Systems, Mechatronics, Efficient Solar Energy Systems, Internet-based Quality Control and 3-D Online Education.William Peeples, Drexel University William Peeples is a graduate from Drexel University with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology. He now works in the Engineering Technology laboratory as a research assistant at Drexel University. His