Conference Session

Why Industry Says that our Engineering Students Cannot Write

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William K. Durfee, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Benjamin Adams, University of Minnesota; Audrey J. Appelsies, University of Minnesota; Pamela Flash, University of Minnesota

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Mechanical Engineering

three-phase WEC process is (1) to develop awriting plan based on discipline-specific writing outcomes desired for graduating majors, (2)implement the plan and (2) assess the plan and revise based on the assessment. The plan formechanical engineering defined nine attributes of mechanical engineering writing and 14 desiredwriting ability outcomes for graduating majors. Stakeholders agreed that problem sets were thenumber one form of writing for engineering students and that attention paid to writing a problemset would help students to learn the material. The plan was implemented by targeting three corecourses for explicit writing instruction and raising the awareness of writing in other requiredcourses in the program. Assessment is on-going and

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tom A. Eppes, University of Hartford; Ivana Milanovic, University of Hartford; Frederick Sweitzer, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

engaged in a pluralistic,complex world, we have undertaken a project to develop and assess core liberal educationoutcomes. This paper describes the planning and actions thus far to meet these new requirementsat the university and specifically in our engineering programs. We have begun to expandoutcome assessment to include five “intellectual and practical skills,” specifically, critical andcreative thinking, inquiry/analysis, problem-solving, and information literacy. VALUE rubricsare being used as part of the process to ascertain where the best opportunities are to measurestudent achievement within the engineering and technology programs. An assessment frameworkis presented and successful pilot results are discussed.The ChallengeOur regional

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donald Arthur Brown, Penn State University ; Mary Lynn Brannon, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

. This feedback will be used to improve the module for thethird year. Feedback from faculty was positive. Because the training was a modeled afterthe lecture participants periodically stopped the presenter to give just-in-time comments.It was important to have their perspective because the training module was to ultimatelybe used as a standalone lesson plan. We wanted the faculty to be able to take the lessonplan and adapt it to their courses using it in its entirety or using segments as wereapplicable to their content.Design of the ProgramThe program consists of two modules. Module 1 is the teaching module on the ethics of Page 22.906.4climate change

Conference Session

Communication: From Pecha Kucha to Bullets

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth R. Leitch, West Texas A&M University; Rhonda B Dittfurth, West Texas A&M University; Freddie J Davis P.E., West Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

effectively to accomplish a project or assignment.7 I can create and give a technical presentation using notes, a whiteboard/blackboard, visual displays, and/or presentation program such as Microsoft PowerPoint ®.8 I plan to pursue a career in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) field when I complete my university education.Table 1: Technical Communication Quantitative Survey QuestionsThe ENGR 1201, ENGR 1171, and ET 2371 courses were all surveyed at the start and end of the Fall 2010 semesterinstruction period. Figures 1 and 2 show the results for the combined three courses and for ENGR 1201 by itself,respectively. The three courses together cover a wide range of

Conference Session

Making Students Aware of Their World: Five Perspectives

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nadia N. Kellam, University of Georgia; Tracie Costantino, University of Georgia; Joachim Walther, University of Georgia; Nicki Wendy Sochacka, University of Georgia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

narrative analysis[22, 23] of student reflections written by eachstudent after participating in multiple reflective activities over the course of one semester. In theinitial research design we planned to conduct an interpretive, phenomenological study in whichwe planned to code the students’ process reflections as emotions and triggers. However, after thefirst iteration of coding the data as emotions and triggers in NVivo (a qualitative researchsoftware that allows for highlighting and coding text electronically) the researchers noticedsomething unexpected. In the students’ process reflections the students described their emotionsthrough telling a story. Their emotions were often described as changing through the course of aproject or a specific

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vassilios Tzouanas, University of Houston, Downtown; Lea Campbell, University of Houston, Downtown

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

internal team leadership needed toresolve common behaviors within dysfunctional teams. While no new theoretical results onteamwork are presented, the authors have focused instead on applying their experience asmanagers of teams in major corporations and institutions of higher education to explore what aneffective teaming curriculum might include and to develop related assessment tools. This paperoutlines a strategy for integrating deliberate teaming instruction into senior-level engineeringcapstone or project courses. The curriculum focuses on building team leadership skills andtechniques for addressing challenges such as planning and execution, social loafing, andprocrastination. Models for assessing students‟ teaming skills and for providing

Conference Session

Myths About Gender and Race

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peggy Layne, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering

personal path led me from a [university] BS/MS in 1969/70 to industry experience in [state]. After balancing family obligations and career motivation in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I returned to school and received my PhD from [different university] in 1985. My continued commitment to education led me to the newly created chemical engineering department at [another university] in 1986, where I started as an assistant professor just before turning 40.” – Diane Dorland, dean, Rowan UniversitySally Ann Keller gained leadership experience at the National Science Foundation and LosAlamos National Laboratory before becoming dean: “When I look back on my career, I can honestly say I did not spend much time planning

Conference Session

Rethinking PowerPoint and Other Acts of Communication

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

April A. Kedrowicz, University of Utah; Maria Dawn Blevins, University of Utah

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

a situated, incremental curriculum plan in all seven departments in the college. Her responsibilities include faculty development (she has facilitated numer- ous college-wide workshops), TA training (approximately 15 graduate students from the Humanities work with CLEAR to develop the communication competence of engineering undergraduates), programmatic and basic research, instructional development, and assessment. Dr. Kedrowicz received her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Utah in 2005. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Organizational and Corporate Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.Maria Dawn Blevins, University of Utah Department of Communication

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kacey Beddoes, Virginia Tech; Maura J. Borrego, Virginia Tech; Brent K Jesiek, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

take other team members’ dissertation research intoaccount when planning their own dissertation research, even if it was on a different part of thesystem. For example, students whose focus was on the media aspects of the system needed toexplain to students from engineering why one kind of sensing mechanism would be preferable,more interesting or innovative than another kind, vis-à-vis the media fields in which theirresearch was situated. Inclusion artifacts were therefore used to suggest a certain design plan orfeature because the kind of sensing mechanism chosen would affect the work of everyone on theteam. In other words, students from the media fields could not make a choice of sensingmechanism without convincing the other team members to

Conference Session

Communication: From Pecha Kucha to Bullets

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Micah Hale, University of Arkansas; Richard A. Coffman, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

forwhich they were responsible for reviewing.PresentationsThe student presentations were similar to many conference presentations I have witnessed. Eventhough the class discussed presentation etiquette prior to the presentations, the majority of thestudents exceeded the 20 minute time limit, and there were presenters who also read every slide.RecommendationsThere are Universities that require a technical writing course in their graduate engineeringcurriculum. From conversations will fellow faculty at peer institutions, the course content canvary significantly. However, a course dedicated to technical writing best addresses writing thana graduate subject matter course. Future plans include gathering faculty input regarding thetopics of such a

Conference Session

Myths About Gender and Race

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carroll Suzanne Seron, University of California, Irvine; Erin A. Cech, University of California, San Diego; Susan S. Silbey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Brian Rubineau, Cornell University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering

about essentialism, meritocracy, individualism,and exceptionalism trump the opportunity to take a feminist critique to its logical conclusion.We end by exploring the irony of their simultaneous adherence to and rejection of feministcritiques of engineering.IntroductionAt each career stage, engineering is persistently white and male.1 Whether in the classroom2,3 orthe workplace,4,5 research continues to show that women confront a “chilly climate”6,7 wherethey experience token status.8 At the stage of credential acquisition, where engineers encounterprofessional socialization for the first time and earn their degree, research has also shown thatthis climate has consequences for women‟s career plans, whether measured by the likelihood oftheir

Conference Session

Communication: From Pecha Kucha to Bullets

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Isabel Simões de Carvalho P.E., ISEL, Lisbon, Portugal; Christy Moore, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

students develop effective written andoral communication. In the summer of 2010, Professor Moore taught a modified versionof that course in Santander, Spain. The course was offered to UT Engineering students aspart of a larger UT study abroad program that takes up to 50 biology, engineering, andbusiness students to Spain for a 6-week course of study. The program is especiallybeneficial to engineering students who are not always accommodated by study abroadprograms which often only offer liberal arts courses that do not allow engineeringstudents to progress in their programs. Engineering Communication has proved to be anexcellent course for study abroad because it allows students the opportunity to complete arequired course in their degree plan

Conference Session

Liberal Education Revisited: Five Historical Perspectives

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College, Dublin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

responsibility for trainingthe first group belonged to the universities and for the second group to the technical colleges.The Committee criticised day release and evening study because it gave too little attention to thefundamental sciences in the earlier stages. It not only thought that 1500 engineers per annumshould be trained to the highest level in the technical colleges but that the aggregate length of theacademic course should be the same as that of a university programme, and that it should beinterwoven with a planned course of works practice. The sandwich (cooperative) courses thatemerged were a refinement of this principle and occupied four years of interwoven academicstudy and work experience.1000 of the 1500 would be educated via the higher

Conference Session

Rethinking PowerPoint and Other Acts of Communication

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine G. Nicometo, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Traci M. Nathans-Kelly, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Council also listed these same skills as critical for the future ofengineering, noting attributes that a “global engineer” should possess.6 Similarly, theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers posited the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge Page 22.875.2for the 21st Century 7 that echoed these sentiments and demands from undergraduateengineering programs.Other studies that focused on engineering skills highlight attributes that might not betypically considered in a description of general engineering work or in a plan foreducation. For example, Trevelyan observed a key attribute of effective engineers asbeing the ability to work with and influence “other

Conference Session

Special Session: Moving Towards the Intended, Explicit, and Authentic: Addressing Critical Misalignments in Engineering Learning within Secondary and University Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Anderson, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Sandra Shaw Courter, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Mitchell J. Nathan, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Amy C. Prevost, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Christine G. Nicometo, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Traci M. Nathans-Kelly, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Thomas Dean McGlamery, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Amy K. Atwood, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods, K-12 & Pre-College Engineering, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

and engineeringconcepts and skills. We identified four areas of analysis for each of the three curricula.From the student materials, we analyzed the planning materials, activities andassessments. From the teacher training materials, we looked at what teachers werepresented with at the official summer training institutes (Table 1). Our content analysisfocused on examining the content of the materials. We recorded the number of NCTMmathematics standards specifically connected to the engineering curriculum for each unit(Prevost et al., 2009). Page 22.1318.4 3Table 1: Materials for Analysis

Conference Session

Making Students Aware of Their World: Five Perspectives

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary Lee Downey, Virginia Tech; Masanori Wada, Tokyo Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

 intellectuals,  that  the  territory  of  the  Empire  must  expand  to  provide  resources  and  markets.   By  the  1920s,  a  clear  hierarchy  of  technical  schools  served  a  hierarchy  of  employment.  Formally  it  drew  ideas  and  plans  from  the  Prussians  who  were  building  a  hierarchy  of  technical  schools.  But  while  the  Prussians  were  expanding  the  population  of  those  who  could  emancipate  German  spirit  via  Techniks  (Downey  and  Lucena  2004),  the  Japanese  were  expanding  the  population  of  those  who  would  increase  strength  through  exports  and  military  hardware.   The  elites  completed  six  years  of  elementary  school,  four  years  of  middle  school,  three

Conference Session

Ethical Perspectives on the Grand Challenges of Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy E. Slaton, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

engineering "Grand Challenges" lately developed by the National Academy ofEngineering enter a long historical tradition of such epically scaled to-do lists, dating back to theprofession's origins in the mid-nineteenth century. The mission statements, codes of ethics, and,later, lists of so-called grand challenges that have issued from engineering societies have servedthe dual function of directing engineers' work and supporting particular cultural roles for thesebodies of experts. Almost all such plans, regardless of period or sponsoring body, have alsoblended highly practical aims of industrial and infrastructural development with more inchoateprojects of societal uplift. The Grand Challenges of the NAE, currently playing a formative rolein many

Conference Session

Why Industry Says that our Engineering Students Cannot Write

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Scott Duncan, Valparaiso University; Mark M. Budnik, Valparaiso University; Jeffrey Will, Valparaiso University; Peter E. Johnson, Valparaiso University; Shahin S. Nudehi, Valparaiso University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Mechanical Engineering

criticalsubsystem.Oral Progress Reports: As individuals, students provide a five minute presentation that updatesthe course participants on the status of their team's project. A question and answer periodfollows the presentation.Semester 2Project Status Reports: As individuals, students write and review a one page technical report thatsummarizes the status of their project.Milestone Demonstration: As a team, students manufacture and present a prototype of a criticalsubsystem.Final Test Plan: As a team, students develop a test plan for their system that assures all systemdesign requirements have been met if the system passes all tests.Video: As a team, students develop a five minute video that summarizes their entire project.Poster: As a team, students create a

Conference Session

Communication: From Pecha Kucha to Bullets

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sandra Soto-Caban, Muskingum University; Emre Selvi, Muskingum University; Ferdinand Avila-Medina, Ohio State University, Newark

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

a planned frequently returns time reads most of no eye contact. Page 22.831.12 conversation. to notes. report. Encourages Encourages Avoids or audience audience Reluctantly interacts discourages active interaction. Calls interaction. with audience. audience on classmates by

Conference Session

Why Industry Says that our Engineering Students Cannot Write

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Conrad, Portland State University; Timothy James Pfeiffer P.E., Foundation Engineering, Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Mechanical Engineering

. Student PractitionerMain GenresReports 86 74 Cover letters with reports 18 18Technical memoranda 51 27Proposals 20 20Project-related e-mails 16 120Lab reports 105 N/AEssays on an engr topic 42 N/ASite visit reports 44 20Additional practitioner genres: Plan sheet notes, Special provisionsTable 1. Corpus of Student and Workplace Texts in Civil Engineering as of January 2011 Page 22.1169.4The passive voice analysis was

Conference Session

Liberal Education Revisited: Five Historical Perspectives

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

humanistic courses extending throughout an engineering student‟sundergraduate years.6In 1940 and 1944 there were then the two Hammond Reports, the first on the “Aims and Scopeof Engineering Curricula,” and the second for planning the postwar reconversion of engineeringeducation at the end of World War II.7 The 1940 report was responsible for giving articulation tothe notion of there being parallel scientific-technological and humanistic-social “stems” inengineering education. As important, it defined a specific set of objectives for the humanistic-social portion of the curriculum (as well as for the scientific-technological portion), establishinga learning outcomes based model of education within the engineering education community thatwould be

Conference Session

Rethinking PowerPoint and Other Acts of Communication

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laura R. Grossenbacher, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Christina Matta, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Technical Communication Program

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

, students do not immediately see the relevance of the skills that they’vedeveloped in a previous course because they are struggling to understand the new context.Understanding how previously learned skills apply to that new context becomes a secondaryconcern. Of course, some students will see the patterns and leap that skills gap themselves, but agood number of them may need help recognizing the pattern and seeing its relevance in the newcontext.Skills transfer of any kind can be complicated by unpredictable enrollment patterns and bystudent tendencies to compartmentalize their education. The pre-requisites for our upper-levelcommunication course and advising/course plans try to mandate that students enroll in ourTechnical Communication course in

Conference Session

Ethical Perspectives on the Grand Challenges of Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna M Riley, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

, work that critically examines the ethicsof the Grand Challenges has so far been rare. In this paper, examining the process surroundingthe framing of the Grand Challenges generates a series of ethical questions about both thespecifics of the Challenges and the processes that gave rise to them. The outcomes of this inquiryinclude a set of research questions for scholars in engineering ethics and engineering studies, anda Grand Challenges lesson plan for classroom implementation that focuses students on the ethicsof problem framing, and the consideration of social questions as an integral part of professionalethics.IntroductionSince the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) first publicly articulated the GrandChallenges in 2008, engineering

Conference Session

Making Students Aware of Their World: Five Perspectives

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Warren N. Waggenspack Jr., Louisiana State University; Warren R. Hull, Louisiana State University; David Bowles, Louisiana State University; Sarah Liggett, Louisiana State University; Stephen O. Sears, Louisiana State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

graduatelevel. We propose to capitalize upon this diversity by building team-oriented Capstoneassignments that require students to seek opinions and guidance from these graduate studentsregarding completing projects in their home countries. Teams will then report their learnedexperiences to the class in a communication method already well established in our Capstonecourses. Of course, development of the assignments and the logistics of involving internationalgraduate students must be well planned to succeed.As mentioned previously, our alumni survey was intended to help guide our efforts in itspreliminary stages; however, as we undertake the development of assignments, we will alsoconduct a more detailed alumni survey. The design of this survey is

Conference Session

Liberal Education Revisited: Five Historical Perspectives

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Keith E. Hedges, Drury University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

conclusion, consider real-time disasterinquiries as an opportunity for broader implications where, “Education is for improving the livesof others and for leaving your community and world better than what you found it.”[26]Bibliography[1] Alexander, R. (Ed.). (1960, March 28). Sport: Poet of the depths [Electronic version]. TIME, LXXV(13).[2] Bilham. R. (2010, February 18). Lessons from the Haiti earthquake. Nature, (463), 878-879.[3] Creswell, J. W. (2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.[4] Connelly, F. M. & Clandinin, D, J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry [Electronic version

Conference Session

Ethical Perspectives on the Grand Challenges of Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Xiaofeng Tang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

engineering, littleattention is paid in engineering education to the actual indices being optimized. Response time,productivity, cost are all worthy of making more efficient in general terms, but in specificevaluations, each index is abstracted from a complex socio-technical context wherein competingindicators exist. For example, is labor productivity to be measured by work-hour, by overalllabor cost, or by physical work extended by laborers? By opening technical efficiency toanalytic scrutiny, students might learn a more comprehensive way of planning, conducting, andassessing engineering projects. The easy distinction between technical and social facets ofefficiency calculations makes little sense through the lens of the lifelong-learning framework

Conference Session

Making Students Aware of Their World: Five Perspectives

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cherrice Traver, Union College; Douglass Klein, Union College; Borjana Mikic, Smith College; Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Steven B. Shooter, Bucknell University; Ari W. Epstein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; David Gillette, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

with real-world impact in partnership with local community organizations. Union College (Hal Fried, Ron Bucinell): Engineering and liberal arts student form design teams based on engineering senior projects. Teams explore the potential for commercialization and social entrepreneurship, and participate in business plan competitions.18The integrated approach to capstone and extracurricular projects requires students to understanddifferent perspectives and apply them to solve complex problems. Students should alsodemonstrate interpersonal, leadership, and cross-disciplinary communication skills when theyinteract on diverse teams. Projects that focus on entrepreneurship require that studentsunderstand what it means to be an entrepreneur and

Conference Session

Myths About Gender and Race

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alice L. Pawley, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jordana Hoegh, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering