Conference Session

Engineering Physics & Physics Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey A. Jalkio, University of St. Thomas; Brianna R. McIntyre, University of St. Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

computational problems used, the difficultiesencountered by both the students and the instructor and ideas for both improving the exercisesand addressing the issues identified.IntroductionIn 2012 our department engaged in an effort to integrate computational and experimentalproblems into our upper division curriculum in a number of classes that traditionally lack labsand are more analytical in nature1. These classes include quantum mechanics, theoreticalmechanics and electromagnetics. While the intent was to change courses for physics majors,most of the students in the electromagnetics course are electrical engineering majors at ourinstitution. Therefore, we tried to find computational and experimental problems for that coursewhich would interest the

Conference Session

Engineering Physics & Physics Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Scott Ryan Kirkpatrick, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Maarij M. Syed, Rose-Hulman Institute of Tech; Richard W. Liptak, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 5500 Wabash Ave, Terre Haute, Indiana, 47803 1. Abstract Engineering Physics (EP), at its core, is a multidisciplinary approach to solving problemsthat require insights from various traditional disciplines. The EP curriculum at Rose-HulmanInstitute of Technology strives to foster this multidisciplinary approach by incorporating studentprojects that require integrating concepts and principles from various fields into a meaningfulapproach toward a realistic solution. These projects, ideally involve a design / problemstatement, a fabrication step, and a testing or characterization stage. As an example of such anapproach, a new lab is proposed to provide students with an

Conference Session

Engineering Physics & Physics Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wenli Guo, Queensborough Community College; Vazgen Shekoyan, Queensborough Community College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

, particularly on low-achievement students, who are led to believe that they lack ability and so are not able to learn.Therefore, it is urgent and important to find practical ways to improve assessment methods andutilize them to better serve students’ needs. The integration of instruction, learning andassessment should be emphasized.Fortunately there has been some active research regarding how formative assessments cansupport learning, improve outcomes and actualize the drive for lifelong learning. (Clark, 2012)These research are mainly carried out in disciplines such as English (Wei, 2010), Criminology(Gijbels, 2006), Medical curriculum (Weurlander 2012) or conducted with Primary andSecondary learners (McLaren 2012). Some inside classroom formative

Conference Session

Engineering Physics & Physics Division Technical Session 1

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yumin Zhang, Southeast Missouri State University; David K. Probst P.E., Southeast Missouri State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

, mathematics is the toughest, as it takesconsiderable time and effort to learn. In our school, the background of students is very diverse,and some of them even have trouble in doing simple integrals. Fortunately, technology comes tothe rescue. SAGE© is an open source symbolic computation tool, and it can be used for symbolicderivation, so every student can find the derivative, integral, and even gradient of functionseasily. In addition, it also supports programming in Python© style. With the challenge ofmathematics alleviated, more time is available to cope with the challenges of other issues, suchas new concepts and approaches. At the end of the semester, students were tested withConceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism, as well as surveyed on

Conference Session

Engineering Physics & Physics Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harold T. Evensen, University of Wisconsin, Platteville

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

regularly identify this course as one of the strengths of theEngineering Physics curriculum. Their comments indicate that the goals of the course are beingmet. These goals include: • Learning about a variety of common sensors and their implementation, including sensor terminology. • Developing an electronics skill set to pull information from the sensors; • Developing laboratory skills, such as experiment design and implementation, troubleshooting, and reporting; • Learning and applying a new programming language (VB6) to communicate with external equipment (the DAQ), interpret sensor signals, and “make decisions” based on the sensor output.Programming Languages in Sensor LabThe Sensor Lab has used VB6 since its inception in