Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Martin S. High P.E.; Paul Rossler

Engineering Malpractice: Avoiding Liability through Education Martin S. High, Paul E. Rossler Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OKIntroduction Not many engineers consider malpractice when they receive their engineeringdegrees or, for that matter, give it much thought during their employment. Most degreedengineers are not licensed and, even if licensed, are largely insulated from liability simplybecause plaintiffs typically choose to sue the employer rather than the employeeengineer.1 Unfortunately, as the engineering profession migrates to smaller companies,solo consultants, and idependent contractor relationships the specter of legal liabilitylooms larger Engineering

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jung Oh, Kansas State University at Salina; Alysia Starkey, Kansas State University at Salina

), an ability to communicateeffectively (2 g), and a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelonglearning (2 h).1 If we expect students to engage in lifelong learning, (1) how and wheredo we communicate that outcome with the students? and (2) how and where do we learnto teach our students to be lifelong learners?“Information literacy and lifelong learning are major elements of working life today andunquestionably in the future”.2 The Association of College and Research Libraries(ACRL) defines information literacy as “the set of skills needed to find, retrieve,analyze, and use information”.3 The American Library Association (ALA) definesProceedings of the 2006 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stanley Rolfe, University of Kansas; Francis M. Thomas, University of Kansas

continuously emphasize engineering ethics in three broad areas: 1. Academic: The importance of doing ones’ own work, not cheating, and performing to the best of ones’ ability. This is the foundation for professional ethics. The importance of academic ethics and the consequences of not developing individual academic ethics is emphasized in each CEAE course. In each course, the focus is on developing personal responsibility as a basis for a life-long professional career, not just to prevent cheating. Prevention of cheating is a by- product. 2. Professional: Many professional engineering issues may be legal, but are not

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

John E. De Leon, Kansas State University at Salina

1 Establishing a Vision of Shared Governance through SWOT Analysis: Experiences of a New Department Head Dr. John E. De Leon, Professor and Head Department of Engineering Technology Kansas State University at Salina 785-826-2677 jd17@sal.ksu.eduAbstractSWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis has proven effective in assistinginstitutions of higher education establish goal and objective prioritization. This ideal was put tothe

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Lawrence E. Whitman P.E., Wichita State University; Don Malzahn, Wichita State University

problem/solution scenarios,each more robust than the previous. The process of open inquiry that takes placeas a team (and the set of teams in a class) is the activity that produces the deeplearning required for attitude and confidence development.The program outcomes for which summative assessments are expected for SeniorDesign with respect to ABET 2000 are allocated to the various course artifacts(see Table 1). Many of these artifacts provide the basis for formative evaluationsfor both the students and faculty during the course but they may also serve assummative evaluations of program outcomes. Six unique perspectives areincorporated in these assessments; the faculty responsible for the course F, studentself evaluation S, classmate peer

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Scott C. Smith, University of Missouri - Rolla

order to increase circuit robustness, decrease power, andalleviate many clock-related issues. ITRS predicts that asynchronous circuits will account for19% of chip area within the next 5 years, and 30% of chip area within the next 10 years.1. IntroductionTo meet this growing industry need, students in Computer Engineering should be introduced toasynchronous design to make them more marketable and more prepared for the challenges facedby the digital design community for years to come. In most Computer Engineering curriculumsstudents are only taught the synchronous, clocked paradigm and never even touch onasynchronous digital design. Those curriculums that do mention asynchronous design do so onlyin passing; the students are not taught how to

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Saeed Khan, Kansas State University at Salina; Beverlee Kissick, Kansas State University at Salina

) describes the survey data. Table 2 Globalization Survey Statements Level of Agreement Highest level of agreement  3 Lowest level of agreement  0 Students Students Students Students responding responding responding responding 0 1 2 3 1

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Robert Edwards, Pennsylvania State University at Erie – The Behrend College

products. Additionally, theUniversity benefits by exposing on campus resources to local and regional industry occasionallyresulting in future funding for faculty research.This paper outlines the industrially sponsored senior project program for MET students at PennState Behrend. This includes the roles of the various participants in the project, the limitationsplaced on project scope, and most importantly, the responsibilities of the students. Examples aregiven of typical projects.IntroductionABET requires that a mechanical engineering technology (MET) program must have some sortof capstone experience that pulls together various elements of the overall curriculum[1]. It mustinclude both technical and non-technical problem solving skills. One of

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ahmed M El-Sherbeeny, West Virginia University; Robin Hensel, West Virginia University; Andrea E. Ware, West Virginia University; James E. Smith, West Virginia University

Study Labs as a Practical Means of Enhancing Freshman Engineering Courses Ahmed M. El-Sherbeeny, MSME1, Robin A. Hensel, EdD1, Andrea E. Ware, MA1 James E. Smith, PhD1 1 West Virginia UniversityAbstract One of the biggest shocks for new engineering students is meeting the academicchallenges of freshman math, science, and engineering courses. To assist students in meetingthose challenges successfully, the West Virginia University (WVU) College of Engineering andMineral Resources (CEMR) offers free

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Avery Schwer, University of Nebraska - Lincoln; James Goedert, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Daniel T. Bennett

ability and prior preparation but alsoby the compatibility of his or her learning style and the instructor’s teaching style.”1 Also,“Research supports the concept that most teachers teach the way they learn.”2 The initialhypothesis being that if teachers teach the way they learn and if students learn better from thosewhose teaching style more closely matches their learning style then students whose learning stylematches the learning style of their instructors should, as a whole, perform better than thosewhose learning styles are more different. Performance in this case was based on the student’sfinal grade in the course. So using the above survey three instructors and their associatedstudents, 224 total, took the Index of Learning Styles survey

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Pedro Leite, Kansas State University at Salina; Beverlee Kissick, Kansas State University at Salina

the world.The main goal of this project is to help students become both technological and informationliterate as well as multicultural competent.Three frameworks are being employed to guide the project (1) information literacy as proposedby the Association of Colleges and Research Libraries1, (2) K-State’s Tilford GroupMulticultural Competencies Development2, and (3) TAC/ABET Student Learning Outcome “j”3.The study uses a project-based learning (PBL) approach which aims at developing deepunderstanding and transferable knowledge. PBL is most useful with an “ill-defined” project inwhich multiple variables may lead to multiple solutions or points of view. PBL uses real worldproblems to stimulate students into identifying and researching concepts

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Douglas R. Carroll, University of Missouri - Rolla

student learning in the statics and mechanics of materialsclasses. We wish to use technology to enhance the traditional chalk and talk lecture, not replaceit. Specifically we wish to improve the quality of the lecture and the quality of the notes takenby the students during the lecture. As students learn more during the lecture and take betterquality notes, they will be more productive during their homework and study time. These goalsmust be accomplished subject to the constraints listed below.1. The improvements in student learning cannot require significantly more class preparationtime by the faculty than a traditional chalk and talk lecture. Faculty are very busy, often beingasked to "do more with less". Learning improvements that require a

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephen B. Taylor; Darin W. Nutter; Joseph J. Rencis P.E.; James D. Davis

% 17% 16% 9% 11% 10% 30/81 1/11 6/12 18/36 7/13 7/20 0/2 10/93 16/66 33/80 1/1 10/13 25/49 1/6 1/5 2/3 0% 15/83 10/61 0% Chem I Other

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jason Moore; Mitchell A Thornton; Ronald W. Skeith

to take the examination in their senior year. Strategies for passing the test with a typicalcomputer engineering undergraduate background are suggested as are strategies for encouragingcomputer engineering students to pursue registration.1. Introduction Many senior-year computer engineering majors never imagine that it is to their advantageto take the fundamentals of engineering (FE) exam to become registered as an Engineer-in-training (EIT) in their state. Many of these students believe that this first step to professionallicensure is for other disciplines and that computer engineering students cannot pass theexamination. While it may be true that in some curricula computer engineers have not takenmany of the courses covered under

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Rena Hixon; Steve E. Watkins; Sean J. Bentley; Marcus Huggans

societiesand other organizations sponsor these events to promote the technical professions and toencourage students to consider related careers. 2 Lego-based activities have been implemented to benefit technical education fromgraduate school to elementary school.1-3 Tufts University has developed a number of teacher andoutreach resources that exploit the flexibility and convenience of Lego structures and devices.4-6Competitions such as First Lego League events encourage young students to explore engineeringconcepts.7 This paper presents a model for engineering-based student competitions that can be usedfor a precollege, first-year

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Carlos Bertha

Greek, phronēsis) because the person had to have an understanding of the“particulars” of a case. This kind of knowledge, therefore, should not be confused with scientificknowledge, which he called epistēmē. Epistēmē required knowledge about “universals” andwould be more easily understood for our purposes if we thought of it as being “theoretical”knowledge as opposed to phronēsis, which is “practical” knowledge. [1]This parallels nicely our tendency to compartmentalize the world into those who think (i.e.,theorize, like pure scientists do) and those who do stuff (i.e. practice a particular field, likedoctors or lawyers do). Engineers are clearly “doers,” more so than (pure) thinkers. So when itcomes to ethics, engineers want to do more than just

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Mark Miles; C.M. Chewar

was a typical “bell curve.” On the mid-term exam, the Instructor/Developer included questions that were meant toreinforce concepts the students had practiced on their problem sets. However, he was verydisappointed in the results. His initial analysis was that they were “figuring out” the problemsassigned, merely repeating the mechanisms of a solution method without really learning theunderlying concepts.2.1. Related Work:Seeking to enhance our understanding about how we could engage these engineering students ina deeper level of learning, we turned to Driscoll’s discussion of curiosity and interest as adeterminate of student motivation [1]. Cognitive theorists extend the general premises ofmotivational research, which explain human

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Day Radebaugh; Kurt A. Soschinske; Glyn Rimmington; Mara Alagic

a communication framework which respects and "Proceedings of the 2006 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education" 7understands the individual differences in culture, and facilitates more efficient problem-solvingin engineering design and development. The four levels of cage painting5 include: 1. Questioning about the other’s perspective 2. Presenting a self-critical perspective 3. Presenting one’s self in terms of the other’s perspective 4. Questioning to elicit an answer in your perspective This

Collection

2006 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Joseph J. Rencis; Hartley T. Grandin; William O. Jolley

bachelorsdegree are using the technique today. In contrast, ten years ago, specialists did a majorityof FEM analyses, mostly educated at the masters or doctoral level [1] due to the method’stechnical complexity and to the command line pre-processing requirements. Finite element courses in academia at the undergraduate and graduate levels inengineering programs are mainly theoretical in nature. Although some students andpractitioners have taken an FEM course at the undergraduate and/or graduate level, manyindividuals have only been introduced to FEM in a two to five day training course.These training courses enable an individual to ‘build a model’ and have the program runsuccessfully to yield some output. However, these software-training courses fall

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Sidi Berri; Andy S.J. Zhang

CADD programs beyond the associate level.In the meantime, Industrial Design as a discipline has been recognized as an important player inthe area of product design and development. In many cases, whether it is the design of a new car,design of a new medical device, or design of a new commercial electronic gadget, we have seenthat industrial designers are now playing key roles and are involved in the entire productdevelopment process from initial product planning to post implementation.[1-4]In light of these developments and after an extensive research, one year ago, the Departmentdecided to create a new program called Industrial Design Technology (IND) to replace theexisting CADD program. This change not only reflected the changes we made over

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Jack Ryder

the better performing solutions from the previouspopulation, and the process of evolving a solution continues.John Holland [1] developed genetic algorithms as an abstraction of biologicalevolution and provided the mathematical framework for adaptation of geneticalgorithms. Many problems involve searching through a large number ofpossibilities for a solution. Other computational problems require programs to beadaptive. Still others require new or novel ideas in their solutions. Geneticalgorithms are well suited to these types of problems. They have successfullybeen used for problem solving in such areas as machine learning, robotics,adaptive systems and optimization [2] [3].2. Genetic Algorithm and Terminology:Species (solutions) evolve over

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

David Lai; Zhongwei Zhang; Chong Shen

E8DCA@97653 4B 8 4 1 ) ' ¦ & %2%# 0(¢ §¥ ¦ ¨ ¥   £ ¦ ¡¥ ¨ ¦ ¦ ¡ ¦ ¥ ¨ ¦¥ £ ¡ %$# ¢§"¤ ¤§! ¤ ¢§©§¢¤¢  ! 3 # A

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Xinzhou Wei; Kenneth Markowitz; Aron Goykadosh

system such as RFIDwithout compromising the performance and usability.Keywords: Digital signature, Radio-Frequency Identification, data integrity, wireless security. 1. INTRODUCTION Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) is a small wireless device that saves the data asunique identifiers. It will serve as next-generation Universal Product Code (UPC) system. Itsadvantages include: (1) It requires no human intervention; (2) Tags can usually be read evenwhen a tag keeps some distance with the tag reader; (3) The information can be transmitted tocomputers in real time. There are several types of RFID that operate at different radio frequencies. The choice offrequency is dependent on the read environment and

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

James A. Sinclair; Kamal Shahrabi; Ali Setoodehnia

gaining momentum for the past hundred years. In general simplified terms, the special theory dictates that mass,accelerated to unimaginable speeds (specifically the speed of light), will release immense amounts of energy. Any scientifictheory that propagates production of large amounts of energy from small amounts of matter is of great interest to engineersworldwide (Doyle, 2000).Dr. Einstein’s theory cuts across the universe into the deepest secrets of genesis. It builds on the universal Newtonian laws,and forward into the still dark areas of the “undiscovered countries” of future research (Asimov, 1991). -1-The amazing atomIn the ancient past, approximately 300 - 400 BC, Greek

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Eric Granlund; Sohail Anwar

. This manuscript describes the instructional approach used to teach this project-based capstone engineering design course. Detailed information regarding the activities conducted in MET 210W is provided. Finally, the assessment techniques used in this course are described.IntroductionThe engineering education community has shown increasing interest in project-basedlearning approaches. The benefits of project-based learning include enhanced studentparticipation in the learning process, enhanced communication skills, addressing of awider set of learning styles, and the promotion of critical thinking.1 The authors feel thatthe use of engineering design and analysis projects provide students with a wider contextto the material

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Wei Cao; Andrew Elston; Muhammad Farooq

conducted on solid quantitative base. A new criterion designed for defining and measuring the degree of complexity of a linear-inseparable data-pattern is proposed and a new method is developed in this study. The single-hidden-layer back-propagation neural network is used as a test bed engine since it is of promise to solve linear-inseparable problem.1. Back-Propagation (B.P.) Nets with or without Hidden-LayersDef.1 Multi-Hidden-Layer B.P. Net: A B.P. net with λ hidden-layers (λ >1) can be denotes as a M-H1-H2-...-Hλ-1-N-1 B.P. net with input (x1, x2, …, xM).Def.2 Single-Hidden-Layer B.P. Net: A B.P. net with only one hidden layer (λ =1), which containsN nodes, can be denoted as a M-N-1 B.P. net with

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ronald E. Barr

pursuing studies in science and engineering in the youth of our U.S. society. We must find new ways to portray engineering as an exciting and rewarding career, and certainly as an educational platform for professional careers beyond the baccalaureate. These and other important topics of current interest in engineering education are briefly presented, and some of ASEE’s responses in these venues are outlined. Keywords: Engineering Education, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)Global Engineering EducationThe engineering landscape has changed in the past decade. As Thomas Friedman [1] has soprofoundly stated in his contemporary book, the world is now flat. The implication of

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Erdogan M. Sener

technologies (internet, email, cellular phones, etc.)The following part of the paper will focus on what will characterize infrastructure constructionwork in the coming decades in the author’s opinion and what this will mean for constructioneducation and curricula. It is to be noted that this coverage below is not in any order of priority.Changing Nature of Infrastructure Construction Work and ExpectationsChanging nature of infrastructure construction work will be addressed in basically six categories,with the characteristics foreseen for each category described briefly for clarification purposes. 1. Stage and inventory of infrastructural construction work in the nation: The federal and state highway and bridge construction has reached a point

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Mark Miles; Eugene Ressler; Paul Maxwell; Kurt Webber

lies in the design methodology that produced them, where we considered the notion of pedagogical efficiency together with desired program outcomes to derive requirements for the tools. We focus on two aspects of efficiency, (1) the advantages of designing, building and testing “hands on” as a method for conveying concepts and (2) eliminating “make work,” which detracts both from the curriculum and student time, attention, and enthusiasm. As a result, our tools support a broad collection of outcomes in computer engineering and computer science, including understanding fundamental architecture, assembly language, compilation, and operating system concepts. We also