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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Lisa Wang

theoretical understanding. As such, civilengineering students can be trained to become competent professionals after their graduation.The objectives of such teaching practice are to: 1) integrate experimental structural dynamicsinto the undergraduate and graduate curriculum so that students have effective “hands on”learning exercises, with visual feedback of results; 2) help undergraduate students gain computermodeling/simulation skills; 3) motivate students to learn earthquake engineering theory so as togain qualifications as future civil engineers.Teaching Activities at Undergraduate and Graduate LevelsDepending on the course, students either use one of the shake tables or both of the shake tablesavailable in the laboratory. The comparison between

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Shervin Zoghi; Eric Liguori; Manoochehr Zoghi; Fariborz Tehrani; The Nguyen

different from what it used to be even four to fiveshort years ago. There are fewer, but riskier and more complex projects. The prevailingdifficulties of last several years have made it extremely challenging to succeed in the globaleconomy. It is anticipated, however, that the global construction output will recover to grow 70percent by 2025 – to $15 trillion.10 In view of aforementioned challenges and globalization, andin light of emerging construction technologies, the Construction Management (CM) Program inthe Lyles College of Engineering at Fresno State has recently revamped its curriculum to betterprepare future leaders of the construction industry. Accordingly, the CM program hasincorporated leadership and entrepreneurship development as an

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Kurtis Kredo; Dale Word

-the-art low cost components into a sequence of embedded and digital systems designcourses so as to maximize the learning opportunities provided to students for the resourcesinvested. The resources required, both time and monetary, are minimized in several ways.Low cost, but flexible and current, components are selected, which minimizes costs to theuniversity or student. The investment is further leveraged by using the components in multiplecourses throughout the curriculum and allowing students to maintain possession of thecomponents for independent learning and capstone projects. Integrating the componentsacross multiple courses also simplifies managing replacement parts, if desired. Judiciousselection of components and projects can also

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Nancy Warter-Perez; Sevak Ghazaryan; Jerardo Martin

chassisincluding its structural integrity measured by strength and toughness and its ability to conductelectricity to ground a car in a lightning strike. The activities developed are tied to 6th – 8th gradeCalifornia math standards and provide students with an opportunity to see how math can be usedto solve authentic engineering research problems. Pre and post-surveys were conducted tomeasure the impact of the visiting engineer/scientist and the research-related activities onstudents’ perceptions towards engineers and scientists and their desire to pursue a career inengineering or science. The results related to this particular research are presented as well as theresults and findings for all fellows during the 2012-13 school year.IntroductionInnovations

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Galen Pickett; Prashanth Jaikumar; Michael Peterson

passing rate of these courses, but has also dramatically (and positively) affectedstudents’ perceptions of themselves and what they are doing in a STEM major. We describebelow the reform curriculum we have adopted, an important peer-learning strategy employed inthe department, our peer-to-peer support system, and then the impact of our honors sectionsbefore displaying assessment data from these courses.Matter and InteractionsThe Matter and Interactions curriculum has been in development in the Physics EducationResearch Group of North Carolina State University since 2003.1 A rich thread of approachingproblems through computer programming in VPython undergirds the course, freeing theinstructor from dealing with the highly restricted set of

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Reza Raeisi; Max Gardner; Ricardo Rangel

326 Linking Theory with Experiential Learning in Virtual Learning Environment Reza Raeisi, Max Gardner, and Ricardo Rangel California State University, FresnoAbstractThis NSF-founded project presents work on new ways of delivering technical instructions toengineering students through distance using customized Virtual Learning Environment (VLES)tools. An important aspect of this paper is to present the efforts by a group of faculty from fivedifferent institutions, hailing from three different regions in the country. The goal of the projectis to develop a curriculum for the

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Gordon Romney; Pradip Dey; Mohammad Amin; Bhaskar Sinha

been especially important in the one-month- course modality at NU. From the first class ofthe month, students are able to immediately commence a virtual lab exercise comprised of, notonly, an operating system but an entire application or solution stack such as WAMPP (WAMPplus Python)13 or Instant Rails (Rails, MySQL, PHP)14 installed on the VM. In DAT 605 WCC itis noteworthy that the introduction of a VM into the curriculum is, for the majority of thestudents, their first encounter with the technology and they are so excited at the prospects thatvirtualization offers in their employment opportunities and for their employer. Virtualization inDAT 605 WCC is used both on the student’s local computer as well as on public and privatecloud services

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Armineh Noravian; Patricia Irvine

must “tap all talent” — attract a broad group of individuals who are presently under-represented in engineering. Second, we must restructure engineering education so that studentsexperience early in their training what engineers do. Because over forty percent of all four-year engineering graduates began their introductory studies in the community college, pre-baccalaureate preparation has drawn close attention. Women, racial/ethnic minorities, and lowincome students are well represented in community colleges, but only a small number of thesepopulations graduate with associate’s degrees in engineering and engineering technologies.Research has shown that an interest in engineering as a career impacts persistence. Yet womenand other

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Moe Tajvidi P.E.

multiple forms of problemrepresentation18.There are a number of essential features of problem based learning, including an interdisciplinaryapproach, activities that are valued in the real life and ill structured problems. These essentialfeatures imply that students must have responsibility for their own learning. They also show thenecessity of student collaboration. Additional features on the list include self-efficacy and peer-evaluation, and regular evaluation of student progress learning. To conclude, problem basedlearning must be the pedagogical basis of the curriculum, rather than part of a didacticcurriculum. Considering the close resemblance between project-based learning and problem-based learning, differentiating between the two

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Manoochehr Zoghi; Hernan Maldonado; Syreeta Martinez

academically at-risk, peer mentoring programs, professional speaker series, field trips,tutoring services, professional development workshops, and numerous other opportunities thatwill be elaborated herein.IntroductionIn a recent report, published by the National Science Board, entitled: “Moving Forward toImprove Engineering Education,” it is accentuated that rapid changes are taking place forengineering on a global scale, which require Federal leadership to respond quickly andinformatively.1 Following an extensive deliberation via a series of workshops, the Boardidentified three key challenges in engineering education: (1) responding to the changing globalcontext of engineering, (2) changing the public perceptions of engineering, and (3) retention

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Thomas Korman; Hal Johnston; Kay Gore

design projects and, therefore, have to learnhow to work in such an environment. Thus, on the job, they must gain experience in the process,develop a technical specialization to support their project role, and build their ability tocollaborate on and contribute to multidisciplinary projects. Secondly, we discovered that ourstudents were not prepared to apply design and construction engineering fundamentals to realworld complex projects, specifically utilizing project controls to monitor and evaluate an activeproject.In addition to the educational deficiencies noted in our curriculum, CCE curricula generally donot present an integrated approach to engineering education that includes practical applicationsof theoretical knowledge incorporating

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Fariborz Tehrani; Nell Papavasiliou; Frederick Nelson; Carol Bohlin; Mara Brady

for grades K-6 classrooms. Fundamentalunderstanding of the engineering profession is an essential key for elementary teachers toimplement this curriculum. The presented approach is an initial effort targeted at increasing theengineering knowledge of prospective K-6 teachers. This step involves developing a course titledEngineering Literacy, taken by those undergraduates who typically plan to enter the credentialprogram for elementary teaching (i.e., Liberal Studies majors). Engineering Literacy is a three-unit combined laboratory and lecture course. Hands-on activities are coupled with lectures onengineering topics. Expected outcomes of Engineering Literacy are aligned with the generalbody-of-knowledge in both engineering and liberal studies

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Selyna Perez Beverly

‘learn by doing’ philosophy. Students in the Cal Poly Pomonaengineering program receive both technical and practical skills to prepare them for the engineeringworkforce. Small class sizes and the integration of a multitude of labs in the engineering curriculumprovide for a robust experience for the student in preparation for a career as an engineer. The student-centered philosophy of the institution supports student involvement and programmatic efforts thatincrease student success and learning. The College of Engineering is the largest college at Cal PolyPomona serving approximately 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The student populationconsists of a large number of first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented racial minorities

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Marissa Buell; Nehad Dababo; Rene Figueroa; Peter Moala; Amelito Enriquez; Kanjun Bai; Hamid Mahmoodi; Cheng Chen; Kwok-Siong Teh; Hamid Shahnasser; Wenshen Pong; Hao Jiang

students gain a strong fundamental understanding of basic electrical circuittheory, a learning-by-doing approach was designed for students who have recently taken a basicelectrical circuit course. Funded by a NASA CIPAIR (Curriculum Improvements andPartnership Award for the Integration of Research) grant, four underrepresented minority (i.e., 3Hispanic and 1 Pacific Islander) students from a community college were recruited to design,assemble, and test a printed-circuit-board (PCB) based circuit in the summer of 2013. The circuitis capable of taking in power at 1.6 KHz with a very low voltage level (~200mV) and converts itto 5 V DC power to power-up biomedical implants wirelessly. First, the students were asked torun the circuit simulator (i.e

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Agustin Robles; David Alvarez; Jasmine Flores; Cham Htun; Cheng Chen; James Enright; Amelito Enrique; Wenshen Pong; Hamid Shahnasser; Hao Jiang; Hamid Mahmoodi

education for large numbers ofstudents in the U.S., especially Hispanic and low-income students. Preparing community collegestudents for their future civil engineering profession is of great significance to our society. Insummer 2013, four sophomore civil engineering community college students participated in aten-week summer research internship program at the School of Engineering of San FranciscoState University. Supported by the NASA CIPAIR (Curriculum Improvements and PartnershipAward for the Integration of Research) program, the four students were advised to usecommonly used structural engineering design specifications and seismic provisions to design athree-story steel plate shear wall. Design tools and software applications such as Excel

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Mudasser Wyne; Alireza Farahani

impact of our preparation for ABET accreditation on the curriculum as well asassessment process. We also include an overview of our assessment process, assessmentinstruments and curriculum changes.IntroductionNational University (NU), an independent, nonprofit institution of higher education, hasdedicated itself to providing educational opportunities to a diverse population of working adultlearners since 1971. The School of Engineering, Technology and Media (SETM) at NationalUniversity was established in July 2002, and has attracted a current student body of over 1300whose profile generally mirrors that of the university itself. NU, the second largest private non-profit university in California, has over 23,000 mainly non-traditional students

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

7Combination of Shake Table Experiments and Computer Simulation to Enhance StructuralEngineering Curriculum in Earthquake Engineering .......................................................................................... 429Carbon Nanotube Composites: Using an Authentic Engineering Research Problem to Engage MiddleSchool Students in STEM ................................................................................................................................................ 443Crossing the Bridge: ABET Accreditation ................................................................................................................ 456Green Energy Conference Experience – Integration of Class Room Research Projects to IEEEProfessional Presentation

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Baird Brueseke; Gordon Romney

/multi-team lab configuration. Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference Copyright © 2014, American Society for Engineering Education 88This multi-student, teaming capability expands the teaching horizon from individual exercises toinclude team based assignments such as Capture the Flag and Red/Blue team warfaresimulations. Access to multiple resources provides curriculum designers with the ability tosimulate both small/medium sized businesses (SMB) and larger, enterprise class environments.“Hands-on lab exercises play an important role in teaching a computer and network

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Bhaskar Sinha; Pradip Dey; Gordon Romney; Mohammad Amin; Debra Bowen

service to the community, improving student learning, and at the same time,meeting all required learning outcomes of the academic program.IntroductionPrograms at National University (NU) School of Engineering and Computing (SOEC) areprofessional degrees that integrate communication methods, problem solving skills, simulationtechniques and mathematical fundamentals with hands-on experiences required to solve real-world industry problems1,2. They are designed for professionals and managers to promote thelearning and application of skills in their respective fields, and use curriculums that emphasizemultidisciplinary knowledge. These programs combine theory, lectures, hands-on work, projects,research papers and presentations. They also require

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Jeff Ashworth; Will Quinn

ofthe boundary conditions or required assumptions, the student will not fully comprehend or be able toapply the technique to real world problems after graduation. Many of the major university engineeringprograms familiar to the authors have reduced the student design experience from an entire vehicle toonly designing a small component of the overall product. The students may then use one solutionroutine for the component without having knowledge of the “best” solution for the entire product.Without being exposed to a variety of solution techniques and product integration, the student may notchoose an appropriate solution. Instructors in these programs are giving the students the how, withoutinstilling the knowledge of what or why.To connect the

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

John Murray; Erin Elder; Ryan Bingham; Glen Longhurst; Desmond Penny

InteractionsThe Integrated Engineering (IE) Program at SUU has, since its origin in 2005, included project-based, cross disciplinary, experiential learning combing elements of Electrical Engineering,Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering in the integrated curriculum. All IE students arerequired to complete two one-semester design courses during their junior year, plus two,advanced, one-semester courses focused on the design and implementation of a capstone projectduring their senior year. Students often develop capstone projects for regional private and publicsector organizations as well as within the university. Southern Utah University has recentlyincreased its emphasis on experiential learning on a university-wide basis. According to

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Samuel Landsberger; Artin Davidian; Juan Garibay; Richard Valenzuela; Barbara Wheeler

enhanced by mentoring and teamwork activities that are built in as integral elements of theprogram. At the University site, HERE partners with both the College of Engineering, ComputerScience and Technology, and the College of Health and Human Services. The HHS KinesiologyDepartment at CSULA is host of an innovative laboratory for rehabilitation exercises withsignificant outreach to the disabled community. HERE also collaborates with the highlysuccessful Math and Engineering Program (MEP). The MEP is based upon the principles ofcommunity building and collaborative learning. It fosters peer interaction between itsparticipants and provides enrichment opportunities so that the desire to learn and apply oneself isboth stimulated and nurtured through

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Jose Valdovinos; Cheng Chen; Abbyanna Davis; Amelito Enriquez; Wenshen Pong

0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05 Delay (sec) Figure 6b. Linear vs Non Linear.Integration with NASA CIPAIR Internship ProgramCañada College and San Francisco State University made joint efforts to install an internship inorder to intensify the minority interest in the STEM fields. Thus came about COMETS, CreatingOpportunities for Minorities in Engineering, Technology, and Science. This internship issponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s, NASA, CurriculumImprovement Partnership Award for the Integration of Research into the UndergraduateCurriculum (CIPAIR

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Nebojsa Jaksic

(feasibility) ofthese ideas is also addressed. In engineering education, a number of techniques are implementedto develop creativity and enhance ideation capabilities of students. These techniques includebrainstorming2, brainwriting3, collaborative sketching4, morphological analysis5, transformationaldesign using mind-mapping6, design by analogy7, principles of historical innovators8, and variouscombinations of the aforementioned techniques9. Developing an ability to innovate has beenapproached through improvisation10, the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ)11-20, and theS-field (also referred as Su-field) theory21.One of the commonly used techniques in ideation is brainstorming (especially when solvinggeneric, non-engineering problems

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Matthew Adle; Justin Bostwick; Kyle Graves; Synjin Hipolito; Yong Gan

, instructor-student face to face learning were adopted in the classroom activities. It is concluded that the activelearning should be the future trend in educating upper level students. The curriculum we should strivefor is an integration of knowledge learning and hands-on practicing. Through such a particular project,students should be better trained for energy manufacturing industry.IntroductionSemiconducting polymers have been extensively studied due to their unique properties and advantagesover other ceramics semiconducting materials such as light weight and easy to processing1,2. Polyaniline(PANi) is a typical semiconducting polymer with a conjugated structure. It has excellent stability in air.Polyaniline is stable at elevated temperatures. It

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Jin-Lee Kim; Talal Trabolsi

theireffects to professionals in the field. Twenty-one responses were received from participants in theSouthern California area. The analysis results indicate that in a general consensus, theconstruction industry is not only dependent on the changing information technologies, but alsothat construction companies have discovered the efficiency developed through theimplementation of such technology allows them to increase profitability and ultimately lower thepotential for construction delays and undocumented issues that contractors wish to avoid at anycost. The findings will help academia develop the construction curriculum when integratingadvanced information technologies.IntroductionAdvanced information technology, such as Building Information

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Jody Hamabata

154 First-year Experience for Engineering Lab Course: The Mini-Rose Parade Float Project Update – Year 6 Jody Hamabata California State Polytechnic University, PomonaAbstractThis paper discusses how our university integrates the Cal State’s “learn by doing” philosophyinto the curriculum by combining both a lecture and lab to prepare students for careers inengineering through hands on activities. Each Winter Quarter, each EGR 100 Lab section is giventhe task of designing and building a miniature Rose Float. Under given specifications the

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2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Edward Smaglik; Terry Baxter; John Tingerthal P.E.; Chun-Hsing Ho; Mark Lamer

performance,an increase in the number of students for which English is a second language (ESL), a desire tobetter utilize faculty time, and a desire to improve the quality of the learning experience. Withsupport from the university’s Provost Office and e-Learning Center, five faculty membersembarked on a curriculum redesign to address these factors. This paper summarizes the historyand development of the blended approach to these two courses and discusses some preliminaryresults. After one semester of implementation, we found that student performance did notimprove or degrade significantly and that the redesign required a great deal of effort to put intoplace. Now in its second semester, the faculty have implemented some changes based onobservations