Conference Session

NSF Grantees: REU 1

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Mathew Kuttolamadom, Texas A&M University; Jyhwen Wang, Texas A&M University

Tagged Topics

Diversity, NSF Grantees Poster Session

them to pursue advanced study and related STEM careers.Program ActivitiesAs detailed in Table 1, during the pre-program phase, target institutions were contacted,applications solicited, REU student pairs selected, and projects assigned. Students used thetransition months to build their project-specific competency via assigned reading, so they couldhit the ground running. During the on-site period, major REU activities included a 40-hour/weekhands-on research project, capsulated technical sessions/labs, seminars, and college-levelprofessional development workshops and networking to develop soft skills. Student-pairsworked closely with their mentor and research group via individual and group meetings.Deliverables included a research plan and

Conference Session

Experimentation and Laboratory-oriented Studies Division Technical Session 4

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Natasha Smith P.E., University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies

better labs forthe 2020 lab course.Finally, to more accurately assess whether the lab is fostering mastery of foundational principlesand concepts, a future study could look at student performance in co-requisite and/or follow-oncourses.ConclusionsExperimental lab courses are often expected to meet a diverse set of outcomes, from teaching ex-perimentation principles to developing soft skills in teamwork and communication, to providingtactile examples of concepts in a wide-variety of other courses. At the same time, one hopes the ex-perience is enjoyable for students and that their learning persists well beyond the end of the course.The University of Virginia has adopted a new experimental lab sequence that accomplishes severalgoals. First, it

Conference Session

First-year Programs: Student Perceptions and Perspectives

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Devin R. Berg, University of Wisconsin-Stout; Tina Lee, University of Wisconsin-Stout; Elizabeth Anne Buchanan, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

masculine whilehumanities, social sciences, and “soft skills” such as communication and ethics are often seen tobe more feminine [20]. These patterns might explain why women entered the class more awareof social and environment issues and likely account for the women in our study being more opento a class about social justice, volunteering, and how engineering can be used to help others thanmen were (see also [20] for a discussion of men’s resistance to communication skills instructionin engineering). It is important to note, however, that socialization may not directly account forall aspects of how gender differences are expressed through student perceptions. There is someevidence that correlations between empathy or care and social or

Collection

2018 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Tabitha L. Sprau Coulter

engineers have a combination oftechnical, high-level, problem solving skills and soft skills. Additionally, practicing engineersare required to have a broad knowledge of general engineering content along with a mastery ofspecific skills. With the many demands placed on engineers and the rigorous requirementsestablished by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), undergraduatecurriculums are overflowing with required courses. Issues with declining interest in pursuing engineering degrees coupled with someprograms having inadequate industry connections have contributed to retention problems formany engineering programs [1]. A lack of curriculum flexibility, increasing awareness of thedifficult nature of engineering course

Conference Session

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Lisa Deane Morano, University of Houston, Downtown; Vassilios Tzouanas, University of Houston, Downtown

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

presentation and other important professional soft skills. Students were also asked torespond to open questions about the program. Key highlights from the annual assessments andcomments by the external program evaluator are summarized in the following paragraphs. For simplicitywe have focused on the data from the last cohort of the program, but it is representative of previous years.a. DiversityUHD is a Minority Serving Institution and a Hispanic Serving Institution which serves a large segment ofthe city’s underrepresented population. As the program at this university would automatically have aracially diverse group of students we focused on making sure there was also a diversity of students basedon additional parameters of socioeconomics and

Conference Session

Recruitment and Retention

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Anderson-Rowland, Arizona State University; Patti Culley, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

students are so limited, they end up listing soft skills, such as“Team Player” or Organizational Skills”, which are important to include on the resume, but arebetter demonstrated through examples and experience.We advocate an objective. It helps the student clarify the focus of the resume, which isextremely important for an effective resume. It also lets the employer know that the student isfocused. Even a freshman resume can give the objective (to obtain an internship where they willbe able to apply their skills to help a company). It is strongly recommended that students avoid Page 12.801.4stating what they want from a position such as “an

Conference Session

Engineering Education in the Arab World / Mid-East Region

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Suzanne Scott, The Petroleum Institute; Jamal Ahmad, The Petroleum Institute

Tagged Divisions

International

, STEPS I presents students with a well-defined design-and-build problem, and then leads them through the process using the concepts of guided design.The students are also given extensive instruction in the application of soft skills that areimportant to successful design, namely teamwork, project planning, and professional oral andwritten communications. Faculty advisors from engineering and communications programsserve the role as mentors for this project. During the first three years of the program’sdevelopment, the STEPS II semester was characterized by a similar format to STEPS I, but withdiscipline specific design-and-build projects. After three years the program’s new Coordinator,Dr. Jamal Ahmad, and Co-mentor, Dr. Suzanne Scott, looked

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aleksandra Vinogradov, Montana State University; Carolyn Plumb, Montana State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

engaged U.S. workforce ofscientists, engineers, technologists, and well-prepared citizens.” 1-4 As an important measurerequired to meet these challenges, new engineering accreditation criteria, initially known asEngineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000), have emphasized the necessity of combining the traditionalrequirements of rigorous technical preparation, or so-called “hard” skills, and the development ofprofessional or “soft” skills, including such attributes as communication, ethics, critical thinking,and innovation.5The EC 2000 ABET criteria, now part of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC)criteria, have created many new expectations in terms of enhancing, revising, and remodelingengineering programs. In response to new requirements

Conference Session

Engineering Without Borders: Programs Involving Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Margaret Pinnell, University of Dayton; Eger Bill; Phillip Aaron, University of Dayton; Charles Schreier, University of Dayton

Tagged Divisions

International

, USA[28] Hazelton, B, Bull, C. Appropriate Technology: Tools, Choices and Implications, November 1988.[29] Pinnell, M.F., Chuck, L., Developing Technical Competency and Enhancing the Soft Skills of Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Students through Service-Learning, Proceedings of the 2004 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, ASEE, 2004. Page 12.951.11

Conference Session

Redefining the Boundaries of Engineering and Liberal Education: Contributions to the Year of Dialogue

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Erin Cech, University of California-San Diego; Kara Boettcher, Montana State University; Heidi Sherick, Montana State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

to remain in technical positions while working towards becoming experts within theircompanies14,15,16. Higher-level people on the technical career ladder often mentor, consult, andmanage other technical employees, all the while, gaining the monetary and emotional rewards ofmoving up in their careers. Though devised to maximize productivity and employee jobsatisfaction, the technical career ladder misleads employees to believe they can avoid developingnon-technical skills such as communication and managerial skills. In actuality, as engineersprogress through the technical career ladder, soft skills will still be required to effectivelymanage and mentor other technical employees and relay ideas to non-technical co-workers.These strictly

Conference Session

Engineering Without Borders Programs Involving Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Johnson, Valparaiso University; Sarah DeMaris, Valparaiso University; Doug Tougaw, Valparaiso University

Tagged Divisions

International

diverse and interconnected world.” The international engineeringexperience named the Valparaiso International Engineering Program (VIEP) described in thispaper responds to that directional theme by integrating the “hard skills” of an engineeringeducation with the “soft skills” of cultural and linguistic fluency that will allow these engineersto work in an interconnected marketplace. It also provides exciting industrial and culturalexperiences that will be attractive to engineering students and is cost-effective because amajority of the program’s components are already in place at the university.This paper will discuss the development of the VIEP from conception to its current form. It willalso include perspectives of students in the program who

Conference Session

Collaborative & New Efforts in Engineering Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Samuel Scheibler, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Stephen Williams, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Joerg Mossbrucker, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Glenn Wrate, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Owe Petersen, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

International

critical thinking,13 and cultural awareness.14 In other words,expanding the apex of the funnel.15While this pedagogical modification is consummately reasonable in theory, the reality in mostengineering programs is counterintuitive to such changes. 16 The equilibrium of most curricula ismaintained on an 80/20 balance between the “hard skills” of technical expertise and associatedemphases and the “soft skills” of communication and social science.17,18 Furthermore, programchairpersons and faculty curriculum committees face the dual pressures of maintaining the 80/20balance while facing the imperative to reduce rather than expand credit requirements from thecompetitive reality of the academic marketplace.19The changes being wrought by globalization at

Conference Session

Evaluation and Assessment of IE Programs

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shantha Daniel, Iowa State University; Devna Popejoy-Sheriff, Iowa State University; K. Jo Min, Iowa State University; Leslie Potter, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Industrial Engineering

design course, we will show how we demonstrate thatour IE majors attain the ABET outcome items (c) and (h) where (c) is an ability to designa system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such aseconomic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability,and sustainability and (h) is the broad education necessary to understand the impact ofengineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context. Theoutcome item (c) represents a “hard” skill while (h) represents a “soft” skill, both ofwhich are essential for a successful practicing engineer.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we will explain how thecourse is conducted with the

Conference Session

Improving ME education: Broad Topics

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Renuka Thota, University of Louisiana-Lafayette; Suren Dwivedi, University of Louisiana-Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

; • To develop a learning laboratory at each partner institution, integrated with the curriculum, to provide facilities for hands-on experience in design, manufacturing and product realization; • To understand and experience selected elements of the product realization process; • To develop a complete business plan for the introduction of a new product; • To bring virtual designs into reality; • To prepare students for the shift to industry by boosting their confidence, and by strengthening their engineering and soft skills; and • To develop strong collaboration with industry.Product RealizationA rapid product development approach is intended to encourage students, from the outset, toconsider all elements of

Conference Session

Capstone Design

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

E James Nelson, Brigham Young University; Tatevik Christensen; Fernando S Fonseca, Brigham Young University; A. Woodruff Miller, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

final hands-on project whichaccording to Wagener [5] attempts to integrate, extend, critique, and apply the knowledge gained Page 23.539.2in the major.In today’s world many professors and college graduates have observed that it takes more thantechnical expertise to be a successful professional. A wide range of nontechnical skills areessential: leadership, teamwork, problem solving, decision making, critical thinking,interpersonal communication, and management. These types of skills are often referred to as“soft skills.” To help students develop both soft and technical skills, the objectives of a capstonecourse, project, or experience should

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William J. Schell IV P.E., Montana State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

the importance ofinstilling this behavior in society, it is critical that engineering educators and researcherscontinue to seek out effective approaches. This article reviews the quest to find such anapproach in a redesigned industrial engineering course at Montana State University (MSU).Literature ReviewThe literature investigating how college students in general and engineering students in particularcan learn and apply the concepts of ethics is considerable. While some writing laments the lackof ethics focus in current engineering programs,6,7 most continue to seek more effective ways toincorporate ethical training into engineering education.7,8,9 Why are engineering educators sofocused on this soft skill? Of course, there are the external

Conference Session

Involving Undergraduates in Research

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yusuf A Mehta, Rowan University; Ralph Alan Dusseau P.E., Rowan University; Ravi P. Ramachandran, Rowan University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

and approaches. While studying as an undergraduate I hadtaken classes in civil engineering materials, transportation engineering and pavement design,which provided me a working knowledge to preparing me for career. The clinics expanded myunderstanding of the material and introduced me to new material like reclaimed asphaltpavement, warm mix asphalt, modified binders, which typically aren’t discussed in detail inclass. Furthermore the clinics provided an opportunity to hone my soft skills by writing projectreports and presenting our research and designs to our clients and other professors. Byperforming hands on testing and analysis as an undergraduate I gained a deeper understandingof testing results which has helped me extensively in my

Conference Session

Engineering Leadership Development Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Simon Pitts, Northeastern University; Steve McGonagle, Northeastern University; Steven W Klosterman, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Leadership Development Division

-assessment and a leadership capabilities framework linked tointeractive leadership laboratories (LLabs). This is part of a curriculum that also includes theteaching of best practices in effective product development and the scientific principlesunderlying major engineering disciplines. Experience-based practice and mastery of methods isgained via the Challenge Project, an intense, tightly-scheduled, deliverable-orienteddemonstration of human leadership, project and resource management and engineering problemsolving.The Gordon Engineering Leadership Program (GEL), in the graduate school of engineering atNortheastern University, targets the development of the soft skills, organizational awareness andtechnical agility key to mastering leadership in an

Conference Session

Capstone Design Courses and Tools in support of Systems Engineering Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aditya Akundi, RIMES, University of Texas at El Paso; Eric D Smith, University of Texas, El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Systems Engineering

professional recognition and be valued for their hard analytical and creative abilities and soft skills and multi-disciplinary education and research.5. IMSE Graduates will collaborate and generate benefits for their communities, profession, and the world.7, ASSESSMENT RUBRICSChapter 8 of the GRCSE provides guidance for developing assessment rubrics to ensurethat graduate programs achieve their intended outcomes.Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)The 2011 formulation of a Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) Matrix for programassessment that would meet the requirements of the Southern Association of Colleges andSchools (SACS) represents the formal organization of the understanding as to howprogram courses and activities contribute

Conference Session

New Electrical ET Course Development

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Biswajit Ray

processes using multiple sensors, interface electronics, data acquisition card, and GPIB and serial instrumentsCourse Teaching Objectives: • Foster discovery, self-teaching, and encourage desire and ability for life-long learning • Provide students with access to industry standard hardware and software required for data acquisition, instrumentation, and control • Provide an experience in designing an instrumentation system based on specifications • Develop soft skills including teamwork, open-ended problem solving, formal report writing and presentation • Provide an enthusiastic environment for learning • Assign homework to reinforce the understanding of material covered in class

Conference Session

Teamwork, K-12: Projects to Promote Engineering

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Arvid Andersen

internationalbusiness and competition. We have to teach our students what that all means. Students mustbe involved and learn to identify and develop skills needed to communicate, cooperate andcollaborate in groups and environments with people from diverse cultures and differentdisciplines.This paper will describe what our students are exposed to, in order to develop theentrepreneurial and soft skills needed, and how we assess the activities involved. It is also areport of nine years of experience with international teamwork in cooperation with andparticipation of more than 40 universities mainly across Europe. Students from US, Chile,China and Australia are also now joining. All projects, on this international teamworksemester, are real projects done in

Conference Session

Student Teams and Active Learning

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Janet Schmidt; David Bigio; Linda Schmidt; Paige Smith

engineering students’ performance as team members has become a priority for allschools of engineering. Thus, the degree to which an engineering program is focused on ABETaccreditation and measurement of student outcomes may influence its investment in team trainingfor both faculty and students.Colbeck articulated a number other issues that influence how likely an institution is to implement aBESTEAMS type training program on its campus. Among these factors are the organization ofthe curriculum and the number of “core courses” where team training can be implemented tomaximize student exposure; the variety of student needs and discipline specific differences thatimpact uniformity of team training; faculty members own comfort level with so called “soft

Conference Session

FPD VIII: Crossing Bridges and Easing Transitions into the First Year

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Jones, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Carmen R. Zafft, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Evan T. Curtis, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

Research and Practice, 21(3), 279–288.17. Wheatly, M., Klingbeil, N., Jang, B., Sehi, G., & Jones, R. (2007). Proceedings from ASEE Annual Conference ’07: Gateway into first-year STEM curricula: A community college/university collaboration promoting retention and articulation. Honolulu. HI.18. Cox, M.F., Berry, C.A., & Smith, K.A. (2009). Development of a leadership, policy, and change course for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduate students. Journal of STEM Education, 10(3-4), 9-16.19. Harris, K.S. & Rogers, G.E. (2008). Soft skills in the technology education classroom: What do students need? The Technology Teacher, 68(3), 19-24.20. Reave, L. (2004). Technical communication instruction in

Conference Session

FPD IX: Research on First-year Programs Part III

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Federica Robinson-Bryant, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

this study. The course is designed to introduce students to engineering and its manydisciplines. It leans heavily on communication, teamwork and technical skill through designtasks, computational analyses and research-based projects while also attesting to the importanceof crucial soft skills often unrecognized by young engineering students. Each section averaged27 students, with one student assistant assigned to each. All courses were taught by a singleinstructor using the group blog format within the Blackboard interface for the first half of thecourse only (approximately 8 weeks).3.2 ParticipantsStudents were generally first-year students enrolled in one of several engineering programsoffered at the University. Although specific majors vary

Conference Session

Global Community Engagement in Engineering Education

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph East, Michigan Technological University; Genevieve Gierke, Michigan Technological University; Mary Raber, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Community Engagement Division

perspectives on theprogram, and successes and challenges associated with the program will also be reviewed with agoal of sharing beneficial lessons learned.Program OverviewIn 2005, Michigan Technological University formed a leadership institute with the mission ofdeveloping globally aware and technologically minded students with the drive to improve theirenvironment during undergraduate studies and beyond. Providing an endowment for theprogram, Mr. Pavlis, a Michigan Tech alumnus, saw the need for undergraduate education totrain proficient leaders in technological fields. Mr. Pavlis believes that higher education needs toprepare students to be successful in the global society through programs that develop “soft skills”as well as technical

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanical Systems: What's New

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ashok Kumar Manoharan, Auburn University; P.K. Raju, Auburn University; Chetan Sankar, Auburn University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

thestudents involved obtained a thorough understanding of the engineering concepts and alsoimproved their soft skills, including team working, communication, and ethical and problemsolving skills. In-depth information about the evaluation results, course map and instructionalstrategy are provided in this paper.IntroductionEngineering curricula have experimented with multiple methodologies that expose students toreal-world problems. There are also deep concerns about American internationalcompetitiveness, amid indications that the U.S. is doing a relatively poor job at retaining andtraining students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines14.Too many talented students get the impression from introductory courses that

Conference Session

Teaching Software Engineering Process

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Larry Young; John Fernandez

would be saved by accomplishing one set of documentation that is used by the integratedteam, instead of two separate efforts covering the same area by separate groups of experts.Incorporating a Human-Centered FocusUsability and software experts were interviewed in a study by Seffah and he found that they allagreed that generic “soft skills” were very important in the field16. These skills are listed asessential in many professional positions that go unfilled because of a lack of availablecandidates. A large international firm that regularly hires Texas A&M University – CorpusChristi computer science graduates has stated that the corporation is only interested in hiringstudents who have the requisite people skills to be good team players and

Conference Session

Collaborations: International Case Studies & Exchanges

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Suzanne Scott

Engineering education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright©2005, American Society for Engineering Education” The STEPS program is designed to introduce second-year engineering students at the PetroleumInstitute to the theoretical and intellectual concepts as well as the practical methods used inengineering design in an integrated two semester sequence at a very early stage in their education.STEPS I presents students with a well defined problem, and then leads them through the processusing the concepts of guided design. During STEPS I the students are also given extensiveinstruction in the application of soft skills that are important to successful design, namelyteamwork, project planning, and professional oral and written communications

Conference Session

The Nuts & Bolts of TC2K

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Lin; Harold Broberg

used carefully to design capstone course outcomes as shown below. We noted thatitems “a-d” address hard skills and items “e-k” emphasis soft skills. Most teaching-learning cycles of outcomes-based courses may involve the following four stages: courseplanning, conduct teaching-learning process, assessment of progress and capturing newknowledge, and continuous improvement. From Appendix 1, it is no surprise to see thatthe two capstone courses meet all "a-k" requirements. The ECET 490/491 capstonecourses outcomes are listed below. ECET 490/ECET491 Course Outcomes: A student who successfully fulfills the course requirements will have demonstrated the ability to 1. integrate the knowledge gained in earlier courses, and be creative in

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Douglas Coffin; Catherine Almquist; Amit Shukla; Michael Bailey-Van Kuren; James Kiper; Christine Noble

onprocess more than discipline specific content. The intention of these courses will be to enhancethe freshmen’s understanding of engineering and computing and the differences that are offeredby each specific major within SEAS. The course environment will be welcoming to the newstudent and will offer a forum for students to develop a sense of community within SEAS andMiami. Soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and ethics will be emphasized in EAS 101which is to be a 1 credit hour course. This course will introduce all students to the computing andengineering professions and their role in society. Students will explore the common bonds andunique features of different disciplines offered by SEAS. The students will also be engaged in anactive