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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark W. Fitch; Joel G. Burken; Craig D. Adams

education, which aids in their military advancement and heightens their technical skills.Captain Preston Funkhouser was in the first class to go through the course (UMR M.S. GraduateMay, 1998). His comments on the program follow: “My graduate studies at UM, Rolla helped me to re-affirm my long-term goal of being a civil engineer. The program offered many insights into the civil and environmental engineering fields that broadened my career horizon. The program also offered me the opportunity to prepare myself to pass the Civil Engineering Page 5.451.5 Professional Engineer Exam. The courses at UMR help to ingrain in the engineer's

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph D. Torres; Tom Cummings

Session 2570 Minority Education in Engineering, Mathematics and Science Joseph D. Torres and Tom Cummings School of Engineering University of New MexicoAbstractThe University of New Mexico (UNM) Minority Engineering, Mathematics and Science(MEMS) Program is a uniquely comprehensive program designed to increase the number ofminority students enrolling, graduating and pursuing careers in Engineering, Mathematics andScience (EMS) by: 1) improving retention rates of students in EMS disciplines, 2) fosteringrelations with industry and the technical community to

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul I-Hai Lin; Hal Broberg

Signal Processing ApproachFaculty knowledge of current engineering workgroup practices is important to helpprepare students to enter the workplace as technicians and engineers. The totaldependence of most industries on contracts and the resultant possible layoffs andreorganizations that result when contracts are not won is also valuable knowledge whenadvising students on career options. Experiencing the inner turmoil during companylayoffs, buyouts, mergers, or divestitures is also an experience that can be valuable whenadvising or just chatting with students. Recent faculty work in industry is vital tomaintaining a knowledgeable faculty and a viable program in engineering technology.Faculty members need to keep up technically, but also need to

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Warren R Hill

typically done annually. Certainly periodicreviews should not be something new to engineering technology faculty.One final note regarding rationale. A very reasonable argument can be made that the faculty arethe heart and soul of the educational enterprise. Any mechanism, including post-tenure review,which helps them to continue to be productive and motivated throughout their careers should be abasic part of institutional policy and practice.ApproachesBroadly speaking, all employee reviews including those of tenured faculty, fall into two maincategories, summative and formative and may contain elements of both. Summative reviews arefor the purposes of some kind of personnel decision including such things as promotion, payraises, or tenure. Such

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ralph Carestia; J. Robert Burger; Doug Lynn

decades now, the standard model of a graduate education is one that culminates with adoctorate at the top. There are good financial reasons for this, although some are nowevaporating. Graduate schools have been driven by money from the government for big projects,including space exploration, missile defense, and military research. For financial and otherreasons, graduate students are engaged directly and indirectly to help with the research. Theneed for funding has directed many a career in academia, and government funding obviouslyaffects the material that is actually taught.This research-based, doctorate-driven model has disadvantages for an MS student. To bepractical, MS and Ph.D. candidates must share the same classes with the same

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Angie Hill Price

to the students at an early age, so that the degree becomes a part oftheir concept of career goals.IntroductionIt is recognized that the public has a great interest in science and a growing level ofunderstanding in the subject.1 There are a number of large scale technical outreach programsthat successfully address this desire to learn in areas across the U.S.2,3,4,5,6 Why should anythingelse be done? Because there is still a problem – not everyone is benefiting from these as yet, andas the saying goes, every little bit helps. Small scale programs can be very rewarding to thestudents and to the faculty member. Service is one of the components of a successful tenurepackage, though a small one, and K, 1 outreach certainly qualifies as a

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Joan A. Burtner

module as needed.V. ConclusionGenerally speaking, the Introduction to Engineering Design course has been a success since itsinception in 1987. The course gives students an opportunity to learn about the process of designas well as the art of working together in a team. The freshman design course helps students tosee that engineering can be rewarding as well as challenging. In fact, many students tell us thatthis course helped them confirm their choice of engineering as a career. Hopefully, the additionof a teamwork module that emphasizes assessment of self and others has made the course evenmore valuable.References1. Burtner, J. (1997). Nine years of freshman design projects at Mercer University. American Society for Engineering

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Gerard N. Foster

technology curriculum,often with increased complexity. As a student progresses through the curriculum, the binarynumbers they encounter increase in size and the binary formats (signed, unsigned, fractional,integer, etc.) vary according to the application. At the lower levels, the students are not ready forexamples and laboratory applications that illustrate and cement into memory the concepts ofbinary operations and formats required throughout their academic career. Thus, as educators, wemust revisit and extend the coverage of binary numbers, often with time constraints imposed bythe need to cover technical applications and circuits of the moment. The list below is a summaryof number concepts that can be generally illustrated at that level. Higher

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald A. Cox; Richard Grieve; Jeffrey Mohr

students that are working at CIRAS; others hear throughdepartmental e-mails or through the Engineering Career Services office. About ten students areemployed by CIRAS at a time and eighty percent of these are engineers. Often one or two ofthese will be CIRAS co-ops. Most are from Mechanical Engineering, Industrial andManufacturing Systems Engineering, or Industrial Education and Technology.Students work for CIRAS for anywhere from three months to two years, with an average nearone year. The students work schedules are fit around their classes, with most working 15-20hours per week throughout the school year. About one-third of the students go home or toindustrial co-op jobs during the summer, a third will continue to work part time, and a third

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ayyagari Janaki Rao

in the Indian curriculum.Apart from the differences in structures, two important factors differentiating the U.S.curriculum from Indian curriculum are in the nature of the flexibility offered and theinnovativeness inherent in project type laboratories. The flexibility enables to cater to theneeds of different categories of students those who will base their professional careers asengineers on the Bachelor’s degree with no further formal study; those who will proceedfurther for post graduate studies in engineering or an allied field, and those for whom theunder-graduate programme provides a broad base for further professional study in fields likemanagement.The use of open-ended project type laboratories instead of set laboratory experiments

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Bernard Hoop; Thomas E. Hulbert; Robert B. Angus; Eric W. Hansberry

with the various architectural, mechanical, andelectrical/electronic languages and symbols. Well-structured assignments also encourage growthand self-confidence in the creative thinking process. In addition to providing this essentialfoundation of knowledge, employing the industrial format greatly assists students in their careerdevelopment. Given multi-step projects, they become keenly aware of the importance ofcommunication among specialists and the need for a general understanding of all engineeringdisciplines. This exposure to multiple disciplines through real-life projects affords them theopportunity to evaluate their strengths and interests to make informed decisions about theirfuture careers. Introducing the industrial format during

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter J. Shull

a significant distinction between a simple traditional reportand a formal report. The formal group report can be used as a positive and effective tool todevelop writing and learning skills of the engineering student.PETER J. SHULLPeter J. Shull is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Penn State University, Altoona. Dr. Shull received hisundergraduate degree from Bucknell University and his graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University.Prior to his teaching career, he worked as a research scientist at the National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) in Boulder, CO. Dr. Shull’s primary interests are undergraduate education, increasingrepresentation of women in engineering, and improving communication skills of engineering

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Hisham Alnajjar

to requirestudents to integrate creatively both the content knowledge and the skills developed in allof the courses in the particular ILB. For example, one of the ILBs of the pilot FIG was[Communicate technical information, in written and oral form, in a professionalmanner].How does it work?During their “normal class time” in engineering, students are learning how to interpretgraphs, how to apply the principles of engineering problem solving to technical problems,how to use computer tools to solve engineering problems, in addition to learning aboutvarious engineering disciplines and career paths. In their writing course students learn toread critically and to analyze in writing personal and social conflicts, as these aregrounded in

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Hamid Y. Eydgahi; Saeid Y. Eidgahy

1000today10. Perhaps more interesting, is the effort of the Engineers’ and Managers’Association (EMA) union in the United Kingdom which has recently launched an MBAprogram for its members to enhance their career prospects11. Furthermore, in the global Page 5.319.2 2and Just-in-Time environment where work schedules, personal and family obligationsand even distances make frequent trips to school difficult, alternative delivery systemsare becoming a possible and cost-effective mode for achieving higher education not onlyfor traditional students but more importantly for mature working professionals.While many of us

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Howard A. Canistraro

introducedover their entire academic careers.. Additionally, the idea of the course being “open ended” andwithout “exact” answers leads to confusion over the distinction between the textbook and theindustrial world. In an attempt to unify and clarify this broad array of subject matter andprovide some insight into the actual practices utilized in industry, our Machine Design Coursenow centers itself around mechanically complex commercial devices. These devices serve as aninstrument to demonstrate much of the subject matter found in most texts. Computer software isalso extensively used to ease in the calculation and aid in modelling the dynamic nature ofmathematical relationships. The revised course has been taught for 5 semesters and in each casea gear

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Wallace S. Venable

isimpossible to predict exactly which skills learned in a sophomore course an individual studentwill be called on to use during his career. But it is also impossible to predict whether anindividual sport utility vehicle will ever be run at speeds in excess of 80 mph, be used off-road,or ever run on ice. Similarly we can not predict with any accuracy which features of an “officesuite” software package will be used by a particular buyer. The variety of end use of a productmeans that we must be more thorough in developing design specifications, rather than morecasual.What is the product of an educational design? This is a subtle, but important issue. Manyeducators in the 60’s yelled “Students are not widgets which can be banged out without regardto their

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Donald N. Merino

ofengineering graduates who work for companies that hire engineers, who started their careers asengineers and who have supervised engineers. The survey asked the respondents to rank the selectedeconomics topics using a 1 - strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree Likert scale.Even though a broad set of subjects was chosen, all subjects had above average scores of more than3.0/5.0, indicating that none of the major subjects were clearly eliminated. This result indicates thatengineers need to know a broad set of subjects to achieve economic literacy.Risk Analysis Fundamentals and Simulation Models were rated high, 4.0 and 3.7 respectively,although they are usually taught in more advanced engineering economics courses. The surveyaverages for more

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Willie Ofosu

exposure given to activities such as sporting eventsand entertainment, it stands to reason that many people will be attracted to these.Coupling the media exposure with the high salaries reported in association with theseprofessions makes them very difficult to resist. No glamour is linked to the field ofeducation in the media, and the return on investment in pursuing academic achievementsis modest for the majority of people. This makes education rather unattractive comparedto other professions as those referred to above, and engineering even less attractive whenfaced with the mathematics involved. The security in having a good education can neverbe downplayed. A strategy for presenting education as a viable option that will result in agood career

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Sharyn L. Switzer; Chris S Ray

Session _____ Improving Written Communication Skills in University Engineering / Technology Programs: The Grading Nightmare Christopher S. Ray, Sharyn L. Switzer Purdue UniversityIntroductionThe necessity of communicating in engineering and technology careers is of the utmostimportance. Companies’ and employees’ success, in many instances, depends on their ability tocommunicate in a clear, complete, concise, and accurate manner. A significant number ofuniversity programs require various language skills ranging from basic English to

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Gray; Robert Weissbach

8 xezi xi ze Equatorial Plane BG102098.8 Figure 2. Geographic Frame Page 5.381.5Employment Opportunities for EET StudentsElectrical engineering technologists with an understanding and background in Satcom andGPS systems have excellent career opportunities. Test & Evaluation, repair, integration,service and maintenance of these systems, along with product design, are among the majorareas where EET graduates can contribute

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Russell D. Jamison

engineering or business major. Ad-mission to the program is competitive and requires application by prospective students during thespring semester of their sophomore year. Admission is based on academic standing, extracur-ricular activity, and essays in which the students describe their background, experiences, motiva-tion, and career objectives. Applicants who pass an initial screening of qualifications are inter-viewed individually by faculty of the program to assess interpersonal skills and to ensure thatthey understand the level of commitment required to complete the program.The most recent entering class was comprised of 22 business and 22 engineering students chosenfrom 110 applicants. The average grade point average for this class was 3.8 on a

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Devdas M. Pai; Shih-Liang Wang; Juri Filatovs; Richard Layton

engineering.RICHARD A. LAYTONRichard A. Layton received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1995 and he is currentlyan Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at NC A&T State University. Prior to hisacademic career, Dr. Layton worked 12 years in consulting engineering, with the final five years as agroup head and project manager. His technical research is in the area of dynamic systems andcontrol. He is a registered Professional Engineer in NC. Page 5.689.8

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Craig W. Somerton

students may develop a negative attitude towards team activities.With the prevalence of teams in industry, this negative attitude could be detrimental in thesestudents’ career development The approach at the other extreme would be to do acomprehensive team survey as suggested by [1]. The difficulty with this approach is the timeand effort required by the instructor to implement it. In many cases what is needed is someuseful feedback tool that will give an indication as to poor team performance. A mechanism hasbeen developed in a senior level class in thermal design to provide this sort of information.A primary premise in this mechanism is that the best individual grade a student may receive forthe team activity is the team grade. However, due to

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Nickolas S. Jovanovic

Education, 1997.8. Stephen R. Cheshier, Studying Engineering Technology: A blueprint for success, Discovery Press, Los Angeles, 1998.9. Raymond B. Landis, Studying Engineering: A road map to a rewarding career, Discovery Press, Los Angeles, 1995.10. David Beer and David McMurrey, A Guide to Writing as an Engineer, Wiley, New York, 1997.11. Gary R. Bertoline, Eric N. Wiebe, and Craig L. Miller, Fundamentals of Graphics Communication, 2nd edition, WCB McGraw-Hill, Boston, 1998.NICKOLAS S. JOVANOVICDr. Jovanovic received the B.S.M.E. degree from Northwestern University, the M.S.M.E. degree from RensselaerPolytechnic Institute, and M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering and Applied Science from YaleUniversity. He is an Assistant

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ted Eschenbach

courses this is primarily a workloadquestion. And far too many engineering instructors seem to fail this standard. This is judgeddifferently for core, required, and elective classes. Notice my student definition of core means Iwill use it in my career – soon after graduation. Required means that the academic programbelieves I must study this, but I don’t expect to use it. Elective means that I have some choice inthe matter. Demanding instructors are given more latitude if they are clearly working as hard atthe teaching as they are expecting the students to work.An easy test of how demanding you or your colleagues are is to propose dropping an assignment.If everyone breathes a sigh of relief and no one is concerned about whether their

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

John D. Enderle

addition to courseevaluations which are important metrics for individual instructor and course improvement.Another mechanism is to use national exams, such as the EIT exam; this exam also allows forcomparison among institutions. Alumni surveys that document professional accomplishmentsand career developments are another useful tool that can be carried out over a period of years(say 2 and 5 years after graduation). Employer surveys and placement of graduates are otherimportant metric of performance.Continuous improvement of the program is the ongoing responsibility of the faculty. This isevident by faculty meetings with this topic as the major theme, or periodic faculty retreats.Creating a working advisory board from industry and current students

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph A. Shaeiwitz

assessment embedded curriculum isclassroom assessment. Classroom assessment is a well-documented activity.19 It is perhaps themost difficult to implement because it usually requires faculty to change the lecture-orienteddelivery style they learned from in school, copied when they became professors, and havebecome comfortable with over their careers. Among the different learning styles discussed byFelder and Silverman20 (which is an adaptation of the Myers-Briggs type indicators toengineering and science), no one along the spectrum of active vs. reflective learners is served bythe lecture format, since taking notes, which is little more than stenography, neither lets activelearners be active nor reflective learners reflect. Examples of classroom

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Enno Koehn

Education guidelines and still treats the B.S. as a professional degree. Nevertheless, a numberof universities have begun offering Master of Engineering Management, and Master ofEngineering Degrees for graduate students. These programs are generally designed to preparestudents for professional practice rather than careers in research. As an example, at someschools, real-life design projects are brought to the campus by prominent practicing engineerswho return to campus several times during the year to interact with the students and participate inthe design project. The degree is usually obtained in nine to twelve months for students with anacceptable background6.Requiring a five year engineering program for professional practice would be comparable

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

William Jack Altenhof; Peter R. Frise

. AcknowledgmentsThe assistance and financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ofCanada (NSERC) and DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc. in conducting this project is gratefullyacknowledged.PETER FRISEPeter Frise holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Queen’s University in Kingstonand a Ph.D., from Carleton University in Ottawa. He began his career in Nigeria as a Wireline Logging Engineerfor Schlumberger Wireline Services and later worked in R&D for Husky Injection Molding Systems in Bolton,Ontario. In 1988 he joined the Faculty at Carleton University in Ottawa and in 1993 he received the Ralph R.Teetor Engineering Education Award from the SAE. He serves on the Governing Council of the Association

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Elizabeth A. Parry; Laura Bottomley

game. This approach is yet one more way to make thegeneral population, especially underrepresented groups, more comfortable and less fearful ofscience. The long-term expectation is that more children will choose careers in science, math ortechnology as a direct result of feeling more at ease and very familiar with science in everydaylife.[1] Laura J. Bottomley and Elizabeth A. Parry, “The Physics of Sports,” Proceedings, ASEE Annual Conference1999 Conference, Charlotte.[2] Laura J. Bottomley and Elizabeth A. Parry, “Playground Physics,” ASEE Preconference Workshop, ASEEAnnual Conference 1998, Seattle.[3] Platt, Richard, Pirate, Eyewitness Books.[4] Liles, J. N., The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipies for Modern Use.[5] Weiss