Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Walsh, California Polytechnic State University; Stacey Breitenbach, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

a Law andSociety Concentration. The fifth concentration was essentially a venue that provided freedom Page 12.8.4for student self-determination and a curricular flexibility that acknowledged the existence ofpertinent tracks neither proscribed nor envisioned by the program developers.Program UniquenessThe proposed program is unique to the institution, and the general geographic area. It draws uponCal Poly’s unique character of “learn by doing,” culminating in a multidisciplinary service learningor other group project. Another unique feature of the proposed program is that is has severalconcentrations designed to prepare students for careers in

Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Richard House, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Anneliese Watt, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Professional Communication course at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where she has taught since 1999. Previous research has included the Professional Engineering Genres Project, and her focuses include engineering communication and rhetorical analysis. She is currently serving as Program Co-Chair for the IEEE Professional Communication Society Conference (IPCC 2009). Page 14.340.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 Communication Pedagogy in the Engineering Classroom: A Report on Faculty Practices and PerceptionsAbstractThe purpose of this project was to analyze

Conference Session

Normative Commitments and Public Engagement in Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary Downey, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

do the normative commitments of international engineeringeducators fit or overlap with the emergent image of economic competitiveness?Personal geographies to map differences I and three co-organizers (Kacey Beddoes [Virginia Tech], Brent Jesiek [Purdue University],Juan Lucena [Colorado School of Mines]) invited sixteen international engineering educators toparticipate in a multi-step process to produce personal geographies of their careers. Since a goalof this project is to examine how practitioners understand their commitments to internationalengineering education, we worked with a flexible image of international education as learningactivities that direct students’ attention beyond the boundaries of the home country.Mapping trajectories

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Byron Newberry, Baylor University; William Lawson, Texas Tech University; Kathy Austin, Texas Tech University; Greta Gorsuch, Texas Tech University; Thomas Darwin, University of Texas at Austin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

. Gorsuch, Ed.D. Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Second Language Studies, Texas Tech UniversityThomas Darwin, University of Texas at Austin Thomas Darwin, Ph.D. Director, Professional Development & Community Engagement, The Graduate School, The University of Texas at Austin Page 13.372.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Design of Web-based Professional Ethics Modules to Alleviate Acculturation Barriers for International Graduate Students in EngineeringAbstractThis paper reports on an ongoing National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored research andeducation project.1 In recent years

Conference Session

Thinking around the Bachelor of Arts in Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sharon Jones, Lafayette College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Technology, Union College’s Converging Technologies Program o Provides engineering courses for non-engineers in an effort to improve technological literacy.Multidisciplinary Engineering and Liberal Arts:• Project, research, and seminar courses that enroll multiple majors o E.g. Purdue University’s EPICS Program (project-based service-learning course with students of different majors), University of Maryland’s Gemstone Program (multidisciplinary four-year program for selected undergraduate honors students of all majors who design, direct and conduct research exploring the interdependence of science and technology with society as part of a living-learning community), Union College’s

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristyn Masters, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Sarah Pfatteicher, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

An example problem You are working in a lab on a project that involves the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) – your research project is to study cellular differentiation in order to better understand and control its mechanisms. You are NIH-funded, meaning that you are constrained to using only the federally-approved hESC lines. Unfortunately, these cell lines are pretty much unusable, and being constrained to these unusable cells greatly inhibits your research progress, which also significantly hinders your ability to make research advances that will help sick people. You know that others in the lab next door are working with private funds on newer, more usable hESC lines. You doubt that

Conference Session

Historical Perspectives for Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy Slaton, Drexel University; Mary Ebeling, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

optimistic projections about nanotechnological growththat fuel this initiative. In the face of unclear promise about that sector's future, we consider theconsequences of such plans for the most marginalized groups of workers; a sectordisproportionately minority in make-up.To indicate the origins, consequences, and robust nature of such optimism about newtechnologies in American culture, we compare discourse surrounding the PaNMT Partnership toearlier positive invocations of technology as a means of economic uplift. We consider howplanners in Chicago, facing decaying heavy industry and shrinking employment in the 1960s,turned to similarly upbeat depictions of emerging technologies and the post-secondary training ofworkers for that sector. We identify

Conference Session

Innovative Courses/Pedagogies in Liberal Education I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ari Epstein, MIT; Joellen Easton, American Public Media; Rekha Murthy, Public Radio Exchange; Emily Davidson, MIT; Jennifer de Bruijn, MIT; Tracey Hayse, MIT; Elise Hens, MIT; Margaret Lloyd

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

AC 2010-948: HELPING ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE STUDENTS FIND THEIRVOICE: RADIO PRODUCTION AS A WAY TO ENHANCE STUDENTS'COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND THEIR COMPETENCE AT PLACINGENGINEERING AND SCIENCE IN A BROADER SOCIETAL CONTEXTAri Epstein, MIT ARI W. EPSTEIN is a lecturer in the MIT Terrascope program, and also in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is the lead developer and instructor of Terrascope Radio and serves as the director of Terrascope Youth Radio. He is particularly interested in team-oriented, project-based learning, and in bridging the gap between learning in formal academic settings and learning in "free-choice" or "informal" settings, such as museums, media

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II: Practical Perspectives on Teaching and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Luke Niiler; David Beams

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

project gave us a clearerview of why this might be so: first-year students clearly did not understand writing as relevant totheir work as engineers. This understanding was shown to have been augmented somewhat inthe second year of the EWI, when we found that the sophomore-level students surveyed hadbecome increasingly aware of writing not only as a means of transcribing data but also as anintegral factor in learning course material. In their presentation to this meeting in 2006, weunderscored Norback’s belief that because these students are becoming members of “discoursecommunities,” or groups of researchers and practitioners sharing a common language ofexpertise, they should be provided “ample opportunities for ‘situated learning’ within

Conference Session

Writing Is Fundamental

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Murali Krishnamurthi, Northern Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

AC 2009-2425: SCAFFOLDING TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING ENGINEERINGSTUDENTS' WRITING SKILLSMurali Krishnamurthi, Northern Illinois University Murali Krishnamurthi is Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Director of Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at Northern Illinois University. He received his Ph.D in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. His teaching and research interests include project management, information systems, system simulation, optimizaton, expert systems, and engineering education. Page 14.1042.1© American Society for Engineering

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carole Goodson, University of Houston; Susan Miertschin, University of Houston; Barbara Stewart, University of Houston; Luces Faulkenberry, University of Houston; Curtis Johnson, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

boards. The designers of the course experimented withthe addition of virtual components. Hence a pilot project was initiated to create a virtualenvironment within which students could access and interact with the course content. A virtualcampus environment was created with buildings, trees, birds, walking paths, grass, and othercampus-like attributes. Students represent themselves with an avatar and are free to enter abuilding related to a specific course module and select and enter doors labeled for interactiveactivities. Upon entering, they engage in the selected activity. At that point use of the technologyhas led them to an experience with the social science content. Technical fluency and a betterunderstanding of society are outcomes that

Conference Session

Innovative Courses/Pedagogies in Liberal Education I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Layton, DeVry University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

by Literature andHumanities departments. The paper proposes an alternative approach to teaching science fictionclasses, one that treats the class as an interdisciplinary subject, not a primarily literary one. Sucha course would focus on the scientific and technological themes of science fiction rather than onthe literary technique. The paper includes some ideas for class themes, in-class assignments,essays, and team projects, all of which will have students use critical thinking methods forassessing how technology affects their lives.IntroductionThat the human world has become more global and more technical has long been recognized. Apersistent problem from this change has been how to harmonize personal lifestyles withtechnological change

Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College Dublin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Hearsay Man on next project heard that motorX design A passed≠ The two situations are similar but not the sameExhibit 1. T. T. Woodson’s example of Evidence from Legal and Engineering Viewpoints. In Woodson, T. T. (1966) Introduction toEngineering Design. McGraw Hill, New York p 46. Page 15.1.4Nevertheless, it is clear that there is not only a substantial case for curriculum reformalong the lines promoted above but a widespread demand for it all levels of theengineering community. If, however, change is to

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I: Innovative Models for Curriculum and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marie Paretti, Virginia Tech; Lisa McNair, Virginia Tech; Diana George, Virginia Tech; kelly belanger, Virginia Tech; Lisa Norris, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

classroom is student learning anddevelopment. The desired outcome of an engineering design project in the workplace, in contrast,is a product or process the supports the company’s overall profitability and mission. Thus Page 12.1135.3teachers read student writing not because they need to act on the information a given reportincludes, but because they need to determine whether or not the student has mastered the contentand skills the course attempts to teach. In the workplace, managers, clients, and coworkers readreports or listen to presentations to extract information they need in order to perform their jobs.Data from a workplace test becomes the

Conference Session

Learning to Communicate with Engineers and Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Ross, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

glance at the professionals outside of engineering who do make good use of portfolios isuseful. These groups include such professional groups as Educators/Teachers, Consultants,Artists (and related areas), Entrepreneurs, Writers, and Communicators. In addition, numerousbusinesses have found that a portfolio of past projects for future clients is a useful contribution tocredibility. A web search on “portfolios” is useful as is a review of most Education departments,which usually require a teaching portfolio as part of the process of “teaching teachers.”Several warnings are relevant for professional portfolios – and these warnings are based onactual examples. A professional portfolio is NOT a scrapbook. The same level ofprofessionalism and best

Conference Session

Normative Commitments and Public Engagement in Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Catalano, State University of New York, Binghamton; Caroline Baillie, Western Australia; Donna Riley, Smith College; Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Chris Byrne, Cascadia Community College; Margaret Bailey, Rochester Institute of Technology; Katy Haralampides, University of New Brunswick

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Packel and Stan Wagon, Rocky Mountain Mathematica, http://rmm.lfc.edu/ 3. Gini, C. "Variabilitá e mutabilita." 1912. Reprinted in Memorie di metodologia statistica (Ed. E. Pizetti and T. Salvemini.) Rome: Libreria Eredi Virgilio Veschi, 1955. 4. Seth Chandler, "Lorenz Curves and the Gini Coefficient" from The Wolfram Demonstrations Project, http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/LorenzCurvesAndTheGiniCoefficient/ 5. NSPE Code of Ethics, http://www.nspe.org/ethics/index.html 6. Environmental Quality Index, http://ceq.hss.doe.gov/nepa/reports/statistics/ 7. Seth Chandler, "Health-Wealth Tradeoffs" from The Wolfram Demonstrations Project http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/HealthWealthTradeoffs

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Meyer, Clarkson University; Dick Pratt, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

and ethical dilemmas and problems in their future professional, civic and personallives.Professional Experience OutcomesThe professional requirement outcomes are intended to prepare the student along the way towardhis or her professional objectives. As a culminating experience, the professional experiencereinforces these outcomes through project based learning such as a co-op, internship or otherindependent work experience. For the professional experience to be meaningful we expectstudents to develop an appreciation of the need for self-motivated life-long learning asdemonstrated by understanding the need for continuously updating professional skills aftergraduation and learning effectively on their own. As part of the professional experience

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tom Moran, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

them to a physical system.So, getting my head around a three dimensional physical system with a free body diagram aboutit and force vectors, that really turned me on.” he recalls with amusement. He was an avidbicyclist in college and as he began taking mechanical design classes, he turned to his bicycle,looking at it as a machine, isolating every part and analyzing its design and function. For hissenior design project, his team worked with the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) andredesigned an actuator to brake and release a machine gun. “I was proud of myself because Icame up with the concept for our design which instead of a squeeze braking system, used areverse cantilever braking process. We ended up getting the specified braking force using

Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cherrice Traver, Union College; J. Douglas Klein, Union College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

in Education conference. Her teaching interests are in the Computer Engineering area including Digital Design, Embedded Systems, and VLSI. She has co-taught international project courses in Turkey and in Spain. Her research has been focused on timing issues in digital systems. She has directed local and national outreach programs,including Robot Camp and the P. O. Pistilli Scholarship.J. Douglas Klein, Union College J. Douglass Klein is Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies and Special Programs and Professor of Economics at Union College. Klein joined the Union faculty in 1979, after earning a BA in Mathematics at Grinnell College, and a PhD in Economics at the University of Wisconsin

Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Grondin, Arizona State University; Chell Roberts, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

program, the most common answer isthe projects. They wanted a “hands-on” aspect to their education. The next mostcommon answer has to do with the focus on the individual and the comparative size ofthe campus. Some students also like the ability to delay any choice of specialization untilthey are juniors. While we do find some students who are attracted by the flexibility ofthe program, this factor is not mentioned by most students.Development of the Perspective OutcomeThe general process by which we developed the program has been described earlier7. We Page 15.421.6started with the 11 ABET outcomes, the set a through k. Then we added in twoadditional

Conference Session

Writing Is Fundamental

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Beth Richards, University of Hartford; Mohammad Saleh Keshawarz; Hisham Alnajjar, Computer and Electrical

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

2006, the University of Hartford College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, inWest Hartford, Connecticut began a partnership with the Faculty of Engineering at theUniversity of Herat, in Herat City, Afghanistan. The goals of the project are to use a combinationof curriculum revision and development, faculty development, distance learning andcollaborative projects, and local/internal partnerships to establish the Herat University Faculty ofEngineering at the preeminent Engineering program for Western Afghanistan.Once a part of Kabul University, the Faculty of Engineering became a permanent part of HeratUniversity in 2004. After functioning in Kabul for approximately 20 years, the Engineeringprogram was closed following the Soviet

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bradley Rogers, Arizona State University; Dale Palmgren, Arizona State University; Dennis Giever, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Mary Lynn Garcia, Sandia National Laboratories

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

assets from malevolent human attacks. Resources that can be focused onsecurity include hardware and technology, but, most importantly, they include the nation’shuman resources. Higher education contributes to the nation’s security, both through focusedresearch projects that develop hardware and technology and through the development ofeducational programs to produce a generation of leaders that can develop, articulate andimplement solutions to increasingly complex security problems. The availability of funding hasled to an extensive development of research capabilities within universities over the last fiveyears. However, the development of rigorous academic curricula and standards in the securityfield has lagged behind.Since September 2001

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hilkat Soysal, Frostburg State University; Oguz Soysal, Frostburg State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

. A modernsociety cannot function properly if anyone of these components is missing. Figure 1shows the interactions between mathematics, sciences, engineering, and society. Thediagram illustrates the role of engineering as a bridge between basic sciences and societyusing the four basic components. This approach does not distinguish between engineeringdisciplines and highlights the interdisciplinary character of most technologicalapplications.Most of freshman students are somehow familiar with the scientific approach thanks tohigh school science courses and science fair projects. However, the concept of Page 11.651.5engineering design and differences

Conference Session

Redefining the Boundaries of Engineering and Liberal Education: Contributions to the Year of Dialogue

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Grimson, Dublin Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

particular group, community,or class of persons”6. This definition would be identified with, probably, by any engineer incharge of virtually any large project such as, for example, the building of a large hydro-schemein a hitherto untouched and rural valley or building a nuclear power station close to a largeconurbation. In these cases the various classes of persons involved most certainly have differentrealities and society has progressively provided more legislation for the articulation of thoserealities. Engineers have to and indeed do deal with these realities, sometimes much to theirfrustration and that of the sponsor.A few words about deconstructionism which has been controversial, to say the least, withinacademic communities. The underlying

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

, instrumentalsystems are well suited to different kinds of political conditions, especially ones worthsustaining.”8 It is not a new method that is needed, but a whole new approach bridging“political, spatial, and technical dimensions” of design.9 Such inquiry is necessaryinterdisciplinary, since careful understanding of social worlds, technology, and their interactionsis required. Since technology-making is not an end in itself, “It must always be seen in thecontext of broader political debates, goals, projects, and struggles.”10Winner calls his proposed new discipline “political ergonomics,” and he builds a sketch of howpolitical ergonomics might be approached by drawing together the main strengths of threedistinct design traditions—engineering, statecraft

Conference Session

Venturing Out: Service Learning, Study Abroad, and Criterion H

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Ollis, North Carolina State University; Anthony Smith, CPE-LYON FRANCE

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

calendar Twenty three foreign students, including four chemical engineers from our UScampus, and three others from Purdue, among a total of 20 US students, arrived on June6, 2007, and were housed in student dorms located near ECAM, one of the fourparticipating colleges in Lyon. The class calendar (Table 2) indicates parallel delivery ofFrench instruction (12 classes totaling 36 contact hours) and chemistry/engineeringlaboratory involving 57 contact hours ( 9 experiments in 13 labs of various lengths(usually 3 or 4 hours) and a final day long project of 7 hours).Table 2Program calendar Morning(3 hrs) Afternoon(4 hrs)_______________________________________________________________________Wed June 6 Arrive ECAM

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Endeavor

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Brocato, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

documentation per team (see Figure 2 below for an example). We then use a document camera to show each team’s documentation on the screen; teams explain and justify their choices, and the class critiques both their choices and their writing. 4. The instructor marks each team’s documentation to provide guidance and to capture what was said verbally during class. Since our in-class projects typically count as daily/participation grades, and since such projects are executed quickly and with little preparation time, we do not grade these documents as strictly as we do larger, out-of- class assignments. The point of in-class work like this should be the process of analyzing ethics and communication.Plan of

Conference Session

Redefining the Boundaries of Engineering and Liberal Education: Contributions to the Year of Dialogue

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Erin Cech, University of California-San Diego; Kara Boettcher, Montana State University; Heidi Sherick, Montana State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Chevron Corp in Richmond, California and Salt Lake City, Utah. Currently Kara is taking post-baccalaureate classes at MSU to prepare for graduate school.Heidi Sherick, Montana State University Heidi M. Sherick, M.Ed., is Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Diversity in the College of Engineering at Montana State University. She is in charge of efforts to increase diversity in the College of Engineering by recruiting, advising and supporting minorities. She is the Director of EMPower and the Project Director of the DOC program. She has over 5 years of experience in teaching middle school science

Conference Session

Approaches to Learning Outcomes Assessment in Liberal Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steve Lappenbusch, University of Washington; Jennifer Turns, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

that could besort of anywhere along the line of building it. Did it have animpact on how you understand or look at anything in yourdiscipline?A. It's given me confidence…By going back I'm able to see whatworked, what didn't, where I spent lots of time treading mywheels, and what methods or techniques that just clicked andworked really well, and hopefully by the time I graduate I'llhave so many more projects that I'll have a very broad base toor background to pull off of.Here, the student talks about looking back at what his past provides him in terms of making anargument that he is prepared to function as an engineer. Further, the student does not limit histhinking to the present, but rather

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Luke Niiler; David Beams, University of Texas-Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

requires students to make oral presentations as well as towrite laboratory reports, business letters, résumés, and technical research papers. Written reportsand oral presentations are required in mid-level courses, and the senior-level two-semestercapstone design sequence, a joint effort of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering,requires students to write project proposals, progress reports, updates, and final reports as well asmake an oral presentation in each semester. Dr. Niiler, founding director of UT-Tyler’s WritingCenter, has extensive experience working with students from across the disciplines on subject-specific writing projects. He has contributed to the Electrical Engineering Laboratory Reportstyle guide, and regularly