Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Juan Carlos Balda

dwindling researchbudgets, satisfying companies having close ties to the University with small projects with nobudget, and also preparing those undergraduate students interested in power engineeringto perform independent work or even pursue graduate studies. The projects addressed bythe students are closely associated with “real-world” problems; in fact, most problemscome from industry. In this manner, the bridge between the university “theoretical” worldand the industrial “real” world are brought a little closer. This methodology is provingvery beneficial to both the undergraduate students and this faculty member as explained inthe paper.I. INTRODUCTION In general, university faculty are having difficulties in (1) attracting sufficient

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Christopher G. Braun

Session 1526 The CSM Electronics Prototyping Facility Christopher G. Braun Colorado School of MinesWhy an Electronics Prototyping Facility is NeededMost electronic laboratory projects require building simple circuits that are torn apart as soon asthe lab is over -- resulting in a limited opportunity for the students to construct anything useful.Students are often frustrated in electronics courses and laboratories as they never quite get to thelevel where they can design and build anything practical.[1] The CSM Electronics PrototypingFacility (EPF) provides students with

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Jon E. Freckleton

students mature, demandingcustomers.The graphics sequence of three required, and one upper level optional, courses havesignificant design content. The first year course teaches fundamentals. The second yearGD&T and CG courses are project based. This year they were split from a single course toallow transfer students more flexibility; many have CG, few have GD&T.Both second year courses will continue with design content: l-Each assigned drawing requires an isometric sketch showing an engineeringapplication of the part. It must be unique, the part is modified to reflect the design use.Therefore, each students’ drawing is unique which greatly increases grading time. 2-Students form three to five member design teams and develop

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Sandra L. Doty; Dr. Kathryn A. Svinarich; Cynthia Finelli

requirement to promotion, typically surpasses a full timecommitment. Moreover, the fiscal, facility, and expertise constraints of a small institute limitviable projects, particularly experimental endeavors. To meet the research requirements forpromotion, three junior, untenured faculty members (an electrical engineer and two physicists)took the initiative to form a cross-discipline, off-campus collaborative research effort with asenior, tenured physiologist at a mid-sized research university. The junior faculty memberscontribute their time and technical skills to the project. The physiologist provides mentoring,direction, laboratory space and supplies. The collaboration involves the waveform analysis of electroretinograms (ERG) in rats. Atthis

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Jawaharlal Mariappan

cross-platform skills and knowledge.These courses are heavily laboratory and project oriented. However, there are no establishedprocedures or standards for a mechatronics laboratory, which is essential for the success ofmechatronics courses. This paper presents various issues associated with development of amechatronic laboratory, the experiments and projects that have been designed and the GMIexperience.INTRODUCTION Mechatronics is a term that represents the synergistic integration of Mechanical, controlengineering and electronics, and intelligent computer control of products. Examples ofmechatronic products can be found in all sectors of engineering including automotive, machinetool, and aerospace industries, consumer electronics and

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Anton Pintar

, stagewise operations and mass transfer/separations courses.The use of Process Flowsheet Simulation Software is implemented by assigning computer projects. The primaryobjective of the computer projects is to expose the students to the type of software used for designing chemicalprocesses in industry and in the senior-year design course. Secondary objectives include the experience ofworking in a student group (initially recommended but now required), the opportunity to undergo the "painful"and frustrating process of learning to use new software, initial exposure to the design of a part of a chemicalprocess, recognition of the value of Process Flowsheet Simulation Software in optimizing a process, anawareness of the role of economics in design, and

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Roland Jenison; Rebecca Sidler Kellogg

whole. They consider the criteria andconstraints that were met by the design and formulate a description of the primary need the prod-uct addresses. Students discuss how the various engineering disciplines contributed to the over-all design and get a flavor for the collaborative nature of design. They also consider possibleuses for the product as well as how the product might be misused. In addition, students are askedto think about other ways the design could have been achieved. In some of the projects studentsare asked to design a test to discover how well the product performs its tasks. Both written andverbal communication are emphasized. Students are required to submit a formal written reportabout the product they studied. They also learn

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

W.M. Spurgeon

• Finance • Manufacturing* • Information Handling* • Marketing* • Employee and Public RelationsEngineers are to be found in those functions (departments) marked with asterisks. In this paperwe will be discussing engineers and managers in the engineering department. These people maybe employed on three kinds of engineering work (as viewed by engineering managers): • Projects • Programs (groups of related projects) • Functions (work that supports the projects, e.g., materials engineering, testing, failure analysis, etc.) Page 2.494.1Definitions of these terms are given in

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey G. Sczechowski

Session 2313 Building an Active Environmental-Chemical Engineering Research Program with Undergraduate Students Jeffrey G. Sczechowski Civil and Environmental Engineering Department California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 ABSTRACTWith a University-wide theme of “learn by doing”, all Cal Poly undergraduates are required tocomplete a Senior Project. Environmental Engineering students are encouraged to conduct anexperimental or an applied design project

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott J. Amos; James L. Otter

. Instead, theywould focus on leading, guiding and mentoring groups of students in design, operations,methodology and management in a simulated construction company environment. This processwould require students at each level, first year through graduate, to become part of a multi-faceted, multi-functional construction design/manage/construct organization inside a universityenvironment. Faculty would become company officers, CEOs, senior project managers,department managers, etc. First year students would assume introductory roles (plan reviewers,as-built and shop drawing developers, quantity takeoff surveyors, etc.). Each year a studentwould move up to a different more advanced role. Field engineers, material testers andestimators at the second

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

F. C. 'Ted' Weston

,including change management and global considerations. The structure of the course is primarilythree-fold: 1) lecture and discussion on various topics within the domain of CIM, 2) field trips toeleven sites locally to view manufacturing and related operations, and 3) projects of the studentschoosing related to CIM, often with one of the firms visited. Exams and an extensive reading listare also included in the course. An underlying theme of the course is integration of CIM-typefunctions within a manufacturing organization, including the most important element of businesscommunications within and between functional areas. The course is housed and taught in adepartment of computer information systems (college of business) and cross-listed with

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Sue Godez; Scott Evans; George H. Staab; Eric Engdahl

animation award, and planning open houses for both parents and community members.FIRST provided an educational experience extending beyond that of a traditional project. Fromthe outset, it was understood that early development of a sense of team and a rapport amongpartners was essential. This was orchestrated by Mr. Scott Evans, a junior in electricalengineering. Prior to receiving instructions and parts for this year's competition, Scott organizedweekly meetings between the corporate engineers, high school, and university students. Duringthese meetings, team members were randomly divided into groups, with each given a relativelysimple problem to solve in a finite time. The solutions were shared with the entire group, anddiscussed. The groups

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Fahmida N. Chowdhury

, Macmillan, 1994) for basic theory. 2. Technical articles were used for illustrating applications (papers from IEEE Spectrum, AI Expert, IEEE Proceedings, etc.). 3. Homework problems (actually, these were computer projects) were as- signed, collected, and graded: these were typical neural network implemen- tations such as pattern storage and retrieval, Hopfield nets, Hebbian learn- ing, delta learning, and backpropagation. Students formed two-member teams for these projects.l A midterm grade was assigned based on the homework projects.l During the fifth week, the students started a literature search for a final project topic which would be an application of neural networks in their own area of

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Sub Ramakrishnan; Mohammad B. Dadfar

experience in data communications and networkapplications. These class projects are intended to help students obtain an insight into the natureof data communications and a better understanding of the theoretical concepts as well as fillingsome of the gaps which may exist covering the topics. Many class projects have been proposedin the literature [1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9].Our CS 429 students are typically assigned three to five homeworks and three to five labprojects. The lab projects in our offering include: i) simulation of a simple network, ii) terminalemulation, iii) performance evaluation of heterogeneous networks using a simulation tool, andiv) client-server projects. This paper describes one of the client-server projects we have assignedin our

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Edward Pines

from master’s level programs in engineering and business, providinga rich mixture of backgrounds for analysis and discussion. Problems studied include human-computer interfaces in planning, scheduling, and accounting systems, workplace designs forvarious types of teams, human error, and other ergonomics topics appropriate to themanufacturing environment. The legal and regulatory environment of the manufacturingworkplace are introduced to the design process. A design project including workplaceevaluation, analysis, and improvement proposals, is conducted with the assistance of NMSU’sAdvanced Manufacturing Center. The term “ergonomic design” is often abused in the marketing of manufacturingequipment and systems. In this course, future

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Christopher G. Braun

Session 1532 Experiments on the Cheap: Using a Student Data Acquisition System Christopher G. Braun Colorado School of MinesMotivationThe cost of operating a dedicated laboratory facility for student educational use is large incomparison to operating a general purpose lecture room. Laboratory uses require thesetup of dedicated equipment, safety equipment and significant storage, often making theroom unsuitable for other purposes. Additionally, hands-on laboratory projects requiremore time in class per credit hour than lecture – typically 3 hours in lab per

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Marsha King; Eric Spielvogel; Carol Dwyer; Dhushy Sathianathan

developed by a team of faculty from all majors with input from industry.• Faculty have the freedom to teach the course in their areas of interest using the resources available to them, as long as the competencies are satisfied.• The course content is defined by the course outline and the assigned design projects. The course outline is treated as a contract between the students and the faculty. The course outline is required to show that the course meets the defined competencies. The outlines are evaluated annually by a team of faculty.• Course resources, such as workbooks, textbooks, notes, design projects, developed by faculty are shared through a WWW database.• Student evaluations are performed to monitor the quality of

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

T.R. Hsu; P. Reischl; P. Hsu; J.C. Wang; F. Barez; B.J. Furman

Continuation of Experiment # 11. Parts SorterThree laboratory experiments are briefly presented below : Lab#1 introduces students to voltage, current, and resistance measurement. Theobjective of the lab is to help the student to learn the functions of the digital multimeterand introduce them to three basic electronic components : the photoresistor, the lightemitting diode ( LED ), and the transistor. First the student is required to obtain the basicelectrical characteristic data ( resistance , current and voltage ) of each component underdifferent power supply condition. Next a project is given to the student to design,construct, and test a light-controlled switch for a typical automatic out-door lightingequipment. Fig.1 shows a light-controlled

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

B. S. Sridhara

submitted a proposal in the Spring of 1996. We were selected as oneof the top 30 teams to compete in Sunrayce 97. The solar car project gave our students aunique learning experience in areas such as Engineering Mechanics, Machine Design andcomposite fabrication. It also provided an opportunity to apply their theoreticalknowledge to practical situations, gain hands-on experience, and at the same time, getcredit for their work. The project has been a great success and we are looking forward tocompeting in the race in June, 97. Introduction Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) is located in Murfreesboro, about30 miles to the south of Nashville. MTSU, which was founded in 1911, is the fastestgrowing

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

John A. Marin; James E. Armstrong

successfully bringing to light the key design issues is to scope and bound theproblem. To scope a design project means to understand why the project is necessary, who willuse the results of the design effort and how they will use them, what the stakeholders intend toaccomplish with the project, and how to measure project success. In systems engineering terms,this means identifying the needs, objectives, and criteria for the design. The needs tell why theproject is necessary or what void or deficiency the design will fill or improve in some way. Aneed is a lack of something required or desired. Page 2.197.1 To bound a design problem means to

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael B. Kelley; Joseph D. Myers; John H. Grubbs

, we need to realize that theproblem was born on a two-way street. Until now, collectively we have done very littleto improve the situation. This paper describes continuing efforts1 to effect a culturalchange in the interaction between the mathematics and engineering communities.Through the use of ‘ILAPs’ - Interdisciplinary Lively Application Projects - this initiativefocuses on insuring the mathematics education serves as a ‘pump’ for student success inengineering, as opposed to being a filter. An environmental engineering example of the‘ILAP’ is presented using concepts in hydrogeology. In solving problems related togroundwater flow in their junior year elective mathematics course, cadets from the UnitedStates Military Academy who are

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Willie E. (Skip) Rochefort; William F. Reiter; Milo D. Koretsky

the electronic classroom, where very fast and cheap computers wouldmake the virtual chemical engineering laboratory a possibility. All of these concepts areaddressed with the curriculum development project described in this paper.There are a number of excellent examples where programs have been developed to address achange in undergraduate engineering education to emphasize the practical experience andinterdisciplinary teamwork concepts suggested by industry (2 - 7). The unique aspects of thecurrent project are that the curriculum and laboratory development focus on two distinctphilosophies: Page 2.75.1 • Providing the students an interdisciplinary

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark A. Pagano; Christine L. Corum

. The North Central Assessment Committee, as the school level committee is known, hasmet regularly throughout the school year.An important ongoing effort of this committee has been to facilitate communication betweendepartments and share information about assessment or other improvement projects beingdeveloped. For example, the MET representative has provided the school committee with a copyof a planning calendar and an example of a learning outcome model (see Specific DepartmentEfforts below). Each department should be able to learn from the success or failures of the otherdepartments. This committee serves as a vehicle for this exchange of information. Oneadditional project that the committee has undertaken is to revise a school wide survey

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

P.J. Fisher; N.J. Quick; S.J. Steiner

. It is a project-based activity where thestudents are organised into teams, spanning all three years of the students’ undergraduatestudies. The project acts as an integrating theme through a course module entitled “TotalDesign”, and requires the students to acquire a number of transferable skills. Theseinclude information gathering, report writing, presentation skills, time management,project planning, teamwork, and managing meetings. This paper describes the year onyear structure of the PAMS project, and the acquisition of the mentioned transferableskills, with particular reference to team working, and the subsequent implications for thestudents as they enter industry on graduation.I. IntroductionThe School of Manufacturing and Mechanical

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Lynn G. Mack; James C. Wood

. Page 2.417.1Faculty DevelopmentWith the aid of an NST-ATE (DUE 9553740) the South Carolina Technical College System hasembarked on a three-year faculty development project South Carolina Advanced TechnologicalExcellence (SC ATE) to create a cadre of faculty to develop and teach a new engineeringtechnology curriculum. This Exemplary Faculty project has completed the first year of a three-year project to prepare faculty to develop and teach a re-engineered engineering technologycurriculum. Seventy-nine faculty (26% mathematics, 18% science, 23% communications, and32% engineering technology) were selected from the colleges to receive instruction oneducational reform issues, inter-disciplinary teaching strategies, use of instructional technology

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ward J. Collis; Shih-Liang Wang; Esther A. Hughes; John Chen

mechanicalengineering. The overall goal of the course is still in keeping with that for thecapstone-design course, namely the synthesis and application of all skills andknowledge gained from previous courses to solve open-ended engineering designproblems.Methodology For the first project, to be completed during the spring 1997 semester,students will design, construct and test a solar-electric boat, which will then beentered into Solar Splash ’97, a regatta sponsored by various private companies andthe American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The three-day competition isjudged on one written report, one visual display at the competition site, and threephases of physical competition: a qualifying examination of the basic design, a 300meter sprint, and a two

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

C. Dianne Martin; Edmund Tsang; Rand Decker

4,5,6,7, except thatservice learning provides the context for the design projects.The service learning project is carried out with the partnership of the Mobile County SchoolSystem and provides students enrolled in "Introduction to Mechanical Engineering" with real-lifecustomers in their design projects -- a team of two middle-school teachers. The students areinformed about a need in the community (the schools) for more resources to support hands-on ofmathematics and science in middle-schools in Mobile County 8, and they are tasked withdesigning and producing manipulatives/instruction modules that satisfy the need of their teachercustomers for implementing hands-on activities to teach mathematics and science.To make the process "real-world" like

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Henry G. Ansell

coursecalled Activity Analysis: Therapeutic Devices is that occupational therapy students design andconstruct a therapeutic device. This course is given in the second semester of the four-semesterprogram. In the spring 1995 semester this writer taught a one-credit introductory electricalengineering laboratory course, called Electrical Engineering Laboratory, given concurrently withan introductory electrical circuits course. No design project was required. These two courseswere normally taken in the fourth semester of a student’s electrical engineering program. It was apparent that encouraging cooperation between the occupational therapy andengineering students would enrich the engineering lab course by inserting a bit of design

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Gary Benenson; Benjamin Liaw

laboratories, whichare used in several required courses in our ME curriculum. Modern equipment procured forthese laboratories is used for education in CNC machining, robotics, computer-integratedmanufacturing, flexible manufacturing cells, and mechatronics using programmable logiccontrollers (PLC’s) and microcontrollers for measurement and control. Perhaps the most unique feature of our approach is the very extensive involvement ofstudents (both graduate and undergraduate) in all phases of the project. From the very beginningstudents formed teams, each of which took charge of a major piece of equipment. Theyparticipated in the planning of manufacturing courses; got involved in the selection process ofequipment purchase; learned to operate the

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Kirk E. Hiles; David L. Walters; Vincent Wilczynski

courses "Mechanical Control of Dynamic Systems" and"Experimental Methods in Thermal and Fluids Sciences" is to use design projects to demonstratephenomena and solve problems. A unique project, involving having students design a bungee cord tominimize the distance from the ground that an attached egg reaches when released from a distance of 35feet above the ground. In the mechanical controls class, the students design the bungee cord system andin the experimentation course, the bungee cord's characteristics are determined and the experiments isconducted. Since the project includes mathematical modeling, numerical methods solutions ofdifferential equations, design, system response, and the collection and analysis of experimental data, theexercise