Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

A. Ieta; R. Manseur; M. Hromalik

Active Learning by Lecture and Laboratory Integration in an Emerging Engineering Program A. Ieta1, R. Manseur1, and M. Hromalik1Abstract – The development of a new Electrical and Computer Engineering program provides an opportunity fordesigning and implementing an innovative curriculum. In terms of teaching methods, a combination of lecturing andhands-on learning is selected. Studio-style teaching is reported to enhance student learning, compared to theclassical lecture and lab formats. However, course organization is different and requires adaptation and innovation incourse design, content, and delivery. A studio lab was organized and new equipment was acquired for laboratorystations that

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Ethan Danahy; Morgan Hynes; Leslie Schneider; Danielle Dowling

The Aggregation Tool: Toward Collaborative Inquiry in Design-Based Science and Engineering Projects Ethan Danahy, Ph.D.1 [Morgan Hynes, Ph.D.,2 Leslie Schneider, Ph.D., Danielle Dowling]Abstract – A growing body of research has shown two things: (1) collaborative design-based inquiry activitiesshow remarkable gains in students’ understanding of science and (2) such activities are largely absent in theclassroom because they can be challenging to implement. In order to rectify the current situation, the InteractiveLearning and Collaboration Environment, or InterLACE, project seeks to design a suite of technological tools thatfacilitates class-wide collaborative sense-making. To that end, we have created an idea aggregation tool that

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Gonca Altuger-Genc

Implementation Review of a Service-Learning Project into a Freshman Level Plastics Engineering Course Gonca Altuger-Genc1In an effort to provide students with a vast array of experiences, educators support their in-class teaching withproject-based, experiential and hands-on learning approaches. As these approaches have been implemented intoundergraduate engineering curriculum, the need for incorporating the service component became necessary. As theimportance of service learning became more evident, higher education institutions incorporated service learningconcept into the engineering education. University of Massachusetts Lowell incorporated service-learning intomany of its undergraduate

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Carlos Luck

Progress with a Synergistic Mechanical Engineering Degree Program Carlos Lück1Abstract – USM has been offering an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degreeprogram (EE) for 24 years. In 2006, we started a new degree program in Mechanical Engineering (ME) in responseto industry demand for mechanical engineers with background in electromechanical systems. The prospect forgrowth was evident and it quickly realized, yet there were no start-up funds – especially to invest in new facultylines. The solution was clear: design a curriculum to leverage existing electrical engineering resources and somedistance education, and let the growth spur further

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Zhiyong Gu; Bridgette Budhlall; Hongwei Sun; Carol Barry; Alfred Donatelli; Jill Lohmeier

manufacturing nanodevices into undergraduate curricula remains a bigchallenge. To address this educational challenge and generate practical ways of introducing nanotechnology intoundergraduate education with a focus on manufacturing nanodevices, five faculty from three engineeringdepartments (Chemical, Mechanical and Plastics Engineering) have created an interdisciplinary course - "NanoscaleTransport Phenomena for Manufacturing Nanodevices", principles of nanoscale transport phenomena needed formanufacturing of nanodevices (Figure 1).The course was offered for the first time as an elective to seniors in the University of Massachusetts Lowell’sFrancis College of Engineering in the fall semester of 2011. The course was presented through lectures, hands

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Sanjay R. Arwade; Vicki V. May; Benjamin W. Schafer; Stephen G. Buonopane; George Deodatis

. This presentation, however, focuses on the novelcontributions of the authors as they have adapted and transformed the core material offered at their own institutions,and also describes the authors’ attempts to modularize structural art content so that it can be offered at institutionswithout a dedicated course.Key themes of the authors’ work have been to: (1) introduce contemporary examples of structural art and structuralartists to curriculum; (2) enrich the course with in-class demonstrations and lab exercises related to structural formfinding; (3) develop the idea of environmental loading as a force to be responded to by the designer, therebyintroducing sustainability into the idea of structural art; (4) integrate computerized structural

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Jessica Dawn Ventura

their different cultural worldviews.Rather than taking on new beliefs and behaviors, the students will move in and out of a cultural worldview aswarranted by the situation. This is an experience familiar to many students who grew up in a household whoseculture differed from that of the country in which they resided. At home the students will experience one culture,whereas they will hold to another culture at school or work. Although placing integration as the last stage ofethnorelativism, Bennett does not suggest that cultural integration is preferable to adaptation on the spectrum ofintercultural sensitivity.Because the stages of ethnorelativism require a deeper experience of foreign cultures, they are not stages that caneasily be facilitated

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Keith M. Gardiner

]. LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY NEEDSPost-Sputnik (1957) there was surge in attention paid to science education in the US. During the late twentiethcentury there was an awakening emphasis on the skills needed by individuals seeking careers in the industrialworkplace – business-awareness, communication, project management/planning, presenting and reporting,teamwork plus integration were being reported as areas of weakness in engineering education by learnedprofessional society groups [6]. Concurrently, in the early eighties, this triggered the establishment of aManufacturing Technology Institute (MTI) under the aegis of the Corporate Technical Institutes at IBM [7]. MTIwas created as an IBM ‘university’ to revitalize and broaden the skill-levels of the

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Richard Harris; Hameed Metghalchi; Claire Duggan; Emanuel Mason; Rachelle Reisberg; Deepti Dutt

Retention of Under-Represented Minority Engineering Students through Practice-Oriented Experiential Education Richard Harris1, Hameed Metghalchi2, Claire Duggan3, Emanuel Mason4, Rachelle Reisberg5, Deepti Dutt6Abstract – New England is home to several universities that have engaged in a well-established National ScienceFoundation (NSF) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) partnership, referred to as NortheastLSAMP. The NELSAMP members include Northeastern University, The University of Connecticut, The Universityof Massachusetts Amherst, The University of Rhode Island, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The NELSAMPare pursuing an NSF-funded