Conference Session

Assessment & Continuous Improvement in ECET: Part I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathleen Ossman, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

Student Progress on “a-k” ABET Educational OutcomesIntroductionABET EC2000 brought significant changes to the way engineering and engineering technology programsmust assess, evaluate, improve, and document effectiveness of curriculum in order to be accredited1.  This paper describes a process being used in the Electrical and Computer EngineeringTechnology department at University of Cincinnati to assess student progress on the “a-k” ABETEducational Outcomes. Several assessment rubrics were developed to assess students’ ability inlab courses, technical knowledge and competence in project design and capstone courses, andtechnical communication skills including oral presentations, lab reports, and technical reports.Courses from freshmen to senior

Collection

2010 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Brian Savilonis

emphasized design through its program outcomes, but criterion 3 also includesteamwork, communication skills, ethics and professionalism, and an understanding of theimpact of engineering in a broad global and societal context. Various project modes havedeveloped in response to these criteria. Berg and Nasr [1] suggest a capstone coursewhich has a strong environmental component to help meet “those difficult ABETprogram educational outcomes.” Nicholas et al [2] suggest community service projects tostrengthen student understanding of societal needs. Hoffman [3] has used rehabilitationand disability needs to bridge design to society. In the thermal fluids area, Janna andHockstone [4] reviewed traditional design assessment with some link to economics

Conference Session

Robotics Curriculum

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brian Peterson, United States Air Force Academy; Patrick Sweeney, United States Air Force Academy; Delbert Christman, United States Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

AC 2010-583: R2D2 AS A MOTIVATOR IN ENGINEERING EDUCATIONBrian Peterson, United States Air Force AcademyPatrick Sweeney, United States Air Force AcademyDelbert Christman, United States Air Force Academy Page 15.1010.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 R2D2 as a Motivator in Engineering EducationThe use of robotic system applications continues to grow as a learning tool in electrical andcomputer engineering, but basic designs and projects have been well investigated and advancesin the field are becoming increasingly complex. Many new and interesting systems are beyondthe scope of what undergraduates can tackle as a capstone project. As a result

Conference Session

Teaching Technological Literacy - College Courses and Minors

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Roy McGrann, State University of New York, Binghamton

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

Chemistry I. However, many of the courses require additionalmathematics courses, such as Ordinary Differential Equations, as prerequisites. (C) Integrated Engineering and Design ProjectsStudents must participate in two semesters of an integrated engineering and design project(capstone design courses). The capstone experience at Binghamton University is a two semestersequence that typically involves a design and build project. These projects are team projects andtypically involve students from several of the engineering and computer science departments ona team. Many of the projects have industrial sponsors. Other projects include professionalsociety competitions, such as the SAE Mini-Baha competition.Students in the program for the minor must

Conference Session

Best Practices in Existing College-Industry Partnerships

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mamdouh Bakr, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Dept. Of Engineering Technology

Tagged Divisions

College-Industry Partnerships

market, and the need to modifythe current design in the project under development to include a revised set of product features inresponse to the competitor's action.It is worth noting that the majority of these projects were performed by senior students as part oftheir capstone courses, which are similar to those in most other institutions.4 In our case thecapstone courses consist of a series of two courses; the first covers project fundamentals,proposal development and project planning, and the second course involves the projectundertaking.9 Students work in teams, following their project plan under the guidance of aninstructor, and may consult with other faculty in the department.Project information, including the definition and assessment of

Conference Session

Chemical Engineering Education: Upperclass Years

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Bullard, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Award, and the NCSU Faculty Advisor Award. Page 15.661.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Ideas to Consider for New Chemical Engineering Educators: Senior DesignAbstractTeaching the senior or “capstone” design course can be intimidating to new facultymembers since the course is typically more open ended and project-based compared toother traditional core courses. Faculty with backgrounds in chemistry or physics who joina chemical engineering department may have never taken such a course themselves. Inmany departments, the course was traditionally taught

Conference Session

DEED Potpourri

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Farrokh Attarzadeh, University of Houston; Enrique Barbieri, University of Houston; Miguel Ramos, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

even critical curricular component. In the past, many publications centeredon general reporting regarding capstone course development, implementation andimprovement1, 2 and adding an industry collaboration component to the capstone courses3,4 . After the ABET 2K guidelines5 were released, many established capstone coursesadded a systematic assessment component6, 7, 8. Recently, interest in the entrepreneurialand commercial dimensions of this work and inclusion of these concepts in capstonecourses is on the rise9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.The Senior Project course at the Computer Engineering Technology (CET) program,University of Houston is relatively young. As part of an effort to streamline the CETprogram in Engineering Technology (ET

Conference Session

The Best of Design in Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Cole, Northwestern University; Ann McKenna, Northwestern University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

engineering design and how flexible students are in applyingthis knowledge when developing solutions. We are using the framework of adaptive expertise tofocus our work, where the framework takes into account “efficiency” and “innovation” aspectsof knowledge and learning. Using the adaptive expertise framework, with a specific focus oncomputational/analytical knowledge, we document the type of evidence students use whenselecting possible design alternatives, appropriate models or methods of analysis, and wheninterpreting the results to justify their decisions.In previous work we analyzed student design project reports from different academic years, andfrom different disciplines. Specifically, our data consisted of first-year and capstone

Conference Session

Teams and Teamwork in Design

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

R. Keith Stanfill, University of Florida; Arif Mohsin, University of Florida; Oscar Crisalle, University of Florida; Suleyman Tufekci, University of Florida; Carl Crane, University of Florida

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

AC 2010-2032: THE COACH'S GUIDE: BEST PRACTICES FORFACULTY-MENTORED MULTIDISCIPLINARY PRODUCT DESIGN TEAMSR. Keith Stanfill, University of FloridaArif Mohsin, University of FloridaOscar Crisalle, University of FloridaSuleyman Tufekci, University of FloridaCarl Crane, University of Florida Page 15.1213.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 The Coach’s Guide: Best Practices for Faculty-mentored Multidisciplinary Product Design TeamsAbstractFaculty mentors, also known as coaches, have two overarching roles when mentoringindustrially sponsored capstone design projects: (1) ensure the team achieves the academic goalsof the course, and (2) keep

Conference Session

Learning by Doing

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Morgan, Texas A&M University; Luciana Barroso, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

level capstone experience. This newcapstone course is coupled with two other required graduate courses: 1) a newly developedapplied finite elements (analysis) course, and 2) a pre-stressed concrete design course. Thisstructure requires the students to be a cohort through these courses and allows them to developlearning communities, to gain experience on high stakes teams, and to work on a larger projectthan normally available in an academic setting. These integrated projects allow for leveraging ofresources and just-in-time teaching and learning. The capstone design course is designed tofunction as a small structural engineering design office, where the class as a whole is developingalternative design solutions for a common client. A detailed

Conference Session

Design Education I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jahangir Ansari, Virginia State University

Tagged Divisions

Manufacturing

, the projects were done in teams of no more than five students. In all cases, theteams presented their final design to faculty and industrial advisory committee members and thefellow students at the end of the semester (presentation day). The team works were evaluated bya jury of faculty and industry members. At least five reviewers (four Manufacturing Engineeringfaculty, and one from Industry Advisory Committee) have assessed the outcomes of the courseusing rubrics related to oral presentation and final project report. The result of the outcomeassessment of the capstone design experiment is shown in Table 4. Table 4- MANE 450 Course Outcomes Assessment Results (Spring 2008

Conference Session

DELOS Best Paper Nominations

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kip Coonley, Duke University; Lisa Huettel, Duke University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

students to learn actively.2 It has also been shown thatintroducing design projects in introductory courses increases motivation and creative thinkingskills, especially when design is targeted toward realistic projects3. In addition, the introductionof extensive project assignments and discussion of design skills early and often in the curriculumserves to better prepare students for their capstone design projects in their senior year.4Student surveys and focus groups conducted in conjunction with the ECE curriculum reformefforts indicated a desire for more project design and practical implementation opportunities.Similarly, feedback from industry has suggested that our students would benefit greatly fromadditional occasion to apply theory to

Conference Session

Robotics Curriculum

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Gennert, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; William Michalson, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Michael Demetriou, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

needed to realize the goal. Working in amulti-disciplinary domain such as robotics requires some background in computing, electricaland mechanical systems, and relevant mathematics. Students do not need proficiency in each,but should understand the core concepts of each domain.In preparation for technical and managerial leadership roles, objectives include management andsystems engineering to provide context to the engineering process. These are “Plus Courses” inthe terminology of Professional Science Master’s programs5.Finally, consistent with our philosophy of project-based education, we expect students to havepractical experience. A summative capstone can assure that students solve a real engineeringproblem, while providing a challenging

Conference Session

Assessment and Evaluation in Design

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Regina Hannemann, University of Kentucky

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

Internet as well as experienced in FIEworkshops. The author has adapted/developed evaluation rubrics to grade the reports andpresentations. Finally a rubric to evaluate the students’ performance and their projects on thefinal showcase has been developed. Graduate students, faculty, and industrial advisors have usedthis rubric now for several semesters to find the best-presented project of the showcase.The author hopes that the full set of outlines along with evaluation rubrics stimulate ideas in thecommunity to develop new and better means of teaching and evaluating the technical as well asprofessional skills needed by our graduating seniors.IntroductionSenior Design or Capstone courses are common for most engineering degrees. These coursesprovide

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Milo Koretsky, Oregon State University; Christine Kelly, Oregon State University

described in more detail elsewhere.14AcknowledgementsThe authors are grateful for support provided by the Intel Faculty Fellowship Program and theNational Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Program,under Proof-of-Concept grant DUE-0442832 and Phase 2 grant DUE-0717905. Any opinions,findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authorsand do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.References1. Dutson, A., Todd, R., Magleby, S. & Sorensen, C. (1997). A Review of Literature on Teaching Engineering Design Through Project-Oriented Capstone Courses. J. Eng. Ed., 86, 17-28.2. Koretsky, M.D., Amatore, D., Barnes, C., & Kimura, S

Conference Session

Developing Systems Engineering Curricula

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Satinderpaul Devgan, Tennessee State University; Sachin Shetty, Tennessee State University; Saleh Zein-Sabatto, Tennessee State University

Tagged Divisions

Systems Engineering Constituent Committee

  Materials Science  3  Humanities Elective  3 ECSE   4400  Probability , Statistics  and Risk  3  EECE   3210  Electromagnetic Theory  3  Analysis  Total  16  Total  16  Fall Semester  Cr  Spring Semester  Cr ENGR    4500  Capstone Design Project I**  1  ENGR  4510  Capstone Design Project  II*  1 EECE    4000  Control Systems  3  Humanities Elective  3 ECSE    4600  System Engineering Analysis  3  EECE

Collection

2010 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Sara E. Wilson; Peter W. Tenpas; Ronald L. Dougherty; Christopher D. Depcik; Kenneth Fischer

traditionally used including courseperformance, faculty assessment, standardized testing, GPA, and surveys of graduates andemployers. In this project, the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Kansasexamined using the senior capstone design poster presentations as a means to assess studentlearning across the curriculum. A rubric was created and deployed using industrial advisoryboard members to assess student performance. From this assessment, student learning wasassessed and reported to the faculty for evaluation and discussion. This rubric and assessment ofthe senior capstone design presentations were found to be particularly useful in examiningcommunication skills, design methodology skills, and the ability to design and

Collection

2010 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Kevin Dahm

obtained from the evaluation both for individual student grading and forprogrammatic assessmentA previous paper6 described how this process evolved over the past ten years. This paperfocuses on the assessment process as it is currently implemented. One section is devotedto each of the six tasks summarized above.1) Identify Courses that Offer a Culminating Experience in the CurriculumThe program’s current assessment plan is built around two courses: Chemical PlantDesign, the capstone design experience, and Junior/Senior Engineering Clinic, aninterdisciplinary project-based course.Chemical Plant DesignNote that programmatic objectives require that graduates will possess certain skills andaptitudes. Demonstrating, for example, that students are

Conference Session

Faculty & Program Exchanges: Internationalizing, Collaborations, Interactions

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Richardson, Purdue University; Glenn Blackwell, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

International

formal technical proposal for a project, 8 - write a formal technicalreport on the results of the project, 9 - define a problem, and propose a solution to be carriedthrough in their capstone senior design course. At the end of the team project course, thestudents took the information learned through the prototypes they developed and then proceededto carry out a full project implementation in their individual capstone senior design course.System Integration:The overall system integration occurred in a two week period at the end of May, 2009, inSwitzerland, at the beginning of which the Purdue students and one of the faculty coachestraveled to Lucerne. It should be noted that the Purdue University students were promised at thebeginning of the

Conference Session

Communication in Design

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cherian Mathews, University of the Pacific

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

at Purdue University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Page 15.1312.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Using a Design Course to Augment Program Curriculum and Foster Development of Professional SkillsAbstractThis paper describes the structure of a recently reorganized senior design project coursesequence in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of the Pacific.The paper focuses on the first course in a two course senior project sequence, a course that wasrecently reorganized with a view to improve student design and professional skills. Previously

Conference Session

Creativity and Innovation in Engineering Design

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Micah Lande, Stanford University; Larry Leifer, Stanford University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

both better ask and answerquestions and have prototyping skills and Design Thinking as part of their repertoire. Byobserving student engineers learning a design process in the safe environs of a master’s levelcourse, we can more easily follow and analyze their design activities than might be possible in anindustry setting.For mechanical engineering students, especially the cohort of master’s students observed in thecourse of this study, their prior exposure to Design Thinking was mostly limited. They mighthave been exposed to Design Thinking and design activity through a capstone mechanicalengineering course or had summer internship experiences in industry. Projects, though, oftentimes were focused on mechanical engineering optimization and

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Richardson, Purdue University; Leslie Reed, Reed Environmental

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2010-1609: IMPROVING INNOVATION BY ENHANCING CREATIVECAPABILITIES IN ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERINGTECHNOLOGY STUDENTSJeffrey Richardson, Purdue UniversityLeslie Reed, Reed Environmental Page 15.698.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Improving Innovation by Enhancing Creative Capabilities in Electrical and Computer Engineering TechnologyAbstractThis project evolved from an existing research effort in electrical and computer engineeringtechnology in which the gap between the creative capabilities students brought to bear whensolving technological problems, and the level of creativity demonstrated in a capstone designproject, was explored

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hui Shen, Ohio Northern University; Richard F. Miller, Ohio Northern University; David Sawyers, Ohio Northern University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

changingschedules of individual students during both the academic year and during the summer. Third,due to the limited technical background of undergraduate students, a significant amount ofsupport and supervision is required of the faculty member. Fourth, there is little opportunity forresearch during the senior year unless it falls within the parameters of the capstone design courseor other required courses, since the capstone project demands a great deal of the students’ time.Finally, faculty members in a teaching university have extremely heavy loading in teaching andacademic advising, and can only commit a limited amount of time supervising undergraduateresearch.Since undergraduate students have a learning curve of engineering knowledge from freshman

Conference Session

Aerospace Technical Session

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Rowland, Dept. of Civil & Mechanical Engineerint at United States Military Academy; Andrew Bellocchio, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

students can and do receive this type of educational experience through acompetitive capstone design project, it is arguably better that this is not the first time they areexposed to integrating and applying the material covered in an aeronautical engineering coursesequence. This paper details how to make use of an inexpensive hands-on glider design projectthat can be integrated across a short undergraduate aeronautical engineering course sequenceeffectively educating students on the practical application of aircraft design. Through theindividual design and construction of multiple balsa wood gliders over a two course sequence,each student can apply and correlate the various aspects of aircraft design with tangible,measureable results better

Collection

2010 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Mir M. Atiqullah; Norman Russell

theapparatus. This paper describes the design and operation of the device as well as teachingmodules and user surveys to match the results with laboratory outcomes. Such an inexpensivebut functional apparatus can enhance a traditional undergraduate fluids laboratory. Studentlearning was positive after using it for a laboratory exercise. Included drawings and teachingmodules may benefit other faculty members who want to take advantage of the current design.Keywords: Fluid mechanics, fluid statics, hydrostatic, buoyancy, laboratory, design.INTRODUCTION The senior machine design class includes capstone design projects done by teams ofstudents. These students had already taken the Fluid Mechanics laboratory class where theneed for a hydrostatic

Conference Session

Assessment and Evaluation in Design

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristen Facciol, University of Toronto; Lisa Romkey, University of Toronto; Jason Foster, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

methodologies and expectations within specific engineeringdisciplines is an important first step in developing a curriculum that enables engineers to workacross those disciplines. An instrument that supports the analysis of a Faculty’s progressiontowards this end is a valuable addition to the engineering design educator’s toolbox.Introduction and MotivationThe goal of this project was to design an instrument to assess the student perception ofengineering design and how it evolves through courses and over time. The instrument design wasinformed by examining four capstone design courses from across the Faculty of Applied Scienceand Engineering at the University of Toronto; more specifically, from the disciplines ofChemical, Electrical & Computer

Conference Session

Design with External Clients

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Conrad, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

so that the students were able to meet nearly all of the projectrequirements.NASA Faculty Fellow ProgramIn early 2009, NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) solicited involvementfor a summer 2009 higher education opportunity for faculty. The purpose of their program was toprepare faculty to enable their students to complete senior design projects with the potential forcontribution to NASA ESMD objectives. The goal of this program was to select five faculty whowould work for several weeks at a NASA field center on a specific ESMD project andincorporate the ESMD project into an existing senior design course or capstone course at theiruniversity in the 2009/2010 academic year. The course could have all students involved in

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

William Jemison; Christopher Nadovich

LPRDS – A Requirements-Driven team-Based Design of a 2kW Solar Energy System William D. Jemison and Christopher T. Nadovich Electrical & Computer Engineering Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042AbstractThis paper will describe a capstone senior design course that features a team-based requirements-driven project. The project scope is selected such that thetechnical requirements are sufficiently complex to require a team-based solution.The project implementation is designed to force the students to consider realisticformal engineering requirements and specifications while offering significantopportunities for student leadership. The most recent embodiment of

Collection

2010 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

William D. Jemison; Christopher T. Nadovich

LPRDS – A Requirements-Driven team-Based Design of a 2kW Solar Energy System William D. Jemison and Christopher T. Nadovich Electrical & Computer Engineering Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042AbstractThis paper will describe a capstone senior design course that features a team-based requirements-driven project. The project scope is selected such that thetechnical requirements are sufficiently complex to require a team-based solution.The project implementation is designed to force the students to consider realisticformal engineering requirements and specifications while offering significantopportunities for student leadership. The most recent embodiment of

Conference Session

Computer Education Innovations I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alisa Gilmore, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Herbert Detloff, University of Nebraska, Lincoln at Omaha

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

robotics platform while enrolled in an Introduction to Robotics course.The Introduction to Robotics course, a senior level elective, included 9 students, 7 of whom werealso enrolled in a preparation course for the Senior Capstone Design Project, entitled SeniorThesis Proposal. The Senior Thesis Proposal course guided students through the planning stagesof the capstone design project, including topic selection and project plan creation. Assessmenttools were designed to assess whether the project-based experiences with the mobile roboticsplatform positively impacted the senior students who were enrolled in Senior Thesis Proposaland Introduction to Robotics compared to the group of senior students enrolled only in SeniorThesis Proposal and not