Conference Session

Learning to Communicate with Engineers and Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Leslie Potter, Iowa State University; John Jackman, Iowa State University; K. Jo Min, Iowa State University; Matthew Search, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

. Page 13.71.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 A New Engineering Communications Course Based on a Professional Communications ProcessAbstractGiven the nationally recognized need to improve engineering students’ communication skills, anew engineering communication course was developed by the Industrial and ManufacturingSystems Engineering department at Iowa State University and offered in the Fall of 2007. Initialassessment results provide insight into student learning needs related to specific professionalcommunication skills. The course is characterized by a high degree of interaction and formativeassessment of students along with a unique core professional communication process consistingof (1) Analysis

Conference Session

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

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Duffy, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Carol Barry, University Massachusetts Lowell; Linda Barrington, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; David Kazmer, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; William Moeller, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Cheryl West, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

meeting real community needs. In engineering thestudents become better professionals and better citizens while the community benefits. There aremany other definitions in the literature, for example, service-learning is the integration ofacademic subject matter with service to the community in credit-bearing courses, with keyelements including reciprocity, reflection, coaching, and community voice in projects (Jacoby,1996)1. Service-learning (S-L) has been shown to be effective in a large number of cognitiveand affective measures, including critical thinking and tolerance for diversity, and leads to betterknowledge of course subject matter, cooperative learning, recruitment of under-representedgroups in engineering, retention of students, and

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arthur Sacks, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Academy of Engineering, The Engineer of 2020: Visions on Engineering In The New Century, Washington, D. C.: The National Academy Press, 2004, pp. 1-82. Page 13.292.13

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna Riley, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

adjusting to new content andmethods.IntroductionAs engineering has established itself as a profession, a defining and essential element ofengineering education is professional ethics. Since 2000, the requirement to include ethics as partof an accredited degree has crystallized.1 However, now that more engineering curricula aretaking ethics seriously, the question of what rightly belongs in an engineer’s ethics education isdeservedly garnering more attention. Herkert2 offers a critique that typically, engineering ethicsis thought of only in terms of “microethics” – the individual decision-making of the engineeringprofessional. He reviews several calls made over the past three decades by scholars ofengineering ethics to incorporate “macroethics

Conference Session

Philosophy of Engineering Education: Epistemology and Ethics

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College-Dublin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

of the essay “TheRhythm of Education.” He distinguishes between three stages of mental growth – romance,precision and generalization. “Education should consist in a continual repetition of suchcycles.”53 They may be of a long duration or of a short duration. Thus in the long term thestages shown in exhibit 1 can be related to primary, post-primary and higher education. ButWhitehead would argue that we approach problems however simple or complex in this way. Sounderstanding the stages leads to particular types of curriculum and instruction. There is animmediate lesson for those promoting the teaching of engineering in elementary and post-elementary schooling: that is, that the emphasis should be on the stage of romance. This is notto say that

Conference Session

Philosophy of Engineering Education: Epistemology and Ethics

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Valenzuela, University of Evansville; James Allen, University of Evansville; Brian Swenty, University of Evansville

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

instrument was adapted from “AssessingGeneral Education: A Questionnaire to Initiate Campus Conversation” by Jack Meacham anddistributed by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. The last question in thesurvey asked faculty to rank the quality of the general education program on a scale from 1 to 5,where 1 was associated with the statement, “Our general education program satisfies the minimalaccreditation requirements.” The score of 5 was associated with the statement, “Our generaleducation program surpasses in quality those of our peer institutions.” With 40 % of the facultyresponding (and 61% of the respondents from the college of arts and sciences), the meanresponse to this question of quality was 2.9, the median was 3.0 and the

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

approaches. The PDI program entails a set ofinterdisciplinary, undergraduate courses and degree options that span engineering, the humanitiesand social sciences (H&SS), design disciplines, and management. Initiated in the mid-1990s,PDI was motivated primarily by the desires 1) to combine the strengths of various disciplinaryapproaches to social problem solving and 2) to revamp undergraduate engineering curricula byincluding systematic analysis of the social context of engineering problems. By beingintegrative, interdisciplinary, and systematically attentive to the social context of engineeringwork, PDI addresses fundamental shortcomings in the H&SS-electives model of traditional

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

ofboth language and lab instruction by French (i.e., non-US) faculty, in an overseasexperience.CPE Program in French language class and laboratory The CPE 2007 program brochure, summarized in Table 1, highlights the parallelinstruction in French language and laboratory, along with emphasis on the culturalopportunities of the host city Lyon. The original CPE program1 was founded in 2000with a goal of providing US engineering and chemistry students with a summerexperience in France, which could then lead to an enhanced exchange of technicalstudents in subsequent academic semesters. Several of our previous participants havereturned for summer research experiences in Lyon, and one completed her final semesterof a dual French/engineering

Conference Session

Learning to Communicate with Engineers and Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laura Wilson, University of CIncinnati; Teresa Cook, University of Cincinnati; Jo Ann Thompson, University of Cincinnati; James Everly, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

thedisciplines. That writing instruction is most effective when given by writing faculty is acommon view in the engineering field; separate faculty members hold different responsibilities,but the effect of a united front is a strong one.1 From the examination of other colleges’experiences, it was clear that the writing faculty would work best teaching alongside theengineering faculty in a shared classroom. This paper explores the relationship between thewriting faculty and the engineering faculty from the beginning of their team-teachingexperiences. As an example, the paper discusses how the Humanities department and theElectrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) department joined forces to create amid-level capstone course with a heavy

Conference Session

Philosophy of Engineering Education: Epistemology and Ethics

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gayle Ermer, Calvin College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

of students to theirimportance. Societal issues should also be brought into engineering technical courses asframes for design work. Causes related to human finitude include the limitations of ourpredictive models and the characteristics of modern technology that make catastrophicfailures more likely. Engineering disasters cannot be avoided solely by training engineersto be more ethically responsible. Engineering instructors and students need to be awarethat the nature of the technological systems in North American society and the means bywhich these systems are designed and controlled all contribute to the catastrophicpotential for technological failures.1. IntroductionOn August 1, 2007, evening rush hour traffic in Minneapolis was bumper-to

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

guidelines for student portfolios have evolved over the last decade as moreprofessional attention has been given to the nature and purpose of a portfolio as part of studentwork in engineering. Key motivators that have improved professionalism in portfolios includeincreased attention to issues of accreditation and ethics and to the requirement of life-longlearning as a professional obligation. These elements of “portfolio thinking” usually reside wellwithin the bounds of engineering education. 1, 10, 12However, as the world becomes more complicated, knowledge and experience beyond thetechnical must be exhibited by an engineering professional. Increased awareness of theimportance of fields outside engineering – those academic subjects usually grouped

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

Learning to Communicate with Engineers and Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Judith Norback, Georgia Institute of Technology; Nicoleta Serban, Georgia Institute of Technology; Nagi Gebraeel, Georgia Institute of Technology; Garlie Forehand, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Lab set up for video review, storyboarding, presentation practice, and feedback.Assessment data focuses on student needs expressed prior to instruction and benefits describedafter instruction, and the value of instructional components. Examples of projects andinstructional materials will be provided so the instruction can be replicated at other institutions.Introduction Over the past decade, multiple studies have indicated the need for better communicationskills for engineers [1-5]. Studies have also identified, more specifically, the importance of oralpresentation skills to the advancement of engineers in the workplace [6,7]. As recently as 2007,students’ definitions of excellence in engineering education included communication

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

, withan overall student population of 40,000, and a sizable College of Engineering consisting ofapproximately 4,500 students. A recent national study listed the UW-Madison as having the 2ndhighest research expenditures of any US college or university, at roughly $830 million over thepast year.1 That amounts to an average of over $400,000 per faculty member in an era whenfunding rates tend to be decreasing. The pressures to continue that achievement – and to producethe high quality research on which such funding depends – are enormous. Thus, while educationis certainly an important component of the university (particularly given its status as a land-grant, public university), it is hardly the only one, and there are many faculty for whom

Conference Session

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

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joe Tranquillo, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

shreddings to the next person. That person then passes to the next,and so on down the line. The activity is timed and an emphasis is placed on speed. Asmotivation, the activity is repeated at least two more times to try to “break the classrecord”. Inevitably, much paper is lost by the time the shreddings reach the end of theline, and the last person often has only a few scraps of paper.Post-processingIn the post-processing, students are asked to make connections between charge andscraps of paper, and current and the passing of paper. Students are also helped to makeanalogies between 1) the size of their hands and the capacitance of a membrane and 2)the dropping of paper onto the floor and a leaky membrane resistance. When studentsmake these

Conference Session

Blurring the Boundary between Content Knowledge and Professional Knowledge

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Verna Fitzsimmons, Kent State University - Kent; Stephane Booth, Kent State University - Kent

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

might be to integrate the learning objectives of generaleducation and professional education and not see them or treat them as separate entities.We began this discussion by comparing the student learning objectives of thebaccalaureate degree in technology and the learning objectives of university’s LiberalEducation Requirements (LERs). (Table 1) Through this comparison it became evidentthat several objectives from both lists overlap. Because there is such an overlap, theimmediate question was one of redundancy and differentiation. Based on conversationswith members of our Liberal Education faculty as well as out Technology faculty, itbecame apparent that the learning outcomes form each of their perspective more alignedthan different. However

Conference Session

A Century of Development, Promotion, and Reform: ASEE and Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carol Johnson, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

transmission of knowledge has moved beyond both the associations and the universities to a wide array of resources that require information literacy to penetrate.The Evolution of the Professional Associations in the 19th Century The American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects was established in 1853 but wasnot active until 1868, when they changed their name to The American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE).1 They began to publish their Transactions in 1868 and their Proceedings in 1873. TheAmerican Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) was founded in 1871 and grew rapidly. Itregularly published the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers as well asusing a weekly, the Engineering and Mining Journal as its official

Conference Session

Thinking around the Bachelor of Arts in Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sharon Jones, Lafayette College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

flexibility ofsuch a degree means that the programs are quite different in terms of curricula, students, andopportunities. Although the degree is far from mainstream, it is worthwhile to explore thequestion of whether this degree addresses some of the concerns about the need for a newapproach to undergraduate engineering education, or if it is a specialty program only suited tocertain contexts. In this session, several invitees discuss the Bachelor of Arts in EngineeringProgram at their colleges/universities. The discussion is organized around four main topics: 1)what is the objective of such a degree and how does it fit within engineering education, 2) whatare the advantages of the degree for stakeholders (students, faculty, industry), 3) what are

Conference Session

Learning to Communicate with Engineers and Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mieke Schuurman, Pennsylvania State University; Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University; Melissa Marshall, Pennsylvania State University; Christopher Johnstone, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

expert in the discipline of engineering, thedifference might be confusing to a novice. Although many engineering students do not feel thecontent of the general speech course applies to them, the truth is that the content—listeningcritically, audience analysis, and the classical canons of rhetoric—actually has deep connectionswith engineering [1]. However, the engineering student needs to see those connections. That many of the students do not make connections between the principles of the generalspeech course and the presentations they make in engineering was made apparent in a study atour institution. This study surveyed co-op supervisors on the presentation skills of ourinstitution’s students. The study revealed that the differences in