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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael McGeen; Larry Groser; J. Michael Hassler; Douglas C. Stahl; Craig Capano

Session 1606 Implementation of Project Specific Web Sites in a Capstone Design Course Douglas C. Stahl, Michael McGeen, Craig Capano, J. Michael Hassler, Larry Groser Milwaukee School of EngineeringAbstractProject Specific Web Sites (PSWS) promise to revolutionize the way designers, constructors,and owners process and transmit information regarding a design/construction project. ThePSWS can be thought of as a clearinghouse for project data, including text, graphical, and videodata ranging from contracts and meeting minutes to final

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Tom Christensen; R. M. Seymour; Kim McKeage; Deborah Skinner; Darrell Donahue

Session 1308 Interdisciplinary Team Projects With Marketing Students To Improve Engineering Capstone Experience R.M. Seymour, Kim McKeage, Darrell W. Donahue, Deborah Skinner and Tom Christensen University of MaineAbstractMarketing and bio-resource engineering faculty developed an interdisciplinary cross-course projectfor their senior students at the University of Maine. Marketing and bio-resource engineeringsenior level courses included the interdisciplinary project to provide students the experience ofworking on multidisciplinary teams

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

James . McDonald

Session 2532 Hand-Held Video Games Using a PIC Microcontroller and Graphic LCD Module: A Capstone Design Project James S. McDonald Kettering UniversityAbstractThis paper describes a capstone design project carried out by several groups of seniorundergraduate students in the author’s computer engineering capstone design course during theSummer 1998 term at Kettering University. The basic project requirement was to design and builda hand-held video game using a Microchip PIC 16C74A microcontroller, a 128×128-pixelgraphic

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

F. Andrew Wolfe; Christine M. LaPlante

Session 3253 Bridge to the Future: the Freshmen Capstone Design Bridge Project at Union College F. Andrew Wolfe, Christine C. Laplante Department of Civil Engineering, Union CollegeI. IntroductionUnion College is a small, 2000 student, undergraduate liberal arts and engineering collegelocated in Schenectady, NY. The Engineering Division with an enrollment of approximately400 students consists of four departments: civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanicalengineering, and computer science. In 1995, Union College was awarded a grant from

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Matt C. Smith; David K. Gattie

“Session 1608" A Multi-disciplinary Fifth-Year Certification Program in Water Resources for Biological and Agricultural Engineering Students With a Capstone Interdisciplinary Project Course Matt C. Smith, David K. Gattie Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering University of GeorgiaAbstractThe Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Georgia is movingtoward a fifth-year certification program in water resources designed to broaden engineeringstudents’ basic science backgrounds and foster the

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Melissa S. Tooley; Kevin Hall

engineering capstone design course (Senior Design) at theUniversity of Arkansas has been structured to facilitate ABET 2000 Outcomes. Criterion 3Attributes “a” through “k” are listed and a discussion of how each of these attributes areenhanced in the course is provided. For example, capstone design courses offer a uniqueopportunity to learn about professionalism and ethics (attribute “f”) in a realistic, appliedcontext. Because the department does not have a separate ethics course, an ethics unit is taughtin Senior Design. The concepts learned are applied by the project teams to hypotheticalscenarios specific to their projects. The key is to make the ethical dilemma relevant to theirproject work.The University of Arkansas was one of the first two

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Ann D. Christy; Marybeth Lima

of the literature on linking industry with engineering design education focuses on capstonedesign courses.4 Although the projects described in this paper were done as part of specificcontent related engineering courses and not as part of a capstone design experience, the literatureon capstone courses can inform the practice of bringing real clients to engineering education atany level. Sources of student design projects include the instructor, the students themselves,other departments within the university, engineering societies, and industry.4 A survey of 360departments at 173 engineering schools reported that 64% involved some form of industrysponsorship in their capstone design courses.10 Of these 33% had weekly contact between

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Lawrence Genalo

from a co-op and was used not only in this statistics course, but as a follow-upproject in senior, capstone design. Figure 3 shows the rate of failure for the boards. Thetesting involved hundreds of chips and 30 different boards.Figure 3 : Failure Rates, Rockwell Project Page 4.34.4 Another experience with the software package takes place as part of a take-homefinal. The students are asked to find the maximum strength glue for a polymeric mixtureof three compounds. Figure 4 shows one of the graphs that a student printed to show thestrength as a function of two of the polymeric compounds. Figure 5 shows the optimalvalues found for mixing.Figure 4

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Giolma; Farzan Aminian; Djaffer Ibaroudene

-Southwest Section of ASEE, New Orleans, March, 1991.2. Abdolsalami, F., and Giolma, J.P., “Integrating Engineering Topics and Design: The Value of Mini-Capstone Courses and Design in the Laboratory.,” Proceedings of Annual Meeting, Gulf-Southwest Section of ASEE, Baton Rouge, LA, March 1994.3. Giolma, J.P. and Swope, R.D., “Deconstructing (and Reconstructing) the Engineering Laboratory,” Proceed- ings of the Annual Meeting of ASEE, Washington, D.C., June 1996.4. Fillman, M., Gardiner, M., Mackie, J., and McNay, K., “Micro-Controlled Autonomous Vehicle Group,” (un- published senior design project report), Department of Engineering Science, Trinity University, April 1998.5. Martin Fred. The

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Bradley E. Bishop; George E. Piper; Richard T. O'Brien

, sensor calibration, signal conditioning and control of DC motors.2. Learning ObjectivesWhen developing a capstone design project, it is necessary to fully integrate all facets of thedesign in the framework of learning objectives. The light tracker project primarily emphasizesthe progressive flow of design, focusing on inter-related modules with learning objectivesconcerning environmental interaction and measurement as well as modeling and control of thefull system. The primary focus of the design is on selection and identification of sensors,motors, motor drivers, and control circuit elements for an integrated system.The light tracker design project admits varying levels of specificity with regards to bothimplementation and performance, allowing

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Omar Barkat

providesan invaluable experience to the students who at the end of the assignment will be much betterprepared to assume engineering responsibilities. For the students who may pursue a graduatedegree it also gives them an opportunity to understand the research process.It is the hope of the author that this final year project be kept in place for as long as theseengineering institutions exist. After all, is not the capstone design course being enforced byABET and adopted by several institution a similar requirement?6. Bibliography1. Barkat O., and M. Cherifi, ”Engineering Education in Algeria, Part I: Facts and Consequences,” Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education, pp1599-1603, 1995.OMAR BARKATOmar Barkat is a Professor of

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Werner

knowledge should be obtained, and the mechanics for obtaining, mastering and utilizing it.The aim of this article is to show that the Internet can be used as a key enabling technology for astudent-centric course. It was successfully tried in a course given in the summer of 1998.Among the unanticipated issues that came up in the teaching of this course was a livelydiscussion of intellectual property rights.Background:Wentworth Institute of Technology is a medium-sized technical college located in Boston,Massachusetts, with concentrations in Environmental, Electronics, and Mechanical EngineeringTechnology, Architecture, and Computer Science (CS). For some time, the non-CS programsrequired students to do a senior project as part of a capstone course

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Tom Mase

Session 1358 A Virtual Golf Ball Design Project Using LS-DYNA Tom Mase Kettering UniversityAbstractStudent groups design a golf ball by specifying cover and core properties as well as geometry.To have a starting point for the material properties, experimental force deflection curves areprovided (posted on the internet) for Surlyn® and polybutadiene rubber. From these curves thestudent groups must analyze the data to get baseline material properties. Sample two piece ballsare cut up so the students can get reasonable cover thickness values. Each group conducts

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Philip Doepker

Session 2323 The Design and Manufacturing Clinic: Bringing Industrial Projects into the Classroom Philip E. Doepker University of DaytonAbstractFor over a decade capstone design courses and other project related courses haveimplemented projects that have roots in industry. This was done on an informal basisbetween professors and contacts in industry. This process lacked consistency in thatsome projects would be repeated from previous terms or projects would be completelydefined by faculty with no input from industry. With recent findings (1,3,8) from varioustechnical

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

James N. Peterson; Herbert Hess

Session 2633 Feasibility, Design and Construction of a Small Hydroelectric Power Generation Station as a Student Design Project James N. Peterson Herbert L. Hess Dept of Electrical Engineering University of Idaho Moscow, ID 83844-1023Abstract An undergraduate capstone engineering design project now provides hydroelectric power to aremote wilderness location. Students investigated the feasibility of designing, building, andinstalling a 4kW hydroelectric system to satisfy the need for electric power to

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Christopher Ibeh

Session 2548 The Term (Project) Paper: A Viable Instructional Tool for Undergraduate Engineering and Technological Education Christopher C. Ibeh Pittsburg State UniversityAbstractThere is a growing consensus in academia and in the industry about the need for graduates ofengineering and technological programs to fortify their technical skills with effectivecommunication skills. The term paper concept at the undergraduate level addresses this need; ithas been proven to be a viable instructional medium for the reinforcement, development andacquisition of technical and

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Jawa Mariappan; Anthony J. Marchese; James A. Newell; John L. Schmalzel; Beena Sukumaran; Ravi Ramachandran

Engineering Measurements Competitive Assessment Laboratory Sophomore Discipline Specific Design Modules 16-week Multidisciplinary Design Project Junior Product Development Process Development Senior Multidisciplinary disciplinary Capstone Design Project This 4-year, 20-credit design sequence offers students the opportunity to incrementally learnthe science and art of design by continuously applying the technical skills they have obtained intraditional coursework. For example, in the Freshman Engineering Clinic II, students begin theirformal study of the design process in the Competitive Assessment Laboratory. This NSF-fundedlaboratory introduces freshmen to the science and

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

T. T. Maxwell; J. C. Jones; D. L. Vines; M. E. Parten

Session 1432 A Combined Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Laboratory M. E. Parten and D. L. Vines T. T. Maxwell and J. C. Jones Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX 79409AbstractThis paper describes a multidisciplinary capstone design laboratory course offered in theElectrical and Mechanical Engineering Departments at Texas Tech University. The courseuses projects from industry, research efforts and other faculty initiatives.The projects for the course come from industry, research

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Nabil Kartam

, cooperative learning, productive teamwork and effectivecommunication. These skills are essential for the real design process.Then, junior students should be ready for a component or system design, e.g., thermal andmoisture insulation of a structure. Case studies, mini-design projects and design laboratoryexperiments are suited to sophomore and junior students. Finally, senior students can wrap uptheir educational experience in a comprehensive capstone design project guided by bothacademic and industrial experts.The process for integrating design into the course curriculum can be broken down into thefollowing steps: 1. Examine and identify those courses within the existing Civil Engineering Program whose effectiveness will be further

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

William Shelnutt; Monica Lumsdaine; Edward Lumsdaine

“how to” guidelines, planning and economic analysis tool templates (attached on a CD-ROM), and a library of design documentation samples to enable instructors and students to focus on optimizing their design projects and solutions and prevent dysfunctional teams.A teaching manual accompanies the textbook and will be available from a web site. It includessample syllabi for a variety of courses from pre-college programs and freshman engineering orien-tation to senior capstone design and workshops to enhance creativity and innovation in the work-place. This broad range is possible by shifting the emphasis from learning the process of creativeproblem solving to achieving a quality design product. Also, the textbook is built on the

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard R. Schultz

involved in introducing undergraduate students to thejoys and frustrations of signal and image processing research. Experiences are described from worksupported in part by National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grantnumber MIP-9624849, entitled “A Career Plan for the Integration of Image Processing Education andResearch.” Research-based projects were included in several required and elective courses taught by theprincipal investigator, including Computer Aided Measurement and Controls; CommunicationsEngineering; Digital Image Processing; Discrete Real-Time Filtering; Capstone Senior Design; andIndependent Study. Some of the projects attempted by the students included a hybrid DiscreteCosine/Wavelet Transform for

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert H. Bond

change in the make up of the group will cause the group to gothrough some of the start up phases again, 3) When a group becomes a high performance team itis fun to be a member, 4) The results obtained by a high performance team represent trueserendipity. Page 4.361.5This is a very important part of the capstone design course, and in the training of effectiveleaders. It is important that leaders and members of project groups understand that a group ofpeople assigned a common task does not automatically represent a team. It takes consciouseffort to build and maintain a team of people focused on a common task. The instructor of thedesign course

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Hugh Jack

interfaced to the Internet, in thesecond the project was design to be interfaced to a PLC. All of the projects are now in use sup-porting undergraduate laboratories and outreach programs.1. IntroductionThe school of engineering at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) had it’s first graduates in1988. Since then, the school has continued to grow and now has students in electrical, computer,mechanical and manufacturing engineering. The faculty and curriculum are not departmentalizedby program as is found in most programs. As a result, it is quite easy to offer courses and projectsthat have multidisciplinary content.The engineering program at GVSU is practical in nature. This includes mandatory co-op employ-ment and a two semester capstone project. The

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Ruane

of technical information. Record keeping is critical to successfullegacy projects, both to accelerate the learning curve of teams at the start of each semester, andto maintain progress across multiple teams during the term. Student enthusiasm is high for real Page 4.466.8projects like SPECTRE, and the design experiences are valuable for novice engineers.Substantial extended design can be successfully attempted within a capstone course ifmanagement continuity is maintained and if student teams develop effective communicationsand provide good engineering documentation for their successors.AcknowledgmentsThe author wants to thank Amptek and Ocean

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Johm W. Duggan; Francis J. Hopcroft

seven Engineering Program MissionGoals, and delivers an educational program consistent with its Environmental EngineeringProgram Philosophy and Academic Goals. Although weaknesses in certain areas were identifiedthrough that process, that was an objective of the process and those areas are being aggressivelyaddressed.For Capstone Design, students are given the opportunity to select and develop their own scopeof work for their area of interest. Successful project proposals must identify actual stakeholderswith an interest in the environmental engineering issue to be addressed. These stakeholdershave taken an active (and appreciated) role in assisting students throughout the Capstone Designprocess and participate in an end-of-year assessment of

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Daniel J. Tylavsky

engineering systems. There are more tasks included in the experimentsthan students can complete in the laboratory time allotted for most college courses. Selecting asubset of cohesive tasks that vary from semester to semester allows students to rely on their ownunderstanding of the material rather than that of students from previous semesters. The order ofthe experiments is chosen to be in synchronism with the order of topics covered by mosttextbooks on introductory digital-logic design.In the capstone design project, students are assigned to produce two designs that meet a givenfunctional specification and pick the better of the two designs using their own metric. It is partof their task to define what "better" means and to describe in their report

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael J. Hinton; Charles N. Eastlake

author, with the aid of students from capstone design classes at ERAU,designed and constructed a 1/3-scale replica 172 as the flying test-bed from which a series offuture scaled prototype projects will draw vital conceptual and procedural ideas. The model172 will be flown by remote control and will have an array of on-board sensors to collectinformation about key flight characteristics. Along with the on-board data acquisition systemand real-time display ground base, the craft will also have a real-time video/audio link to theground to allow the pilot to fly maneuvers using visual flight cues comparable to those hewould have in the real plane.IntroductionA new aircraft often spends many years progressing through the stages of conceptual

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

James Pearson

of the working prototype and the presentation of all documentation andmarketing elements. Team interaction in the course has been effective thoughsometimes frustrating to the student. Student response to the course has been positive.The course has provided a good preparation for the full-year senior design project. Thepaper also discusses creativity issues, the use of computer tools, the application ofreliability factors, student evaluation techniques, and some of the product designs.“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” PlutarchI. IntroductionThe engineering faculty at John Brown University began discussing a junior-leveldesign laboratory in 1990. Students were spending extensive amounts of creative timein the

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

William Durfee

increase of sales or cost savings by the sponsoring company. The company is free to pursue those ideas without returning monetary rewards to the student inventors, nor to the University.IV. Program Features and HighlightsThere are several features of the program which make it somewhat unusual and helped tocontribute to its success. One of the most important is that the projects are real. Projects are takenon only if the company has committed to manufacture the future product. This should be contrastedwith our senior capstone design course which also runs industry sponsored projects, but typicallythe results of those projects are not as closely watched by the company.The mix of engineering and business students is a major highlight. Projects

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Swedish

develop the equipment wherever possible. Inthis way, the Lab better fulfills its potential as a teaching facility. The primary vehicle for thiswork is the senior capstone design project. Several pieces of equipment have been designed inthis way: a 140 ft/sec wind tunnel, a smoke tunnel for flow visualization, and most recently thepsychrometric test chamber.A team of two students was given the chamber design project. The stated purpose for thechamber was to demonstrate the basic psychrometric processes of heating, cooling,humidification, dehumidification, and mixing. A number of criteria were defined, and a costtarget specified. The design report was used as the basis for construction of the chamber, and is