Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adrienne Minerick, Mississippi State University; Jason Keith, Michigan Technological University; Donald Visco, Tennessee Technological University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

interactions: advisor / student, and student / studentinteractions during three main venues. The first venue is written communications such as email,daily or weekly research summaries, literature review / discussions, and papers. The secondvenue is oral communication via face-to-face meetings in an office or in the classroom. Thethird venue is demonstrative communication via laboratory training, and side-by-side dataanalysis on computers. Each mode of communication plays a key role in helping students growinto professional researchers with skills in independent problem solving.IntroductionThe New Engineering Educator has many challenging tasks ahead of them as they progresstowards tenure. One of these challenges is establishing a fully functional and

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Kim, Bradley University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

principles which form the basis of the author’s methods for effective teaching arediscussed. Additional topics covered in this paper include using lecture time effectively,conducting a laboratory course, administering assignments and exams, and grading consistentlyand fairly. The effective use of helpers such as homework graders and laboratory teachingassistants is discussed. The author also addresses the use of technology for teaching, specificallywarning about becoming overly reliant on such technology.IntroductionIn today’s university environment, much is expected from professors regarding the education ofstudents. One primary duty and responsibility of the university professor is to teach effectively.Specifically, the engineering professor is to

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward Gehringer, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

or graduates? In research, as in so many other endeavors, there is safety in numbers.5. Independent studies and researchHow might an independent-study student assist with research? The possibilities are many. Letme list a few. • Help set up a lab experiment, or a simulation environment. Lai and Sullivan3 had independent-study students set up lab experiments in a polymer-processing laboratory, and provide feedback to improve the experimental procedures. • Run a set of benchmarks on a simulator, and tabulate and analyze the results. • Do a literature search in an area that you are interested in moving into; ideally, this could lead to a publishable survey paper. • Write code for a program being used in

Conference Session

Best of the NEE

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Squire, Virginia Military Institute; Charles Bott, Virginia Military Institute; Matthew Hyre, Virginia Military Institute

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

AC 2007-627: NEW FACULTY, UNDERGRADUATES, AND INDUSTRYCONTRACTS: OBSERVATIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED FROMENGINEERING PROFESSORSJames Squire, Virginia Military Institute Dr. James Squire is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Virginia Military Institute. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY and served in the army as a Military Intelligence officer during Desert Storm. Although his PhD is in electrical engineering, he completed his doctoral work in a biomedical engineering laboratory at MIT and has interests in analog and digital instrumentation, signal processing, biomechanics, patent litigation, and cardiology. At

Conference Session

Faculty Development: Creating successful NEEs

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Abul Azad, Northern Illinois University; Osman Tokhi, University of Sheffield, UK.

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

Division), June 24-27, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.31 . The IET evaluates a program through visitation and interview and issues an accreditedstatus. Students obtaining their first degree from such an accredited program can identifythemselves as a Chartered Engineer, which is same as Professional Engineer status in theUS.3.2.3 Laboratory management and maintenance In universities and further education colleges, laboratory equipment is managed andmaintained by full time technical staffs and is directed by the departmental administration.Unlike in the US, it is not the responsibility of an individual faculty to maintain alaboratory. However, in the UK, faculty is still involved with new laboratory developmentactivities

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Claude Villiers, Florida Gulf Coast University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

Page 12.182.4the Superpave mix design criteria. They also performed laboratory testing on commonly usedCivil Engineering materials including asphalt binder, hot mix asphalt, aggregates, and Portlandconcrete cement. They analyzed and evaluated the data to make useful conclusions. Each studentwrote a final report on the mixture they designed. The student’s final grade for this class ispresented in Fig. 1. Two students obtained an A, two ended with a B+, while the other twofinished the class with Fs. The low performance was mainly driven by the student’s lack ofparticipation and discipline to return and complete all the assignments and tests. Materials (n=6), Pavements (n=15), Geometric Design (n=17), Highway (n=10

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Melani Plett, Seattle Pacific Univ; Donald Peter

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

homework seems toincorporate that principle in a manner agreeable to both students and faculty.References 1. A.W. Chickering and Z.F. Gamson, “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” American Ass. For Higher Education Bulletin, 29 (1987), 3-7. 2. E. F. Redish, J. M. Saul, and R. N. Steinberg, "On the effectiveness of active-engagement microcomputer- based laboratories”, American Journal Physics, 65 (1997), 45-54. 3. McGraw Hill Homework Manager home page. 4. Wiley Higher Education home page (link to Technology Solutions and Wiley Plus). 5. A. Bright, R. Wang, E102 Advanced Systems Engineering syllabus home page. Harvey Mudd College. 6. S. Servetto, ECE 562, Fundamental

Conference Session

Advice from the Experts for NEEs at Small Universities

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Claude Villiers, Florida Gulf Coast University; Diane Bondehagen, Florida Gulf Coast University; Chris Geiger

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

betterunderstanding of the teaching pedagogy which includes multi-disciplinary teaching andintegrated lecture laboratory of the U.A. Whitaker School of Engineering at FGCU. While ourprimary focus was on student learning, we also conducted surveys to understand the student’sperspective of the WSOE teaching approach. We also had the opportunity to workcollaboratively and learn from other faculty’s teaching style. Although our teaching willincrease, the information gathered through development and teaching of this course will impactour future classes and our engineering career thereafter.ServicesGiven our nascent program, it is not surprising that there is currently only a small number offaculty in the U.A. Whitaker School of Engineering with 8 total faculty

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Off the Beaten Path

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jenny Lo, Virginia Tech; Vinod Lohani, Virginia Tech; Michael Gregg, Virginia Tech; Richard Goff, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

, Page 12.1092.2based on a combination of the two aforementioned introductory engineering courses. Thisrecruitment effort was in its earliest formative stages in late fall 2001. The course, led by Goffand Gregg, was envisioned as an intensive, hands-on, four credit hour class combining twoweeks of classroom and laboratory work on the Virginia Tech campus with an equal duration atthe University’s Center for European Studies and Architecture (CESA) facility in Riva SanVitale, Switzerland. Teamwork issues associated with this venture were ad hoc. Academicissues were dealt with by the authors Goff and Gregg; however the difficulties of itinerary andlogistics were handled by a senior staff member from the Dean’s Office. This course

Conference Session

Women, Minorities and the New Engineering Educator

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Noel Schulz, Mississippi State University; Kirk Schulz, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

researchers. PhD studentscan be the group lead and develop leadership skills within the sub-group.Turning Graduate Students into Professional ResearchersProposal Writing OpportunitiesFollowing graduation, many graduate students will be involved in writing proposals for projectsin federal research laboratories, academia, and industry. It is critical that students get involved inlearning to write proposals, or at least helping to write proposals, while in graduate schools.Journal Paper Writing and Paper ReviewsPeer-reviewed journal papers are the academic currency of today at virtually all universities. Assuch, it is critical that graduate students learn the details of how papers are published. For newstudents in a research group, they can read over

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Marshall, University of Southern Maine; June Marshall, St. Joseph's College

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

college teaching not improve? From Plato’s academy ofthe fifth century B.C. to the research university of today, professors have taught much thesame way, with indifferent results. A few students learn very well, many learn a little,and a few nothing at all. Page 12.867.2What is a better idea? Try learning. Learning is something students do. It requirescompelling problems and well-designed laboratories, studios, workshops, and playingspaces. It demands strenuous efforts and experts to intercede with stories, admonitions,or principles when students fail, as they must, if they are to learn. Most of the learningthat results in the expertise of the practicing

Conference Session

Best of the NEE

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yi-Min Huang, University of Washington; Jessica Yellin, University of Washington; Jennifer Turns, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

onespecific example, this participant talked about choosing to teach classes that relate to hisresearch interest and background so that he can optimize both his teaching and researchinterests. “…the courses I tend to choose to teach are courses that are related to my background, related to my interest, either laboratory or hands-on. The senior-level course is a new course that I had developed, the one I teach in spring, and that was based on my interests -- started out as just materials, and gradually evolved toward the role of materials in construction and constructability, and so the senior course I teach is on reinforced concrete construction, and we talk about constructability issues, not just how

Conference Session

Advice from the Experts for NEEs at Small Universities

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Larson, Seattle University; Agnieszka Miguel, Seattle University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

are chairs who are involved in reviewing tenure cases.Our first piece of advice is to carefully pick a research topic and projects to work on. Forexample, it may be difficult to find undergraduate students with sufficient background toparticipate in a project that is too theoretical. On the other hand, if the research is tooexperimental, the need to obtain funds for adequate equipment and laboratory space may makecertain experiments impossible. You also need to think of the looming tenure review and likelyavoid projects that require significant learning and/or infrastructure development. Tips on Page 12.1151.2selecting a research topic are