Conference Session

Software and Hardware for Educators I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rosario Gil, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia; Elio Sancristobal, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia; Sergio Martin, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia; Antonio Colmenar, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia; Gabriel Diaz, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia; Martin Llamas, Universidad de Vigo; Edmundo Tovar, Polytechnic University, Montegancedo; Alfonso Duran, Carlos III University of Madrid; juan peire, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia; Manuel Castro, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

country and their own interests. ̇ Academic aspects, this is the most important part, or at least it should be. Studies aimed at the more practical or vocational clashed with the design of some careers in particular with the traditional engineering degrees.Beyond these commonalities, each country must deal with various obstacles wherever its currenteducational system differs from the new European model. In Spain, the current model hadmainly two types of degrees: “Diplomatura” and technical engineering (3-year); and“Licenciatura” and engineering degree (5 or 6-year). 3-year degrees would be equivalent to aBS/BSc and 5-year degrees would be equivalent to a MA/MSc. However, these degrees are notexactly equivalent. 3-year degrees

Conference Session

Engineering Design: Implementation and Evaluation

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shanna Daly, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

continue to presentdefinitions of design, it is more interesting to point out that none of these definitions thatcould be presented come from professionals who design on a regular basis as a part oftheir careers. The lack of understanding design from this perspective prompted theresearch study presented in this paper. My search to find a research approach to addressthis question of how professional designers understood what it means to design lead toinvestigations on an approach called phenomenography. This approach yielded resultsthat contributed to understanding the broad picture of what it means to design. Theintention of this paper is to emphasize the design and outcomes of phenomenography as aresearch approach. Presenting the research design

Conference Session

Professional Issues in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronald Welch, University of Texas, Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

as a technical course that requires a labcomponent. The underlying thought being that engineering students will have numerouslaboratory experiences within their engineering academic career and being able to get acourse on the history of modern engineering which counts toward a core requirementearly in their career will provide them an unique insight into engineering. Additionally,the creative hands-on laboratory experiences and associated data collection willencourage some of the non-engineering students to consider switching to engineering!The presentation of engineering in the modern world within ENGR 1200 at UT Tyler alsoincludes laboratory experiences for the freshmen engineering students. These laboratoryexperiences come from the Summer

Conference Session

ERM Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Snyder, Taylor University; Elise Romines, Taylor University; Rachel Dodge, Taylor University; Jason Kruegar, Taylor University; Travis Booth, Taylor University; Josh Gates, Taylor University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

14.907.2Background of Program For four years, Taylor University’s HARP program has been providing students withthe opportunity apply their technical science and math instruction to interesting and relevantproblems. The unique experience of a high-altitude balloon launch, including team-basedproblem solving, prototyping, construction and testing of experimentation, and the “hard”deadline of a launch, gives students a taste of real-world project experience, and has helpedTaylor students be competitive as they pursue education and career goals beyond theundergraduate level. A student participant in the HARP curriculum component of a 2006Introduction to Electronics class said, “Working on the balloon project was an excellentopportunity to put theory

Conference Session

International Study Abroad Programs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Hornfeck, Lafayette College; Antonia Gohr, Jacobs University Bremen

Tagged Divisions

International

significant part of their undergraduate career. With the program now five years into itsexistence, the Engineering Division at Lafayette, along with the Off-Campus Study Office, mightwell consider a comparative study of engineering graduates at the 5-year mark in their careers,and the effect that studying abroad has had on their personal and professional lives.The tailor-made program described in this paper has been designed according to specificrequirements and conditions of both Lafayette College and Jacobs University. As shown, such aprogram is shaped by complex structures. However, the successful elements presented here canserve as guidelines for other institutions that plan to establish similar partnerships. Table 1 belowsummarizes the key

Conference Session

Early Engineering Design Experiences

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shawn S Jordan, Purdue University; Nielsen Pereira, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

EngineersAbstract Hands-on learning experiences and interactive learning environments can be effective inteaching K-12 students. Design, in essence, is an interactive, hands-on experience. Engineeringdesign can be taught in the classroom using innovative hands-on projects, such as designing andbuilding serve to teach design, promote creativity, and provide opportunities for hands-onproblem solving, in addition to giving students experience working in cooperative teams. In turn,these experiences could encourage students to consider future careers in engineering and science. This paper explores findings from data collected during the authors’ recent experienceteaching a group of fifteen 4th – 6th grade students enrolled in a 6-week Saturday

Conference Session

Technological Literacy and K-12 Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Sanders, Virginia Tech; Thomas Sherman, Virginia Tech; Hyuksoo Kwon, Virginia Tech; James Pembridge, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

fact that nearly half (47.4%) associated their programs with “vocational” rather than“general” education. This is likely due to the fact that a large majority of states have alwaysadministered Technology Education under the heading of “Vocational Education” or, morerecently, “Career & Technical Education.” Moreover, many probably don’t consider high school“engineering education” (e.g., PLTW) as vocational in nature, because it typically leads to apostsecondary vocational track rather than to a vocation in the trades immediately upon highschool graduation.Table 3: Teachers’ Beliefs Regarding the PURPOSES of Technology Education Purposes of Technology Education Rating Rank

Conference Session

New Learning Paradigms I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Oakes, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Participation: A student can participate in an EPICS team for more than one semester and even their entire career. ≠ Variable Credit Hours: An EPICS student can earn one or two credits per semester. ≠ Multidisciplinary Teams: In the 2007-08 academic year, 30 different majors participated in EPICS. ≠ Start-to-Finish Design Experience: EPICS provides a start-to-finish design experience for students. Projects begin with problem identification done by the students and moves through delivery of the project. The long-term structure allows EPICS to provide support for fielded projects, an additional value to the community partners

Conference Session

International Initiatives, Partnerships, Teaching Strategies & Collaborative Networks (IUCEE, IFEES, LACCEI.... )

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andy Ward, Ohio State University; Ann Christy, Ohio State University; Robert J. Gustafson; Jessica D'Ambrosio; Kurt Paterson, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

International

engineeringprograms and experiences for their students, which can take many forms including dual degrees,exchange programs, extended field trips, extension activities, internships, mentored travel,partner sub-contracts, project based learning / service learning, and research abroad1. Withrespect to African partnerships, some of the programs have linked U.S. engineering students withcounterparts and projects in Benin5,6, Ghana7, South Africa8, and others. It has been suggestedthat all engineering students should have a passport before they graduate and be prepared towork in various parts of the world throughout their career, rather than in only one nation orcontinent. Prior to graduation, how international experience might be provided prior tograduation might

Conference Session

Curricular Issues in Computer-Oriented Programs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Phil Rawles, Purdue University; Anthony Smith, Purdue University; Raymond Hansen, Purdue University; Jeffrey Sprankle, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Information Systems

, malware and SPAMcontrol, the continued evolution in wireless networks, and support for new applicationdevelopment and deployment models keep IT educators busy ensuring their courses andcurricula are kept in sync with changes in the industry.In addition to changes in the industry, there are changes in the student body. Today’s students aremuch more technology savvy than those entering the program just five years ago. These studentsare also taking internships earlier in their college careers, creating a need to ensure they areprepared for these earlier industrial experience opportunities.As part of our ongoing continuous improvement process the faculty in the Department ofComputer and Information Technology at Purdue University has recently

Conference Session

Potpourri

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Catherine Pieronek, University of Notre Dame

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, including those specifically spelled out in the Title IX implementingregulations, as well as identifying promising practices to promote gender equity:27 admissions,recruitment, outreach and retention; faculty advising and career counseling; research participationand classroom experiences; treatment of students and faculty on the basis of parental/maritalstatus; safety policies; and sexual harassment policies.17,18,19,20,21 NASA’s reports make clear thatthe agency examined admissions statistics, retention statistics, data relevant to the utility ofparticular policies such as family leave, and more. Where NASA identified potential problems,such as the chilly or toxic climate in one physics department, it did take into account the opinionsof

Conference Session

Sustainable and Urban Development

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Farshad Rajabipour, University of Hawaii, Manoa; Aleksandra Radlinska, Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

with more general and conceptual ideas.We also sought opinion from the industry advisory boards (IABs) on what new skills wouldbenefit the civil engineering graduates the most in their career. Their common answer was thatwhile CE graduates are good in numerical solution of traditional engineering problems, theyoften lack creativity in defining new problems and in offering innovative solutions. In the IABs’opinion, two areas of particular importance in near future will be (a) design and construction ofgreen buildings, especially as outlined by LEED, and (b) development and rehabilitation ofrobust civil infrastructure7. In addition, CE graduates need to improve their communication andwriting skills and should be able to work in interdisciplinary

Conference Session

Engineering Courses for Non-engineers

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Blake, Austin Peay State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

system work. The story includesmany examples where engineers, operating under constraints, identify and solve problems.October Sky tells an autobiographical story of a group of young men who, after a long learningcurve with many failures, develops the technology to make very successful small rockets. Whilethis is a story about high school students, it reflects the perspective of an author who went on toan engineering career with NASA, and the story is a useful study for technological projects atany level. Moving to fiction and a setting in the distant future, Forbidden Planet tells a story ofthe enticing benefits of new technological marvels. It also explores the risks of unintended andunanticipated consequences. While these movies illustrate

Conference Session

New Trends in CHE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Christensen, Texas A&M University; Lale Yurttas, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

addition of a projectcomponent of such magnitude. In addition, the general engineering principles of the lower-levelcourses can be most readily applied and extrapolated to more general real-life challenges thatwould be the basis of the service-learning projects. The goals of increasing excitement andretention rates would be also better served by implementing service learning during the mostinfluential time of a student’s academic career, which typically coincides with the lower-levelcourses. Furthermore, the four learning outcomes of the material and energy balances coursewere defined with the goal of implementing service learning. Specifically outcome 4 is wellaligned with such objectives of a service learning project: community engagement

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions to Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dianne Pawluk, Virginia Commonwealth University; Curtis Taylor, University of Florida; Marcia Hoffman, Virginia Commonwealth University; Maria McClintock, Virginia Commonwealth University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Page 14.471.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 Development of a Nanoscale Virtual Environment Haptic Interface for Teaching Nanotechnology to Individuals who are Visually ImpairedAbstractNanotechnology is a relatively new, exciting and growing area of research in whichgovernments, educators and researchers, alike, are interested in attracting K-12 andundergraduate students to pursue future careers. However, how things interact at the small scaleof a nano-environment can be difficult for these students to understand and conceptualize. Thisis particularly true for students who are visually impaired, as most current explanations andpedagogical methods heavily rely on 2-D

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Anderson-Rowland, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

National Engineering Award in 2003, the highest honor given by AAES. In 2002 she was named the Distinguished Engineering Educator by the Society of Women Engineers. Her awards are based on her mentoring of students, especially women and underrepresented minority students, and her research in the areas of recruitment and retention. A SWE and ASEE Fellow, she is a frequent speaker on career opportunities and diversity in engineering. Page 14.825.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 Keeping in Touch with Your Class: Short Class EvaluationsAbstractEspecially for a beginning or fairly new

Conference Session

Exploring Retention

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Cassady, University of Arkansas; Sean Mulvenon, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

to CoE students are Biological Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering); ≠ providing FEP students with academic, career, and personal advising in a proactive manner; ≠ fostering a sense of community among FEP students, other CoE students, the CoE faculty, and the balance of the UofA community.The FEP is executed via two sub-programs – the Freshman Engineering Academic Program(FEAP) and the Freshman Engineering Student Services Program (FESSP). These sub-programsare executed by a faculty Director, two full-time professional staff members, one full-timeinstructor, volunteer

Conference Session

Beyond the Engineering Classroom

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary Bailey, North Carolina A&T State University; Cindy Waters, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

course to the undergraduate Engineering curriculum. Generaleducation is often devalued by students as irrelevant and a waste of time. Students wantmajor specific education, both because of their personal interests, and because of theperceived urgency to further their job and career goals. Major departments often wantlarger budgets which can result from high hours-requirements for their majors. Suchdesires can result in a correlative desire to take hours from general education in order tosecure a larger share of the total possible hours for major hours. In addition, facultymembers in major departments often deprecate general education as ‘soft,”unsophisticated, and intellectually and academically impoverished. We argue here for thepositive value

Conference Session

Global Engineering Education: Developments, Implementations

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aurenice Oliveira, Michigan Technological University; Ivan Lima, North Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

International

education has to be tailored to the needsof the current globalized world. Industry has begun to respond to the transformation byredefining business strategies and with new expectations for the new set of skills of engineers.According to the literature1-12 engineering students who have international study experience aremore likely to be hired and prepared for the global market place. Engineering graduates will beintegrally involved with the globalization of engineering during their course of their careers byworking at multinational companies, often having foreign-born coworkers, working withinternational suppliers, providing services to international product markets, or developingproducts that have an international market13.This changing nature of

Conference Session

Curriculum in Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Li Tan, Purdue University, North Central; Jean Jiang, DeVry University, Decatur, GA

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

Conference Session

Computational Tools and Simulation I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dianne Raubenheimer, North Carolina State University; Jeff Joines, North Carolina State University; Amy Craig, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

. A secondary outcome of these labs was thatstudents were seeing how to approach and solve a wide variety of different problems. Forexample, one engineering problem solving method the students see is the ‘divide and conquertechnique’ (i.e., breaking up the problem into its smallest elements and solving each of theelements (which typically is easier) and then reassembling the elements to solve the originalproblem) [2]. In order for students to enhance, rather than lose, these new found computationaland problem solving skills in the freshman year, computational modeling and problem solvinghas to be utilized through their academic career by integrating these tools into upper divisioncourses. A ‘computational thinking thread’ [3] is beginning to

Conference Session

Communication and Collaboration

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Sharp, Vanderbilt University; Marilyn Dyrud, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

body paragraph? Is the topic specifically linked to your career (engineering, finance, etc.) so that the audience will know why you are discussing this topic? 4. Organization: Is the paper organized appropriately with Page 14.1287.4 headings? Is a main point (thesis) stated? Are the paragraphs divided logically? Are subpoints expressed in topic sentences for each body paragraph? Is the order of subpoints logical? 5. Development of paragraphs: Are paragraphs developed logically with relevant, specific, sufficient details? Do details stay on the subject? Are they appropriate? 6

Conference Session

Innovative Curriculum and Practices in Engineering Technology

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary Mullett, Springfield Technical Community College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

traditionally educated students for careers in the occupational field known as electronicsengineering technology (EET) or simply electronics technology (ET). Nationwide, overallenrollment in many of these legacy technology programs have continued to be running belowhistoric averages and have even caused the faculty of some programs to become fearful ofeventual program elimination! If one looks at the statistics available from the National ScienceBoard (NSB), the total number of students enrolled in the field of Engineering Technology(typically in the fields of civil, electrical/electronics, construction, computer, and mechanicaltechnology) continues to follow a downward trend from an all time high in the early 1980s totoday’s lower full time equivalent

Collection

2009 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Greg Stephens

Space Flight Center’ s Leadership Alchemy Program whichuses storytelling for mid career employees to create ambassadors of positive change who canrespond to dynamic times and what’s happening in larger environments.Lori Silverman, in her popular leadership book Wake Me Up When the Data is Over, HowOrganizations use Storytelling to Drive Change explains that NASA “consciously designedstorytelling into their program through conversations, learning experiences, and tools to dealwith challenges that manifest in the workplace. Both storytelling and story listening skills werereinforced.”21In addition, the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company magazine areamong the many publications to have featured stories on this trend

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arun Ravindran, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Patricia Tolley, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Arindam Mukherjee, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

additional opportunities for minor refinements to the course.ConclusionsWith the rapid emergence of diverse computing architectures in recent years, we were motivatedto introduce to the undergraduate curriculum topics such as reconfigurable computingtraditionally taught at the graduate level. Also, with the proliferation of multicore architecturesthe skills for writing parallel software needs to be developed in our students for their success intheir future engineering careers. The new course aims to address these goals by exposingcomputer engineering seniors to a variety of topics including hardware design using VHDL,FPGA design flow and interfacing, data parallel algorithms, and high performance computingapplications. After having taught the new

Conference Session

Project-Based Service Learning

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Maya Trotz, University of South Florida; Ken Thomas, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

class to participate in one of theESW activities at the school or in the community. Such an endeavor could potentially help to Page 14.1155.9encourage more students to pursue a college career in a STEM discipline whilst buildingcommunication, leadership and mentoring capacity of college students.ConclusionThis project also has the potential to expand to other courses across the university with theinclusion of sustainability concepts. These include undergraduate laboratory courses in biology,environmental microbiology, and water resources engineering. The convenience of the ponds forsampling coupled with their importance in floodwater and water

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship Education: Assessment and Integrating Entrepreneurship into the Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Johnson, Valparaiso University; Mark Budnik, Valparaiso University; Doug Tougaw, Valparaiso University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

thermodynamics. In addition, they complete a mid-term design project and a finaldesign project as part of a team and give an in-class oral presentation on each. This course isalso complemented by GE 199, a required zero-credit seminar course that meets once a week andfeatures a series of guest speakers to help the students understand the field of engineering.It was decided that one of the existing modules in this course (Communication System Design)should be replaced by a module on entrepreneurship. Introducing the concept this early in thecurriculum and across all engineering disciplines provided a unique opportunity to encourage allengineering students to begin to think about entrepreneurship from the beginning of theirengineering careers

Conference Session

Innovation in the Civil Engineering Classroom

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Diane Bondehagen, Florida Gulf Coast University; Simeon Komisar, Florida Gulf Coast University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

decreased output), solve the problem” • An ability to design a system with multiple constraints • An ability to technically communicate Evaluation of Outcomes The main assessment tool for quantitative evaluation included two rubrics (Appendix A) modified and designed for this particular course. The first rubric was used to score Projects 1-4; the second rubric was used to score the final project and poster presentation. The faculty review and grading of design projects reflected this rubric, and evaluated outcomes and student progression in demonstrating the abilities most important to long- term career success (note the emphasis on technical communication skills in the

Conference Session

Educational Research

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth Reid, Ohio Northern University; P.K. Imbrie, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

subfactors identified through factor analysis14; each subfactor isin turn comprised of individual items. The constructs include:- Motivation, consisting of 25 items in four subfactors: Control, Challenge, Curiosity and Career.- Metacognition: consisting of 20 items in four subfactors: Planning, Self-monitoring/Self- Checking, Cognitive Strategy and Awareness.- Deep Learning, consisting of 10 items in two subfactors, Motive and Strategy.- Surface Learning, consisting of 10 items in two subfactors, Memorization and Studying.- Academic Self-Efficacy, consisting of ten individual items that do not form specific subfactors.- Leadership, consisting of 20 items with four subfactors, Motivation, Planning, Self- Assessment and

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mihaela Radu, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Clint COLE, Washington State University, Pullman; Mircea Dabacan, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania; Joe Harris, DigilentInc; Albert Fazekas, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania; Ioana DABACAN, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

learningexperience.The first question investigates how beneficial is the competition for students’ professionaldevelopment and future career as an engineer. Students’ comments range from: “a chance todevelop a portfolio” to “take on a project without guidance from the instructor” and learningfrom mistakes. Suggestive examples of students’ comments:“This project gave me a better approach on how a design should be implemented as I learnedfrom my mistakes.”“I found out that an initial architecture can fail if you don’t know the hardware capabilities.”The second question investigates in which area the students think that they improved theirunderstanding and engineering abilities: Hardware-digital, Hardware-analog, Software-HDL orothers. The majority of students