Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Bahman Motlagh; Alireza Rahrooh

Session 1347 Neural Network Adaptive Autotuner Alireza Rahrooh, Bahman Motlagh University of Central Florida Abstract It is critical that modern control theory techniques be integrated into assignments which involvethe application of basic concepts in engineering technology to prepare students for the nextmillennium. The adaptive neural network discussed in this paper can be viewed as an appropriate useof these modern techniques in engineering technology curriculum. Adaptive tuning of PID controllergains in case of

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Sudhir Mehta

teaching and learning in those classes. The results of a national survey, conducted to determine how many institutions offerlarge engineering classes, indicate that 47% offer large size classes. It is also estimated that76% of the engineering students attend at least one large class. Most of the large classes areoffered at an introductory level and during the first two years of curriculum. The researchshows that the student attrition rate is higher during their first two years. However, the researchalso indicates that effectively taught large classes are perceived better by students than some ofthe small size classes. This paper describes several cooperative learning strategies which have been researched,tested, and proven to be

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Gilbert; Mark Maughmer; Marilyn Barger, Hillsborough Community College; Renata Engel, Pennsylvania State University

In an educational environment that pressures new faculty to become effective anddynamic teachers there is a tendency to overuse and perhaps misuse the new cadre ofinformation transfer tools as well as the lecture. In undergraduate engineering education lecturesare commonly used to promulgate two levels of proficiency: Those that deal with basic skills andthose that deal with synthesis of knowledge. These two learning levels are similar in that theymust maintain the integrity of the lecture structure, but different in their content, complexity, andcommission. Student success in skill-developing courses is absolutely critical if the metamorphosisfrom engineering student to the engineering intern is to occur. It is impossible to

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Gulcin Cribb

Curriculum Review Committee with a view toassisting them with the integration of information skills into the entire curriculum.Members of the Review Committee were already convinced about the ineffective natureof ad hoc information skills programs (the add-on library classes) which are usuallyoffered as an afterthought, not as integral to the education process. The need to produce aprogram integrating information skills at all levels of the curriculum so that the graduatesleft with a set of information skills was recognised at the beginning of the planningprocess. One academic member of the Committee and two librarians formed a workingparty to produce a list of attitudes, skills and competencies for the graduates in order toensure the subjects

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Mary Ann McCartney; Maria A. Reyes; Mary Anderson-Rowland

Opportunities and the CEAS Dean’s Office. Theprogram content and curriculum were designed to prepare underrepresented ethnic minoritystudents for success in the CEAS at ASU. The curriculum focused on engineering design,technical communications, and included a design project. Academic scholarships were awardedto all participants based on a team design project competition. The competition included thedesign of web pages, documentation in individual design notebooks, and a presentation toindustry representatives and parents.During the summer of 1996, 44 students participated and completed the program. As arecruitment tool, the program was an overwhelming success with 43 of the 44 studentscompleting the academic year (one chose not to because of the

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Shirley B. Pomeranz

: . . . The integral statement necessary for formulation in terms of finite element approximation was supplied via the principle of virtual work, which was assumed to be so basic as not to merit proof. . . . We shall therefore show in this section that the virtual work statement is simply a ‘weak form’ of the equilibrium equations.The description of the problem in terms of a weak formulation (or variational formu-lation) means that the problem has been reformulated as a related problem that admitssolutions that satisfy weaker smoothness conditions (and that will lead to a practical nu-merical solution method). Instead of solving an original boundary-value formulation of theproblem, the problem is solved in the sense of “weighted

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Marilyn Dyrud

launch decision. In the case of Bhopal, utilitarian principles (or lack thereof) areevident.Methodology Faculty who integrate ethics into technical courses need not be philosophers nor intimatelyfamiliar with a variety of ethical theories. A modicum of training, however, is desirable, andparticipants can develop various methodologies during their training.Training Oregon Institute of Technology has developed a workable and relatively painless plan fororienting technical instructors in “ethics across the curriculum” (EAC). Similar to writing acrossthe curriculum, EAC attempts to integrate ethics into technical classes without disrupting ordisplacing technical content. For the past three years, OIT faculty have had the opportunity to

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Zbigniew Prusak

achieved versus required, skills that are outdated and skills that are not taught but are required in practice.5- Development of more flexible curricula (especially for junior and senior years) which allow for a greater freedom in choosing elective courses in pursuit of student’s individual objectives.6- Introduction of a university-industry cooperative learning early in the curriculum (freshman or sophomore).7- Development of a well structured industrial apprenticeship for engineering students as an integral part of mandatory portion of the curriculum (e.g. 2 semesters spent working in the industry, preferably at two different places). It is clear that striking a good match between the best designed curriculum and the

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Elaine L. Craft

interesting to note that participants requested that the Chautauqua events be held at thetechnical colleges around the state rather than at other possible meeting sites. Faculty quicklyrealized that visiting different institutions broadens their sense of community and gives them anopportunity to pick up ideas from their peers. Also, ATE campus teams invariably experience anew level of “buy in” to the project when they host a Chautauqua workshop on their campus.(B) Special Summer Activities and Fall RetreatsDuring the first summer of the project, SC ATE Exemplary Faculty were allowed to choose oneof three types of summer activities: an integrated curriculum exploration classroom/laboratoryproject, a conference/train-the-trainer professional

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard R. Schultz

students should be exposedto DSP in an introductory electrical engineering course before they are exposed to analog circuit theory,since “computers are prevalent and easy to work with.” Inspired by this highly logical, yet seeminglyrevolutionary idea, the course Computer Aided Measurement and Control at the University of NorthDakota has been revised to incorporate a modified version of “DSP First5.” Computer Aided Measurement and Control is a required sophomore-level electrical engineering(EE) course, introduced originally as an avenue for teaching undergraduate students the C programminglanguage and instrumentation applications using a data acquisition card. The decision to place the coursewithin the sophomore year of the curriculum was

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Dr. Martin Pike

the curriculum and individual courses in engineering and technologyis continuing to be stressed. There has been a realization that design experiences need to bepresented throughout the curriculum, and are very important in the first years of a technicaleducation. Numerous papers have been written and presented on the importance of design andthe importance of including design projects in the curriculum.Upper division courses allow for easier incorporation of design projects because of the maturityand knowledge level of the students. These factors allow for the upper division design experienceto be either very broad integrating many topic areas or very narrowly focused in a specificapplication of a given technology. In addition, upper division

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Devon; Wayne Hager; Dhushy Sathianathan; Dominique Saintive; Michel Nowé; Jacques Lesenne

atboth institutions in a cost-effective way by relying heavily on information technology. Only 8%of Penn State University 4-year students go abroad to study before graduation using a Penn Stateprogram, and the figure for engineering students is only about 3%. For many years, universitypolicy has included a goal of 20%, but no realistic way of achieving this has been found. Themodel deployed here has the potential for widespread impact on the curriculum. All the studentsin the courses at both institutions had an international experience as a result of the project. It wasmade especially relevant by offering travel scholarships to the members of the winning team.Friendships formed in the other teams allow the possibility for personal travel, also

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter T. Cummings; Hank D. Cochran; Juan J. dePablo; Denis J. Evans; Peter A. Koen; Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos; Richard L. Rowley

(through integration of text, audio and video) to explain complex concepts, and is designed Page 3.63.3 so that it will not be made obsolete by advances in Web standards and browser design.3. Each of the universities involved is establishing a new graduate chemical engineering course which will use the WWW-based textbook as its primary text. The course will also be open to senior undergraduates as an elective.4. For undergraduates using the text (as a supplementary text in undergraduate thermodynamics, applied physical chemistry and transport phenomena courses, or as the major text of an elective course), the primary goal is to educate

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Jule Dee Scarborough

cannot usually occurwithout individual and team development.High performance teams achieve both individual and team congruence. Achieving congruencebegins with awareness, continues to acceptance, authorship, articulation, and finally is achievedwith articulation (McLendon & Weinberg, 1996).Engineers and technologists are now required to work well beyond their technical world incontent and context; in addition, they are now often asked to work in multicultural teams and tolead or participate in projects. This requires an additional tool kit, one that includes tools to workwith people, tools in management, and techniques for integrating across disciplines and cultures. Therefore, it seems plausible that project management has become its own

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

L. Alden Kendall; Dianne Dorland

base needs, general programming languages, and communication needs.Engineering has special computational needs that were not provided by a single computerlaboratory facility.Previously, the Chemical and Industrial Engineering Departments provided limited computersupport for undergraduate students by purchasing personal computers and installing specialpurpose software. The ratio of students to computers was 16/1. In many instances, single userlicenses applied and limited computers were used for a specific type of design or analysis task.These computers were not networked to provide an environment where students learn how theymay integrate their design and analysis activities in order to perform concurrent engineering for afacility or process

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven H. VanderLeest; Edward G. Nielsen

to quantify, for example, although we didnot include such a question on our surveys, we also observed that a number of students becameinterested in graduate school after seeing the advanced facilities of a university graduateprogram.ConclusionsOur course provides engineering students with the opportunity to experience a foreign cultureand put their engineering education in perspective. We have found it an invaluable addition toour engineering curriculum. The course integrates multiple disciplines, providing students withthe broad perspective necessary for engineering in today’s world. Every student who took theinitial offering of the course found it one of the most worthwhile experiences of their collegecareer. Finally, the course measurably

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephanie Goldberg

Page 3.123.1enough continuity to ignore rigorous derivations when appropriate. For example, theunderstanding of MOSFET operation in power-switching applications is a key topic in theelectronics curriculum. The calculus-based derivation of the drain-source characteristics includedin the textbook is not of immediate concern. In this instance, the students are guided by thesupplementary information file to focus on the relationships between the variables in theresulting equations. The derivation of closed-loop gain of an op amp circuit when open-loopgain is finite is extremely important in the design of practical op amp circuits. The derivation inthe textbook is complete, however, many algebraic and circuit analysis steps are taken forgranted

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Lueny Morell de Ramírez; José L. Zayas; Jorge I. Vélez-Arocho

Approach to Integrating Designand Manufacturing into Engineering Curricula. ASEE Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 86, No.2, April 1997.3 George D. Paterson, Engineering Criteria 2000: A Bold New Change Agent, ASEE PRISM, September, 1997.4 Gloria M. Rogers and Jean K. Sando, Stepping Ahead: An Assessment Plan Development Guide, Foundation Coalition, 1996.methods and tools and, finally, the elaboration of feedback mechanisms. Data collection requiresthe development of assessment instruments focused for appropriate audiences.Either prompted by EC-2000 or by the desire to improve quality standards, engineering programshave started to gather data for use in appraisal and improvements efforts in their institutionalprograms. For example, the

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Lueny Morell de Ramírez; José L. Zayas; Jorge I. Vélez-Arocho

Approach to Integrating Designand Manufacturing into Engineering Curricula. ASEE Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 86, No.2, April 1997.3 George D. Paterson, Engineering Criteria 2000: A Bold New Change Agent, ASEE PRISM, September, 1997.4 Gloria M. Rogers and Jean K. Sando, Stepping Ahead: An Assessment Plan Development Guide, Foundation Coalition, 1996.methods and tools and, finally, the elaboration of feedback mechanisms. Data collection requiresthe development of assessment instruments focused for appropriate audiences.Either prompted by EC-2000 or by the desire to improve quality standards, engineering programshave started to gather data for use in appraisal and improvements efforts in their institutionalprograms. For example, the

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

David E. Clough

past, the course has been well received by students and, generally, has beencomplimented by alumni, faculty peers, and practitioners. Still, the persistent difficultyexperienced by students over the years in attempting to grasp the more challenging concepts ofprocess control led me to try a different mode of instruction in 1996.In the Spring semester of 1996, I converted the classroom component of the course to an active-learning format. This was facilitated by being able to teach the course in the Bechtel ActiveLearning Center of the Integrated Teaching & Learning Laboratory (ITLL), a new instructionalfacility in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado. In lieuof traditional lecture, I wrote over 40

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1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald V. Wiedenhoeft

. Refugefrom the complexities of human nature and human societies should no longer be offered in engi-neering schools. Perhaps century-long efforts to integrate liberal learning are finally bearingfruit. As Samuel Florman tells us, “For more than a hundred years educators have been trying to find an appropriate place for liberal learning in the engineering curriculum. Many of the good things that Ameri- cans think of when they speak of a college education are taught through the humanities Page 3.310.2 and social sciences: knowledge of our history, government, and communal aspirations

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Louis L. Bucciarelli

, our framing of what is significant in the real worldchanges. Our vocabulary changes. What was “soft” is now, if not “hard”, at least must be takenas seriously.Or take our usual acceptance of the hierarchy and authority of segmented disciplines, how theystructure the student’s classroom experience and our ways of relating as faculty. In the realworld, functioning as an engineer is very much conditioned and constrained by context and thatcontext is ordinarily complex and multi-disciplinary. The tasks engineers face do not appear aswell defined, single discipline, problems. The real world is more of a muddle. Professor YiannisAndreopoulos reports how complex curriculum reform becomes when he attempts to teach anInterdisciplinary Integration of

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Muhammad M. Rahman; Antonio J. Bula

Department of Mechanical Engineering. This course is arequired design course in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum and an approved technicalelective in the Chemical Engineering curriculum. It is offered during both fall and springsemesters with a class size of about 40 students. The expert tutor serves as a concise data basefor key concepts learned in the course, and houses property tables and basic equations tointeractively solve problems. The benefits of using this computer based instructional aidinclude: enhanced use of multimedia course materials, more creative thinking exercises forstudents, reduced time to master new concepts, and coverage of more materials in the course.The application of computer technology to facilitate interactive

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Dava J. Newman; Amir R. Amir

instructor’s job to assure that all teams successfully accomplish the designproject. This experience is exactly what Freshmen deciding whether to major in engineering need.Design is an integral part of the practice of engineering [11], [12] and we believe it should be anintegral part of students’ education during their entire undergraduate career. Design is introduced to the students formally through the lectures “What is Design?” and “TheDesign Process,” which are followed by the previously mentioned design exercise, the DeltaDesign Game that we find very useful in establishing teamwork and communication skills. Thenstudents receive an introductory drawing lecture, and finally embark upon the LTA vehicle designproject, which counts for 50 percent

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Donald L. Buchwald

, measure, and sort components. The final project for thesecond course is to design and implement an integrated system to produce a product. ConclusionThe changing face of manufacturing applications requires continuous rethinking of the relevant Page 3.395.3 3experiences of the mechanical engineering technology curriculum. The engineering technologistmust be able to apply the latest technology to effective and efficient solutions of today'smanufacturing problems. This effort is part of an overall emphasis to produce technology specialistswho can

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Fiona S. Crofton; Cynthia A. Mitchell

much as, if not more than, by precept. In other words, the examples set by teachers or lecturers are often decisive in influencing how learners actually behave. (p. 13) Page 3.485.2This position was based in part on the results of an Australian study [5] which investigated thecontribution of undergraduate education to graduates developing a predisposition towardslifelong learning. The authors considered the curriculum (structure and content), teaching andassessment methods, and availability, nature, and use of student support services. The actualbehaviour of academic staff was shown to be far more influential than all the official

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Douglas G. Schmucker

necessarily measured in monetary units. One particular concern is that as students becomeincreasingly competent with computers, their understanding and comprehension of “structuralreality” may suffer.This author firmly believes that physical models are an essential part of a balanced structuralengineering curriculum.† This belief is particularly made firmer in light of the increasing use ofcomputers in all facets of engineering practice and education. Physical models also appeal todifferent modes of learning. Testing laboratories traditionally provided opportunities for “hands-on” learning yet are expensive in both equipment, space, and labor needs. At the University ofAlberta, eleven short demonstrations of basic fluid mechanics principles have been

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Matt W. Mutka; Betty H. C. Cheng; Diane Rover

being performed at Michigan State University in the context of a newlyrevised undergraduate Computer Engineering Program within the Departments of ElectricalEngineering and Computer Science and in collaboration with three smaller universities inthe State of Michigan: Lake Superior State University, Grand Valley State University, andSaginaw Valley State University. These universities represent several types of engineeringprograms (from an electrical/computer engineering technology program to an electrical en-gineering program) which include an embedded system design component. The VESL namehighlights an important aspect of the curriculum development: use of laboratories to supportintegration of material throughout a student’s program. Moreover

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Todd Nocera; Martha Cyr; John McDonald; Chris Rogers

instruments course, is thatthey integrate engineering with the general liberal arts education. Because of the limited mathand science included in these classes (they have no prerequisites), they are an ideal platform fromwhich to teach non-engineers some fundamental engineering concepts and to make engineering amore known and less feared subject. In particular, these courses have been very popular amongpre-service teachers. In typical teacher education programs across the nation, the science contentis pitifully small, often less than one-third of one class. There is no engineering content. Yetthese are the people who are going out to teach the next generation of students; the danger is thatthese teachers may have a hand in perpetrating these math

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Kenneth J. Soda

. .With proper preparation, student designed integrated circuits may be transformed from computergenerated files into working hardware prototypes in a matter of weeks. Our experience has shown MOSIS' capabilities make an important and highly motivatingcontribution to undergraduate education in electrical engineering. The insights which studentscan garner from a MOSIS fabrication cycle are important enhancements to the design experiencebase and the maturity of students. However, there is significant preparation required of educatorswishing to make use of this capability. Some of this preparation is not completely obvious ordocumented. In this paper I will describe design capabilities required for educational use ofMOSIS. I will also describe