Conference Session

Project-Based Service Learning

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chris Swan, Tufts University; Mary McCormick, Tufts University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

individual and group environment results indicates that this sample of PBSL students havestronger problem-solving and professional skills, and are able to outperform the students whohave had predominantly classroom-based education.It can be inferred that PBSL students’ technical (hard) and professional (soft) skills were moreadvanced than NPBSL students’ skills because their out-of-classroom experiences had catalyzedand strengthened development of abilities ranging from cognitive thinking to social interactionand moral reasoning. With each new experience, students learned how to adapt to unexpectedenvironmental constraints and developed the necessary technical and non-technical skills toovercome conflicts. Consequently, many of the students became

Conference Session

Design Cognition

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rogelio Cardona, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez; Ted Cruz, University of Puerto Rico; Noraica Davila, University of Puerto Rico; Omar Ferrer, University of Puerto Rico; Alexander Gonzalez, University of Puerto Rico; Ramon Gonzalez, University of Puerto Rico; Willie Gonzalez, University of Puerto Rico; Nelson Mendez, University of Puerto Rico; Damian Torres, University of Puerto Rico; José Vega, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

new mentor. Another team member learnedhow to not criticize ideas before they are given a chance to surface. Yet anotherteam member learned about teamwork. Even though these are soft skills (whichare necessary as an engineer), the focus of the group was to develop an idea, not atechnical description or product. Moreover, if the team had remained strictlyfocused on merely fulfilling the course objective, the team might not have learnedall these skills. The fact that the team learned so much in so little time paves theway for creativity to make its case in engineering education. Needless to say, allteam members would repeat the experience again.Looking Back: AchievementsThe whole endeavor provided many experiences some of which have

Conference Session

Professional Issues in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven Hart, United States Military Academy; Joseph Hanus, United States Military Academy; Adam Chalmers, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

Frontiers in Education, 1996. Volume 1 pps 103-106.5 Collier, K., Hatfield, J., Howell, S., Larson, D., and Thomas, G. “Corporate Structure in the Classroom: A Modelfor Teaching Engineering Design.” Proceedings, Frontiers in Education Conference, 1995, Volume: 1,pps 2a2.5-2a2.9.6 Kumar, S., and Hsiao, J. “Engineers Learn ‘Soft Skills the Hard Way’: Planting a Seed of Leadership inEngineering Classes.” Leadership and Management in Engineering. January, 2007. Pp18-23.7 Wiswanathan, S. and Evans, H. “Effective Capstone/Master’s Projects—Do’s and Don’ts”. Proceedings of the2005 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. ASEE, 2006.8 O’Bannon, D. and Kimes, T. “Design-to-build= Civil Engineering Capstone

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Lizabeth Schlemer; Jose Macedo

assessing teamwork and other soft skills involved in multi-disciplinary PBLteams. Plumb and Sobeck[10] put together a framework for developing assessment tools. Theyurge instructors to develop a rubric or protocols to track performance over time. Proceedings of the 2009 American Society for Engineering Education Pacific Southwest Regional Conference Proceedings of the 2009 American Society for Engineering Education Pacific Southwest Regional Conference 163 Teamwork in PBL is a unique case in that the teams are usually working on moredifficult, time consuming problems. When PBL is used students achieve desirable

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Enrique Barbieri, University of Houston; Raresh Pascali, University of Houston; Miguel Ramos, University of Houston; William Fitzgibbon, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

has unveiled the 14 Grand Challenges that are awaitingengineering solutions www.engineeringchallenges.org/ in energy, infrastructure & theenvironment, health & medicine, security, and in technology and tools for research and forinstruction & learning. A common thread in the 14 Grand Challenges lies in ensuring that theeducational system equips engineers with the skills needed to tackle these grand technicalproblems. At the recent March 2-3, 2009 NAE Summit in Durham, North Carolina, several ofthese challenges were discussed, and the imperative of having strong math and scientificfoundations, a knowledge of business and entrepreneurship, an awareness of the globalenvironment, and soft-skills development in engineering education was

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Enrique Barbieri, University of Houston; Wajiha Shireen, University of Houston; Farrokh Attarzadeh, University of Houston; Miguel Ramos, University of Houston; William Fitzgibbon, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

; learning. A common thread in the 14 Grand Challenges lies in ensuring that theeducational system equips engineers with the skills needed to tackle these grand technicalproblems. At the recent March 2-3, 2009 NAE Summit in Durham, North Carolina, several ofthese challenges were discussed, and the imperative of having strong math and scientificfoundations, a knowledge of business and entrepreneurship, an awareness of the globalenvironment, and soft-skills development in engineering education was made clear. However, inthe authors’ opinion, it has also become clear that out of the typical 4-year plan, the roughly 2 ½years worth of engineering courses are not sufficient to do justice to both the theory and thepractice of engineering, let alone all the

Conference Session

New Learning Paradigms I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Oakes, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

learning in engineering education can be broken into the professional skills (whatsome called “soft” skills) and the technical skills, More evaluation has been done on theconnection of service-learning with the professional skills. Evaluations from the PurdueEPICS Program showed students reported learning teamwork and communication as partof their participation of engineering design teams21. A study of students participating onglobal design projects at WPI documented their development in the areas of life-longlearning and showed gains based on their experiences33. There has been a great deal of Page 14.381.5research around the impact on students

Conference Session

Curriculum in Electrical Engineering Technology

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jay Porter, Texas A&M University; Joseph Morgan, Texas A&M University; Wei Zhan, Texas A&M University; George Wright, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

) ≠ What attributes are necessary to be a successful product/system developer? (ie, technical skills, “soft” skills, personality) ≠ What educational components would serve the future product/system developer best? (While we know that companies will probably not hire new graduates directly into product/system development roles, we want to prepare them with an interest in this area, and the skills to maximize the likelihood of success.) Page 14.1101.2An immediate action that resulted from working with these industrial experts was the need todevelop a more holistic approach to product development. It was recognized that for

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

≠ Benefits community low ≠ Global setting gives a broader impact ≠ Develops need for soft skills ≠ Promotes social awareness Engineering Education in Distance Learning Positives Negatives ≠ Reduce geographical boundary ≠ Lack of flexibility ≠ Can be cheaper ≠ No direct feedback ≠ Accessibility ≠ Infrastructure needs ≠ Large audience - cost effective ≠ Expensive - poor economic model ≠ Convenience ≠ Student isolation ≠ Continuing education

Conference Session

Assessing Design Course Work

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Keith Sheppard, Stevens Institute of Technology; Edward Blicharz, Stevens Institute of Technology; Peter Dominick, Stevens Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

to teaming skills. Below we reiterate the overall approach and describe thedetails of the Sophomore Year implementation.Outline of the Teaming Thread and AssessmentOur approach is to develop team skills through a series of engineering design courses. Thecurriculum at Stevens Institute of Technology has a design or design-related course everysemester12 with the four courses in the freshman and sophomore years (Engineering Design 1thru 4) being of particular importance to the early development of various “soft skill” threads,including teaming. These first four design courses are core engineering curriculum courses; laterdesign courses in the sequence are disciplinary, culminating in the two-semester capstone designproject.The subject of team

Conference Session

Contemporary Issues in CHE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Blowers, University of Arizona

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

coursework while they have the satisfaction of progress. And, as social problemsmount due to resource constraints, the ability to help others through their profession is anotherstrong motivator.There are certain core skills that students must have in a discipline in order to become successful.Fostering those skills can be done through longitudinal advising. It is assumed that graduateswill be technically competent in their selected fields. However, students must have strongwritten and oral communication skills. These skills can be strengthened in students bysuggesting they participate in writing workshops, become student ambassadors or tour guides, orthrough tutoring other students. Teamwork is another "soft" skill expected in students.Encouraging

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics V

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tammy VanDeGrift, University of Portland; Donald Chinn, University of Washington, Tacoma

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

predict effectiveness. Bailey and Stefaniak3used surveys, interviews, and focus groups to determine what employers in the IT industry valued asimportant non-technical skills for employees. They identified both soft skills and business skillsmentioned by the 325 IT professionals surveyed. A panel at the ACM Conference in 1978 presented skillsets of what industry looks for in new hires – among these skills are math ability, software developmentknowledge, problem-solving, team skills, initiative, diversity, and versatility14.Several resources exist for teaching issues of professionalism and ethics. Among these are exercisescompiled by the working group on integrating professionalism into the curriculum11. An exercise aboutresearching types of

Conference Session

Developing Tomorrow's Leaders through Co-op Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adrian Millward-Sadler, Joanneum University of Applied Sciences; Annette Casey, Joanneum University of Applied Sciences; Emilia Bratschitsch, Joanneum University of Applied Sciences

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

soft skills in the automotiveworkplace.Activity 1: The WebquestWebquests were conceived and first put into practice by Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San DiegoUniversity in the mid to late 1990s. A webquest has been defined as ‘an inquiry oriented activity inwhich some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet’.5Dodge furthermore goes on to define two separate types of webquest: short-term and long-term. Theshort term model should have the “instructional goal of […] knowledge acquisition and integration”should expose the learner to new information which must then be assimilated and finally is designed tobe completed within 1 to 3 lesson periods.6 The long-term model involves a longer period of

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Paul Blowers

communication skills. These skills can be strengthened in students bysuggesting they participate in writing workshops, become student ambassadors or tour guides, orthrough tutoring other students. Teamwork is another "soft" skill expected in students.Encouraging students to join clubs and move into officer positions over time allows them tobuild these skills in addition to any team based projects that may be required of students in theclassroom. Through extracurricular activities students will also gain a better appreciation of howto learn independently, how to be flexible, and how to be persistent.There are some gatekeeper assessments used for controlling student access to some opportunitiesafter graduation. Students must have a resume for graduate

Conference Session

Issues and Direction in ET Education and Administration: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Enrique Barbieri, University of Houston; Wajiha Shireen, University of Houston; Farrokh Attarzadeh, University of Houston; Raresh Pascali, University of Houston; Miguel Ramos, University of Houston; William Fitzgibbon, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

business and entrepreneurship, an awareness of the globalenvironment, and soft-skills development in engineering education was made clear. However, inthe authors’ opinion, it has also become clear that out of the typical 4-year plan, the roughly 2 ½years worth of engineering courses are not sufficient to do justice to both the theory and thepractice of engineering, let alone all the other skills required of the 21st Century Engineer.References1-20 discuss some of the major developments in the world order, in the engineeringfield, and in the educational structure of engineering and engineering technology of the lastcentury leading to the present situation. Despite the obvious pressures to meet the demands of atechnologically advanced and

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Curricula

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Neelam Soundarajan, Ohio State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

discipline may be required to meet. In this paper, we will focus attention on thecommon (3.a) through (3.k) outcomes since these apply to all engineering programs. These elevenoutcomes may be classified into two groups. The first group, consisting of (3.a), (3.b), (3.c), (3.e),and (3.k) are technical outcomes; for example, outcome (3.a) is an ability to apply knowledgeof mathematics, science, and engineering. The second group consists of the remaining outcomes,(3.d), (3.f), (3.g), (3.h), (3.i), and (3.j), are related to what might be called professional skills 20 (alsooccasionally referred to as soft skills), as well as those related to societal issues. Thus outcome(3.d), related to a professional skill, is an ability to function on multi

Conference Session

Enhancing K-12 STEM Education with Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy Prevost, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Mitchell Nathan, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Benjamin Stein, University of Wisconsin; Natalie Tran, California State University, Bakersfield; Allen Phelps, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

to complete assignments. Further, much of the projectwork that students are asked to do as they are introduced to engineering as a profession address“soft skills.” For example, they are asked to research engineering careers using interviews or theInternet, and they are asked to research an engineering project in their community.As shown in Table 3, we found low rates of explicit integration of mathematics concepts with theengineering activities. This is perhaps due to the emphasis this course places on these softprojects along with the extensive use of computer software that we see gaps in the explicitintegration of mathematics.Table 3: Percent Explicit Integration in the Introduction to Engineering Design © 2000. Planning

Conference Session

Assessment and Curriculum Development

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Godfrey, University of Auckland; Rosalind Archer, University of Auckland; Paul Denny, University of Auckland; Margaret Hyland, University of Auckland; Chris Smaill, University of Auckland; Karl Stol, University of Auckland

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

: Page 14.736.13"Really cool course, well organised. Especially enjoyed finding out about how biofuels worked, about energyand car engines, also the concept of desalination, and current events in ecology.""Liked the topicality of most parts of the course and the constant linking of it to current engineering problems."The 2006 restructuring had removed the First-year Professional Development course and thedevelopment of professional “soft” skills of writing, communication and team work weredistributed amongst the other first-year courses. Consequently, a web-based researchassignment was developed with the aid of a teaching grant. This assignment, based aroundthe theme of Biofuels incorporated library skills (tested via an online quiz), and

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors