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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Binaya Acharya; Bruce Segee

Session 2559 A Web-Enabled Distributed Door Entry System Binaya Acharya (email:bacharya@eece.maine.edu), Dr Bruce E. Segee (email:segee@eece.maine.edu) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instrumentation Research laboratory, University of Maine.AbstractThis integrated security system that monitors and controls the access to a particularroom/area was created as a demonstration of a typical distributed, web-enabled industrialapplication. It utilizes a bar code scanner, a data terminal, a PC at the door and another asa database and web

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

James Barrott

. This test comes at the completion of a course and it is independent of thecourse grade. To receive promotions, employees must pass each skill test.Chattanooga State instructors teaching at Dupont had to be flexible and coordinate studentprogress with each other because Dupont students attending a laboratory section on Mondaymorning the first week may attend a Tuesday evening section the next week and a Thursdayafternoon section the next.Appendix A lists the technical courses in each of the programs5. Completers of these programsreceive certificates. Those Dupont employees wanting to complete an Associate degree musttake additional general education courses on the Chattanooga State campus.In the fall 1999 semester, 66 student FTE’s were

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Norman Dennis

Page 6.485.1for some type of commercial facility, plan a subsurface exploration program for their site,Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Educationinterpret raw field and laboratory soils data to extract design parameters and, finally, to completedesigns for shallow and deep foundations as well as earth retaining structures. All of theobjectives are accomplished through the execution of a semester long-scenario based designproblem which requires the students to work in teams to complete each phase of the project. Inaddition to the actual design computations, each team submits a series of interim

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Patricia Nava

). The Neuro-Fuzzy Systems Research Group (NFSRG) at the University of Texas at El Paso is animplementation of this model. The group’s objective, beyond achieving research goals, is todevelop the student as a professional and as a person. The method involves integrating thestudent to the extent that he or she assumes collective ownership for the laboratory and thegroup’s accomplishments. The group’s operation can be described in terms of four majorcategories: technical tasks, organizational tasks, professional development activities and groupmeetings. Page 6.1006.3 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Michelle Rogers; Kelly Burton; Kamisha Hamilton

. Students are exposed to other research available on campusthrough weekly meetings and faculty seminars, and have opportunities to visit industry andnational laboratories. Planned social activities are available to all participants. At the end of theprogram, students present their work in an open forum Participating students seemed to have benefited greatly from the program. Eighty fivepercent of the students felt the conference answered their questions about graduate school. Moststudents commented that the program solidified their decision on pursing graduate studies and thatthe experience gave them practical and real world experience. Eighty three percent of studentsreported that they were more interested in attending graduate school after

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Binaya Acharya; Bruce Segee

Session 2559 Generic Data Mining Application Dr Bruce E. Segee (email:segee@eece.maine.edu), Binaya Acharya (email:bacharya@eece.maine.edu) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instrumentation Research Laboratory, University of Maine.AbstractUsing instrumentation and automated data collection technologies, it is possible toaccumulate large amount of data. This data can be efficiently stored, sorted and retrievedusing database software. However, processing data collected in a factory or in a researchapplication can be

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald Sterkenberg; Raymond Thompson

Page 6.524.3surveys of the student population and observe lectures and laboratory activities. Data will also be Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Educationcollected regarding living conditions in the dormitories or housing facilities. If the students don’tlike the university it will be very difficult to motivate students to spend a semester at thisparticular location. The important aspect of the template is to gather data that can be analyzedand compared to similar data gathered by other teams. In essence, the group will function in asimilar fashion to an accreditation team visit. An additional

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Alok Verma

Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education”provides a continuous supply of batteries for the conveyor belt. The equipment has beenoperational at the client’s facility for more than a year. The total cost of the project wasapproximately $ 50,000 out of which the client’s share was $20,000. Based upon three shiftoperation and displacement of five operators earning $6.00/hr, the payback period came out tobe less than a year.2. Unfunded Research ProjectsFollowing project is an example of unfunded research work done in the AutomatedManufacturing Laboratory at Old Dominion University by a group of senior students under thesupervision of the author. The equipment used in the research was donated by the S. S. WhiteCompany.Case Study

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Lloyd Feldmann; Robert Hofinger

the pusher, while the younger traditional counterpart being the puller. Page 6.1033.3 “Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education”Since these non-traditional adult students are working full time while pursuing their academic work,they really put in a full day’s work. Classes at the Columbus campus typically start at 4:30 pm or at6:00 pm with the laboratories scheduled from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm. A student who is taking twotechnology courses and working full time would leave work in time for a 4:30

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

James Rehg

,and corrections are made to rungs in order to fix the problems. This process continues until aprogram solution is reached. The result is a program without sequential structure that is difficultto analyze and understand. With large PLC programs, troubleshooting the program when systemproblems develop is difficult.This paper describes how a technique called sequential function charts (SFC) is used in a two-course sequence covering PLC programming. The SFC process adds structure to the PLCprogramming process and produces programs that are easy to analyze and troubleshoot. Thepaper also includes a description of the SFC process; types of problems assigned for studentwork; and the benefit derived from using SFC in a PLC programming laboratory or

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Mohamed. E. Brihoum; Ahmad Ibrahim

now referredto as; communication skills, team work, critical thinking, ethics, applied research, and provenskills. Such attributes are still considered important as demonstrated by more recent studies [3]and are taken into account in assessing quality of education [4]. These attributes are fundamentalto the “new” rules of the accreditation board for engineering and technology [5].The extent of these attributes is usually assessed through a successful completion of a technicalproject before graduation. The way is paved for the technical aspects of such project by the workdone in numerous laboratory courses where students perform experiments with progressivelevels of sophistication in both design and analysis. Instructors can form cross

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Vislocky; Cecil Beeson

. Over a period of time this will certainly change and we will submit an appropriate request.XII. Facilities Needed Use of a laboratory type room is the most obvious first facility needed. Tables and access to a wide array of technical equipment will be necessary. Appropriate room security is a must. A method to recognize College owned equipment from student owned equipment must be devised and enforced.XIII. Equipment Resources The following equipment represents a minimum requirement: • Multi-meters • Oscilloscopes • PCs • Simulation and circuit design software • Access to the Internet • A variety of tools, e.g., pliers

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Raul Ordonez; Jahan Kauser; Ravi Ramachandran

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Universityof Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1993. Dr. Jahan has worked for Harza engineering as a water resourcesengineer and as an environmental engineer for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP).Raul OrdonezDr. Ordóñez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at RowanUniversity. He has extensive expertise in both theoretical and applied control practice. He has developedand published new control theoretical results in the area of adaptive control algorithms and nonlinearcontrol. He also has significant control implementation experience in laboratory and industrial settings,including work performed on nonlinear estimation, fault detection

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Bruce Segee; Michael D. Amos

in corporation with other laboratories at the University of Maine to evaluate thinfilm gas sensors. These sensors are used in a multidimensional array to determine specific gasconcentration in a gas mixture. Since the information from the sensors is noisy and unstable,neural networks are needed to help separate the information from the noise. This CMAC systemwill further help these gas sensor development efforts by facilitating easier sharing of processedinformation via the WWW and other internet technologies.III. ConclusionWhile still in the early in development, all indications are that this will prove to be a usefulsystem for engineers and database users alike. We have taken some of the cryptic, customapplications away from the Neural

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Mariusz Jankowski

use of the existing software tools. The digital image processing coursewarematerials were designed in support of a senior-level technical elective and currentlyconsist of 15 interactive lecture modules covering the major topics of an advancedundergraduate course on the subject. The modules, which are in the form of Mathematicanotebooks, are used in a computer-equipped classroom during sessions that mix atraditional instructor-led lecture format with laboratory-based problem solving. This mixof lecture and laboratory combines the best features of these two traditional instructionalstyles.The courseware materials presented in this paper were designed to support a senior-leveltechnical elective in an ABET accredited electrical engineering

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Don Zeller

Engineering EducationR(dynamic braking/accelerating), or L(coil), or C(power factor correction), or mass(work roll),or spring(actuator return), or damper(hydraulic fluid). Many of the laboratories, by necessity, arebench top setups with decade boxes, patch panels, and plug in connections—very unrealistic.For example, students may learn how to design a regulated power supply but some of them don’tknow how to “wire” a real world power supply. In the author’s PLC systems course, one of thefirst assignments is to install the PLC system, including input/output wiring and incoming powerconnections. Occasionally, there is a student who wires the 115 VAC power cord to the +/- 24VDC terminals.However, only fifteen per cent of engineering (technology

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Ruane

’ investigations. Ampletime was provided to apply the computer tools during the workshops. Additionally, oneafternoon of each two-day workshop was devoted to engineering applications of differentialequations, using their modeling and computational tools. Electronics laboratory space wascoordinated at each workshop to allow the mathematicians to construct RC first and secondorder systems, measure time constants and physically tweak parameters in their equations. Thetextbook authors served as the teaching assistants in the electronics lab! All survived the labs,and appreciated more the jargon and context of differential equations for their engineeringstudents.Opportunities for CollaborationCollaboration in the Boston University Differential Equations

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Karim Nasr; Basem Alzahabi

); Goals;Prerequisites by Topic; Topics; Computer Usage; Laboratory Projects; and Estimated ABETCategory Content. EC2000 proposes an outline for a “New ABET Syllabus Format”, addingitems such as Course Learning Objectives and their Relationship to the Program EducationalObjectives and Professional Component. The ABET syllabus format needs to be consistent foreach course and should not exceed two pages per course [10]. Appendix A contains a sampletemplate of a new ABET syllabus for a typical engineering course, namely Thermodynamics. Indeveloping this syllabus, the course content was revisited for the purpose of identifying courselearning objectives and how and where these objectives relate to the program educationalobjectives. As a result, an “eye

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald E. Musiak; Richard A. Grabiec; Eric W. Haffner; Steve Schreiner; Alan K. Karplus; Mary Vollaro

(someactivities required laboratory facilities while others required computer facilities). Seating in aclassroom changed as a function of activity (individual effort versus team effort).The Engineering Seminar course provided additional opportunities for the Freshman to learnabout engineering and to be a successful engineering student. The course also served as anadditional resource for Introduction to Engineering. The class met once a week for up to threehours. Students met in a lecture hall to receive general information, listen to guest speakers, orparticipate in special workshops. For activities that required more individualized attentionstudents, in groups of twenty five or less, went to ’breakout’ rooms. A typical class might consistof a general

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Christopher T. Field; Cameron Wright; Thad Welch

easily navigated pull-down menu for file selection and subsequentanalysis. An example of such a menu is shown in Figure 2. Figure 3 shows the signal analyzer GUIdisplaying a ringing bell. Harmonic content can be easily identified.All of the recorded files can be heard by pushing the play button. Additionally, since this button is notmodal, rapid replay sound effects can be generated.Given this type of tool, several students have chosen to continue their exploration of the time andfrequency domain relationships after class or lab in their rooms using their own computers andsoftware (MATLAB ). An unlimited number of files can easily be created or recorded and stored in aseparate directory for subsequent analysis in a classroom, laboratory, or

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Timothy J. Anderson; Sarah A. Rajala; Matthew Ohland

uninterestedand unqualified students from the population.I. IntroductionThe NSF funded SUCCEED Engineering Education Coalition is a collaboration of eight Col-leges of Engineering in the southeastern U.S.1 with a shared mission of creating sustainable en-gineering education reform on each of our campuses. SUCCEED has a vision of a curriculumthat will educate our students for success throughout their career by nurturing technical confi-dence, developing a skill base for success, and instilling a positive attitude in its graduates.While these schools are all publicly funded, there is great diversity in their size, mission, studentbody, experience, and academic strengths. This diverse “educational research laboratory” has 1 Clemson University, Florida

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ross Staffeldt

problems in third semester calculus or differential equations. Support for students is also provided through software developed by a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences computer operations group for viewing students’ workspaces on the laboratory server; this is described below in the section on hardware and universal software.For motivation, students have to understand that learning to use the Maple tools accounts formore than a token percentage of the grade. I construct each test so that 15% -20% of the gradedepends on the students’ ability to set up problems in Maple and to interpret Maple results. Sinceclasses are often too large for the lab, the Maple portion of each test consists of take-homeproblems. For the first exam

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

David Hailey; Christine Hailey

. Weinberger, C. B. and R. Mutharasan, “Fundamentals of Manufacturing – Multimedia Modules for Contextual Learning,” Proceedings of the 1998 Frontiers in Education Conference, ASEE/IEEE, pp. 669-671.5. Hailey, C. E. and D. E. Hailey, “Evaluation of Student Preferences and Learning Outcomes of Computer-Based Teaching Modules For a Manufacturing Processes Laboratory,” Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, June 28-July 1, Seattle, WA, 1998.6. Hailey, D. E. and C. E. Hailey, “Hypermedia, Multimedia and Reader Cognition: An Empirical Study,” Technical Communication, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 330-342, 1998.7. Wallace, D. R., and P. Mutooni, “A Comparative Evaluation of World Wide Web-Based and Classroom Teaching,” Journal of

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Tony Brune; Elaine Chapman-Moore; Dave Wiese; Hulas King

participate in this phase create PACE Laboratories—providingan opportunity for their students to actively work with this outstanding software. Thehardware, software, and training are provided virtually without cost to the institution.This phase provides a framework for these institutions to network with one another andthe PACE Industry Partners in parametrics-related efforts. The PACE industrialpartners are approximately one-third of the way through the deployment of this phase,but are beginning work on the networks that will bind both the academic and theindustrial partners together in efforts to improve design, engineering, and manufacturingapproaches worldwide.Networks for student internships, faculty industrial experiences while on sabbatical, GM

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ricardo Molina; Claudio da Rocha Brito; Melany Ciampi

of Energy; Symbolic and Numerical Computer; Electronic;Operational Systems; Construction Techniques of Programs; Antennas and microwaves; FormalLanguages and Automata; Communication Systems; Digital Laboratories; Electrical Materialsand Processes. Page 6.21.4 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education4th. Year: Digital Systems; Automatic Control; Digital Communications; Software Engineering;Hydraulic, Thermal and Electrical Machines; Graphic Computer; Teleprocess and ComputerNetwork; Digital

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Rafiqul Islam

demandson the job duties of engineers and technologists. Industries are increasingly seeking graduateswith appropriate background and training in these technologies. This paper describes a proposedadvanced communications course in the form of lecture and laboratory studies. This course isdesigned for the study of various wireline communications systems in correct proportion asidentified by the industry. Such studies provide specific skills that will be immediately usable inthe industry. Knowledge of these crucial fields will broaden the undergraduate experience oftechnology and enhance their employment opportunities very greatly Page 6.366.1IntroductionThe current explosion of communication traffic volume

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Cecil Beeson; William Gay

, which is in avionics, will be proposedthis year and implemented during the 2001-2002 academic year. A detailed discussion of thecurricular, instructional and laboratory requirements of both certificates programs will bepresented. EET with A Specialty: “The Coupling of an Associate Degree and A Certificate” William Gay, Cecil Beeson University of Cincinnati ClermontPicture a growing two-year branch campus of a major urban university. Overall studentenrollments since its inception have steadily, and at times dramatically, increased over a quarterof a century. It has constructed new buildings and facilities, developed and provided newtechnical and transfer

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

K. Arthur Overholser

must be a full-time, tenured or research professor in the School of Engineering. Some seminars do involve team-teachers from other units of the University.The following seminars have been offered during the academic years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001.In each case we indicate the semesters in which the section was offered and, in parentheses, theenrollment during that semester. • “High-Fidelity Sound Reproduction”. Taught by electrical engineering professors, this seminar takes advantage of the interest many young people have in recorded music to teach circuit theory. It includes laboratory demonstrations and work at Nashville sound studios. [Fall, 1999, 15 students; Fall

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Lars Cederqvist; Jed Lyons

-classlaboratory experiments that provide data to analyze with MathCAD or Excel. The third activity is ateam design project that is best performed around Halloween. Student feedback indicates that thesesimple hands-on activities effectively introduce students to fundamental engineering concepts.IntroductionThe Introduction to Engineering course at the University of South Carolina includes the learningoutcomes that the students: demonstrate knowledge of engineering; demonstrate the ability to use asuite of computer applications; and function on a team to complete a freshman design experience.An active-learning approach has been taken to develop these outcomes.“Full-Body Contact Statics” is an in-class laboratory experiment. The students apply static loads

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald Roth

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Year Figure 1: Fall enrollment in Mechanical Engineering at CSUC Page 6.564.1Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & ExpositionCopyright  2001, American Society for Engineering EducationA SolutionIn the late 1980s Mechanical Engineering Design I (ME138) was perhaps the best liked MEcourse at CSUC. The course had two distinct parts: three 50-minute lectures per week onmachine design and a three-hour per week laboratory in which groups of students