Conference Session

Statics and Dynamics in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer E. Holte, University of St. Thomas

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

improvements such as offering students guidance a dayor two before the assignment was due.The work presented in this paper strives to marry hands-on learning and real-world relevance formechanical engineers. Similar to Steif’s homework idea, the students answer engineering designquestions regarding a physical device, in this case, a can crusher. The difference is, the studentscan hold the device in their hands, and they do the work in the classroom where the instructorcan help redirect them if they get stuck or take a wrong turn as they make decisions on how totake a real object and create a mathematical model. Mariappan et al.25 and Hickman et al.26 alsouse a can crusher as the subject of longer open-ended design projects for sophomore

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Technical Session: The Art of Education

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Eleazar Marquez, Rice University; Samuel Garcia Jr., Texas State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, which heldundergraduate research positions, expressed greater confidence in research and professionalabilities, 88% reported significant growth in structuring and conducting a research project, and73% attested awareness of a graduate school environment [2], [3], [7]. According to Hurtado et al.[1], these undergraduate research opportunities have further facilitated the decision of pursuingSTEM careers and Ph.D. studies post-graduation [5].However, experiencing success, such as procuring an internship position, joining an undergraduateresearch laboratory, or being able to attend graduate school, highly depends on maintaining acompetitive grade-point average (GPA). Grades in higher education are of great value since theyinfluence multiple

Conference Session

Software and E-learning in the ME Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Blekhman, California State University Los Angeles

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

on top of the regular lab assignments. Both thestudents’ and instructor’s work load went up as compared to previous years. Additional tasksrequired of the instructor were license arrangements, practicing with the software, in-classdemonstrations, supplementing lab handouts, and grading assignments. Altogether the use ofFlowLab adds about 2-3 hours of work per week during the first year.The course is largely structured by two course projects. Hydrostatics, buoyancy, Bernoulli’sequation theory, and control volume analysis are followed by similitude analysis. The latterbecomes the basis of the first project, where students design and build model sail boats. Hulltests on the models are performed closer to the end of the semester, and predictions

Conference Session

Introducing Active and Inductive Learning and Improving the Learning Curve in ME

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Olga Pierrakos, Virginia Tech; John Charonko, Virginia Tech; Alicia Williams, Virginia Tech; Satyaprakash Karri, Virginia Tech; Kelley Stewart, Virginia Tech; Pavlos Vlachos, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2007-2102: USING FLUID MECHANICS RESEARCH EXAMPLES TOENHANCE AND STIMULATE UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERINGEDUCATION: PART IIOlga Pierrakos, Virginia Tech Olga Pierrakos is currently a National Academy of Engineering CASEE AGEP Postdoctoral Engineering Education Researcher (PEER) at Virginia Tech in the Department of Engineering Education. Dr. Pierrakos holds an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Her Ph.D. work pertained to vortex dynamics in left ventricular flows. She has served as faculty advisor to over thirty mechanical engineering seniors involved in biomedical engineering design projects and taught several mechanical engineering fluid

Conference Session

Innovations in Mechanical Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Louis Everett, University of Texas-El Paso; Arunkumar Pennathur, University of Texas-El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Cincinnati, with specialization in human factors engineering. Dr. Pennathur's interests are in the science of learning in engineering education. Dr. Pennathur has considerable expertise in human behavioral research methods. He has developed human behavior and performance models in personnel skills and training for advanced electromechanical troubleshooting and fault-finding tasks, disability models in older adults (work funded by NIH), and modeling physical and mental workload for soldier safety and performance (work funded by the US Army Research Laboratory jointly with Fort Bliss and William Beaumont Army Medical Center). These projects have all included extensive instrumentation, calibration, and

Conference Session

Learning and Assessment III

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Horacio Vasquez, University of Texas, Pan American; Arturo A. Fuentes, University of Texas, Pan American; Robert A. Freeman, University of Texas, Pan American

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

becausethis project is in progress. The purpose of this work is to increase passing rates, reduce thenumber of students that drop, and increase the average grade of the students that pass Statics;consequently, improving retention of engineering students. The online assessments intend toengage students in solving problems about fundamental concepts throughout the semesterinvolving not only recently studied concepts but also integrating previously learned concepts topromote knowledge retention and emphasize its relevance in subsequent parts of the course.There is great satisfaction when students in Statics are able to analyze and solve a variety ofmachine, frame, and truss problems applying and integrating the fundamental concepts andprocedures they

Conference Session

Mechanical Division Poster Session

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig J. Gunn, Michigan State University; Pavel M. Polunin, Michigan State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

pp.Brief narrative of procedure, measured Individual); Technical Analysis,data, deduced and analyzed data, plotted Economic Analysis, Recommendationresults with discussion and conclusions. for ActionME 391 – Mechanical Engineering ME 412 – Heat TransferAnalysis Design Project Documentation: FormalReading, thinking, and teamwork Report (1 @ 10 pp. + App., Individual) Memo Reports (X @ 2 - 5 pages App.IndividualME 451 – Controls (Senior)Laboratory and Project Reports: Laboratory Experiment Written Reports (2 Formal Reports,Individual); Abstract, Nomenclature, Introduction, Analysis, Results, Discussion

Conference Session

Learning and Assessment II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Randy Dean Kelley P.E., University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

enforces the material in the students’ intellect.2Other objectives include working with others in groups. There exists a perception thatengineering students lack personal skills in social situations. Many times perception is reality.By working in groups, students develop valuable inter-personal skills that will greatly aid themin the future. Also in engineering, a students’ ability to develop solutions to complex problemsis extremely important for their future. By allowing them to struggle with a problem, developsthese types of skills.“Mini” Research Project GuidelinesTo limit the amount of extra work for the students and instructor, the “mini” research paperswere limited to five double spaced pages excluding cover page, table of contents

Conference Session

Thermal Fluid Related

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

John M. Pfotenhauer, University of Wisconsin - Madison; David J Gagnon, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

concerns of this pilot application. ● Its going to be very expensive providing VR sets for everyone. If there's enough money to fund the project I think it would be an extremely useful learning tool ● Not everybody is tech savvy, I was able to fully understand how to use the device and software, however, for someone that is brand new to it, it could be very confusing and cause them to use it for a longer time because they are trying to figure out how it works rather than running the actual experiment. ● You have to keep removing the goggles every time you want to record data. ● At times it was quite finnicky to try and attain a certain value. Maybe entering specific values and watching the change would be a cool

Conference Session

How We Tackled the Pandemic

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Carl W. Luchies, The University of Kansas; Molly McVey, The University of Kansas

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

the TBL Classroom OnlineThe in-person active learning classroom is a great learning space. The active learning classroomshave tables that seat up to 6 students with an instructor station located somewhere within theroom. Consider this the “corporate classroom,” i.e. a space where the instructor can interact withall the students verbally via a microphone and visually via information projected to large screensmounted on the room walls and on an LCD screen located at each table. Consider the table of 5-6students the “team space,” i.e. a space where a small group of students can work together, shareideas, ask questions, explain concepts, and show each other their work. One advantage of thisactive learning classroom design is that during active

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sreenidhi Krishnamoorthy, University of California, Davis

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

there is a general practice tohire Teaching Assistants to cover laboratory sessions, lead recitation/discussion sessions andhelp students with course projects in engineering courses [10]. Communication between teachingstaff becomes a crucial aspect in the success of the change model here.The current research work is an attempt to retrospectively analyze whether the transition processto an active-learning environment for certain Mechanical Engineering courses in a leading R1university was satisfactory. The active component introduced was “Discussion Sections”, andwas brought about as a new policy in the Mechanical Engineering department of that university,whose name is being omitted from this paper considering the nature of the results. The

Conference Session

Innovations in Mechanical Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth Miller, Saint Cloud State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

using tables or software. The decision on how toteach vapor properties is up to the individual instructor in most cases. Furthermore, it was foundthat there is rarely a consensus within the department. Opinions ranged from making students usetables only to using software and covering tables just enough so students can pass the FEexamination.Of the twenty-five mechanical engineering departments surveyed, only six have an explicitpolicy. In four cases, students use tables only during their first thermodynamics course and areintroduced to software tools in subsequent courses. In the other cases, the course syllabussuggests the use of software to check homework and work projects. Of the remaining schools,professors in six make no explicit mention

Conference Session

Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics Instruction

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cuneyt Sert, Middle East Technical University; Gunes Nakiboglu, ROKETSAN Missiles Industries Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. He is currently involved with the Virtual Flow Lab project as a masters student in the same department. He is also working full time as a member of the Propulsion System Design Department of ROKETSAN Missiles Industries Inc., Ankara, Turkey. Page 12.1527.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in Teaching Fluid MechanicsAbstractComputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a tool that allows the solution of fluid flow problemsnumerically by the use of computers. Its

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gene Liao, Wayne State University; Chih-Ping Yeh, Wayne State University; James Sawyer, Macomb Community College

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

automotive technicians in HEVtechnology. The university developed a set of courses for community college instructors andautomotive engineers, and the community college is the first community college in the state –and one of the only in the nation – to train automotive technician students on servicing HEVs [3].However, no integrated HEV laboratory has yet been established for educational purposes. Thetremendous capital investment, tedious and time-consuming tasks required to establish a fullyfunction of HEV laboratory are convincing evidence that the community colleges and secondaryschools are in need of a low-cost, computer-based virtual HEV simulator.The motivation of this project is to develop an interactive, LabVIEW-based [4] simulation

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Plumley, United States Coast Guard Academy; Andrew Foley, United States Coast Guard Academy; Earnest Greene, US Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Experiment In Supportof Courses in Mechanical Control and Experimental Analysis”, Proceedings of the 1996American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Washington,DC, June 1996[8] Plumley, M., & Wilczynski, V. “Design Portfolios for Outcomes Assessment and ProgramVision”, Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education AnnualConference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, PA, June 2008[9] Dixon, G. “Three Thermal Systems Design-Build-Test Projects”, Proceedings of the 2004American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Salt Lake City,UT, June 2004[10] Dixon, G. “A Solar Distiller as a Thermal Systems Design-Build-Test Project”, Proceedingsof the 2006 American Society for

Conference Session

What's New in Dynamics?

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Scott, University of Michigan; Arnaldo Mazzei, Kettering University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

.The solution at time ti -1 is approximated by a projection using the slope at ti , and replacing thederivative by (vi -1 / vi ) / h (see FIGURE 1). This leads to: vi -1 ? vi - hf (vi ) (3)Consider an aluminum sphere (density 2700 Kg / m3 ) of radius 0.1m falling in an oil (density900 Kg / m3 ). The coefficient c is obtained from the formula: 1 FD ? cD At oil v 2 ? cv 2 2 (4)where cD is taken

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karim Altaii, James Madison University; Colin J. Reagle, George Mason University; Mary K. Handley, James Madison University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, George Mason University Colin Reagle joined the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University in 2014, specializ- ing in the area of thermal fluid flows and sustainable energy systems. He brings his extensive background in the subjects to Mason as a boon to the growing mechanical engineering program. He has also taught and conducted postdoctoral research at Virginia Tech including research projects for Solar Turbines, Siemens, Pratt and Whitney, Rolls-Royce, and Honeywell. Reagle has R&D experience as a researcher for Techs- burg, a small engineering services company in Christiansburg, Virginia. His primary focus at Mason has growing the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program through teaching

Conference Session

Learning and Assessment in ME 1

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jason Andrew Roney, University of Denver; Breigh Nonte Roszelle, University of Denver; Matt Gordon P.E., University of Denver; Bradley Davidson, University of Denver

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

difficult. Unfortunately this resulted in the lowest pass rate ourdepartment had observed in several years at 40%.We found that students, when given multiple test date options, instead of taking the exam earlier,students postponed taking the test until late into the spring quarter. In some instances, ourstudents, feeling the pressure of encroaching graduation and senior design project deadlines,simply went into the test centers and put in little effort. Their motivation was mainly getting thetick mark to ensure they graduated.For our part, because of the continuous dates, we did not offer an organized review session to ourstudents as we had in the past. The timing of these review sessions in the past aimed at preparingstudents for the April exam

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Technical Session: Potpourri

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Quamrul H. Mazumder, University of Michigan, Flint; Mingye Chen, University of Michigan, Flint; Sunzia Sultana, University of Michigan, Flint

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

to determine the effectiveness of the workshops. The workshoptopics were focused on research and communication skills development as elements ofprofessional skills. The Engineer of 2020 Project centers on an effort to envision the future andto use that knowledge to attempt to predict the roles that engineers will play in the future[3][4][5]. The current study included engineering standards, lifelong learning in addition toresearch and communication skills as these are considered important professional developmentskills. Frankel described the discrepancy between how some criteria, like “an ability to identify,formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering,science, and mathematics”, receive most of the

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan E. Walden, University of Oklahoma; Cindy E. Foor, University of Oklahoma; Rui Pan, University of Oklahoma; Randa L. Shehab, University of Oklahoma; Deborah A. Trytten, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. How did you handle that? Unfortunately not as good as I should. Well how did you handle it and how do you think you should have handled it? How I think I should have handled it...I don't know.The absence of confident, effective leadership led to the development of cliques within theteams, which in return made leadership more difficult. Leadership focused solely on survival(getting the product ready) cannot retain and integrate new members nor does it contribute to anopen and positive culture.Management skill developmentAs large project teams engineering complex artifacts, student competition teams should be anexcellent venue to develop and practice management skills regarding time, material, humanresources, and the design and

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Division Technical Session 5

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Breigh Nonte Roszelle, University of Denver; Karen Kaye Langenberg, Indigo Education Company; Jason Andrew Roney, University of Denver; Matt Gordon P.E., University of Denver

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and engineering economics and ethics, and graduate finite elements, numerical methods, thermodynamics, statistical me- chanics, plasma fundamentals and gas dynamics. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2018 What Can DISC and Motivation Profiles Disclose About Student Retention in Engineering?AbstractIn 2015 the engineering departments at the University of Denver (DU) partnered with theIndigo Project to perform an assessment of the freshman engineering students using DISCand Motivation profiles. These profiles are a part of the overall Indigo Assessment, whichhelps educators observe the non-academic traits of their students. The multi

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Foley, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

computer analyses often leadsthe engineer to forget that the computer really is only performing a more highly refinedversion of the distillation calculations described above. It is essential therefore,particularly in cases where public/user safety are concerned that appropriate testing beundertaken. Such testing should be expected to provide feedback that will influence thefinal design and as such this should be scheduled into the project at a very early stage.The importance of uncertainty analysis with regard to experimental results should also beemphasized and no results should ideally be presented without their associateduncertainty attached. Too many times the design and fabrication takes up so much of a course that thisstage is often only

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer-Part I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Israel Urieli, Ohio University-Athens

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

AC 2010-47: ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS - A GRAPHICAL APPROACHIsrael Urieli, Ohio University-Athens Joined the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at Ohio University in 1984, following 22 years of experience in research and development in Israel and the US. Has been teaching Thermodynamics continuously since 1990. Page 15.498.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Engineering Thermodynamics – a Graphical ApproachAbstractThis paper presents the first open-source web-based thermodynamic learning resource. Thecompletely self-contained project is found at http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~thermo. This

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Spenko, Illinois Institute of Technology; Jamal S. Yagoobi, Illinois Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Introduction and BackgroundIn 2009 and 2010, the Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Department at the Illinois Instituteof Technology held two workshops titled: “Integrating Innovation into Engineering Education.”The workshops were part of the Illinois Coalition for Manufacturing Innovation (ICMI), which issponsored by the Small Business Administration and includes Argonne National Laboratory,Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and the Chicago Manufacturing Center. The goals of ICMIare to incorporate innovation education into the engineering curricula, to initiate a series ofcollaborative projects with small to medium-sized manufacturers, and to work with researchinstitutions to not only facilitate this effort, but also spread its successes nationally

Conference Session

Capstone Courses

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raghu Echempati, Kettering University; Vipul Laddha, Kettering University; Sualp Ozel P.E., Autodesk, Inc.; James Herzing

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

one end of a freightcar or a commuter car used in railway industry. Usually, they consists of several pieces ofsteel tubes and other steel members welded together to form a rigid frame structure. Froma safety perspective, the car-truck stands are to be designed carefully, but at the sametime due to their possible large volume of production, this structure needs to be optimizedfrom strength and cost perspectives besides other parameters such as long life, etc. Thepurpose of this paper is to conduct virtual experiments for the optimal design of adifferent car-truck stand structures using Autodesk Simulation program as a CAE tool.The idea is to include this work as a part of final project in a traditional finite elementanalysis (FEA) course

Conference Session

Student Learning and Assessment I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anca L. Sala, Baker College; Tom Spendlove, Baker College, Flint; James Riddell, Baker College, Flint

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

.) Page 22.252.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Assessment of ABET Program Outcome J, “A Knowledge of Contemporary Issues”AbstractEngineering education is expected to equip future engineers not only with professionalknowledge, abilities and skills but also the ability to see “the big picture” and the capability toaddress society’s issues. The latter outcomes are based upon Program Outcome (j), “AKnowledge of Contemporary Issues”, from ABET’s EAC (a)-(k) Criteria for AccreditingEngineering Programs. At our institution we have traditionally assessed this Program Outcome(PO) through the Senior Design Project as well as technical elective courses, such as the

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ivana Milanovic, University of Hartford; Tom Eppes, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

’ instructions, examples andassessment tools.Our approach which encompasses process, methods and tools improves resource efficiencywithin and across departments. For high level materials, a consistent format is essential forstrategic plans, continuous improvement, educational objectives, program outcomes andassessment plans. Additional leverage is gained by standardizing documentation of courseimprovements, capstone projects and faculty development. Common materials that describe co-curricular multidisciplinary activities and shared facilities are prepared and disseminated at theCollege level. The purpose of this paper is to present the specifics of our approach and lessonslearned from the latest general visit along with recommendations for future

Conference Session

Manufacturing and Machine Component Design

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Linda E. Craugh Ph.D., United States Naval Academy; Ethan E. Lust, United States Naval Academy

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

operation in a detailed way. It also readily demonstrates the three areas ofmechanical engineering: structures and materials, thermo-fluid sciences, and engineeringdesign.The students (who had no particular technical preparation) were divided into small teams andguided through a discussion of what it means to be an engineer and a qualitative overview ofdesign, solid mechanics, material properties, and thermodynamic principles as applied to theconstruct of a small machine. This paper will describe that project-based learning exercise in Page 26.1055.2detail and propose options for extending and adapting it for use as a module within or as aframework for

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sergio Celis, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

in engineeringcomes from the capacity to resolve complex problems; with a scientific approach, engineeringwill achieve more efficiently its purpose of serving society. However, this faith in the power ofsciences can be described as an intrinsic characteristic of who practices sciences and resolvesproblems using its theories and methods. Thomas Kuhn suggests that a “normal” science has thecapacity to establish paradigms and more rigid definition of its field and its problems, rejectingthe vision of other disciplines and problems that are “just too problematic to be worth thetime.”57 Upon these assumptions, engineers could have projected an idealistic scientificengineering that overlooks other essential parts of professional work, such as

Conference Session

Thermal Fluid Related

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Siu Ling Leung, Pennsylvania State University; Eric Marsh, Pennsylvania State University; Stephen Lynch, Pennsylvania State University; H. J. Sommer III, Pennsylvania State University; Sean N. Brennan, Pennsylvania State University; Tak-Sing Wong, The Pennsylvania State University; Brian M. Foley, The Pennsylvania State University; Jean-Michel Mongeau, Pennsylvania State University; Daniel H. Cortes, Penn State University; Karen A. Thole, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Penn State. He received his BSME from the University of Wyoming, and his MS and PhD from Virginia Tech.Dr. H. J. Sommer III, Pennsylvania State University Joe Sommer joined Penn State in 1980 following completion of his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and has served as Interim Head of the Department and as Graduate Coordinator. He was a founder of ECSEL, one of the original NSF Engineering Educational Coalitions. His research interests include mechatronics, three-dimensional kine- matics, biomechanics and vehicle dynamics with recent projects ranging from multibody dynamics, to locomotion in microgravity, to tractor overturn, to unmanned air