Conference Session

Issues in Academic Integrity and the Value of Portfolios, Case Studies, and Supportive Programs

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Catherine T. Amelink, Virginia Tech; Benjamin David Lutz, Virginia Tech; Marvin K. Karugarama, Virginia Tech; John J. Lesko, Virginia Tech

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

for members ofunderrepresented populations (i.e., women and minorities), and is further exacerbated when enteringgraduate students come from different schools than those which they are entering to pursue a graduatedegree 1. In other words, while the transition to graduate school is a challenge for everyone, certainfactors can amplify this challenge for different individuals. Thus, this article articulates a framework of apilot summer graduate engineering bridge program and the assessment of its impact.The transitions to new educational contexts are not unique to graduate education, and studies haveexamined the transition from high school into undergraduate program, particularly among engineeringstudents 2, 3. Conclusions from these studies

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Raber, Michigan Technological University; Jim R. Baker, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

three areas in whichengineering education must justifiably direct considerable attention.4 The Enterprise model, bydesign and in practice, requires a high degree of interaction among team members and betweenstudent team members and faculty advisors and industry mentors. Research establishes that theseinteractions are the most predictive measures of positive change in college students’ academicand personal development and satisfaction.1 The Enterprise program, as a core imperative foreducating engineers for the future, teaches and trains students for professional practice – withpractice understood as the “complex, creative, responsible, contextually grounded activities thatdefine the work of engineers at its best”.7The program, with its emphasis

Conference Session

Best of DEED

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven C. Zemke, Gonzaga University; Diane L. Zemke

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

communication is challenging on several fronts. Students have notacquired the necessary object language, they, like many, struggle to describe shapes, and theylack sufficient repertoire.Study context and methodsThis study was conducted in a private undergraduate university within its Engineering Schoolunder the approval of the Institutional Review Board. The seven students who volunteered toparticipate, four males and three females, were Mechanical Engineering juniors within a requireddesign course.Each student was asked to describe three common items from a hardware store: The first was alow-flow garden sprinkler assembly, the second was a steel electrical junction box, and the thirda pair of slip joint pliers. These items are shown in Figures 1-3

Conference Session

Faculty Development I: Attitudes Towards Teaching

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Debra A. Fowler, Texas A&M University; Maria L. Macik, Texas A&M University; James Kaihatu, Texas A&M University; Chelsea A. H. Bakenhus, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

threats, and implications includingnext steps.II. Background and context for change in faculty perspectivesThe PRD process follows eight basic steps, and seeks to center the curriculum on the learner,rather than the educator (Fowler, Macik, Turner, & Hohenstein, 2015). The steps are describedas the CVEN department faculty, students, and administration involved in this study experiencedthem.Step 1) Select team members and orient them to the process. The department chair andcurriculum team leadership met with the educational developer on PRD to review and furtherdefine the steps of the process and reach agreement. A graduate student, pursuing a professionalmaster’s degree in civil engineering, was hired to support the effort in September of

Conference Session

Innovations in Communications and Wireless Systems Education

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vuk Marojevic, Virginia Tech; Richard M. Goff, Virginia Tech Department of Engineering Education; Carl B Dietrich P.E., Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech; Taeyoung Yang, Virginia Tech; Christian W. Hearn, Weber State University; Nicholas F Polys, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Computing; R. Michael Buehrer, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

practical teaching tools andmethods for educating students as well as radio engineers and researchers about new trends inwireless communications with a focus on spectrum sharing.1 IntroductionWireless communications research is investigating how to make better use of the radio frequency(RF) spectrum. Increasing the throughput per unit bandwidth (spectral efficiency) is a popularchoice that is continuously improved and employed in practice. Reusing frequency bands oppor-tunistically (dynamic spectrum access or DSA) is still in the research phase, but is likely to makeits transition to practice in the near future based on the currently ongoing license auctions for theAWS-3 and other bands in the United States.These techniques are covered in

Collection

2019 CIEC

Authors

Sean Tavares; Shawn Banker; Christopher LeBlanc; Jonathan Ferguson

University of New Hampshire wasestablished in 1973 as a centralized research facility within the Office of the Senior Vice-Provostfor Research. The UIC, located at the main campus of the University in Durham, NewHampshire, houses much of the shared, high end scientific, analytical instrumentation for theuniversity. The main campus is approximately 1 hour from the Manchester campus where theET Program resides.The mission of the University Instrumentation Center (UIC) is to support the research, teaching,and engagement missions of UNH by providing access to the best analytical instruments,scientists, and engineers. In support of the university’s engagement mission and as a broaderimpact requirement for many federal grant programs, the UIC partners

Conference Session

First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 2A: Using Alternative Measurements to Look at Students and Their Success

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nick Tatar, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Lauren Van Beek, University of St. Thomas; Laura Ann Lilienkamp, Smith College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

the ways first-year engineering students develop their identity.Research on first-year students suggests the first semester plays a major role in student retention,particularly in fields such as engineering, as many students know whether or not they willcontinue studying engineering by the end of the fall semester and few students transfer intoengineering after the first year.1 Motivational psychologists such as Deci (1995) have argued thatautonomy is essential to student identity development, as well as lifelong learning.In this study researchers investigated how first-year students spent six hours of free time as partof a first year, first semester course at a small engineering college. The instructor designed thesesix hours to encourage

Conference Session

Electromagnetics & Power Education

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nurhidajat Sisworahardjo, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga; Ahmed Eltom P.E., University of Tennessee, Chattanooga; Abdul R. Ofoli, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga; Edward H. McMahon P.E., University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

of Education (HCDE), and the Southeast TennesseeDevelopment District (SETDD). The holistic approach taken by the partnership addresses allaspects of workforce development: recruiting high school students into the power sector careers;training the next generation of technicians, engineers, and managers; and instructing the existingworkforce in new technologies.UTC is ideally situated for collaborations with the power industry. Situated less than a mile fromboth TVA’s operations center and from the headquarters of EPB, the local power distributorwhich was a recipient of a $112 million DOE smart grid grant 1, UTC regularly pulls from theseorganizations for adjuncts and research partners. In 2006, UTC gathered a group of leaders fromthe local

Conference Session

SDR & Programming in ECE Education

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kurt VonEhr, Grand Valley State University; William Neuson, Grand Valley State University; Bruce E. Dunne, Grand Valley State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

software is loaded to perform the necessary processingand no hardware modification is required. This approach allows for ease of adaptability, shortensdevelopment effort and greatly reduces cost and complexity. The generic architecture of an SDRsystem is shown below in Figure 1. Figure 1: General SDR ArchitectureThe advantages of using SDR in commercial applications also applies to its use in an academiclaboratory setting. Many recent papers describe the use of SDR systems for academicinstructional purposes. These include various analog and digital communications experimentsand projects3,4,5,6 based on the popular Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) platform(available from Ettus Research/National Instruments7

Conference Session

Integrating Systems Engineering into the Capstone Project

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vigyan Jackson Chandra, Eastern Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering, Systems Engineering

ideas rooted inSystems Engineering.The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)1 defines Systems Engineeringas “an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems.”The Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK), created by Body of Knowledge andCurriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) project2, notes that systemsengineering includes the “full life cycle of successful systems, including problemformulation, solution development and operational sustainment and use.” As noted in theSEBoK, a host of criteria such as continuous process improvement, considerations fortradeoffs, system integration, safety, recycling, etc., are needed while developing solutions fortechnical problems. In fact

Conference Session

Student Success II: Self-Regulatory, Metacognitive, and Professional Skills

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sergio Celis, Universidad de Chile; Camila Aguirre, Universidad de Chile

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

(continues, ordinals, and dichotomous ones) based on detailed information aboutstudent grades in their first-year courses. Among these variables we included ratio ofpassed versus enrolled credits, variation of grades from first to second semester in bothpassed and failed courses, and difference between the final grade and the minimum gradefor passing, which in this case is 4, where 1 is the minimum and 7 the maximum of thescale. The decision about how much academic data to include in the model deserves somediscussion. In our case, a consecutive failing can only happen in the second semester. Theearlier we are able to detect those likely to fail a course twice in a row, the better. On theother hand, with more time to capture academic data

Conference Session

Curriculum Exchange

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristen M Clapper Bergsman, Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering; Eric H. Chudler, University of Washington; Lise Johnson, The Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering; Michael W. Shaw, Cleveland STEM High School; Shannon Jephson-Hernandez, Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

neurological issuesassociated with TBI and developing technologies. They identify current research to better Page 26.731.2understand these issues and neural engineering efforts to support the needs of patients affectedby TBI. Students explore normal brain function, the impacts of brain injuries, and the potential ofneural engineering devices through the use of a Brain Box model (see Figure 1). In this activity,students build a physical model of the lobes of the brainusing PVC pipe and then use craft materials to constructmodels of the neurons within the lobes. After building theBrain Box model, students connect neurons within andacross lobes and then

Conference Session

International Division Poster Session

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Patricia Fox, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis; Ergem Senyuva; Joe Spaulding, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis

Tagged Divisions

International

Political Science Electrical Engineering Psychology Environmental Engineering Public Policy Environmental Studies Shipbuilding and Ocean EngineeringInitially, there were 15 teams established at the workshop. Of the 15 teams, 5 teams chose not tocontinue with their projects due to lack of commitment and/or lack of time due to their busyschedules in school after the workshop was completed.Below are descriptions of the remaining 10 teams that continue to work on their projects: 11 1. The “FoodSlowers” team is from Koç University. This team is working on multiple projects relating to the “slow food” concept. They are introducing the concept of “slow food” to their

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division: Student Issues as Related to Culture

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Rojewski, Michigan State University; Katy Luchini-Colbry, Michigan State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

with advisors and mentors, and provided brainstorming and support to help negotiatethese relationships. The assessment data were hand-coded to identify common themes2 and theresults include some striking perspectives of graduate women in STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering, Math) and suggestions of ways to better support members of this group throughco-curricular programs.IntroductionIn 2013, the College of Engineering at Michigan State University (MSU) was awarded a mini-grant to support a co-curricular program for graduate students that used the best-selling book,Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead 1 as a framework for promoting professionaldevelopment and community building. “Lean In” encourages both men and women to examinethe

Conference Session

Robotics, Automation, and Product Development

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aleksandr Sergeyev, Michigan Technological University; Nasser Alaraje, Michigan Technological University; James O. Frendewey, Michigan Technological University; Mohsen Azizi, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

count of the tons of recycled steel used during thecurrent calendar year. Currently, Nucor (in conjunction with two foreign-owned steel companies)operates a facility in Crawfordsville, Indiana that continuously casts sheet steel directly frommolten steel without the need for heavy, expensive, and energy-consuming rollers. The processknown as Castrip30, if successful, would allow an entire mill to be built in 1/6 the space of a'mini-mill' and at 1/10 the cost of a traditional integrated mill. They call this concept a 'micro- Page 26.137.6mill'. Also, Nucor has two pilot projects, one in Western Australia and one in Brazil, which aredeveloping low

Conference Session

Best of DEED

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katherine Goodman, University of Colorado, Boulder; Hunter Porterfield Ewen, University of Colorado, Boulder; Jiffer W Harriman Jr, University of Colorado; Jean Hertzberg, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

transformative experience. Thetransformative experience is a learning experience, after which a student will : 1) apply ideasfrom a course in everyday experience without being required to (also called motivated use); 2)see everyday objects or situations differently, through the lens of the new content (expandedperception); and 3) value the content in a new way because it enriches everyday affectiveexperience (affective value)3. The transformative experience stems from John Dewey’s seminaltheory of experiential learning, and influenced by his work on the value of aestheticexperiences4,5. In other words, we want students to be able to perceive concepts they havelearned in the larger world, put those concepts to work, and enjoy the experience. Framing

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Teresa J. Cutright, University of Akron; Lakiesha N. Williams, Mississippi State University; Linda T Coats; Debora F Rodrigues, University of Houston (CoE); Judit Eva Puskas; Frank "Fritz" J Claydon, University of Houston (CoE)

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

(STEM) disciplines. Across all groups, womenparticipate at lower levels than their co-ethnic male counterparts.1-3 Most activities to rectifysuch a deficiency in STEM disciplines have focused on K-16 initiatives to address lack ofpreparation, inability to balance coursework and external commitments, self-efficacy, andfinancial limitations.4-6 However, there has been minimal focus on issues faced by graduatestudents or the need for effective mentoring of post-docs and new faculty in engineering toattract and retain them in academic careers. This is alarming as one approach to increase thenumber of underrepresented minorities who graduate with a STEM degree is to use hierarchicalmentoring, i.e., undergraduate mentor to faculty mentor.7 This is a

Conference Session

Promoting Engineering and Technological Literacy

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth W. Van Treuren, Baylor University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

of aeronautics to their major. They madeconnections between aeronautics and their major where previously they thought none existed.This had the effect of changing their attitude towards the course and the material, a positiveoutcome.IntroductionWith the implementation of EC2000 requirements for the assessment of engineering programs,the Criterion 3 Student Outcomes a-k have become an important part of any engineering majorand are essential for accreditation.1 Several of these criteria, listed below, present challenges to Page 26.598.2any program: The program must have documented student outcomes that prepare graduates to attain

Conference Session

Capstone Design

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Larissa Cannon, Brigham Young University; Cory C Cunningham, The Boeing Company; Aaron Lau Inouye, Brigham Young University; Brett Stone, Brigham Young University; Fabian Zender, The Boeing Company

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

Page 26.1100.3industry mentors who advise each team on technical and professional issues.These multi-disciplinary, multi-university AerosPACE teams have demonstrated many of theadvantages of learning in such an environment. They have also identified some specificchallenges and opportunities that academic institutions and industry partners must be aware of.The end of the paper contains a “Looking Back” section where former undergraduate studentswho have spent 1-3 years in industry provide their feedback on how effective this DBF projectwas at preparing them to succeed professionally.Projects SummaryIn order to better understand the student experiences and impact, it is important to review thevarious student activities in the context of their

Conference Session

Research on Design Learning

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laura Sánchez-Parkinson, University of Michigan ; Shanna R. Daly, University of Michigan; James Paul Holloway, University of Michigan; Amy J Conger, University of Michigan; Kathleen H. Sienko, University of Michigan; Lorelle A Meadows, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

collected from thirty-five student interviews, we developed aconceptual framework for CCD progression. The Culturally Contextualized Design frameworkrepresents three levels of sophistication – novice, aware, and informed – for each of the fiveCCD aspects: (1) human-centered, (2) collaborative, (3) intentional, (4) open to flexibility andambiguity, and (5) invested and committed. The goal of this paper is to present the examples ofthree engineering students with different backgrounds and experiences and to map theirdevelopment within the framework. We also discuss the potential utility of this new frameworkto understand how engineering students learn to integrate culture and design and to assess theimpact of educational practices.Introduction and

Conference Session

NSF Grantees’ Poster Session

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Noah Salzman, Boise State University; Matthew W. Ohland, Purdue University; Monica E Cardella, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Topics

NSF Grantees Poster Session

spaceconsisting of five categories of description of students’ ways of experiencing their transitionfrom pre-college engineering programs and activities to a first-year engineering classroom.These results, described in the following section, provide a theoretical framework that is Page 26.1141.2currently guiding the development of a quantitative instrument to understand students’transitions to first-year engineering on a larger scale across multiple institutions.Qualitative ResultsFigure 1 shows the outcome space illustrating the relationships between the five ways ofexperiencing the transition from pre-college to first-year engineering. In order of

Conference Session

ECCD Applications

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gabriela De Mattos Veroneze, North Carolina A&T SU; Zhichao Li, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University; Pedro Augusto Pinto Caldeira

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

current electricity (DC) andusing an alternator converts it into alternative current (AC) that can be used to power equipmentinside a house. Photovoltaic cells have to combine cost effectiveness with relatively highthroughput energy yield production, in order to achieve this combination a couple of factors haveto be counted in: Material of construction, location that the PV cell will be placed and energyconversion efficiency. Even though there is a high initial cost to purchase and install Solar panels the financial Page 26.1484.2return of investment is worth it besides it provides added home value. Figure 1. Solar PanelsWind

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability and Grand Challenges

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard M. Goff, Virginia Tech

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

become,engaged in a motorcycle fuel economy challenge design project?Theory & Methods Page 26.1606.3Student engagement is one of the biggest issues in engineering education. If you can engagestudents they will persist4 .It was decided that using a student motivation model such as the MUSIC model5 would be agood theoretical foundation upon which to build this project and to answer the research questionsposed above.The 5 key principles of the MUSIC model are that students are more motivated when theyperceive that: (1) they are eMpowered, (2) the content is Useful, (3) they can be Successful, (4)they are Interested, and (5) they feel Cared about

Conference Session

Engineering Physics & Physics Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David K. Probst P.E., Southeast Missouri State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

revealed.Question 1 - With respect to the webinar format versus a traditional classroom format – are youfinding that your learning is more effective than a traditional classroom, less effective than atraditional classroom, or about the same as a traditional classroom? Why? Table I. Results for Question 1 More Same Less 2012 7 9 7 2014 5 6 6Four of the “less” responses in 2012 and one in 2014 indicated that their learning was only a“little less” effective. Four of the “less” responses in 2012 and

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation Division – Design and Entrepreneurship

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Tadd, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan; Elaine Wisniewski, University of Michigan; Leena N Lalwani, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

received a University grant to “revitalize”the senior design experience through the following goals   1. develop an alternative project selection method, 2. involve students in project selection in an entrepreneurial fashion, 3. utilize active learning teaching methods and enhance content and delivery, and 4. increase use of online course content. Page 26.1346.3The pedagogical purpose of this approach was driven by a desire to put the students in situationswhere not only the solutions to design problems are open-ended, but the generation of thespecific design problems is somewhat open-ended as well. Furthermore, the purpose

Conference Session

Student Approaches to Problem Solving: ERM Roundtable

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Benjamin James Call, Utah State University; Wade H. Goodridge, Utah State University; Christopher Green, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

. Page 26.1405.3A quick grading process - focused on getting “correct answers” on the problems - was used toplace participants is below average, average, and above average groupings based only onproblem-solving performance during the study. This enabled us to categorize via an extremegroups split7. Since a focus of the study is on strategies and misconceptions - which are assumedto vary between the above average and below average groups - the records of participants whoperformed above average and below average on the problems were given more attention duringcoding than those in the average grouping during the pursuit of saturation. Table 1 provides thebreakdown of score ranges observed and the grouping into below average, average, and

Conference Session

First-year Programs Division Technical Session 3: Diversity and Multicultural Influences in the First Year

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Haolin Zhu, Arizona State University; Ryan J Meuth, Arizona State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

. Students were evaluated on performance of the design (based onquantitative results), cost, creativity of design, and craftsmanship and aesthetics. Deliverables forthis project included a project schedule, project definition and requirements, a design proposalpresentation and report, design prototype presentation with demonstration, and a final designreport.ResultsThe first three questions in the survey instrument requested information about the academic statusof the student population, and their level of college experience. Figure 1 shows that the surveyedpopulation is primarily composed of students with freshman level academic standing and fewupper level students. 200 180

Conference Session

Fundamental: K-12 Students' Beliefs, Motivation, and Self-efficacy

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joel Alejandro Mejia, West Virginia University; Dustin Drake, Utah State University; Amy Wilson-Lopez, Utah State University - Teacher Education and Leadership

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

engineeringdesign processes to solve the problem. The community-based problems selected by theparticipants in the first year of the study are shown in Table 1. All the names are pseudonyms toprotect the identity of the participants.The community-based problems were characterized as ill-structured problems because they were“not constrained by the content domains being studied in classrooms.” 21 For example, thecommunity-based problems selected by the students were dynamic, required collaboration,involved multiple solutions, and the constraints, both engineering and non-engineering, wereidentified by the students themselves.21, 22 The main objective was to observe how students usedengineering design processes, how they perceived engineering, how those

Conference Session

The Philosophy of Engineering and Technological Literacy

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alan Cheville, Bucknell University; John Heywood, Trinity CollegeDublin, The University of Dublin

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

, 2016 From Problem Solvers to Problem Seekers: The Necessary Role of Tension in Engineering EducationIn this paper it is proposed that the current focus on problems in engineering education andtechnological literacy may be more constructively reframed by focusing on tensions. PriyanDias claims engineering has an identity crisis that arises from tensions inherent in: 1) theinfluence of the profession on society, 2) the role engineers play, and 3) what constitutes validknowledge in engineering. These are ethical, ontological, and epistemological tensionsrespectively, which Dias frames as a tension between identities of homo sapiens and homo faber.Beyond the tensions in engineering there are additional tensions that arise

Conference Session

Assessing Literacies in Engineering Education

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xiaofeng Tang, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Qin Zhu, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Haishao Pang, Beijing Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

as theirAmerican counterparts,” Grasso questioned whether it is wiser to close all the expensiveengineering colleges in the U.S. and “simply import all the engineering we need.”1 As a lifetimeengineering professor and administrator, Grasso was certainly not proposing laying off thousandsof American engineering educators. Instead, he urged his colleagues in the U.S. to pursue “afresh start” and to educate “[a] growing and increasingly diverse number of domestically trainedengineers—equipped with the broad insight and critical thinking skills the world needs” through“[the] study of the human condition, the human experience, [and] the human record.” Doing so,Grasso suggests, would give the engineers educated in the U.S. “a competitive advantage