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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Maria Kreppel; Beverly Swaile

of selected topics from their respective disciplines. Case studiesforce these undergraduate technologists to think critically about choices they might make intheir professional lives; for example, the implications of using a particular piping material for anindustrial spillway or the decision to use a less environmentally hazardous chemical solvent overanother in a laboratory analysis. We are also convinced that a team of faculty from multipledisciplines best teaches a course of this scope thus preventing the focus from becoming undulybiased towards one perspective.I. Introduction A four-membered interdepartmental faculty team has developed an upper-divisionGeneral Education course that has been offered several times by The University

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Vikram Cariapa; Joseph Domblesky; James Rice

; Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education"addition to communication skills, other manufacturing related competency gaps that have beenidentified by employers include application of manufacturing processes, statistics, andmanufacturing systems. While specific reasons for manufacturing related skills deficiencies havenot been identified, it is likely that the reduction in hands-on laboratory experiences that waseffected at the same time that design content in the curricula was being reduced is one of theprimary causes.A second criticism of engineering education has been that there is little effort to integrate parts ofthe curriculum2. Students often echo this view when they complain that

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William Jordan; Norman Pumphrey

the math and statics/strength courses that the students takeat the same time. In the Fall 1999 quarter, all sophomore students were put into these new courses,regardless of whether they had taken the integrated freshman courses. The students who have takenthe materials course during the last two years are in two different groups: one that has had theintegrated curriculum background and one that has had a traditional background.We wanted to examine two different aspects about this new curriculum. The first aspect is whether weare more effectively teaching materials engineering with our new course. The second aspect is whetherthe new integrated curriculum better prepares the students for our materials course. We believe that thenew materials

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Duesing; Kevin Schmaltz; Dan Goodrich; Pamela Schmaltz

design course in which students participate in projectsfunded by local or regional industries. As such, the university must balance the needs ofthe funding company with the realities of teaching project engineering to students whomay never have been involved in a “real” engineering project before. The fundingcompanies expect and deserve a quality project and the university must provide studentswith a major design experience subject to realistic constraints that can be monitored andmeasured. Often, too, the students are more likely to remember and learn from asituation in which things goes wrong instead of a situation in which everything goes well.This paper discusses one of LSSU’s recent senior projects and the difficultiesencountered both

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ann Anderson; Richard Wilk

grant from the GEFoundation (now GE Fund). Most of this effort was directed at taking advantage of the existingstrengths of the technical side of the program and capitalizing on the fact that engineering istaught in a liberal arts environment at an institution with a strong international component in thecurriculum. Therefore it is well-positioned to produce broadly educated engineers for the globalengineering community of the 21st century. In the new mechanical engineering program there isa strong emphasis on fundamentals in both thermal/fluids and mechanics. This is reinforced bysignificant hands-on laboratory and design experiences in each of these areas. Communicationskills and design are reinforced and practiced across the curriculum. As a

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Patricia Harms; Steven Mickelson; Thomas Brumm

between the options within the AE and AST curricula• To develop team skills through the use of collaborative, learning-based assignments• To introduce students to various problems (areas of interest) within the agricultural engineering and technology field• To experience hands-on laboratories related to the AE and AST options• To increase involvement in professional societies and student branches• To introduce technical writing skills during the first year of study• To make first-year composition courses more meaningful to students• To establish career development/job preparation• To receive academic guidance related to curriculum issuesLearning Community Course LinksCourse links have been designed to be the primary support

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Christopher Carroll

Gadget has proven to be a remarkably versatile instrument. By providing usefulinput and output devices in the Gadget, students are able to design and build completepieces of digital computer circuits implementing data processing or data structure circuitswithout the extra complexity involved in getting data in or out of their designs.. Theinstrument has been used for several semesters in the “Computer Circuits” laboratory ofthe Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of MinnesotaDuluth, and has been dependable and reliable, despite rugged use by many students. TheGadget is inexpensive and uncomplicated, making it a very non-intimidating testinstrument in the lab. Carroll’s Gadget demonstrates that test equipment need not

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Fereydoun Jalali

, MEE, and PhD in Electrical Engineeringfrom North Carolina State University at Raleigh, North Carolina. He has taught a variety of courses in digitaland linear systems and in electromagnetic-related topics in both EE and EET programs, with a present interestin the application of innovative approaches to teaching "difficult" topics and to laboratory and project activities. Page 6.1121.5“Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2001, American Society for Engineering Education”

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard McNitt; Cliff Lissenden

: • initiate meaningful dialog between students and faculty, • inform students as to ethical expectations, • orient students as to particular options of study, • demonstrate via case studies what engineers ‘do’, and • provide laboratory awareness and experiences.Catastrophic FailuresEngineered systems sometimes fail in catastrophic ways.... bridges collapse, buildings burn,airplanes explode, ships break in two, spontaneous combustion occurs, autos crash, etcetera.Virtually all such failures occur because the designers, builders, and/or users have overlookedsome unexpected combination of inputs; they seldom fail due to simple overload. For example,a bridge designer may have overlooked the potential danger of aerodynamic loading andmechanical

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jin Tso; Daniel Biezad

will award its first graduate degree in 2001to students working at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The program is unusual in that itdeveloped from within the aerospace engineering faculty with full faculty support. Severalimportant lessons and pitfalls in the program development and in obtaining accreditation aredescribed in the paper. Foremost among these are issues of faculty ownership of educationalmaterials, faculty training requirements for the distance learning environment at the graduatelevel, course scheduling so that the students can graduate in two years, integrating the web intolecture and laboratory courses, and funding negotiations with the administration. The paperconcludes with a few strong recommendations for other

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Frederick Orthlieb

of the need for and an ability to engage in life-long learning; (j) a knowledge of contemporary 1issues;" in a way that traditional lecture-homework-exam instruction formerly supported only sporadically. Andwhile one can still reasonably argue about the implied scope or relative importance of these Criterion 3 outcomes,Undergraduate Research, broadly construed to encompass all inquiry-based teaching from open-ended classroomproblems to self-directed research theses, can be an effective means of achieving many of them. But Undergraduate Research is more than a teaching tool or instructional vehicle. It is also a means ofintroducing young engineers to the processes of discovery and design that accompany the search for

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Kara Kockelman

student attributeson student grades and course evaluations. The data come from undergraduate courses given atthe University of Texas at Austin during the 1992 through 1998 calendar years. Instructorexperience, standing, and gender; course department and credit hours; and student classification,test scores, gender, and other variables are used to explain variation in both grades andevaluation scores. The results of multivariate weighted-least-squares regressions of average grades givenacross a sample of over 2,500 courses suggest that the average male instructor assigns lowergrades than female instructors, while lecturers and teaching assistants assign higher grades thanfull, associate, assistant, and adjunct faculty. Instructors teaching

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Larry Cartwright

, and D. Rehak, who shared teaching responsibilities with himfor the senior design course.LARRY CARTWRIGHTLarry Cartwright is a Principal Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.He received his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon. He is also theDirector of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Laboratories. Page 6.545.23Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ricardo Molina; Claudio da Rocha Brito; Melany Ciampi

of Energy; Symbolic and Numerical Computer; Electronic;Operational Systems; Construction Techniques of Programs; Antennas and microwaves; FormalLanguages and Automata; Communication Systems; Digital Laboratories; Electrical Materialsand Processes. Page 6.21.4 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education4th. Year: Digital Systems; Automatic Control; Digital Communications; Software Engineering;Hydraulic, Thermal and Electrical Machines; Graphic Computer; Teleprocess and ComputerNetwork; Digital

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Lars Cederqvist; Jed Lyons

-classlaboratory experiments that provide data to analyze with MathCAD or Excel. The third activity is ateam design project that is best performed around Halloween. Student feedback indicates that thesesimple hands-on activities effectively introduce students to fundamental engineering concepts.IntroductionThe Introduction to Engineering course at the University of South Carolina includes the learningoutcomes that the students: demonstrate knowledge of engineering; demonstrate the ability to use asuite of computer applications; and function on a team to complete a freshman design experience.An active-learning approach has been taken to develop these outcomes.“Full-Body Contact Statics” is an in-class laboratory experiment. The students apply static loads

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Kevin Davis; Frank Severance; Damon Miller

Neural Systems. 1992, West, St. Paul.3. Bell, Mathematics, Queen and Servant of Science, an extract published in Newman, The World of Mathematics, Vol. I, pp. 517-518, Dover.4. Ross, J. and Wie, C.R., Utilizing Internet Technologies to teach laboratory courses, IECON’99 Conference Proceedings, pp. 121-5 vol I., 1999, IEEE.5. URL: http://www.xicor.com/pdf_files/an124.pdf6. URL: http://www.ni.com/ Page 6.171.14 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering EducationKEVIN DAVISKevin Davis received a M.S

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Sundar Krishnamurty; Robert Gao; John Ritter; Donald Fisher; Janis Terpenny

, requirements, supporting links, contact information and serves as a repository forproject descriptions and presentations. Two graduate students, whose research is in the area ofassistive technology, are available to senior students for questions, maintain the web resources,and are responsible for the implementation and maintenance of equipment and technology in ourgrowing AT student design laboratory. Page 6.871.5 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education Table 1

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Gurbax Singh; Abhijit Nagchaudhuri

Interactive Video Network (IVN). All laboratories and some of theupper division electives are taught on site.Minority University Research and Education Division (MURED) of NASA has awardeda three year (2000-2002) grant titled “Pre-College Activities For Enhancing MinorityParticipation in Engineering”, to help reinforce UMES mission to improve therepresentation of minorities and women in mathematics, sciences, technology and inparticular, in the field of engineering. The funding not only complements the UMESmission to actively recruit and retain minority, women, and economically disadvantagedstudents but is also intended to help the growth of the UMES engineering program.This paper describes the “Summer Engineering Bridge Program (SEBP)” at UMES

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William Edward Howard; Joseph Musto

strengths and capabilities of MSOE.These types of programs have existed in various forms for decades; they traditionally followed atypical classroom model, where a combination of lecture and laboratory demonstration was usedto highlight engineering topics. Page 6.1047.1 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering EducationDuring the 1998-1999 academic year, an effort was undertaken to re-engineer the mechanicalengineering outreach offerings. Review of background literature indicated that the mostsuccessful

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Mitzi Vernon; Richard Goff

Page 6.1109.11Figure 11. Painting vehicle with cover and on site Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering EducationConclusions and AssessmentThis collaborative effort between Engineering Fundamentals and Industrial Design is acontinuing project. We have received previous grant funding from the Center for Excellence inUndergraduate Teaching (CEUT) at Virginia Tech. The grant was awarded for development ofan annual joint endeavor between engineering design graphics and the sophomore design studio.The recent completion and dedication of the Frith Freshman Engineering Design Laboratory andaccompanying donations

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Donald Goddard

are capable and truly oriented towards engineering because ofthe natural effects of attrition on the less motivated students. It is the upper division students thathave “the best stuff” coming out of laboratory experiments and design projects to present asartifacts for the high school students. The presentations that have been done by this author arisefrom incorporating a requirement of participation for all the senior design students and juniorlevel machine design students. In both of these courses, as taught at The University of Texas atTyler, there is a team based design project. The presence of such a project is a key requirementto establish involvement.The third “Who” relates to the audience for the presentations. Which high school

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Judith Waalen; Malgorzata Zywno

possibledue to logistics of the registration process, a random allocation to lab sections was used. Tobenchmark the comparison study, we compiled a measure of prior academic performance ofstudents enrolled in the course from the university database.Both instructors teaching the course had comparable expertise, and academic assessment tools(tests, projects, and final examination) were prepared collaboratively so that no course componentscould be perceived as designed to intentionally favour either group of students. The learningenvironment for both groups was based on the experiential, project-based instructional design, and Page 6.994.2

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Basavapatna Sridhara

strategy and different submission deadlines yielded some goodresults although course statistics showed that two students never used the course site. In this author’s opinion, web-based instruction is possible in areas such as humanities andliberal arts. Web-enhanced instruction can be adopted in Engineering Technology although itcannot replace interactive problem solving in the classroom and laboratory activities. FluidPower course site was developed while teaching a full load of ET courses and therefore, thisarticle gives only the salient features of web-enhanced instruction using CourseInfo.V. Conclusions Features such as Discussion Board, Virtual Chat, Student Pages and Group Pages werenot used effectively in the Fall of 2000

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Philip Lau; Merredith Portsmore; Scott McNamara; Chris Rogers

engineeringopportunities in order to help excite and engage them in the math and physics courses that willdominate their first two years of school. The course at the senior level, however, grew out ofstudent demand to explore distributive intelligence. In both cases, students coming into thecourses had different backgrounds with regards to electronics/building experience andprogramming languages. Hence, a tool set was needed that all students could quickly and easilyuse regardless of their previous experience. Moreover, the course instructors wanted tools thatwould be easy to support and maintain and allow students to complete projects outside of theclassroom or laboratory if necessary.While many tools exist for teaching robotics, the need for text based

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Gerald Heydt; George Karady; Daniel Tylavsky; Keith Holbert

homework problems. The text integrates the interactive application so that the distance learning student will be able to use this module for self-paced education.2. Interactive Applications. One or more multimedia computer-based interactive applications are the core of each module. The applications aid the student in visualizing aspects of the modular content and meeting the other learning objectives. The interactive applications are made as intuitive as possible; however, a part of the course module is a user’s guide with examples for operating the application. This is particularly important to distance learners. The concept is to recognize that learning occurs with a number of sensory inputs (e.g., laboratory work with tactile

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ross Staffeldt

of computer output after each step.So how does one go about making a computer program as large and sophisticated as Maple“available” to a typical group of students? We describe how the program is presented indigestible chunks, how other technology developed at NMSU helps provide adequate feedbackto students, and how attaining a basic skill level contributes to the course grade. Materialscreated by the author are now being disseminated among other instructors of advanced calculusat NMSU. A preliminary assessment of the impact of the material on student learning is madebelow, and a wider study is planned.GoalsBefore any one of us would incorporate something new into teaching, each of us would considerreasons for the innovation, how familiar

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Sutharin Pathomvanich; Fazil Najafi

creates a better perspective in a classroom environment,which leads to classroom interaction; and, this may result in new directions of teaching andresearch.The technical expertise (e.g. computer skills, advance construction and equipment techniques,etc.) that international students receive during the study abroad could ultimately benefit Americancompanies that operate overseas. The availability of technical expertise may result in cost saving.The American companies can hire native experts at a lower cost because the average salary ofengineers in developing countries is generally much lower than that of American engineers.Moreover, the companies can save a lot of money from relocation expenses.The college tuition fees in the developing countries

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Mohamad Ahmadian

need to master to become truly successful in their professional Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Page 6.95.2 Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Educationcareers2. Throughout their undergraduate curriculum, engineering technology students will writeessays, laboratory reports, and technical reports for class projects. Some of these class projectsmay also require presentations along with the written materials. The senior seminar coursegenerally addresses job importance and student preparedness in

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Weining Feng; Alberto Gomez-Rivas

keyboard. It is at this point that they are introduced to computerapplications via VB programming, and the results are amazing. After one semester,students’ confidence with computer applications has been boosted and they become eagerto apply and expand their knowledge and skills in computer programming. In view of this Page 6.1132.1 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Educationsituation, it only logic to continue with this momentum, and use VB as a programmingtool for teaching and learning to maximize students

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Kauser Jahan; Shreekanth Mandayam; Douglas Cleary

1996 as a result of a $100 million donation in 1992 from the RowanFoundation. The engineering faculty use innovative methods of teaching and learning to betterprepare students for entry into a rapidly changing and highly competitive marketplace1-4. Keyprogram features include: (a) creating inter- and multi-disciplinary experiences throughcollaborative laboratories and coursework; (b) stressing total quality management (TQM) as thenecessary framework for solving complex problems; (c) incorporating state-of-the-arttechnologies throughout the curricula; (d) and creating continuous opportunities for technicalwriting and communication. To best meet these objectives, the four engineering programs ofChemical, Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical