as they “play.” The older students tended to follow the instructions more closely andhad less difficulty using the tutorials. The results of the assessments indicate a need for morecolor and perhaps graphical aids and have identified some points of confusion. The resultsindicate that the level of the tutorials is good for high school students, but that more adjustmentwould benefit the young students. In particular, the younger students seem to need more aidssuch as graphics showing example screen shots and programming optional paths. Sidebars onapplications and careers may be beneficial as well. The next version of the tutorials willincorporate related changes. Also, additional tutorials are planned to address more advancedconcepts and to
in the UAE has been growing at double digits for many years and will continue to doso until at least 2010. The country has come to realize two facts based on Kyoto protocol andawareness. The first one is that the conventional energy sources such as oil will deplete sooneror later, and the second is the higher carbon emissions will further pollute the environment. As aresult, the government of Abu Dhabi initiated ambitious plans for solar, biomass, wind and other Page 15.633.7renewable energy projects. Dubai electricity and water authority has launched a pilot projectusing wind energy to replace conventional energy sources. The gulf region
a machine designassignment on co-op, the student was required to follow the design processreasonably and logically. School trained him in the importance of planning outand organizing the machine design structure before implementation. The co-opexperience continued to reinforce the importance of following a design process.School taught engineering language and terminology. Thus, the student was ableto enter the work place and confidently talk about detailed drawings, a bill ofmaterials, or different structural mechanisms because of classroom exposure tothese topics. For example, a bill of materials for the project in electrical circuitsclass was required. The project consisted of designing and fabricating an
Feedback Item Fall ‘06 Fall ‘07 (National Average) Course Organization and 4.63 4.42 Planning (4.23) Communication Skills of 4.43 4.31 Instructor (4.28) Faculty / Student 4.34 4.53 Interaction (4.27) Assignments / Exams / 4.40 4.32 Grading (4.02)Course Outcomes - Student 4.03 3.96 Learning, Interest (3.65) Student Effort and 3.71 3.39 Involvement (3.63) Overall Evaluation (3.97
and healthy environment. Students are encouraged to choose at leastone concept to take up in their life. The authors have plans to measure the lifelong learningobjectives by conducting telephone surveys once every two years for the next several years.Results and DiscussionThe improvements of all the seven performance indices over the control group were determinedusing t tests11,12 as shown in Table 1. The improvements in all the indices were statisticallysignificant at an alpha value of 0.05. Among the seven indices, improvement in TAs evaluatingthe performance of the students, which the authors consider to be the most important among theindices, was ranked the highest. In this category, the control group had scored 61% on theaverage whereas
technology definition. Hence, although the informationtechnology definition tends to significantly differ from that used in other disciplines, itseems that it is actually better recognized in the world of industry.The second author recently visited a local manufacturing firm where a computerprogrammer and the supply chain manager were both required to use their knowledge ofsystems engineering. While their expertise was in computer science and industrialengineering, they are required to solve problems that arise due to lack of a systemsapproach in understanding how the factory works and how costs are incurred because ofmyopic planning. Although, this is increasingly true of all engineers, it appears that those
promoting racial understanding),self-efficacy, leadership, choice of a service career, and plans to participate in serviceafter college 2.In the past few years service-learning has become increasingly common pedagogy inengineering programs around the globe. One reason for its popularity is the industry’sdesire for individuals with the communication and collaboration skills who are betterequipped for working in a global context 3,4.In the United States, many different universities have also incorporated service-learninginto their curricula5. Perhaps the best well-known example is the Engineering Projects inCommunity Service (EPICS) program8 created by Purdue University in 1995 and now itincludes 18 universities. Under this program freshman to senior
engineering principles. In an attempt to boost retention by better connecting with today’s engineering students,eight universities participated in a National Science Foundation sponsored project to change theundergraduate Mechanical Engineering Curriculum to make it more attractive to a diversecommunity of students.4 One of the efforts of this project was to develop application-basedlesson plans that would use real life examples to demonstrate basic engineering concepts.Specifically, Eann Patterson developed a set of example problems that could be used in anintroductory solid mechanics course.5 This paper provides an instructor review of five of these
, including Quality Assurance, Reliability Engineering, ElectronicParts Engineering and Environmental Engineering. From these interviews, we also understoodhow mission assurance mangers work with people from other fields of expertise.During the interview process, we spent a lot of time on document analysis. Document analysis iswas a very important step in gathering requirements. It helped to study the concepts, identify therequirements and how to describe the work activities of mission assurance managers. We readthrough many materials, including presentation, monthly reports, work plans, proposals, andmission assurance related handbooks prepared by JPL experts.Attending JPL’s monthly report meetings is was another powerful technique to gather
Chivi District,” Water SA, Vol. 32, No. 3.9. Rahman, M.H., Rahman, M.M., Watanabe, C. , & Yamamoto, K. , 2003, “Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh and its remedial measures,” Proceedings of the UNU-NIES International Workshop, Tokyo, Japan: United Nations University, pp. 9-21.10. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 1997, “Statistical year book of Bangladesh,” Bangladesh: Ministry of Planning, People’s Republic of Bangladesh.11. Kabir, M. R &Faisal, I. M., 1999, “Indigenous practices of water harvesting in Bangladesh,” Proceedings of the regional workshop on traditional water harvesting systems, Iran: Ministry of Jahad- E-Sazandegi of Iran and UNESCO.12. Thomas, T., 1998, “Domestic water
struck them as “engineering”and suddenly they realized that EVERYTHING is engineering. An amusing piece of feedback wasfrom the student who wrote “Damn you Professor Tongue! I find that I am now unable to look atlife without thinking ‘Hmmm, I wonder what the natural frequency of that is and what thatimplies about the support stiffness!’” Luckily for me, he/she appended a smiley face, much to myrelief. But as I continually assure my students, my job is to infect them with the “understandingsystem dynamics is fun” virus and my hope is that it proves incurable.A more in-depth assessment is planned in which the performance of students who experienceMoveIt is directly compared to those who do not, keeping everything else in the course essentiallythe
water's edge. Boatexcursions along the bayou, past a 1,300 year old cypress dubbed "The Survivor," ferry visitorsto two educational outposts. Each features a unique learning shelter efficiently situated at theverge of three eco-zones swamp, forest, and grassland.As mentioned before, Shangri La is the first project in Texas and the fiftieth in the world to earnthe U.S. Green Building Council's Platinum Certification for LEED New Construction. (Fig.15)Significant to the environmental master planning strategy was the decision to use newlandscaping to filter and restore the water quality of the formerly nitrogen-stuffed, oxygen-starved pond and wetlands, which are nesting grounds for numerous species of water fowl. Thevegetated wetland system takes
carefully planned thrust areas. The thrust areas includethe major research initiatives of the Center: manufacturing science; composites structuring andcharacterization; and particle formation and functionalization. Three test beds based onprograms developed from the thrust areas have been created at the Center. DevelopmentProgram I concentrates on the continuous manufacturing of pharmaceutical tablets. Continuoustablet manufacturing processes offer significant advantages over batch processes. Theseadvantages include an increase in tablet uniformity and stability, reduced production and laborcosts and simplified scale up from experimental testing to full scale manufacturing1.Development Programs II and III focus on novel methods for drug delivery
time (in ms)Figure 7: Time domain display of FM IF signal modulated with 4 kHz test tone (top) and recovered testtone (bottom).We plan to expand this to capturing commercial FM signals over the air, tapping the IF signal, and usingsimilar techniques to extract RBDS information from the FM broadcast.12 Most commercial FM radiostations in the United States transmit a radio broadcast data system (RBDS) signal. Extracting the RBDS(sometimes called RDS) signal is a significant next step in software defined radio sophistication in that thissignal has a 57 kHz carrier (3 times the 19 kHz pilot as shown in Figure 8). The RBDS signal uses biphase 0
single discipline adviser team would missopportunities to appeal to students of different disciplines working on the same project. Theinstructor team operates more effectively with open collaboration. Since students come fromseveral academic majors, the diversity is advantageous to all concerned and keeps the advisersfrom the different departments engaged in the projects.It is well documented in general literature on multidisciplinary teaching that the greatestdifficulty for the instructors is the time and energy required to work as a team.6-8 In this capstoneproject with requirements and application to computer science, and mechanical and electricalengineering, the advisers agree that careful time management and planning are vital
civil engineers’ role in planning, designing, building,operating and maintaining the nation’s infrastructure. Students will use computer modeling andsimulation tools to design, build and test a truss bridge. Students will also design and build abridge out of K-nex components, and load the bridge to failure in a competition. Surveyedparticipants overwhelmingly praise the hands-on learning.IntroductionAccording to the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 15-year-old U.S.students ranked at the bottom third for both mathematics and science compared to all othercountries that participated.1 The U.S. has seemingly fallen behind other developed countries, ineducating the students to succeed in the math and science curriculum. Many
is the school’s satellite dish. Page 15.686.12 Figure 10—Solar panels after installation at Sonrise SchoolImpact upon our StudentsThe students were impacted in a number of profound ways. Comments from three students areshown below. They are representative of the sorts of comments we have received from studentswho went to Rwanda. These students have had their lives changed in ways that will impact theirfuture careers. Their lives were also affected in other ways as well. All three students whosecomments are shown below are now either in graduate school or are planning on going tograduate school. Their experiences in Rwanda have
and without performance incentive.SophomoreThe sophomore comparison involved a fall required course taught to Software EngineeringStudents. While these students are no longer freshman, many of them are still developing studyhabits, and returning after the summer break can be difficult.In the baseline class, approximately 18% of assignments were submitted late. As was noticedwith the freshman, this varied with the week, but tended to increase later on in the quarter.This changed, however, with the introduction of the incentive plan. Overall, only 5% ofassignments were submitted late. Furthermore, unlike the previous year, the number ofsubmissions which were late actually decreased as the quarter progressed. A significantpercentage of students
-Pakistan). (2007, April 6). China to establish engineering university in Pakistan. Retrieved July 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com. 8. Chakravorthy, G. & Sharma, S. (2007, June 22). India plans 30 new universities to improve education. Retrieved July 1, 2007, from http://www.bloomberg.com. 9. Hossler, D., Schmit, J., and Vesper, N. (1999). Going to College: How Social, Economic, and Educational Page 15.952.7 Factors Influence the Decisions Students Make. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press10. Bean, J. P. (1983). The Application of a Model of Turnover in Work Organizations to the Student
- Page 15.942.7date academic programs that endeavor to meet the immediate and future needs of industry. TheMichigan Technological University’s strategic plan calls for us to be nationally recognized forprograms that advance technological education through excellence in learning, discovery, andengagement. While we are a technology program, we go beyond most other technologyprograms by offering significant hands-on lab experiences and applied research opportunities toundergraduates. These experiences complement the classroom experience and prepare ourstudents for careers in a wide range of industries.The Electrical Engineering Technology program has identified present needs for a new state-of-the-art robotics laboratory, that will support a new
have been highly favorable. The class is offered only in the fall and a study to evaluatethe effectiveness of the activity for engagement and learning is planned for fall 2010.Problem-Based LearningProblem-Based Learning, PBL, is a constructivist learning approach that is used to stimulate andimprove learning by presenting problems about topics of interest to students. Learning is shapedby direct experience and is most effective when students are presented with a compellingproblem.1, 2 The problem-based learning approach allows students to study a problem of interestin a team-based setting. A PBL study is student directed with opportunity for discussion, andoften the students rather than the instructor select the problem. Much of the new
Design, Systems Thinking, or Systems Planning. Such acourse includes an element of viewing a problem in the context of a larger system. It is notedthat the idea of sustainability is consistent with this fundamental approach and perspective toproblem solving. Sustainability also requires that an engineer (or designer of a product, process, Page 15.729.5or system) view their problem as part of a bigger system. The introduction of Life CycleAnalysis as a tool for examining the supply chain from raw material extraction through the endof life of a product may introduce the idea of sustainability to this course. Table 2. Mapping Industrial
innovate practice-orientedengineering education. For engineering students needing hands-on experience in sensor hardwareand data acquisition, they have an opportunity to handle practical problems of higher complexityand are more aware of the social context where the sensors are situated. For example, studentscan compare their sensor deployment plan with the sensor network in industry to gain more real-world experience. For engineering students who develop applications concerning sensor data,they can focus more on their specialized projects rather than being distracted by fundamentalproblems of data acquisition. For example, students in environmental engineering can study theenvironmental impact of the forest fire in Los Angeles, without having to
related to not only energy from conventional sources but also renewable. Special focus on energy conservation will be discussed. Various techniques to lower energy use will be discussed.SEM 606 Comprehensive overview of applicable air pollution, waterEnvironmental pollution, drinking water and toxics environmental laws andManagement regulations in the U.S. In addition, various pollution sources, and their impact are presented. Specific strategies to develop and implement environmental management practices are presented.SEM 607 Watershed Overview of the watershed management and planning process.Management Relate
results to improve their design and implementation. Evidence of the development of the cognitive capacity of students requires the design and interpretation of an assessment system that mirrors the ways in which knowledge is developed and applied in the working environment of engineers. The development of an assessment system tied through backwards design to the educational objectives that frame the content and processes of the courses is viewed to be one of the products of this project. In addition, the evaluation plan measures the transportability of the Virtual CVD Laboratory to support its use in a variety of engineering and science courses.Four research questions have been addressed: 1. What
strived to achieve. In the future offerings, we plan to make theproject more open-ended so that students with limited background can pass the course while self-motivated students can be more creative and productive. We will also emphasize more on self-motivation and life-long-learning skills.Due to the relative novelty of the revised course, we have very little measurable outcomes with Page 15.1040.8outside industrial world. However, we have heard on several occasions from industry that theyare looking for graduates who have practical knowledge and understanding about the tradeoffs inembedded system design. We hope that our graduates will possess
evaluation plan over successiveyears to develop a model for trans-disciplinary design courses at SU and beyond.AcknowledgementsThis work was carried out with the support of NSF 08-610- Innovations in Page 15.746.10Engineering Education, Curriculum, and Infrastructure (IEECI) Award EEC-0935168,and the support of the Syracuse University School of Architecture and the L. C. SmithCollege of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University.BibliographyAtman, C. J. Adams, R. S. Cardella, M. E. Turns, J. Mosborg, S. Saleem, J. 2007 Engineering DesignProcesses: A Comparison of Students and Expert Practitioners. Journal of Engineering Education, 96(4)pg
Engineering and Technology (ABET). The self-study team was able tocreate a thorough and effective plan to assess the processes used for the ABET accreditation. Themission of the program is to provide contemporary students with an academic foundation andpractical education in engineering technology through an outstanding curriculum and appliedresearch program, and the participation of our students in one of the nation’s most successful co-operative educational programs. Capitalizing on the success of the implementation of Web-based technology in the AET curriculum through the support of NSF CCLI Phase 1 and 2projects since 2004, the quality of curriculum, course offerings, and laboratory facilities areimproved to meet the program mission. The
in Major Effort toIncrease Effectiveness of Manufacturing Engineers,” The Society of ManufacturingEngineers' Manufacturing Education Plan: 1999 Critical Competency Gaps Report, URL:http://www.sme.org/[5] Miller, S & Miller, K, 1999, “Using Instructional Theory to Facilitate Communicationin Web-based Courses,” Educational Technology & Society, Vol. 2(3), pp. 106-114[6] Althaus, S. L., 1997, “Computer-mediated communication in the universityclassroom: An experiment with online discussions. Communication Education, Vol. 46,pp. 158-174[7] Connick, G. P., 1997, “Issues and trends to take us into the twenty-first century,” InT. E. Cyrs (Ed.) Teaching and Learning at a Distance: What it Takes to EffectivelyDesign, Deliver and Evaluate