Conference Session

The Interdisciplinary Nature of Engineering

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xiaofeng Tang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

research seeks tounderstand the forces that motivate educators to blend engineering learning with liberal studies,the institutional and pedagogical strategies used in different integrative programs, and theimpacts of liberal learning on students’ understandings of engineering and its social context. Inthis paper, I focus on a subset of the research questions posed for the dissertation: ● What motivates students to study engineering in a liberal education environment? ● In what ways does the experience of “a liberal education for engineers” assist students’ personal growth and career development? ● To what extent does students’ understanding of engineering take into account the social dimensions?MethodsMy dissertation

Conference Session

Integration of Engineering and Other Disciplines (Including Liberal Arts)

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katherine Hennessey Wikoff, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Cynthia Wise Barnicki, Milwaukee School of Engineering; James R. Kieselburg II, Grohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

—amechanical engineering professor, a liberal arts professor, and an art museum director—bringtruly multidisciplinary perspectives to the STEAM challenge of coherently integrating art andengineering education. The paper describes a unique relationship that has developed betweenone university’s engineering curricula and the collection of an art museum on its campus. Thepaper presents a longitudinal study of engineering students at this institution who engaged withart as part of their curriculum at both the freshman and junior levels.Among our findings: • Students liked the flexibility and freedom, the self-guided discovery that using art as a starting point afforded. No students were put off by the art. • The decision to integrate art

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Experiential Learning

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harold R Underwood, Messiah College; Donald George Pratt, Messiah College

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

with the necessary skill-set ofnew students, recruited by existing project team leaders to fill positions that becomeavailable as students graduate or as the project progresses. While effectively matching theinterest of upcoming students with project needs, the competitive approach also shiftsresponsibility for selections more fully to both student leaders and recruits, who live andwork with these choices. Beyond its immediate practical value, the competitive processexposes students to some dynamics of a real job search, better preparing them for their post-graduation career job search. It also provides an opportunity for students to practice at leastthree of the ABET Student Outcomes: functioning on interdisciplinary engineering teams(d

Conference Session

The Interdisciplinary Nature of Engineering

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mehmet Vurkaç, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

-education requirement at a sister institution (Portland StateUniversity) where the present author co-taught for several years with three faculty members fromthe Philosophy Department. The title of the original course was “Knowledge, Rationality andUnderstanding.” It was initially designed by a faculty member from the Psychology Department,and had a strong emphasis on decision-making.The present author was hired in 2005 as a “quantitative person” at the graduate-assistant level tohandle the Statistics content as well as the three hour-long weekly discussion sessions. Duringthe next three years, the primary instructors either retired or passed away, with the present author(graduate assistant) as the main constant and an increasingly central role in

Conference Session

Nanotechnology

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kelsey Joy Rodgers, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Yi Kong, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Krishna Madhavan, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

Farnsworth, Managing Director of NCN (nanoHUB.org)RE: nanoHUB.org Design Project DescriptionLet me start by telling you a little about nanoHUB.org: “nanoHUB.org is arguably the largest online user facility for nanoscale engineering and science modeling and simulations in the world. It is a project that is funded by the US National Science Foundation and serves over 240,000 annually. Our users are researchers from the industry, researchers, faculty members at universities worldwide, and most importantly students – at the undergraduate and graduate levels. nanoHUB.org is the place for computational nanotechnology research, education, and collaboration. nanoHUB hosts a rapidly growing collection of

Conference Session

Integration of Engineering and Other Disciplines (Including Liberal Arts)

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arthur Felse, Northwestern University; Igor Kourkine

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

to be at the forefront of technologycommercialization. The situation is further complicated by the fact that about 45% of students inengineering MS programs are non-resident aliens, who are even less familiar than domesticstudents with the technology commercialization processes in the United States. Given thesubstantial number of graduate degrees awarded in the USA annually (Table 1), we think thatmore rigorous education in technology commercialization is not just beneficial, but it is Page 24.103.4necessary for graduate students’ career growth and the future success of technologycommercialization. This education should be designed to bridge

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Programs and Curricula

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert W. Fletcher, Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

waswell aware of the need to develop a program around an engineering science and not around aspecific given technology.The exploratory committee felt that these opportunities available to a student graduating with aBS in robotics engineering needed to be in two areas. The first required area of opportunity forgraduating students must be with industry. Does industry see the need, and does it also value anddesire to hire students who possess such a bachelor degree? Lawrence Tech found that inconsulting with its industry advisory board members, and also with numerous representativesfrom industry who were not on the school’s industry advisory board that there was anoverwhelming interest in graduates with such a degree. These industry contacts were

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Capstone Design

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adam Kaplan, California State University, Northridge; James Flynn, California State University, Northridge; Sharlene Katz P.E., California State University, Northridge

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

reinforce many important aspects of atraditional computer science education. The software team was provided with hands-onexperience programming and debugging a large project. In the course of programming a low-level embedded development platform, students gained valuable practice with bitwise operations,bit-masks, and number system conversion. The limited bandwidth of the communication linkbetween the CubeSat and the ground gave the team an opportunity to explore networking andpacket-switching beyond the domain of internet protocols. Naturally, this led to issues ofcomputer security, such as the ability to authenticate transmissions from Mission Control, andthe decision of whether or not transmissions should be digitally signed by each side. For

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Experiential Learning

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathryn Jablokow, Pennsylvania State University; Jack V. Matson, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Darrell Velegol, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

delivered in September/October 2013 over an 8-week period (with a 2-week extension for final assignment submissions). Our team wascomposed of three core faculty in different engineering fields (chemical, environmental, andmechanical/design), a faculty member from theater (who also served as an acting coach), a teamprocess coach (psychology), an instructional designer, several university technical staff wholiaised with Coursera and managed contractual issues, and a mix of graduate and undergraduatestudents from engineering and education who assisted as staff with many tasks along the way.3.1 Levels of Student EngagementStudent engagement and retention are major issues in the current MOOC context4. In particular,the low percentages of enrolled