Conference Session

K-12 Outreach Initiatives

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Larry Richards

to relate one to the other. They also learn the fundamental principles ofstatics and dynamics (friction, drag, acceleration, constant velocity, and motion). Basedon this knowledge, student teams design cars, assess their performance, and predictpower needs. They also test solar panels, compare the results to the estimated powerneeds of their cars, and determine the parameters for the design of their cars. The designchallenge is to build a solar car designed to pull a load, and compete of other teams to seewhich team pulls the most weight. The teams have a budget and each component theymight use has a cost. The budget is structured so the teams cannot buy the best ofeverything, so they must make tradeoffs and realize the best design subject

Conference Session

Assessing Teaching & Learning

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Sang Ha Lee; John Wise; Thomas Litzinger

, student teams take aproduct from the concept stage to the manufacturing floor. In this course, lectures are rarelyused. Students are challenged to learn what they needed to accomplish their goals, rather thanhaving the instructors deliver all of the information that they might require. The fact that thestudents are working on their own product concepts may have had a positive influence on theirmotivation to learn as well. In a second course, at the graduate level, students are asked to “deepread” a technical paper related to the course. The students are given a methodology for deepreading a technical paper and are required to prepare a written evaluation of the paper. Themethodology is designed to assist the students in doing an “expert” level

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald Bennett; Debra Ricci; Arnold Weimerskirch

Report magazine ranking of America’s Best Colleges.This paper presents the assessment method used by the School of Engineering at the Universityof St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. We use the Malcolm Baldrige Education Criteria forPerformance Excellence to assess our overall performance. Then we measure our performanceagainst our mission and the program objectives and outcomes. We will discuss our experiencewith this assessment method and provide some comparisons with other assessment methods.I. The University of St. Thomas School of EngineeringThe University of St. Thomas (UST) for U.S. News and World Report ranking is a doctoralintensive Catholic university serving 5,429 under-graduate students and 5,937 graduate studentson campuses in St

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Frederick Stern

undergraduate engineering courses and laboratories.Project part of a three-year National Science Foundation sponsored Course, Curriculum andLaboratory Improvement - Educational Materials Development project with faculty partnersfrom colleges of engineering at Iowa, Iowa State, Cornell and Howard universities along withindustrial (commercial CFD code) partner FLUENT Inc, including complementary experimentalfluid dynamics and uncertainty analysis. The design of the educational interface teaches studentsCFD methodology (modeling and numerical methods) and procedures through interactiveimplementation that automates the CFD process following a step-by-step approach. The CFDprocess mirrors actual engineering practice: geometry, physics, mesh, solve, reports

Conference Session

Outreach: Future Women in Engineering II

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Sue Ellen Haupt; Jessica Gregory

evaluation plus scoured the literature to determine best practices for assessing informal outreach projects. One goal for this project was to include mentoring for the university SWE members. Thus, although the SWE members designed and ran the workshops, the faculty advisor worked as a mentor throughout the process. She is a Girl Scout leader herself and has run similar programs for Girl Scouts in the past. Her experience was very valuable in advising the college women. Other professors and women from industry additionally worked with SWE members and the Girl Scouts during the workshops. However, perhaps the most important part of the mentoring was the peer mentoring between the SWE members as they worked closely together planning and

Conference Session

Exploring New Frontiers in Manufacturing Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Sunday Faseyitan; Robert Myers; Pearley Cunningham; Winston Erevelles

program as juniors. All programs were developed in closepartnership with industry and are designed to meet accreditation standards.The National Science Foundation awarded PRIME a three-year Advanced TechnologicalEducation (ATE) grant (Division of Undergraduate Education - DUE # 0101637) towards theimplementation of a comprehensive approach to manufacturing education. The goal of the ATEproject is to support the implementation of an industry-driven regional network formanufacturing education at different levels, at times and locations best suited to new andincumbent technicians and engineers. Highlights of the ATE project include:• The implementation of an active learning model consisting of Exploration, Dialog, and Application steps for

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Barbara Williams; Paul Blowers; Jeff Goldberg

skill set that allows engineering graduates “to engage in lifelong learning to keepabreast of changes in technology and new investigative tools for doing research”5 was readilyaccepted by both engineering faculty and librarians when a draft of it was circulated during theEngineering Libraries Divisional meeting at the American Society for Engineering Educationannual conference in June of 2001.Lifelong learning The term ‘lifelong learning’ originated in Europe in the early 1970s6. During that sametime period in the United States, the concept was primarily used in reference to learning in thework place7. Developing a shared definition of lifelong learning has been a nebulous processand it remains a term not widely understood by educators

Conference Session

Entrepreneurism in BME

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Wendy Newstetter; Paul Benkeser

Integrating Soft Skills in a BME Curriculum Paul Benkeser and Wendy Newstetter Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory UniversityAbstractABET’s Criterion 3 requires engineering programs to demonstrate that its graduates possess anumber of “soft” skills related to the practice of engineering. These include skills related toteamwork, communications, professionalism, ethics, life-long learning, impact of engineeringsolutions, and knowledge of contemporary issues. Too often programs seek to satisfy thiscriterion through what might be called an “inoculation” approach, i.e. giving students a dose ofethics

Conference Session

Understanding Students: Cognition

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Krause

Page 9.397.2impact of the course on; 4) students’ technical self-efficacy, 5) tinkering self-efficacy, and 6) Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Educationtheir ability to transfer their knowledge of DET to classroom teaching. The second purpose ofthis paper is to demonstrate, by applying the rubric to our data sources, that the DET course hadan educationally significant impact on students in each of the six categories listed above.Context of the StudyThe study took place in the context of a graduate course in science education. The developmentof the course was supported by a Bridging Engineering and

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Paper Session

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Seetha Veeraghanta; Janice Frost

that are directly related to engineers. Whenwe began designing this course, we asked ourselves this question: How do we make our studentsaware that what they do as engineers has a direct impact on the community to which theybelong? Research on engineering ethics has pointed to the lacunae between practice andphilosophy. Incorporating sustainability into the ethics course bridges that gap and makes ethics apracticing philosophy.Our ethics course is taught under a broader rubric of social science, thus incorporating the socialand ethical responsibilities of practicing engineers. It makes them aware of their civicparticipation in their own communities and thus their responsibilities as citizens to a wider societyNormally ethics is taught under

Conference Session

Improving Teaching & Learning

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Patrick Hollis; Namas Chandra; Chiang Shih

from and teach to their own peers, thus developing a horizontal bonding among studentsthat helps create a communal desire for mastery of the material. This practice not only enhancestheir study skills but also changes their attitude toward the overall educational experience.We have practiced the LTT concept in our department recently by implementing the programfrom the sophomore-level “Introduction to ME” class, to the junior-level “Thermal and FluidsLaboratory” class, and to the senior-level technical electives; all with different degrees ofsuccess. Based on our preliminary assessment, most students who have participated in the LTTpractice indicate that the program had a positive impact on their overall learning experience. Webelieve that the

Conference Session

ELD Poster Session

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Mellinger Margaret

questionsconcerning how best to serve entrepreneurial students, faculty, and visiting researchers. Oncethe program is in place, the library will respond to information gathered from needs assessments,surveys, use statistics, conversations with users, and feedback and suggestions from thecommunity. However, some anticipatory effort is required to ensure success prior to the launchof the program.Best practices and models currently used in academic libraries will inform OSU Libraries’efforts, and examples of information services from the corporate environments these studentswill enter as graduates can offer direction. Trends in the general “social landscape” can beexamined for insights. The rapid evolution of web-based goods and services, and the comfortthat

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Bruce Thompson

Page 9.540.1 Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineeringand various social and economiccharacteristics, such as family income,their ethnicity, and family stability, allof which can have an impact onacademic achievement. They leave theschool, it is hoped, with much greateracademic skills than when they entered.From the value-added perspective, thegreater the student outputs compared tothe student inputs the more successfulthe school. Traditional school ratings at theK-12 level, by contrast, rank schoolsstrictly by outputs. For example, allschools in a state might be comparedon the basis of how well their studentsperformed on a state-wide reading test. Figur e 1. A value-added modelIn practice, such

Conference Session

Nontraditional Ways to Engage Students

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas O'Neal; Thomas Jacobius; Joseph Steig; Arnold Heggestad; Abigail Barrow; Phil Weilerstein; David Barbe

first five I2V workshops have been successfully completed12.The workshops were developed in partnership with and hosted at five institutions: University ofMaryland, College Park; University of California San Diego; University of Central Florida;University of Florida; and Illinois Institute of Technology. The workshops were generallyorganized through the entrepreneurship programs at each host institution. The all-day eventswere designed for sophisticated, technology-oriented undergraduate and graduate students andinterested faculty and alumni seeking to develop technology-based products and businesses. Theprogram provided a roadmap to tech business plan development, and a venue for technologyentrepreneurs to advance their ideas and start their

Conference Session

Assessment & Quality Accredition in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

John Rowe; Tim Mulroy

androles that undergraduate students on placement will participate. However, it is difficult for theseoutcomes to reflect the achievement of students on placement and at best can only ever reflect apartial view of placement outcomes.BackgroundThe UK's national learning and teaching support network for engineering (LTSN Eng) says2, ‘Work placement is generally accepted as being a valuable component of the learning process. Evidence suggests that graduates with work experience have more employment opportunities than those without. However placements can sometimes be difficult to find and certainly vary in quality.'While admitting the difficulty of finding placements for students, the concept of a high qualityplacement is

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Rosa Pinkus; Mary Besterfield-Sacre; Mark Sindelar; Larry Shuman; Carl Mitcham; Barbara Olds; Ronald Miller; Harvey Wolfe

? Which pedagogyis preferable? Are some curriculum models better than others? Which works best---a requiredcourse, ethics-across-the-curriculum, integration of ethics with science, technology and societycourses, or integration of the liberal arts into the engineering curriculum [20, 21]? And, whichoutcome assessment methods are most suitable [22, 23]?Pfatteicher [24] has framed the educational ‘dilemma’ as how to provide meaningful ethics in-struction to all students without overburdening faculty, increasing graduation requirements, orremoving essential technical material from the curriculum. The ABET criteria call for ensuringthat students understanding rather than demonstrate ethical knowledge; i.e., students should beevaluated on their

Conference Session

Assessment Issues II

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Kenneth Cox; Janice Bordeaux; David Caprette; Beth Beason; Ann Saterbak

assignments.Lecture courses in science and engineering bear the burden of delivering large amounts ofdiscipline-specific content. It may be more difficult for such courses to effectively teach genericabilities such as communication and experimental design that are in demand by employers,graduate programs, and professional programs. Many programs use laboratory courses in orderto teach or reinforce discipline-specific content, missing the opportunity to use them in orderadvance more universally valuable skills. Often students will not have use for specializedcontent after they graduate. For example, we should not expect a student to become an expertusing a particular instrument or specialized computer program, or to recall a specific laboratoryprotocol

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Brian Thorndyke; Timothy J. Anderson; Matthew Ohland; Guili Zhang

Southern University. She has published extensivelyand has won numerous awards at the national and regional level in the area of educational research in China. Sheteaches Measurement and Assessment in Education at the University of Florida. Her research interests involveapplied quantitative research designs, categorical data analysis, and structural equation modeling.TIM ANDERSON is Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in the College of Engineering, andProfessor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida. He received a Ph.D. at the Universityof California-Berkeley in 1979. His research interests include electronic materials processing, thermochemistry andphase diagrams, chemical vapor deposition, bulk crystal

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Tim Ameel; Ian Harvey; Bruce Gale

institution, lab facilities, and personnel.Each course was designed so that both upper-level undergraduates and graduate students couldparticipate. The intent of this decision was to provide the education and training for the graduatestudents but also to attract interested undergraduates into the microsystems field with the hopethat they would continue on to graduate school with a microsystems research emphasis. The University of Utah is on the semester system and the College of Engineeringtraditionally offers courses at the graduate level that contain three semester credit hours ofcontent. Thus, all of the new courses were designed to be delivered on a semester calendar andto contain material that is consistent with three semester credit

Conference Session

EM Skills and Real-World Concepts, Pt. 1

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Elise Barrella; Keith Buffinton

for in candidates. According to the NACE survey, desired characteristics of an idealcandidate have not varied greatly from year to year. Topping the list of important qualities andskills is verbal and written communication skills, honesty, interpersonal and teamwork skills,motivation/initiative and a strong work ethic, and analytical skills. Although GPA ranked nearthe bottom, employers indicated that it is commonly used to screen candidates. Employers alsoplaced emphasis on the importance of prior work experience, citing internship and relevant workexperience as the most important. For new graduates, internships or co-ops are the best source ofrelevant work experience – in fact, employers named internship programs as their most

Conference Session

Issues in Computer Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

G Murphy; G Kohli; S P Maj; D Veal

routers, and associated on-line vendor basedcurricula, such as CCNA, CCNP, are now readily available. This approach to networktechnology education requires an understanding of switch and router operation. However, anextensive analysis of educational materials in this area has indicated that these devices aretypically treated as 'black boxes'. Such an approach may not be best suited to the promotion oflearning as students are required to construct their own mental model of the internal operation ofsuch devices and which may, or may not, be correct. To address this problem a state model hasbeen designed for both switches and routers which allows complexity to be controlled and hencecan be used as a basis for teaching both introductory and advanced

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Judith Miller; Joseph Rencis, University of Arkansas

generally formulated theirattitudes toward math and science. Course choices made in middle school, particularly withrespect to mathematics, set a student on a virtually irreversible trajectory with respect topreparation for college admission in technical fields. The logical place to intervene is in Page 9.122.2elementary school, when students’ career aspirations are relatively pliable. From a practical Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Educationstandpoint, if one wishes to impact large numbers of

Conference Session

Student Teams & Active Learning

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeannie Brown Leonard; Janet Schmidt; Linda Schmidt; Paige Smith

other science, technology, andmathematics disciplines, graduates of engineering programs typically enter a work environmentthat immediately requires team and interpersonal process skills. From the perspective ofeducation, positive team project experiences can motivate students to perform at higher levels.Well-functioning teams have been shown to improve learning and retention in non-engineeringfields, especially for members of underrepresented groups3,4,5,6,7.Previous research suggests that while most engineering faculty are committed to using projectteams in their classrooms, they have little or no formal training on how to work with studentteams or how to teach team members to work well together8. Focused on their discipline and onpedagogy

Conference Session

Opportunities in Environmental Engineering Curriculum

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Butkus

solve complex, real-world, water-related problems. Initially, the student teams are constrainedby a lack of data and must coordinate with customers for further problem definition and data.Based on research of viable remediation techniques, economic analysis, social/culturalacceptability and impact on the environment, alternative solutions are developed. Thesesolutions must include two structural and two nonstructural alternatives. Student teams developcriteria to analyze each alternative solution and then apply a Multi-Attribute Decision-makingModel to determine the best alternative. Students in Solid and Hazardous Waste Management are required to design solutions forthe treatment, storage, and/or disposal of solid and hazardous wastes

Conference Session

Assessment Issues II

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Ramon Vasquez; Anand Sharma

evaluatedduring November 2002 and have been successfully reaccredited. The experience gained wassubsequently utilized as a springboard to establish a new campus-wide Continuous ImprovementEducational Initiative (CIEI) lead by a multi-disciplinary team. The long-term objective of thisinitiative is to assess not only the student learning outcomes across campus, which also includesthe non-engineering disciplines, but to even develop a process by which the various supportservices could be assessed. This required the design and administration of customizedquestionnaires as instruments of assessment, including the development of an overallinstitutional assessment plan, and an institutional plan for student learning outcomes, for the veryfirst time.ObjectiveThe

Conference Session

Innovative Teaching Methods in Engineering Economy

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Kevin Dahm

decisions. End of chapterhomework problems in these texts can be broadly placed into two categories:1) Strictly computational problems, such as “calculate the rate of return of this cash flow diagram,” and2) Questions such as “should the equipment be replaced or not?” or “Which of these three possible designs is best?” that ask the student to make a practical decision.The inclusion of some problems from the latter category is crucial both because they provide themore thorough test of the student’s understanding of the material, and because they underscorethe practical value of the material.In the spring 2001 and spring 2002 semesters, an economics game was developed and integrated,as a semester-long project, into a senior/graduate engineering

Conference Session

Exploring New Frontiers in Manufacturing Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Beverly Davis

lifeline of global businesses. For example, while a manufacturingengineer graduate will indeed be involved with some form of production of goods, thegeneration of knowledge and the creative skills needed to generate new knowledgeallows for manufacturing to compete in a global marketplace.Many universities find creativity is best encouraged through team activities. Manyinstitutions have adopted multidisciplinary E-teams These teams, composed ofmultidisciplinary team members, are charged with rapidly developing new technologiesand products15. In addition, with these projects, team member will enhancecommunication skills as they make oral and written proposals and presentationsthroughout. Not only will engineers need to demonstrate creative abilities

Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

R. William Graff

methods to their deficiencies, we need to wean Page 9.620.7them from this deficiency. The practice of taking notes in class, and, later, studying those notes, Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineeringserves to keep the students attentive; it also builds a habit which will help them to learn moreefficiently later. I have found that in order to produce a polished one hour lecture on a subjectwhich I know nothing about, it takes me eight hours of research, study

Conference Session

Federated Searching

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Mary Schlembach; William Mischo

best-match searching techniques that allow the metasearch system to interpret theresults of multiple searches and present custom result displays.Metasearch vendors and system developers are exploring best practices and system designs thatutilize information technologies such as local link resolving, OpenURL, OAI protocols, andDigital Object Identifiers (DOIs). The OpenURL standard provides a streamlined mechanism forexpressing and transmitting metadata (data describing an information resource—authors, title,journal name, volume, publication year, URL of full-text resource, etc.) between differentsystems. The OAI is based on the preprint server movement and provides protocols forharvesting remote metadata. Libraries and information centers can

Conference Session

Minorities in Engineering/Technology

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

John Norton

of pre-calculus topics which arecritical for success in UM mathematics courses. The course is designed to help students improvetheir basic high school math skills while developing better quantitative reasoning and problem-solving skills. The course content and style is closely modeled after that of the UM introductorymathematics courses. In conjunction with the Mathematics class, each student is involved in afacilitated study group that incorporates instruction and practice in critical learning skills andteaches students how to operate effectively within a group.The Computer Skills course introduces students to the UM computing environment and teachesthem introductory programming skills. Students learn many of the word-processing,spreadsheet