Conference Session

Enhancing Engineering Math with Technology

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter Edwards

amongst others who teach and learnengineering mathematics. Production of further applets is planned but, even with themodularity and rapid application development capabilities of Java, this is a time-consumingexercise (but “watch this space”!).ConclusionIt has not been possible yet to assess fully the efficacy of MathinSite in reducing failure rateson engineering courses due to mathematical subjects. This may be difficult to assess anywaysince the diagnostic testing / follow-up support combination has already paid dividends inthis area at Bournemouth University. A comprehensive review of MathinSite’s use obtainedfrom user feedback is planned for 2002 – 2003, the third year of the project. However, fromclassroom observation and questionnaire

Conference Session

Novel Classroom Environments

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Julie Jessop

session leadsthe students through a series of exercises that alternates among individual, small group (twostudents) and large group (all students) brainstorming to compare the quality and quantity ofideas gathered. Finally, the small groups develop a “business proposal” for their best solutionand present it to the entire class. The class votes upon the viability of each proposal to determinewhat plan would most likely be funded and implemented.Critical ReadingThe philosopher John Locke said “reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge;it is thinking that makes what we read ours.”13 Reading provides the fodder for idea generation;however, creativity is not fostered by simply reading, but by critically reading. The keydifference is

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Valarie Arms; Aly Valentine; J. Richard Weggel

. The trend of improving analytical skills is shown under the “5” ranking in Table 1. Thepercentage receiving a “5” increased from about 13.8% to 31.6% to 40.0% as the teams movedfrom Proposal to Oral Report to Final Report.Communication SkillsThe evaluation regarding communication skills in each assessment form states: “Articulates ideasin a clear and concise fashion and uses facts to reinforce points. Written materials flow logicallyand are grammatically correct. Plans and delivers oral presentations effectively. Uses technologyand graphics to support ideas and decisions.” Table 1 Advisor's Evaluation of Analytical Skills (Numbers indicate percentage of teams receiving given ranking.) Ranking

Conference Session

K-12 Outreach Initiatives

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Martha Cyr; Lacey Prouty; Erik Rushton; Brian Gravel

limited educational applicationfor teachers and students.An appropriate engineering activity integrated into regular school curriculum can have two majorresults: first, teachers become able to see how engineering can compliment and tie togethertraditional classroom content. When shown how engineering and computer science content canfit into existing lesson plans, teachers become more ready to use the this material, which enrichesstudents’ educational experiences. The second major result of integrating engineering activitiesis that students are shown how engineering relates theoretical science, mathematics, socialstudies, and language arts material being taught. Quite simply, engineering often providesrelevance to students, a factor often lost in

Conference Session

Women in Engineering: A Potpourri

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Monica Bruning

roles, (c) sharing the objective of the research – to identify how girls explore andcome to know engineering profession (what is seen, heard, and discovered), (d) brainstormingideas and research methods and (e) planning data collection. Exploration was encouraged,however, a timeframe and general timeline was agreed upon.Data CollectionAt the Engineering Career Expo held on the researcher’s university campus, all participants’tape-recorded their interviews with company representatives as well as their own personalcomments and observations. To assure the participants are familiar with the purpose of the Expoand floor layout of event including the locations of the companies, background materials aboutthe event were reviewed in advance. I served as

Conference Session

Improving Statics and Dynamics Classes

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Christine Masters; Renata Engel

concepts prior to the recitation sessions;iii) efficiency of lecture class time—rather than constructing the notes on the board or overhead Page 7.1015.1the lecture instructor spent class time emphasizing certain details in the notes, offering alternateexplanations, elaborating on subtleties, and connecting the notes to experience. Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering EducationWe recognized during the planning stages of the course that this method of delivery wouldprovide some opportunities for

Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Computer ET

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Anthony Trippe

). In line with ABET criteria, itwas decided to develop programming courses which address the unique, specific needs ofET students. Unlike Information Technology or Computer Science students, ET studentsneed to understand hardware and interface issues associated with programming andsoftware development. In addition, it was planned that these courses be structured tobetter prepare RIT’s ET students for success in courses taken later in their programsequence.In June of 2000, the author was assigned responsibility for the development and initialteaching of a three-course C++ technical programming sequence. The courses were to beinitially presented in the classroom environment but that distance learning versions wouldsubsequently be offered.At

Conference Session

Introduction to Engineering Courses

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Brenda Henry Groff; Carlos Pomalaza-Raez

that are then downloaded to the robotcontroller via an infrared link. The third phase of this project is a demonstration of each team’srobot. On the demonstration day, the teams show how their robots perform their assignments in theEngineering and Technology Building’s main lobby. In this way, not only students taking thecourse, but also other students, faculty, and staff have the opportunity to appreciate the projects.Teams are also required to write a project journal and a final report (on a web page) that describesthe planning, design, building, programming, testing, and demonstration of the robot. They areasked to include pictures and diagrams of their robots and programs

Conference Session

Using IT to Enhance Design Education

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Mileta Tomovic; William Szaroletta; Bruce Harding

and faculty to take the first stepto utilize the software in their classes and class work, thereby leveraging the advantages of thispowerful and highly visual CAD system. Subsequently, the intent was to encourage widespreaduse of solid modeling, not only in CAD-based classes requiring creation of technical geometryand/or engineering drawings, but also in other technical classes, non-technical classes or anyexercises, requiring tools for geometry, display, animation, and/or web content creation. Based onthe initial 4-year plan, ultimate success will be indicated when solid modeling use among facultyand students becomes as ubiquitous as spreadsheet use is now.This paper constitutes a follow-up report on the continuation of that initial effort

Conference Session

Teaching Teaming Skills Through Design

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Reid Bailey

Different Action Modes FACT FINDER FOLLOW THROUGH QUICK START IMPLEMENTER probe structure invent build define coordinate risk fix calculate arrange challenge practice specify plan originate construct prove budget devise demonstrate evaluate integrate reform form formalize consolidate improvise

Conference Session

New Information ET Programs

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Gordon Goodman; Edith A. Lawson; C. Richard Helps; Barry Lunt

-topics mentioned (55 in this case), but they wereconsidered minor topics due to their infrequent mention.The remaining topic areas had several sub-topics also, but essentially none with multiplementions. However, further clarification is in order for most of them. The topic area ofHardware: architecture & circuits included such sub-topics as computer hardware andarchitecture, computer storage, and hardware fundamentals. The topic area of User advocacyincluded the sub-topics of user need identification and analysis, system life cycles, applicationintegration, and seeing things from the user’s perspective.The topic area of Enterprise topics included enterprise resource planning, outsourcing, advancedword processing and spreadsheets, and

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Pauline Melgoza

library collection. Given the savingsthat was realized when the IHS database was cancelled, the additional reference staff timerequired to monitor the orders generated by the ILI database is acceptable. Typically, the staffspends less than fours a month on ILI database orders.The money that is left over in the standards account each year will be available to thescience/engineering reference unit for current or future purchases. This year the library plans tospend the money in purchasing current ‘hot issues’ standards such as those that deal withlifelines, structural integrity, and anything else that may be pertinent to the issues presented bythe events of September 11. In addition, the teaching faculty will be asked to identify standardsthat will

Conference Session

Accreditation and Related Issues in ECE

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeff Jalkio

demonstrated level of performance in most cases. As aresult, this rubric would result in prohibitive levels of effort on the part of an instructor if theinstructor had to determine the level of mastery demonstrated by each student.The second issue, that of course level assessment, has been discussed in the literatureconsiderably in recent years. It is critical for the formation of any meaningful plan for thecontinuous improvement of our courses, as well as being a crucial portion of the programassessment required by ABET. Many assessment instruments have been discussed in theliterature4 and their advantages and disadvantages have been weighed. A number of schoolshave considered student portfolios as a tool for documenting student achievement of

Conference Session

Educational Opportunities in Engr. Abroad

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Heidi Loshbaugh

receive classroom instruct ion, meetregularly with faculty members—known in the program as mentors—spend long hours in thefield, and work closely with teammates to develop a solution to the team’s project.Students make 3 presentations to their clients; the final presentation is open to the public. Thepresentations routinely take up to 1 hour, both for delivery of information and for exchanges withthe client. Teams are also responsible for 3 technical reports: a project plan developing thestrategy the students intend to follow to solve their assigned problem; a component breakdown inwhich individual students discuss their particular area of expertise within the larger project; and afinal report, detailing the team’s analysis, actions, and

Conference Session

Techniques for Improving Teaching

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Beth Todd

hiring entry-level engineers. A coupleof sample student resumes for John N. Gine and Sally R. Tide are included with the module, sothat students can compare what John or Sally have to offer with what may be required in anentry-level position. An active learning exercise is given to plan for the types of professionaldevelopment John or Sally need to be more competitive in the job market. The students areasked to go through a similar exercise with their own resume and begin to plan their own careerdevelopment.Additional MaterialThe instructor’s guide describes the three class periods, active learning exercises, and homeworkassignments discussed above in much greater detail. It concludes with a discussion of gradingrubrics for in-class and homework

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Nashwan Younis

programs were required to have an assessment plan to measure theeffectiveness of the programs. This has been replaced by criteria 2 and 3 of the EC2000.Criterion 2 requires that each program to have educational objectives that are consistent with themission of the institution and EC2000. These objectives should address one or more needs ofone or more constituencies. Furthermore, the objectives are understandable by the constituencyaddressed.After approving the educational objectives of a program, educators are required by ABET criteria3 to establish the program outcomes. The outcomes should describe an area of knowledge that aperson can possess, be stated such that a student can demonstrate before graduation, and besupportive of one or more

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Yves Van Hoenacker; Philippe Micheau; Patrik Doucet; Patrice Masson; Jean Lapointe; Aymeric Kron

definition of the required additional outputs at the design reviews in the IMC 900 and IMC 906 (Design Project I and II courses), and the production of templates for the planning of the major design project activities for the conceptual design stage and for the preliminary design stage of the PDP.ConclusionsAs the project to unify the approaches to engineering design unfolds, the advantages to futurestudents become obvious. The benefits to the Faculty members involved in the supervision ofthe major design project are clear: a better understanding of each other discipline and anincreased confidence in the supervision of the design of complex systems. It is also clear that theproject will not come to an end with the implementation of the

Conference Session

Design, Assessment, and Curriculum

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Myron (Ron) Britton

containingdetailed instructions is posted on the NSERC Web site.Review ProceduresAll eligible applications will be sent out for external review. A Selection Panel, comprised ofdesign experts from academia and industry, will rank the proposals and make the finalrecommendations to NSERC.Selection CriteriaApplications will be evaluated on the basis of the quality of the candidate, the impact of theuniversity design strategy, and the relevance and creativity demonstrated by the action plan inachieving the program goals. Detailed criteria are described in the program’s Guide forApplicants posted on the NSERC Web site. Page 7.628.8 Proceedings of the 2002

Conference Session

Computers in Education Poster Session

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas Morel; Jerry Schumacher; Ed Mattison

can request a PDA to personally use. Faculty whoteach the introduction to computing course that all freshmen must take are highly encouraged touse a PDA. Instructors can also sign out additional PDAs, folding keyboards, GPS modules,camera expansion modules, and wireless ethernet modules for classroom projects, exercises, anddemonstrations. The department has also set up a wireless network so that students in computingcourses can access the school’s local area network and the Internet wirelessly. The department’swireless network is part of the school’s plan to eventually interconnect the entire campus via awireless network.3. Motivation Despite the fact that all freshmen have PDAs, we found that, for the most part, thefreshmen were

Conference Session

Laptop/Handheld Computing in Education

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Brent Campbell

Session 1620 Incorporating laptop computers into the classroom takes more planning on the part of theinstructor and makes classroom management more challenging. Given the potential distractionthat the computer can create, the instructor must be well prepared to present a smooth, coherentlesson. There are two different approaches to the use of the computers in the classroom that havebeen discussed in detailed articles lately. In the approach adopted by Poindexter at NMU, shecut down on the amount of lecture, but did not have students focus 100% of their attention to thecomputer screen.2 The instructors at the University of Kentucky opted to modify their teachingformat by presenting all of the notes, discussion and problems through the

Conference Session

Using IT to Enhance Design Education

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Harwood; David Shaw

students in teamwork and leadership skills, so that they can conduct themselves in the work place according to Biblical principles, function well in project teams, communicate honestly and effectively, plan, schedule, and accomplish tasks effectively, and with experience assume increasing levels of responsibility.• To familiarize students with state-of-the-art engineering equipment and methods, so that they are able to design appropriate experiments including data acquisition and analysis, to select and specify appropriate laboratory procedures, to utilize and develop appropriate software tools, and to interpret computer output wisely

Conference Session

Pre-College Programs

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Mooney

curriculum characteristics, and lessons Page 7.1135.1 “Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education”learned. The paper also provides examples of AE curricula and touches on assessmentresults.Adventure Based CurriculumIn response to the well-chronicled science and mathematics skill deficiencies in ournations primary and secondary school students, the National Science EducationStandards2 recommended that teachers of science should plan an inquiry-based scienceprogram for their students, guide and facilitate learning

Conference Session

ET Graduate Education

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Niaz Latif; Michael Dyrenfurth

business, industry, orgovernment experience is required to become eligible for admission into this graduate programand documentation of this substitutes for the typically required GRE or GMAT score. Inaddition, all of the School’s other graduate admission criteria, e.g., 3.0 minimum GPA; must bemet.Evaluation DesignThe evaluation plan for the Weekend Masters Degree Program (WMP) is based on a synthesis oftwo powerful evaluation models, namely the Context-Input-Process-Product (CIPP) byStufflebeam (2000) and 360° evaluation. Key principles from each model served to shape theevaluative design evolved by the authors and overviewed in Figure 1. Additionally, becausemultiple cohorts existed, and because they formed an overlapping time series, the

Conference Session

New Ideas

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Patrick Tebbe

the final resultwill be given directly to contractors for implementation. A third student, who also interned at theplant for one semester, is currently working on a senior project to help develop part of an energymanagement plan for campus. Whereas the first two students are mechanical engineering majorsthis student is in management engineering. The American Power Conference (APC) is held annually in Chicago, IL. In conjunction with Page 7.1186.3the conference the Sponsored Student Faculty (SSF) program allows students and faculty toattend conference sessions and activities designed to expose students to the energy industry.These

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Leroy Oberto; Sheryl Sorby

againexchanged documents with another team and now all teams were told that they were“Contractors.” Their job was to use the plans given to them by the engineers, develop a costestimate based on unit prices for LEGOs, procure the materials required to construct the project, Page 7.752.3and then to build it as the engineers and owners looked on. The teacher acted as the supplier andContractor teams were sometimes chagrined to find out that yellow LEGOs were sold in lots offive not three, etc. After construction of all projects, class discussion followed.The second project that students completed involved the design, construction and

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Bernhardt; Paul Imhoff; Michael Pearlman; Diane Kukich; Darren O'Neill; Michael Chajes

government and developtechniques for meeting these readers’ needs through documents. Writing is looked at as aproblem-solving process that parallels the problem-solving strategies of engineers and scientists. In most sections, students use computers to retrieve information, to write and print theirassignments, and to create graphics. Students from a variety of science, engineering, andbusiness majors typically take the course at the same time, and the assignments includestandardized types of writing such as instructions, project plans, definition papers, persuasiveletters, briefing reports, proposals, press releases, and trip reports.Although these categories are generally representative of the types of writing required in theworkplace, they are

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Roberta Madison; Gloria Melara; Robert Lingard

that some type of reward is necessary toencourage students to complete the post test. Giving some credit towards the course grade forparticipation in both the pre and post tests might be an appropriate reward. This issue will beexamined further in the next study.Our future plans are to develop a specific evaluation instrument for CS 100 and to conduct acomprehensive assessment for this basic level of computer literacy. We also plan to review theengineering curriculum, identify computer skills and knowledge needed at this level, andappropriately modify the basic computer literacy assessment instrument for the field ofengineering. We will then use this assessment vehicle to evaluate our success in preparingengineering students with the computer

Conference Session

Reaching Out to the Community

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Kirshen; John Durant; Chris Swan

with the site include a community group and theirlegal support; the owner and potential developer; an engineering consultant; and MassachusettsDepartment of Environmental Protection. The major conflict: potential end use. The communitywould like to see a few homes with a significant portion of these homes being affordable. Theowner would like to have more homes with a lower percentage of them classified as affordablehouses. The major end product of the project was a design report of how to better develop the sitefor residential use with additional remedial measures. However, during the project, the studentsfound themselves acting as technical liaisons and advocates for community. They reviewed thedeveloper’s plans, provided criticism to

Conference Session

Teaching Materials Sci&Eng to Non-Majors

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

David Bahr

has now been offered three times.The General Education Program at WSU is an integrated program where students complete abroad program of study in the Arts and Humanities, Social Science, and Sciences. The Tier IIIcourses are only open to students who have completed at least 60 credit hours of course workand their Tier I and Tier II course requirements. The role of Tier III courses is that they provide ahigh level of discussion and research in a general education area, but do not require pre-requisites in the course area.In this paper we will describe § The rationale for the development of this course, § The topics that are covered, § The way the course is taught, § Student feedback, and § Plans for the future.The importance of

Conference Session

Use of Labs to Introduce Students to Engr.

Collection

2002 Annual Conference

Authors

Fan Lau; Kathryn Hollar; Eric Constans; Kauser Jahan; Bernard Pietrucha; Paris von Lockette; Linda Head

the proposed designs and construct and test a robot capable of carrying out the assigned tasks.Teams composed of robot and MFC subteams submitted periodic progress reports that addressedsafety, project planning, design “brainstorming,” and individual responsibilities. Additionaldeliverables included a midterm design proposal that presented robot and microbial fuel celldesigns and a final Scientific American-type paper explaining the concepts behind the project andapplications for this technology. The project culminated in a final “BugBot Rally,” in which therobots were loaded with the batteries charged by the MFCs, and navigated segments of a maze insequence, with one team’s robot passing a tennis ball to another team’s robot, and so